Vol 62 Issue 20

David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref. Christian School, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pastor den Hartog writes that “Pastor Lau is teaching from the Heidelberg Catechism a group of about 14 young Christians who are preparing themselves for baptism and membership in our church. This class will be completed by the end of September . . . . The class meets in the large meeting room at Blair Road. “We continue to have many couples aspiring to marriage and to establishing a Christian home. Presently I am giving premarriage counseling to ten young couples. There will be at...

AQUINAS, CALVIN, & CONTEMPORARY PROTESTANT THOUGHT; A CRITIQUE OF PROTESTANT VIEWS ON THE THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS, by Arvin Vos; Christian University Press and Eerdmans Publishing, 1985; 178 pp., $13.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko) Vos is convinced that Aquinas has been misunderstood and often unjustly condemned by Protestants, especially on the meaning of faith. He disagrees with Calvin’s analysis of the schoolmen’s (particularly Aquinas) view of faith, and claims this was due to some ambiguity in what constitutes the idea of the knowledge of faith. Particularly, he says that Aquinas never taught, as Protestantism has long maintained, that...

Cornelius Hanko is an emeritus minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The following question has been submitted to the question box: “Was Adam in the state of rectitude in need of Christ?” Our first reaction might well be that we answer, “No.” We know that Adam was created good and after the image of God, in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, to know and to serve his God in love with his whole being. He was God’s friend-servant, serving God in the capacity of prophet, priest, and king over the earthly creation. He was filly capable of-fulfilling God’s mandate, “Be...

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. It would be good for us to see ourselves in Jonah’s plight, and to realize that in him we have a picture of ourselves. Indeed, that is why God includes books such as this book of Jonah in Holy Writ. We too are sinners, and we disobey God and trample under foot His commands in so many different ways. We err greatly if we with pride look down on Jonah, as though we would never do a thing like that, or never did anything as bad as what...

The following is the text of an address given by Rev. Ron Cammenga at the special dedication service of the new church building of our congregation in Loveland, Colorado. The building has been in construction for about a year, most of the labor being done on a volunteer basis by the members of the congregation. The new church is 54 x 100 feet, with a full basement, and seats approximately 350 people. The dedication service was held on Friday, July 11, 1986. Tonight we give thanks to God for the spacious and beautiful new church building that is ours for the public...

Richard G. Moore is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. In this day in which we are called to live as the children of God, it is very important that we walk with a spiritual sensitivity towards all things. The apostle Paul expresses this in the verses nine through eleven in the first chapter of Philippians. “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; Being...

Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church, Houston, Texas. Because the Seventh Commandment is a revelation of God’s covenant faithfulness to us, our obedience to this Commandment becomes our living confession of that great faithfulness of God, our Savior. And if we love the faithfulness of God and are comforted by it, then surely we will want to know all that the Seventh Commandment implies in its prohibition against adultery. We must understand, of course, that obedience to the Seventh Commandment involves much more than just avoiding the sin of adultery, more even than avoiding adulterous thoughts...

Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Summer is the time when most of the General Synods and Assemblies of various Reformed and Presbyterian denominations meet. In this issue and the next we shall report on some of the more significant decisions of these gatherings. The Christian Reformed Church in North America: In response to conflict and tension between its Board of Foreign Missions and World Relief Committee over the past several years the CRC instituted a new agency to coordinate the work of these two. Both Foreign Missions and World...

David J. Engelsma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Like its Author, Holy Scripture is one. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” Scripture says of itself in II Timothy 3:16. With reference to the 39 books of the Old Testament, and their countless words, the Bible says of itself that it is a unified whole, a book characterized by oneness. When the Bible views itself, it does not see itself as many, different writings, but as “all Scripture.” Scripture’s oneness is, fundamentally, its full inspiration of God, inspiration that extends to Scripture’s words. Scripture...

From one of our readers, Mr. Harv Nyhof, of Holland, Michigan, we received the following question: “Prof. Hanko writes in his article in the June 1, ’86Standard Bearer that ‘to kill a fetus is to commit murder.’ Further down he states that picketing abortion clinics is contrary to Christian principles. If a Christian observes a murder being committed on a street, Prof. Hanko would agree, I believe, that force would be in order to save a life. Should not picketing of abortion clinics to save lives also be an acceptable response?” Reply The answer to this question lies in the fallacy...