We enjoyed a meeting of Classis West which was characterized by unity and harmony throughout the meeting. We met in our Doon church, and did not adjourn until about 10 P.M. Rev. H. Hanko was welcomed into our classis, having transferred to us from our Hope church in Classis East. The usual matters were treated at this spring classis. Various subsidy requests were approved, and the delegate for Synod were chosen. The classis also treated a protest against-one of our consistories, and the consistory was sustained in this matter. Of particular interest, treated at this classis, was the matter of...

“THE WAY OF THE CROSS FOR TEACHERS” It is sometimes argued that the Roman Catholic Church cannot be as evil as our fathers often described it because this Church still maintains the fundamental truth of the atonement of Jesus Christ. After all, the truth of the blood of atonement forms the fundamental confession of the Church in the world. He who denies this truth cannot be called “Christian” even in the broadest sense of the word. But, it is said, the Roman Catholic Church has not yet denied this truth, and must not be considered, as our fathers I maintained,...

The seventy-seventh article of the Church Order outlines the steps or procedure that is to be followed in excommunicating the impenitent sinner from the church. It must be remembered that this is not apunishment of sin but it is the final means used in an attempt by the church to save the sinner from the inevitable punishment which God Himself will surely inflict. The church does not inflict punishment for sin. She leaves that to God. In civil spheres, since the state is given the sword power, a specific punishment is written upon the statute books for every violation of law...

In Harmony with the Orthodox Fathers (continued) In general, as the article suggests, these attacks have been from two quarters: from without the church and from within. First of all, mention is made of the Jews and of the Mohammedans. By the Jews, of course, is meant the unbelieving Jews. And it is their denial of the Christ that also leads them to deny the Trinity. This is necessarily the case. You cannot deny Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and still maintain the doctrine of the Trinity. The Mohammedans, who also today constitute some of the most formidable opposition...

We have already called attention to a three-fold distinction between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant conception of the sacrament of baptism. First, Rome maintains that the water in baptism is essential unto salvation, speaks of that water as the water of regeneration in that literal-natural sense of the word; the Protestant view emphasizes the symbolic significance of the sacrament and refuses to ascribe any magical power to the water of the sacrament itself. Secondly, Rome rejects the baptism as administered by John the Baptist as having the same force as the baptism instituted by Christ; the Protestant view maintains...

The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. This is the testimony of Paul to the church at Rome. That there is a God and that He is a God of power is evident to every rational-moral being. Man may not be willing to concede that this God is Jehovah. But he will not get very far in his stand that there is no God. Follow the professed atheist around, and you will soon be able to point out to...

It is a veritable contest in which Timothy and every servant of God is engaged; the prize for which we strive and run is to lay hold on eternal life. There seem to be two anchor points in that running. The one is the point of departure, which is the confession in our Lord which we make before many witnesses. The other is the point of arrival, which is the glorious Parousia of Christ, called in the text the “manifestation” (epiphaneias) of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul charges Timothy before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, before God...

So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.  And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.  Joshua 10:13, 14 Strange and extraordinary was the surrender of the Gibeonites to the children of Israel. It began with an elaborate plan of deception perpetrated by the Gibeonites in the fear which they felt for Israel and the power of Israel’s God. It reflected poorly on the children of Israel in...

“The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation as before under the law) consists of all those, throughout the world, that profess the true religion, and of their children; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.” Now what is the idea, what is the being, or essence, of the church of Christ? Scripture is rich in terms that describe the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is, first of all, the well-known...

We were discussing what Prof. Dekker calls the design of the atonement or the question whether the atonement is limited or unlimited. Before I continue this discussion, I must call attention to part of a second article written by Prof. Dekker in the Reformed Journal of March, 1963, under the caption, “God’s Love to Sinners—One or Two?” He writes as follows: “The Three Points on Common Grace enunciated by the Christian Reformed Church (Synod of 1924) have left us a heritage of ambiguity regarding the nature of divine grace. Although the three points do not teach it, they permit the view that...