Vol 49 Issue 02

From the September 24 bulletin of First Church comes the following news concerning our missionary: 

THE OLD TESTAMENT, ITS CLAIMS AND ITS CRITICS, by Oswald T. Allis; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company; 509 pages, $9.95 (Reviewed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema) 

How important is the doctrine of Limited or Particular Atonement! How true it is that the doctrine of Particular Atonement and the doctrine of Sovereign Predestination are inseparably connected. The history of the development of doctrine verifies this. Gottschalk died in 868 or 869 A.D. while in prison after an imprisonment of twenty years.

Much has been written about the “sexual revolution.” Evidences of it have been repeatedly pointed out. There is a greater freeness with “love” and marriage. There is the display of the human body. There is greater permissiveness with respect to sexual deviations. And have you glanced over the magazine racks lately? Both the cover pictures and the titillating titles leave nothing to the imagination. The same may be said of both movie and television.  Very simply stated, there is nothing that can shame man anymore. 

The problem of divorce and subsequent remarriage is becoming a subject of serious discussion amongst our young people. This is understandable. Strained or even broken marriages are becoming more frequent, thereby bringing the problem into the passionate consideration of people who are directly involved in such a sad state of marriage. Anyone personally involved in the breakdown of a marriage, or closely related to someone who is, quite naturally discusses the question of divorce and remarriage in a serious manner. Is divorce, as the dissolution of marriage, unscriptural?

15. Its Resistance, (Continued) 

Verse 1, James, a slave of God . . . (continued) 

(Note: the following is approximately the speech delivered at the Convocation of the Protestant Reformed Theological School on September 6, 1972.) 

Judging from the Agenda of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, Sydney, Australia, 1972, one might expect that there would be some ecclesiastical fireworks on an ecumenical scale. For, as we shall see, there were before the RES some serious challenges to the right of the Gereformeerde Kerken of the Netherlands to membership in the RES. These challenges were based in part on the doctrinal liberalism which has swept the GKN like an irresistible tide, and in part on the fact that the Gereformeerde Kerken are members of the World Council of Churches. 

Correction. A rather serious mistake crept into one of my editorials in the October 1 issue. The last sentence in the first full paragraph in column 2 on page 7 should read: Does he not know that long before they returned to the CRC, we predicted that they would do so notbecause of a doctrine of particular grace that could not be preached, but because of a doctrine of grace which was principally Arminian, on account of which De Wolf was disciplined and for which his group left the PRC?