Vol 61 Issue 07

Three of our churches have recently extended calls. From a trio consisting of the Reverends R. Hanko, Kamps, and Moore, Hull Protestant Reformed Church has called Rev. Kamps. Our church in Houston, Texas has called Prof. Decker, from a trio which included also Rev. Slopsema and Rev. Woudenberg. Lynden’s trio was Rev. Haak, Rev. Slopsema, and Rev. VanBaren. Rev. Haak received the call. Prof. Hoeksema planned to leave for Lynden on the 21st of December, in order to preach in our church there on the 23rd, and take the rest of the services through those of Sunday, January 6.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO GENESIS, by Charles C. Cochrane; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984; 88 pp., $5.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko). The author was for 40 years a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Why this book should be the product of his literary efforts is hard to say. It is not a very good book and hardly worth the time spent in reading it.

In the previous three articles of this series we have examined some of the views of Rufus Anderson. Because it has been some time since this column has appeared we shall give a brief review of what we have discovered thus far in our study of Anderson. Anderson, like Henry Venn and John Nevius, was firmly convinced that the mission church should become self supporting, self governing, and self propagating as soon as possible. In this connection Anderson stressed that the sole aim of missions must be evangelization and not civilization.

What Next? “Faith in Focus,” the monthly magazine of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand, quotes a letter from J.M. Batteau, professor of systematic theology at Korea Seminary, Pusan, Korea. The letter was addressed to all the members of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod which met last summer in Chicago. The letter dealt with his concern about the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Gereformeerde Kerken).

Chapter XVI “The Church-Age” in Premillennialism (continued) It is the burden of these articles to demonstrate clearly and beyond any doubt that it is contrary to the plain teaching of the prophetic Scriptures to propagate the “doctrine” that it is proper to speak of a “church-age” rather than of confessing that the church is from the beginning to the end of the world, one and the same church, in two different dispensations!

[Editor’s note. Here is the first installment of the promised report on the trip by Prof. Hanko and Rev. D. Engelsma to the United Kingdom.]

Our Heidelberg Catechism discusses in Lords Day XXXVIII what is implied in the keeping of the fourth commandment. Strikingly, it includes in our observance of the Lord’s Day our calling to contribute, through collections, to the causes of Christ’s kingdom. It says, “What doth God require in the fourth commandment? First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained; and that I, especially on the sabbath, that is, on the day of rest . . . contribute to the relief of the poor, as becomes a Christian . . . .”

From a reader who wishes to have his name withheld comes the following letter: “Dear Professor: “Your editorial, ‘About Guests at Communion,’ (Nov. 1, 1984) was well worth reprinting and reflects careful work of Classis East in yesteryear. With the contents of this article I am in full agreement.

From the Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore we received the following letter addressed to “All Protestant Reformed Churches of America,” under date of October 24, 1984: Dearly beloved brethren in the Lord: Greetings from Singapore in the Glorious Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.