Vol 46 Issue 16

A couple of our churches have recently made trios from which they have called ministers. The information we have at the time of this writing is limited to the trios. Hull’s Consistory has one consisting of Rev. D. Engelsma, Rev. R. Harbach, and Rev. G. Lubbers. Doon has called one from the following: Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. J. Kortering, and Rev. M. Schipper.

Report of Classis East, April 1, 1970, Hudsonville, Michigan.  Rev. J. Kortering led in the opening devotions, and declared the Classis properly constituted when the credentials were accepted.  All the churches were represented by two delegates except Holland which had one. The Rev. J.A. Heys and the Rev. M. Schipper were absent; the former working in Jamaica, and the latter recuperating from surgery.  The Rev. G.C. Lubbers presided over this session, while the Rev. J. Kortering recorded the minutes. 

Billy Graham, now the evangelist of the liberal ecumenical movement, is, as might be expected, as thick as thieves with the modernists. Some would say he has, as a great star, declined a long way. Back in 1949, when he was editor of The Pilot, magazine of Northwestern Schools, an ad appeared in the publication, offering for sale a book by the unitarianized Harry Emerson Fosdick.

On different occasions Jesus said that “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”  He said it in that unqualified form in Matthew 29:16: “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”  In Mark 9:35 the unqualified form again appears, but now as good counsel, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” 

The doctrine of the atonement, to which we will now call your attention, the Lord willing, is, of course, of the utmost importance. It is certainly of the greatest significance as following upon the doctrine of sin. Sin is guilt and it is also the power of corruption. And the extent of the guilt and power of sin is of such a nature that the sinner is helplessly and hopelessly lost in sin and evil. He can never save himself. He can never pay his guilt, and this payment of his debt is absolutely necessary if he is to return...

Dr. James Daane, minister in the Christian Reformed Church, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, one of the editors of the Reformed Journal, is a well-known advocate for membership in the World Council of Churches. He continues to encourage membership for his denomination even though several Synodical decisions have strongly condemned such union. He and others, I predict, will continue this agitation for union with the W.C.C. until they succeed in their desires—and this success will be seen within a few years, if the Lord tarry. 

“The fathers have eaten sow grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Ezekiel 18:2 “Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth it shall die. “ Ezekiel 18:4

An article is receiving wide distribution lately which concerns some “scientific” proof of the accuracy ofJoshua 10:8. Under the title “The Space Program and the Bible,” the article reads:

Recently there has come from the Oxford and Cambridge University presses the Old Testament section of the New English Bible. The New Testament was published already in 1961, and 7 million copies of it have already been sold. This allegedly completely new translation is now complete, therefore; and it is being widely hailed both in the secular and the religious press, and, according to reports, is selling at a fast pace. 

These two eye-catching Dutch words have been used extensively in the advertisements for a new Dutch weekly. They mean: “Choose Cozluse!” Course is the striking and rather significant name chosen for this weekly opinion-magazine.