Vol 40 Issue 09

Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD at Mizpeh.  Judges 11:11

Rev. B. Woudenberg has declined the call which he had from the Southwest Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.  Rev. G. Laming, of Holland, Mich., declined the call he was considering from Redlands, Calif.  Our Missionary, Rev. G.. Lubbers, also declined the call which had come to him from our Lynden, Wash., Church.  Report of Classis East, Jan. 8, 1964, at Southeast Church. 

ARMINIAN: “What do you make of I Timothy 2:4, that God will have all men to be saved?”  CALVINIST: “That, in keeping with the context, or with what the apostle has been talking about already, it means all classes of men vv. 1-2), but applying specifically to all the elect of those classes, for the following reason: 

A CORRECTION  In a recent article in this column I commented on the vote being presently taken in various presbyteries of the Southern Presbyterian Church to decide whether women should or should not be ordained as officebearers in the Churches. In this article I spoke of the presbyteries as if they were “congregations.”  In connection with this I received a letter from G. Aiken Taylor, editor of the Presbyterian Journal, from which I quote the relevant parts.

We do not have in our churches a denominationally accepted Order of Worship. Each church is at liberty to arrange the elements of worship in an order that is most conducive to the edification of the particular church. However, although there may be some slight variations here and there, we believe that all of our churches follow an order similar to that found on the weekly bulletin of the First Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That order of worship is the following:  Organ prelude  *Doxology—”Praise God. . .”  *Votum and Benediction 

The Creation of the Angels  This article of our Confession also speaks of the creation of the angels. In fact, more than half of the article is devoted to this subject. And because it is some time ago that we began our discussion of Article XII, I will quote that part of the article again, for the reader’s convenience:

In conclusion, as far as our presentation of the Lutheran view of the Lord’s Supper is concerned, we would make a final observation, namely that it is not clear exactly what the Lutherans mean when they speak of the benefits which are derived from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. On the one hand, Luther commonly represents its special benefit to be the forgiveness of sins, which is received only when faith is exercised. This effect, then, is not due to what is in the sacrament received by the mouth, but to the Word as received by faith.

The question naturally arises, now that contact has been established between our Protestant Reformed Churches and the people in Jamaica, what can be done for them in the future? 

It is particularly the sovereign work of the LORD concerning Jacob and his brother Esau which exhibits the true point of departure in this prophecy, the solid and unchangeable basis of God’s covenant dealings of the Lord with Israel! Thus we have indicated in our last essay. 

However, we must understand, and it is also emphasized in this article, that this is true only for the believer, not for the unbeliever: “And thus all who bring a pure faith, like a vessel, to the sacred table of Christ, receive truly that of which it is a sign; for the body and blood of Jesus Christ give food and drink to the soul no less than bread and wine nourish the body.”