Vol 61 Issue 21

If you have a copy of this year’s Acts and Yearbook of Synod, please make the following change on page 143: Rev. Kortering’s telephone number should read—(616) 538-2575. This will greatly reduce the number of telephone calls to the person at the 2572 telephone number. Rev. Bruinsma and family have been visiting the Grand Rapids, Michigan area for a few weeks. In a letter to the congregation of First Church, in Grand Rapids, Rev. Bruinsma wrote, “. . . First of all, the congregation in Waterworks has had a new beginning . . . . Since there was no available building...

SOLVING MARRIAGE PROBLEMS, by Jay E. Adams; Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1983; 122 pp., (paper) $4.50. (Reviewed by Prof. R.D. Decker) Still another book from the pen of Jay Adams, Director of Advanced Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in California! This book is intended for pastors and other Christian counselors, but may be profitably read by any Christian. One does not always agree with Adams’ views, especially his view of divorce and the remarriage of divorced persons. Nonetheless, Adams’ approach is Biblical and he insists that marriage problems are caused by sin and can be cured only by grace...

The Lord Himself in His wise and wonderful purpose has ordained the place of each member of the Christian family. This was a creation ordinance and not one that is subject to change as culture and tradition among men changes. This will work for the good and blessing of the Christian home. That this is also the case for the role of the wife and mother in the home is abundantly clear from what Paul tells us in passages such as I Corinthians 11 and I Corinthians 14 and I Timothy 2. Repeatedly the apostle grounds his exhortations to women in God’s creation ordinance. The...

It probably will not strike us that we treat Sunday worship like watching a sporting event. But we do come, sometimes, to be entertained, rather than to worship; to see what we can get out of it, rather than to bring offerings of praise. And if we are not sufficiently entertained, we would almost be bold enough to complain as some would for a refund or a rain-delay check. Instead of being the active participants in the worship, we sit back and wait for a good show. When we worship, though, we are neither spectators nor are we sporting. On...

The idea that the covenant of God is an agreement or contract, first between God and Adam, now between God and His people in Christ, has prevailed in Reformed theology for many years. At the heart of this view of the covenant lies the teaching that there are always two parties who contract with one another in the establishment of the covenant. Until very recently, Zechariah 6:13 has been a key passage in defense of this view. Most of those who teach a two-party covenant have understood, and rightly, that whatever the covenant may be, it must have an eternal pattern in...

Late spring and early summer months are the time most church assemblies meet in their broader gatherings. Several months have passed since these meetings were held—and reports have been appearing in the various church magazines. The Presbyterian Journal reports on various of these gatherings. Its reports on the Orthodox Presbyterian Church appeared in the June 19 issue. Some of the decisions were: The major issue—consideration of the PCA invitation—went as anticipated. Ecumenicity and Inter- Church Relations Committee, presented no recommendation at this time . . . . This means that the OPC would vote on joining the PCA at its 1986 50thanniversary...

It ought not go unnoticed that the book of Esther begins with a feast and ends with a feast. The book opens with the account of a feast of Ahasuerus. The feast of the enlarges and delivered Jews is presented to us in the closing verses of the book. However, although, we have in these passages feasts of two very distinctly different groups of people, they are feast that have one significant element in common. Both are carnal, worldly feasts or banquets that revolve around fleshly gladness and are conducted with no thought of the God of heaven and earth,...

In the last few articles we have been discussing those parts of the worship service in which the minister functions both as the ambassador of God, speaking in God’s name to the congregation, and as the mouthpiece of the people, speaking to God in the people’s name. Specifically, to the former belong the salutation, the benedictions, the reading of the law, the preaching. To the latter belong the votum—”Our help is in the name of Jehovah. . . ,” the reading of the Apostolic Confession (when the congregation does not speak it with the minister), the prayers. With the exception...

Your editor is taking a vacation in this issue. That gives him a break, and it also makes room for some copy which has been waiting to be published. This is the last issue of Volume 61. You will find the annual index in this issue. All of which reminds me that we are still waiting for the projected master index of all the volumes, going back to Volume 1. When is it coming, brethren? There will be some significant changes in Volume 62. These will be announced in the October 1 issue. But these changes will also involve an end for...

“Neither shall evil dwell with Thee . . . . But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy.”  Ps. 5:4, 7 The Word of God, Scripture, is absolute, either-or. This is true, generally. In Scripture we are either in light or in darkness, speak either the truth or the lie, are either in life or in death. The Word of God knows of no compromise, nothing in-between; it is either-or. We are either wise or foolish, haters of God or lovers of Him; we seek either the things that are above or...