Two of our churches called ministers during the last week of January. Southwest had a trio consisting of Rev. R. Moore, Rev. G. VanBaren, and Rev. H. Veldman, while that of Grand Rapids Hope Church consisted of Rev. J. Heys, Rev. M. Schipper, and Rev. H. Veldman. The calls went to Rev. VanBaren and Rev. Schipper, respectively.
CHRISTOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, by E. W. Hengstenberg (edited by Thomas K. Arnold); Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 699 pages, $9.95.
MEMORIES AND MUSINGS OF JAMAICA You travel in a somewhat southeasterly direction in Jamaica along the famous tourist sight known as Bamboo Avenue as you approach a place called Lacovia. Through the bamboo arches you view the expansive fields of cane on the background of the near range of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the farther range of the Figuerro Mountains. The terrain at Lacovia is somewhat swampy. When it rains, you wonder whether the road is in the swamp or the swamp in the road!
The eternal purpose of God’s counsel, as we saw in the foregoing article, was realized in one of its most major steps in the divine incarnation. The independent, self-sufficient God is also sovereign and absolute in His purpose. It is not in any way dependent upon the creature. The creature is in every way preceded, followed and bounded by God. So with election: God chose His people (a covenant-related creature) in Christ. He, therefore, thought of them as in Christ, to think in terms of logical order, before He thought of them as in the world.
It happens here in our own city and in thousands of cities across the face of our land, but it struck us as potentially amusing and confusing while paging through an advertising paper when we were “out of town” recently.
In our preceding article we quoted from Anselm’s book, “Cur Deum Homo,” in connection with his doctrine of the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. We now wish to conclude our discussion of Anselm’s view of the atonement by quoting from Rev. H. Hoeksema’s notes on this subject:
One of the great testing grounds for covenant youth is sex. It takes a veritable mountain of faith to surface above the ocean of salacious material that the pervaders of filth spew forth round about us. The evidence is so overwhelming that one loathes to plumb the depths of such depravity, the scum that comes to the surface is telling enough. The public immorality of off-broadway, x-rated movies, pornography, etc. gives one a sufficient whiff of the putrification that really lies in the soul and private lives of depraved man as he gives expression to his lust.
LATITUDE IN TEACHING FOR THE GEREFORMEERDE KERKEN After the concluding decisions taken by the General Synod of the Reformed Churches (Gereformeerde Kerken) in the Netherlands on the so called “new theology”, the question arose whether these decisions have allowed for latitude in teaching within the denomination. In his editorials, Prof. Hoeksema has quoted these decisions and discussed them. Our readers can consult these articles as background.
In the last issue we began to investigate and examine the charge maintained by the Reformed and Presbyterian Fellowship of Australasia that Dr. K. Runia undermines and challenges the Canons of Dordrecht on the eternal decree of reprobation, as well as the claim that Dr. Runia has avoided and rejected the method of official “grievance”, or gravamen, against the Canons on this point. In a way, of course, these two charges are related. And they are related in such a way that if the first charge is true, namely, that Dr.
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 1:13
