Vol 57 Issue 11

Greetings to you in the name of the Sovereign God and Savior Jesus Christ Who is pleased to gather His church out of all nations of the world. Let me tell you again something about how the Lord is doing this through our ministry as your missionary here in Singapore. It remains evident that the Lord is pouring out a very great blessing upon the preaching of the gospel here. We are amazed by the response to the preaching of the gospel. The numbers at our worship services continue to grow. The saints are growing in their knowledge and love...

The intent of this article is to provide a concise account of the history of the Reformed Witness Hour and a brief look at the present work, of a select committee to seek ways of increasing the effectiveness of the radio broadcasts. 

Although the work goes under a variety of titles, e.g. church extension, evangelism, reformed witness, etc., the intent of our congregations in this labor is the same. In the news of this issue of S.B. our attention will center on the efforts of our local congregations to extend the “good news”—as our Lord has privileged us to know it—to those beyond the pale of our churches.

PREACHING WITH CONFIDENCE, James Daane; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. (80 pp., paper, $3.95) (Reviewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema.) The sub-title of this little book is “A Theological Essay On The Power Of The Pulpit.” But from the preface we learn that the book is intended as a homiletics textbook. As an essay, the book qualifies; as a homiletics textbook it is, in the opinion of this homiletics instructor, very deficient. 

With considerable hesitation and trepidation I fulfill the request to write about our work in Jamaica. The writer has never been in Jamaica, though he has served on the mission committee for many years and presently is its chairman. For the latter reasons he was asked to write this article.  Much might be written about our mission work in Jamaica. Of necessity, this article must only briefly present the history of this work and some comments upon the work itself. 

Sunday morning. There is an air of eager expectancy among the early arrivals at the Christian School in Bradenton, where the Protestant Reformed Churches are now holding services. Formerly we met in the Manatee River Hotel, but for various reasons we sought a new meeting place and gained consent from the local Christian School Board to use one of the classrooms for our meetings. Those who have come a bit early are eagerly awaiting the arrival of others, especially of new faces, as is experienced every Sunday. This is so different from some of my earlier experiences in mission work.

In Matthew 16:18 the evangelist records for us one of the most encouraging promises our Lord has ever given to His people. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Encouraging indeed! For by that short statement our Beloved Saviour tells us that the church is His church, and therefore that we who belong to that church belong to Him.

It is truly with good purpose that Scripture so often speaks of the preaching of the gospel under the figure of farming. Increasingly, in mission work, we see the appropriateness of this figure and learn the lessons it teaches. 

In the past our churches were rather severely criticized because of an alleged lack of emphasis on mission work. In fact, many accused us of not even believing in mission work. To a certain extent these charges are still leveled at our churches. It is said, for example, that because we deny a “well-meant offer” of the gospel we are not able to preach on the mission fields. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Protestant Reformed churches have always believed it their calling to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.

This is the third, and last, of our special issues for this volume-year. This time the theme of the entire issue is our Protestant Reformed mission outreach; and all of the articles, including our regular church news column, which tempts many readers to start reading with the back page, are devoted to this subject. I take this opportunity to express thanks to all those who have contributed to this missions issue. I will not play favorites and call your attention to this or that article as being of special interest; read all of them, for they are all worthwhile.