Vol 44 Issue 05

And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make way against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nay by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto m e what I shall do.  Then said Samuel, Wherefore then does thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? 

The celebration of the 450th anniversary of The Reformation was held in First Church in Grand Rapids as scheduled. A large crowd came out to hear Prof. H.C. Hoeksema who spoke on, “Four Hundred Fifty Years, and Then. . .?” The lecture was, as might be expected, one which captivated the audience in quiet attention from beginning to the end. Rev. VanBaren led in the opening devotions; Rev. Lubbers, chairman of the steering committee, introduced the speaker, and Rev. Schipper led in closing prayer.

EVOLUTION AND THE MODERN CHRISTIAN by Henry M. Morris; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich.; 72 pages (paper); price, $1.00 Here is a fine little book, written by a scientist who is thoroughly committed to the infallible Biblical record concerning creation. The author is one of the few who stands foursquare for creation in six literal days and who does not hide or compromise his belief. It is heart warming, in an age when Reformed men everywhere are busily propagating various theories of so called theistic evolution, to read a book of this kind.

“How doth Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ executeth the office of a priest in His once offering Himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for the sins of His people; and in making continual intercession for them (LC, 44).” This function of His office was settled in the secret counsel of God. For He was “set forth (foreordained) a propitiation (Rom. 3:25),” an atoning sacrifice, for the sins of His people.

To our liturgical study belongs all of those things that are included in our public worship. Some, we wrote in our previous article, want to exclude from this study the sermon or the preaching. The argument for this is twofold. First of all this objection points to the fact that the sermon and preaching belong to another theological science called Homiletics, and the second argument is that the sermon is non-prescriptive, that is, free according to its form. The preacher is not bound in his preaching by a liturgical form.

GEELKERKEN EXONERATED  All of the news items included in this column this time have to do with events in the Netherlands. The last years have seen swift changes in the Netherlands especially in the Gereformeerde Kerken; and these changes have not been good. The drift is towards modernism; and it is gaining momentum.

(Note: This is the second installment of a series of articles on the above subject. These articles are translations of a series which was written in the Holland language by the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema thirty-seven years ago.) 

We were busy in our preceding article with a description of Augustine’s influence upon posterity and his relation to Catholicism and Protestantism, as set forth by Philip Schaff in Vol. III of his History of the Christian Church. And we noted that this church father contributed much to the development of the doctrinal basis which Catholicism and Protestantism hold in common against such radical heresies of antiquity as Manichaeism, Arianism, and Pelagianism.

The only way to serve God with the neighbor’s possessions is to leave them in his hand. 

THE AREA OF SUPERVISION  In the light of the data cited previously, we are now ready to turn our attention more directly to the duties of a consistory with respect to catechetical instruction.