Vol 53 Issue 05

Our church in Hull, Iowa has extended a call to Rev. Mark Hoeksema from a trio which included Rev. Dale Kuiper and Rev. Gise VanBaren. 

The final question is: how can we determine when a minister should retire? The Church Order speaks of being “rendered incapable of performing the duties of their office.” Hence, the answer is: a minister should retire when he becomes incapable of performing the duties of his office. This is a rather simple matter to determine, of course, in those instances in which a minister is obviously physically incapacitated. In other instances, however, that “incapable” is a bit more difficult to interpret. When is a man incapable of performing the duties of his office by reason of age?

“And lambs graze as (in) their pastures and deserts (where the flocks got) fat will sojourners (nomad shepherds) consume” (v. 17, Heb.). 1. Here the second woe ends, the longest of them all. The literal fulfillment of this we see today where modern Jerusalem, about thirty-five feet above the ancient Jerusalem, is a Mohammedan city, and much of Palestine is pasture land for Arab shepherds. Sheep graze over the ruins of Jerusalem as their pasture. (Once Jehovah’s vineyard, now a pasture!) These sheep are God’s people from among the Gentiles.

The R.E.S. and Sunday Observance  The Reformed Ecumenical Synod, meeting in Cape Town, South Africa this past summer, faced the question of a united stand of all Reformed churches on the issue of observance of Sunday. In the R.E.S. News Exchange, it is reported that in 1968 the matter of Sunday observance was raised, and in 1972 an international committee was appointed to study the issue. They were to give attention to:

To the members of the church at Philadelphia, 

To the members of the church at Philadelphia, 

“We believe that by this conception, the person of the Son is inseparably united and connected with the human nature; so that there are not two Sons of God, nor two persons, but two natures united in one single person; yet, that each nature retains its own distinct properties.

God’s people are a peculiar people. Be careful, however, when you say that. They are strange but not odd. They differ, but they are not queer. There is something unusual about them, but they are not squares. 

To this the States-General declared that this clause must not be understood as if by it they wanted something in the doctrine of these Churches changes, seeing that review does not always bring with it change, but can also imply establishment of the doctrine. But even so, they declared that the clause could not be left out without the preceding judgment of this Province, which had expressly added it. Accordingly, on March 15, 1606, they gave to the Deputies of the Churches letters of consent in which this clause was also included.

In connection with our comments about Present Truththere is a very sad spectacle to which attention must be called.