Vol 57 Issue 09

“Where’s my Standard Bearer?” was a familiar refrain in the ears of our business manager when answering the telephone in early January. These calls were a result of the fact that the January 1 issue wasn’t its usual punctual self. Although most of us would have soon tired of listening to these complaints, it was music to Mr. VanderWal’s ears, for each call was another positive (or would we call that negative?) evidence that S.B. is read, appreciated, and even anticipated. 

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate my close friend and colleague in the ministry on the publication of this beautiful and important work. There is not, as the author comments in the introduction, any such commentary in the English language on the Canons. This book fills a great lack and we hope and pray that it has the widest possible circulation. An exposition of the Canons of Dordt is welcome for a number of reasons. For one thing, the Canons are still the Confessional basis of a large number of Reformed Churches both in this land and abroad.

Many and varied are the ways which Satan devises to destroy the Church of Christ in this world and at the same time to establish his antichristian kingdom. Although many of these ways become boldly evident to us as we watch for Christ’s second coming there are others which are much more subtle and for that reason can sneak by undetected. Every way conceivable Satan is out to destroy the Church and the cause of Jesus Christ in this world. And he sets out to do so with the savagery of a roaring lion. He stalks us unrelentingly.

“It makes a difference whose children have the measles.”  This little adage we frequently hear, and there a measure of truth in it. If the neighbour’s children have the measles, your children are kept far from them so as not to contract the childhood disease. But if your children have the measles, they will be sent to school in the early stages of the disease, so as not to miss too much school, and their friends are not kept out of the house, or their parents told that there is this childhood disease within the walls of the home. 

Chapter 3    Twofold Kingdom Of Heaven?   

Editor’s Notes. 1. Rev. Engelsma called my attention to a typographical error in his article in the Jan. 1 issue, p. 155, first column, last paragraph. The sentence concerned should read: “His reference was not, primarily, to the heathen, but to the multitudes of fainting, scattered Israelites, the Old Testament people of God, under the care of the priests and scribes.” 2. These articles of Rev. Engelsma are a transcript of a lecture on this subject. The reader will notice there is duplication between this department and Prof. Decker’s. The latter had begun his series, however, before Rev.

Dear Timothy, In my last letter I mentioned, toward the end, that the best way to understand the emotions and their effect upon us is to discuss the various kinds of emotions. Perhaps if we have some understanding of this matter we will have a deeper appreciation also of the role that emotions play in our life. 

(In the last part of the last article Dr. Kuyper began a discussion of the deformation of the churches. He defined what he meant by deformation, i.e., the deterioration of a church which had once held a correct form according to the Scriptures and was now in need of church reformation. This idea of the deformed church Kuyper continues to discuss in the following paragraphs.)  36. Concerning Imperfect Church Formation. 

In previous articles we have distinguished among the various aspects of the church’s missionary task. There is mission work which must be done among the heathen. Missionary efforts must be directed toward the Jews who are the natural branches of the olive tree of God’s church (cf. Romans 11). There is also mission work to be done among what we termed, “covenant wanderers.” ‘This latter work we prefer to call evangelism, or Reformed evangelism.

With this issue we present a new department editor, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, who will be responsible forSigns of the Times for the next six issues. We welcome him to the ranks of our associate editors. Thanks, Rev. Flikkema, for your quota of six articles so faithfully submitted!