Vol 33 Issue 05

Unbiblical Divorce and Remarriage  As has been said, it is my conviction that divorce and adultery never can break the marriage-tie. Only death can do this. It is true that, according to Scripture, fornication or adultery gives the innocent party the right to leave the guilty party, although this even does not always have to take place for forgiveness and reconciliation is always the first obligation of the Christian.

During the past seventeen months we in the congregation of Doon have been, through the Lord’s dispensation, without a pastor. On Sunday, March 20, 1955, the Rev. H.C. Hoeksema preached his farewell to the congregation. On the evening of March 24 a congregational farewell was given to Rev. and Mrs. Hoeksema and family, at which time the congregation wished them the Lord’s blessing in their new field of labor. 

The Editor of The Standard Bearer  Grand Rapids, Michigan  Dear Mr. Editor:  May I say a few words in connection with and perhaps in augmentation of the very kind words which Rev. Gerrit Vos penned in the direction of Rev. Herman Hoeksema and my humble self.  I refer to his article under the caption “Congratulations, Plus” which appeared in the November 1 issue of The Standard Bearer. 

I can just see the readers of the heading of this article wiping their eyes and looking again at the above title in total unbelief of what they have read, and stymied by the fact that they have read correctly. 

“The consistory shall take care, that the churches for the possession of their property, and the peace and order of their meetings, can claim the protection of the authorities; it should be well understood, however, that for the sake of peace and material possession they may never suffer the royal government of Christ over His Church to be in the least infringed upon.” (D.K.O. Art. 28)  The Original Article 

EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS  THIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE  OF THE CORRUPTION OF MAN, HIS CONVERSION TO GOD, AND THE MANNER THEREOF  Article 3. Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, nor to dispose themselves to reformation.

We concluded our preceding article by calling the attention of our readers, briefly, to what awaits us in our discussion of the development of the doctrine of the Church and the Sacraments in the third period, 750-1517 A.D. One of the matters of our discussion will be the supremacy of the Pope of Rome which was strongly asserted. 

Bitter pills with a sugar coating upon them.  Their bitterness we do not taste; and they achieve the desired end.  We all have, in the literal sense of the word, taken them at one time or another in our lives. We needed them. Taking them was made much more pleasant, and we got the desired effect, without experiencing the bitter part of it.  It is safe to say that we all have also taken- these sugarcoated yet-bitter pills in the figurative sense.  To what do we refer? 

In the Gospel of Matthew there is no passage which is quite as well-known, perhaps, as is the passage which reads as follows, “Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

9. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Let your hands be strong, ye that hear these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who spake on the day the house of Jehovah of hosts, the temple, was founded that it might be built. 10. For before these days these was no wages for man and no wages for beast, and no peace for him that went out or came in, because of the oppressor; and I set all men each against his neighbor. 11. But now not as in the former days am I to the remnant of this...