Vol 49 Issue 01

The convocation program, marking the beginning of a new year of instruction in our seminary, was held on September 6, in Southwest Church. Prof. Hanko, the speaker for the evening, began by noting some of the many evidences of God’s favor, as far as our seminary is concerned. Among such evidences was the fact that God has given a constituency which supports the seminary, as is plain, Prof. Hanko remarked, from the wonderful crowd present at the program.

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, Vol. 3, by Edward J. Young; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 579 pages, $9.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H; C. Hoeksema)  This third volume of the late Dr. Young’s commentary on the prophecy of Isaiah covers chapters forty to sixty-six. This work was completed shortly Hoeksema) before Dr. Young’s death, and is posthumously published. One can only be thankful that the Lord gave Dr. Young sufficient days to complete this commentary and to leave it as a heritage to all those who love the Scriptures. 

In his second epistle to the Thessalonians Paul told the church at Thessalonica that Christ would not return with glory and victory for the church until there fast came a falling away that would reveal the man of sin, the son of perdition, whom we have learned to know as the Anti-Christ. However, in the Greek Paul speaks in II Thessalonians 2:3 of the falling away.

We now continue our discussion of the first error of the Arminians as stated by the fathers of Dordt in Art. I of their rejection of errors in connection with the Arminian presentation of the atonement of Christ. The Arminians set forth the heresy of the universal atonement of the death of Christ. We concluded our previous article by calling attention to the fact that the fathers of Dordt declare that the Arminian position despises the merits of Christ’s death and also that the Arminians, in their conception of the cross of Calvary, are wiser than God.

After God had created the world and the creatures that dwell within it and “saw that it was good,” Genesis 1:25, we read next, Genesis 1:26, 27, “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth

The term, “Calvinism,” is not the name by which we Calvinists prefer to have our faith called; nor do we ourselves prefer to call ourselves “Calvinists.” This was also true of most of the Calvinists of the past. Calvin was the name of a man, a great servant of God, John Calvin. He was one of the Reformers by whom the Holy Spirit reformed the Church in the 16th century. He ranks with Martin Luther as one of the two outstanding Reformers. To call ourselves “Calvinists,” and our faith “Calvinism,” leaves the impression that we follow a man and that...

The theme or central thought of this Letter is to be found in James 1:26, 27. Here the “holy man of God, James, as moved by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1:21) draws a basic distinction. He writes: “If any man among you seem to be religious . .

[Editor’s Note. In the previous issue Prof. Hanko began this critique. The final statement of the first installment was: “We must never forget that the battle is between faith and unbelief.” The opening statement of the present installment is a reference to this.¹ 

There is almost a note of nostalgia in Daane’s concluding wish that the rich and sweet sounds of Covenant, Grace, and Election may again be heard in Christian Reformed pulpits.  Well, when was the last time that these sounds were heard unspoiled by the sour notes of Arminianism and universalism?  It has been a long time ago! 

Perhaps the main thrust of Daane’s article is in the last column. There, so to speak, the cat comes out of the bag. After all, he is disturbed—as so often before—by Hoeksema’s theology. And he wants somehow to blame that hated theology of Hoeksema for the ills of Christian Reformed preaching.  One can only shake his head in amazement at such strange meanderings of Daane’s thinking.