Vol 39 Issue 08

Rev. R.C. Harbach, of Lynden, has received a call from our Kalamazoo congregation. Rev. G. Vanden Berg declined the call which came to him from Southwest Church. Their new trio consists of the Revs. H. Hanko, R.C. Harbach and. H. Veldman. Rev. H. Hanko accepted the call to Doon, Iowa. The Radio Committee of the Reformed Witness Hour hereby informs the listeners that the broadcasts of our Distinctively Reformed Radio Ministry can also be heard, the Lord willing, beginning Sunday, Feb. 3, over Station W.J.B.L. Holland, Michigan. This station broadcasts over both A.M. (1260 Kc) and F.M. (94.5 Mg) with...

HOEKSEMA MEMORIAL LIBRARY The Fund that was started some time ago for a Hoeksema Memorial Library to be added to the present library of the Seminary continues to grow. Our readers will recall that this Fund was begun at an anniversary celebration for Rev. Hoeksema, and that its purpose is to add to the present library a section dealing exclusively with works on “Dogmatics.” Its growth is dependent upon the collections of our Churches and the contributions of individuals or societies. There have been a few recent contributions which brings the total to $752.78. Hope Mr. and Mrs.—$25.00 Redlands Men’s...

We have been discussing various sins which become the occasion of ecclesiastical censure when members of the church persist in them and after repeated admonition refuse to repent. In this connection we asked the question whether parents are to be disciplined who refuse to send their children to Christian schools and, more particularly, whether Protestant Reformed parents are the proper objects of censure if they refuse to use the facilities of Protestant Reformed education for their children where these facilities are made available? It is with this question that we are at present concerned. To the best of my knowledge...

The Trinity in the Confessions (continued) With this ecumenical faith of the church our Reformed confessions are all in thorough agreement. This is evident, in the first place, from the articles of our Belgic Confession presently under discussion. Our Heidelberg Catechism is not elaborate in its treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity, but it is throughout Trinitarian. In Lord’s, Day’ VII the Catechism begins its treatment of the Apostles’ Creed, citing that creed in its entirety as a summary of those things which it is necessary for the Christian to believe. And in Lord’s Day VIII we have the Catechism’s...

We now continue with our quotations from the Radio Replies of the Fathers Rumble and Carty, Volume I, questions 500-812. 808. Why does not the Catholic Church baptize by immersion? Such a method of Baptism, though valid, is not necessary. From the very beginning Baptism was administered both by immersion and by infusion or pouring water upon the forehead. 809. By relinquishing immersion you lost the significance of the original rite. Immersion was never thought necessary in the Christian Church. After St. Peter’s first sermon three thousand people were baptized, and it is most unlikely that it could have been...

We have just emerged from another series of holidays. Thanksgiving Day was hardly over, and already we heard the tinkle of Christmas bells. Because of its antichristian commercialization of the day of Christ’s birth, the shadow of Christmas fell across many Thanksgiving Day tables. And men had to hurry away from it to arrange window displays and stock shelves for the rush to buy and be ready to sell “Christmas presents.” Colored lights, decorated trees, houses and manger scenes not only but even Santa Clauses—my fingers slipped on that last one, and it almost came out as Satan Clauses. I...

We shall not quote this Psalm in its entirety at this time; we shall limit our quotation to the verses 1-3 and 14, where we read; “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praise in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King . . . For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” The viewpoint of this Psalm is definitely of...

So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them:  And they said unto Joshua, Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. Joshua 2:23, 24 Joshua had sent out two young men to investigate the city of Jericho before the children of Israel passed over the river Jordan. For them things had happened much more swiftly than they were able to comprehend. They had...

In order to have some understanding of this difficult problem, it is necessary to place ourselves before the question: what is man as man, irrespective of the influences and changes wrought by sin and grace? These last mentioned changes, we must never forget, are of a spiritual, ethical character. And in and through all these changes man remains man. He is man in the state of rectitude. He remains man when he falls. And he is still man when he is regenerated through the Spirit of Christ. In order, therefore, to gain a clear conception of the relation between the...

” . . . . and I, even I only am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (I Kings 19:14). Sometimes we Protestant Reformed People often feel like the prophet Elijah, especially as we proclaim the absolute sovereignty of our God amidst a church world which refuses to give all the glory to God. Man, they say, fulfills certain conditions before the promise of God is realized, and in recent years, in our own ranks arose those who would have torn the heart out of our beloved church by maintaining and preaching this conditional salvation. It...