Vol 48 Issue 16

At a congregational meeting held at Hope Church (Grand Rapids), on April 26, the decision was made to extend a call to Rev: Engelsma. He was elected from a trio which included also the Reverends J. Heys and G. Lanting.  Rev. B. Woudenberg has asked for, and been granted, an extension for his consideration of the call to serve as home missionary. We can now expect his response three weeks after the conclusion of this year’s gathering of Synod. 

WISDOM THE PRINCIPAL THING, by Kenneth L. Jensen; Pacific Meridian Publishing Company, 1972; 167 pp., $2.95 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko] 

Quite a task!  It’s one thing to bear children; it’s something else to bring them up.  This difficulty is accentuated in Eph. 6:4, “Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” That conjunction, but, emphasizes this. “Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” We must not provoke them to wrath, but on the contrary, bring them up properly.

We will now call attention to Article VIII of Head II of our Canons, undoubtedly the heart and core of this section of the Canons. This eighth article reads as follows:

The outstanding quality of marriage is that it is an absolutely unbreakable union or bond. That is not a popular truth, but it belongs to a faithful witness and a faithful pilgrim life to state and to live that uncompromisingly and boldly. Marriage is a bond of intimacy between one man and one woman which isfor life, and which has for its purpose the revelation of the salvation of the Church in Christ, and the bringing forth of covenant seed. That marriage is not capable of termination as long as both mates are living is clearly the teaching of Scripture.

In this twentieth century the world has seen two so-called world wars. Men fought in these wars, it was claimed, “to make the world safe for democracy.”  They failed! 

God is “The God of truth,” Isaiah 65:16. The word “truth” here is interesting; it is the Hebrew word “Amen” and indicates certainty. That is what truth is, it is that certainty which comes forth from the mind of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, united in thought and will together. 

Dear Editor:

One of the main ways in which the Lord has been pleased to promote interest in the Reformed faith is through Ministerial Conferences. There have been a number of these held in recent weeks, and others, both large and small, are, D.V., being held in the future.

From a Grand Rapids reader I received two questions, one of which I will answer in this issue: “A question has arisen in our Men’s Society as to the interpretation of Acts 14:3, ‘Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the name of the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.’ This is our question: to whom does the pronoun ‘which’ refer, to the apostles or to the Lord?