Vol 60 Issue 10

Classis East met in regular session on January 11, 1984 at First Church, Grand Rapids. Each congregation was represented by two delegates. Present for the first time were the delegates from the newly-formed congregation of Byron Center. Rev. B. Woudenberg chaired this session of Classis.  Classis had a full day of activities—this is the meeting when synodical agenda items are handled. The usual routine business was also transacted. 

PERSPECTIVES ON THE CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH, Peter De Klerk and Richard R. De Ridder, Editors; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI; 404 pp., cloth. [Reviewed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema] This book is in the nature of a Festschrift in honor of Dr. John H. Kromminga at the occasion of his retirement as President of Calvin Seminary. But it is not like the ordinary Festschrift. The information on the dust jacket offers a brief description of the book’s contents:

Just as God’s self-revelation in the First Commandment teaches us that we must “have” Him alone as our God to worship and serve in all our thoughts, words, and deeds, so also God’s revelation of Himself in the Second Commandment teaches ushow we must worship Him. From the examples of Cain and Uzzah we have seen the importance of understanding and keeping the Second Commandment, and to those examples we might add that of the two sons of Aaron (Lev. 10:1-7).

The Views of Rufus Anderson The Rev. Rufus Anderson (1796-1880), an ordained Congregational minister, was secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1832 to 1866. Prior to this he served for fourteen years as assistant secretary to this board, and after his term in office he continued as an advisor to the board almost until his death. He was both a contemporary and friend of Henry Venn. His views and especially his “three self” formula influenced American missions until the end of World War II. (Cf. Rufus Anderson, R.

Article 2—And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;  The wording of this particular article is evidently taken from I Corinthians 15:3, 4: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. 

(Note: The article which appeared in this rubric on February 1, entitled “A Tragically Worthless Success,” should have come after this article. Our apologies to our readers, and especially to Rev. Heys, for this disruption in the sequence of articles in this series.)

In our last article we concluded our discussion of the elements of the worship service which actually precede the worship proper: prayers before the service, the prayers in the Consistory room, the organ (or piano) prelude. In this article we begin a discussion of the worship proper and the various elements which go to make it up. 

A reader writes: 

Women in Office In a recent issue of Christian Renewal (Nov. 21, 1983), attention was called to an old article which had appeared in the Grand Rapids Press back in December 2, 1972. The quote points to the length some will go in order to promote “women’s lib.” What was reported in that article is today being done, with a greater degree of refinement, in churches of Reformed persuasion. The article was titled: “Church Women’s Celebration Calls Eve’s Apple Episode a ‘Free’ Act.” It states:

“Act of Secession or Return” (This is a translation of the document which marks the beginning of the Secession of 1834 in the Netherlands Reformed Church, to which we referred in our editorial in the previous issue. HCH)