The Rev. H. Veldman, of Hope Church in Grand Rapids, has received (and declined) a call from our Randolph congregation, and is considering a call from our Hudsonville Church, his nearest neighbor.  Edgerton, Minn: has extended a call to Rev. G. Lubbers, of Southwest Church in Grand Rapids.

The exterior view shown is from the west, and very admirably highlights the main element of the building,—the one hundred tons of Wisconsin stone which comprises the entire front of the church. This wall is built in five staggered tiers; and between them are vertical windows of stained glass, through which the afternoon sun glows in many colors upon the inside wall. These are the only windows in the auditorium and are not visible from the pews, but are only appreciated by the reflected colors which set forth the uneven surface of the front wall in bas relief.

This past July 26-28 there was held a regional conference of churches of reformed persuasion, called by the three North American members of the R.E.S. (Reformed Ecumenical Synod), which met in the beautiful Calvin Seminary building at their Knollcrest Campus.  This conference was held in harmony with decisions taken at the last R.E.S. meeting in Grand Rapids in 1963. The following decisions were taken:

THE SHEPHERD CONTRADICTED OF SINNERS(John 10:22-24). 

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.”  Mark 2:27

“Verbal inspiration of Scripture is only a theory and not a matter of great importance for the Christian faith.” That statement was not made by Karl Barth, Martin Luther King, James A. Pike or some other modernist-liberalist freethinker of the day. It was uttered by none other than Billy Graham, ostensible champion of the cause of orthodox, evangelical Christianity. But those same modernists are telling us that there is much in the Bible that is unacceptable historically, that therefore it must be interpreted mythologically in order to distil any relevant meaning from it.

One of the most alarming trends to be found in our degenerate age is the growth of lawlessness. We are rapidly becoming a country which totters on the brink of anarchy.  There are many evidences of this. 

The last time we emphasized the necessity of Christian discipline. In every institution founded within the society of mankind there must not only be laws by which that institution is governed, but there must be proper maintenance and enforcement of those laws. This enforcement constitutes the indispensable discipline upon society through which order is maintained, transgression is punished and without which society is destroyed by lawlessness. The latter is characteristic of our age and is a root factor in the massive disruptions of civil, industrial, social and even ecclesiastical life.

A WORD OF RE-INTRODUCTION  The last time we were able to discuss this subject of the nature of the atonement was in the May 1 issue. There were various other matters which demanded immediate editorial attention; besides, due to the fact that our magazine appears only once per month during the summer, there was not sufficient space to deal with everything that required our attention. Now, however, we return to this subject.  Meanwhile, this discussion and study has not become out-of-date. 

As I promised, I now return to what I characterized as “philosophy” in Dr. Jerome De Jong’s explanation of total depravity.  I have already shown that De Jong’s explanation is not Billy Graham’s.