Vol 53 Issue 15

Classis East met in regular session on April 6th at Southeast Church. The business was routine. There were no pressing problems for the churches. Each church was represented by two delegates. Rev. G. VanBaren presided at this session. Noteworthy was the fact that four elders were in attendance at classis for the first time and signed the Formula of Subscription. 

Rev. David Engelsma, pastor of our church in South Holland, Illinois, has received a call from our new congregation in Houston, Texas, to be their first pastor. 

I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. by George Eldon Ladd; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 156 pp., $2.95 (paper) (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko) This book is one of a series of books which Eerdmans is in the process of publishing, edited by Michael Green, and intended “to take a fresh look at controversial areas of the Christian faith.” The author of this book is professor of New Testament in Fuller Theological Seminary. 

“WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?”  One comes to expect anything nowadays from theologians and professors in Reformed seminaries and pulpits. The sad fact is that strange teachings hardly create a ripple anymore. An example of such appeared recently in an article in the Christian Reformed Banner of February 11, 1977. It was written by professor, emeritus, Henry Stob who has assisted in the teaching of a generation of preachers.

Dear Timothy, 

Having returned home from the mission field of our churches in Jamaica, we decided to write a few more lines about the work there and what we found. What we wrote last time was written after we had been there barely a week. And little did we know what we would experience there during the weeks we were to labor among the brethren and sisters on that island. 

THE GOSPEL OF FREE GRACE JEOPARDIZED IN ANTIOCH (Gal. 2:11)

If it is true, as we said in the previous article, that there is but one baptism for every elect child of God, the baptism with the Holy Spirit of which the sign and seal is the sprinkling with water, how is it to be explained that in the book of Acts there obviously were two distinct works of the Holy Spirit upon some of God’s people? Jesus’ disciples, e.g., were reborn, saved men prior to the day of Pentecost. This, of course, was due to the gracious operation of the Spirit upon their hearts.

Connection: In the preceding section we saw: 1) That Conrad Vorstius, the Socinian nominee to replace Arminius at Leiden, returned to the Netherlands. 2) That King James I, of Great Britain, strongly warned against Vorstius. 3) That the Curators of the Academy were ordered not to proceed with the call of Vorstius. 4) That the Hague Conference resulted in no solution to the problems in the churches.) 

We are now ready to comment on the very first section of the Study Report, entitled “The Biblical Doctrine.” As stated earlier, we believe that the 1975 Synod gave the Study Committee a seriously mistaken mandate, and that the committee should not have been instructed to turn to Scripture first, as though the matter under study had never previously been studied and decided upon, and as though our Reformed confessions and liturgy and Church Order had nothing to say as to the principles and practice with respect to the question under discussion.