Vol 52 Issue 20

The topic to which we desire to devote a few moments is not a new one. However, we do believe that it is one in which we ought to be periodically instructed and continually admonished. Sabbath observance, as we are all well aware, can be a rather touchy subject. In discussing it one can discern a wide spectrum of opinions regarding it, ranging from legalism to antinomianism. Yet, we believe that if one has a truly scriptural understanding of it, both the extremes can be avoided and one can walk soberly before God with regard to the fourth commandment.

At this writing, two of our churches are without pastors. They are Kalamazoo, Michigan and Redlands California. Rev. Marvin Kamps accepted a call to Doon, Iowa and was scheduled to preach his farewell sermon in Redlands on August 22. From a trio of Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. G. VanBaren, and Rev. R. VanOverloop, Redlands has extended a call to Rev. Kortering. 

(Note: this review of Rev. D. Engelsma’s book,Marriage: The Mystery of Christ and the Church, is reprinted from The Gospel Witness of June, 1976.)

Dear Timothy,  Since it is quite some time since last I wrote to you, I think it best that I try to pick up the tread of our conversation a bit so that it will become clear how this letter is intended to follow upon my last letter to you. 

As the next step in his “apology for particular grace,” Kuyper goes through the entire Bible, showing “that the Holy Scripture indeed teaches particular grace” (Dat De Genade Particulier Is, p. 162). He covers the Old Testament in three stages, the period from Adam to Noah, the period from the patriarchs to Moses, and the period of the prophets.

Do you hunger and thirst for the Word of God? Do you long for things spiritual? The apostle Peter points out that, for the child of God born again by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever, it is necessary that the new life within us be nourished and fed. Therefore, the Word of God exhorts the church in I Peter 2:2 that, “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” This is not a popular exhortation in our day.

LUTHERANS DEBATE BIBLICAL AUTHORITY  Also this article appears in the Banner of May 7, 1976, and we quote:

“We believe that all the posterity of Adam being thus fallen into perdition and rum, by the sin of our first parents, God did then manifest himself such as he is: Merciful, since he delivers and preserves from this perdition all, whom he, in his eternal and unchangeable counsel of pure goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord, without any respect to their works: Just, in leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved themselves.”  The Belgic Confession, Art. XVI

In What Direction are We Going?

Elsewhere in this issue you will find a contribution which critically questions the direction in which our churches decided to go with respect to New Zealand at our last Synod, Lest anyone—either among our own churches or among the brethren and sisters in New Zealand—should get any false impressions or misconceptions about these matters, I wish to reflect editorially on certain matters raised in that contribution and to set the record straight.