Vol 41 Issue 17

During June, July and August the Reformed Witness Hour will feature Rev. J.A. Heys, of South Holland, Illinois, as speaker on the weekly broadcasts. The twelve sermons will be a series of messages based on the Lord’s Prayer as explained in the Heidelberg Catechism. The topics for this month are: June 6—”The Upward Look,” June 13—”As a Little Child,” June 20—”Top Priority,” June 27—”Kingdom Zeal.” As usual, copies of the sermons may be obtained by writing to The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 1230, Grand Rapids, Mich.

In the May 1 issue of the Standard Bearer I called your attention to the beginning of the proposed merger between the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States. You recall, in 1962 the General Assembly of the P.C.U.S. and the General Synod of the R.C.A. approved of a joint resolution prepared by the General Synod Executive Committee of the Reformed Church and the Permanent Committee on Inter-Church Relations of the Presbyterian Church U.S.

Much of the error in the churches of our country is rooted, either deliberately or unconsciously in the error of post-millennialism. There was a time when pre-millennialism was rather popular doctrine and constituted a threat to the truth which the Church maintained. But today, while there are still many pre-millennialists in the churches, this error is not such a major question in the defense of the truth. Rather, post-millennialism has become the common error concerning the truth of Christ’s coming.  What does post-millennialism teach? 

The spring meeting of our Eastern Ladies’ League was held on April 25, 1965 at the new edifice of our Holland Church.  After the usual preliminaries and a special musical number, our President, Mrs. D. Jonker, introduced the speaker for the evening, Seminarian Robert Decker. His topic was: “The Neglect of the Means of Grace.” He discussed: l. What are the means of grace? 2. What is it to neglect them? 3. Examples of neglect. The means of grace are two-fold, namely, the preaching of the Word and the Sacraments. 

Paul did not say that money is the root of all evil. 

The founder of this chimerical cult was Emanuel Swedberg, a name which he later changed to the more resonant Swedenborg. Born in Stockholm in 1688, he was said to have lived and died a Lutheran. If so, one wonders whether his denomination, not far past the mighty Reformation, made any efforts to correct or discipline the pedantic heretic. Early he claimed the ability to see and converse with spirits and angels. Thus the religion he schematized became a predecessor to the Spiritism of today. Contact with the spirit-world is fundamental to the cult.

Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.  I Samuel 2:12 The expression “a son of Belial” was an Old Testament expression meaning “a worthless fellow”—that is, a wicked person having no regard for decency or propriety, for law or for order. Such the sons of Eli were called. 

It may certainly be stated that the Church, in its development of the doctrine of creation, has consistently maintained the literal interpretation of the account of creation as set forth in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis. The Church has consistently maintained that the creation of the world is nothing else than a work of the almighty God Who of nothing created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all things that are therein. First, we call attention to this truth as set forth in several confessions. 

Paul In Athens 

In his series of articles in the Reformed Journal, beginning in October, 1964, Dr. James Daane defends the theology of Prof. Harold Dekker which maintains that God loves all men redemptively and that Christ died for all men. And when I characterize Mr. Daane’s position as being “dead wrong,” I refer, in the first place, to his adherence to Dekker’s two propositions. From the point of view of Scripture and the Reformed creeds, Dr. Daane’s defense of Dekker’s theology is dead wrong, that is, totally un-Reformed.