All Articles For Book Reviews

Summoning Up Remembrance, by Henry Stob. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995. 354 pp. $15 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] There are several reasons why readers of this magazine will want to read Henry Stob’s autobiography. It traces the development of an influential college and seminary professor in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). It offers a fascinating, insider’s view of persons, events, and struggles in the CRC from some time after 1908, when Stob was born, to 1952, when the book ends. It is an interesting account of Dutch Reformed life in society and church. There are references to people and...

Submitting to One Another out of Reverence for Christ: Eight Sermons on Marriage and the Family, by P. G. Feenstra. Privately published, 1995. 7Opp. $10 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] This booklet consists of eight sermons on marriage and family including such topics as “An Appeal to Married Women to Know their God-given Position”; “An Appeal to Married Christian Men to Submit to their Wives by Loving Them”; and “Christ Teaches Why Divorce Makes One Sin against the Seventh Commandment.” 

Leadership Handbook of Practical Theology: Outreach and Care, James D. Berkley. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company, 1994. pp. xvii-480. $19.99 (cloth). [Reviewed by Prof. R. D. Decker.] This book is a “handbook,” i.e., it is intended to provide the pastors and elders of the church a quick, brief reference to a wide variety of practical concerns in the church. This volume has seven main sections dealing in order with the following areas: Evangelism, Missions, Social Involvement, Pastoral Care, Pastoral Counseling, Christian Education, and Chaplaincies. Part V, which deals with mental illness, is particularly helpful. The volume is enhanced by...

When the Foundation Crumbles: Why did I Leave the Christian Reformed Church?, by Edward Heerema. Privately published, 1994. 30pp. $3.00 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] As the sub-title of this 30-page booklet indicates, the crumbling foundation is that of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). Retired CRC minister Edward Heerema, who has recently left the CRC, charges that the CR decision opening the offices in the church to women shows that “the Bible has become irrelevant” in the CRC. He points to the “crumbling” of the authority of Scripture in other, recent decisions of the CRC as well. Especially interesting is...

Secession, Doleantie, and Union: 1834-1892, by Hendrik Bouma. Tr. Theodore Plantinga. Appendixes by Theodore Plantinga and Peter Y. De Jong. Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada/Pella, Iowa, U.S.A.: Inheritance Publications, 1995. 302pp. $13.90 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] The availability in English of a reliable account of the union efforts of the Afscheiding (“secession”) and Doleantie (“grieving”) churches from 1886-1892 is noteworthy. This history of the contact and negotiations between the two Reformed bodies in the Netherlands that culminated in the united synod in Amsterdam on June 17, 1892 is informative, instructive, and moving. Yes, moving. For Christian Reformed, Protestant Reformed, Canadian Reformed,...

Believers and Their Seed: Children in the Covenant, by Herman Hoeksema. Grand Rapids: Reformed Free Publishing Association, revised edition, 1997. 166 pages. $17.95 (hard cover). [Reviewed by Rev. D.H. Kuiper.] There are really only two views of the covenant of grace. One view holds that the covenant of God is unilateral. The other view is that it is bilateral. That the covenant is unilateral or one-sided means that God is sovereign in every aspect of the covenant: He conceived of it, established it, maintains it, and perfects it. There are not two parties in the covenant, but one, and that...

A Woman Rides the Beast: The Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days, by Dave Hunt. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1994. 544 pp. [Reviewed by the editor.] In his outstanding commentary on the book of Revelation, Behold, He Cometh!, Herman Hoeksema explained the Antichrist of Revelation 13 as a future political world-power (the beast from the sea) that will be supported by the false church (the beast from the earth). This is also, according to Hoeksema, the explanation of the great whore sitting on the beast in Revelation 17: Surely this woman is the church as she appears on...

Sermons on the Deity of Christ, by John Calvin. Tr. Leroy Nixon. Audubon, New Jersey: Old Paths Publications, 1997. 302 pp. $34.95 (cloth). (Reviewed by the editor) To what is fast becoming a very valuable and attractive set of otherwise out-of-print sermons by John Calvin, Old Paths Publications has now added this volume of 20 sermons by the Reformer on the birth, suffering, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Spirit, and return of Jesus Christ. The other volumes are Calvin’s sermons on Galatians; Psalm 119; and the predestination of Jacob and Esau according to Genesis. Whereas the earlier volumes made available...

God Meant It for Good: The Covenant & the Church Today, by Ted Hoogsteen. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Welch Publishing Company Inc., 1989. 99 pages. (Paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] The title is taken from Joseph’s words to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 concerning their wickedness in selling him into Egypt, “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” The book explains Genesis 37-50 rightly as covenant history, not merely the history of the vicissitudes and eventual success of Joseph.

The Art of Biblical History, by V. Philips Long. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994. 247 pp. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.] This volume is Volume 5 in a series of seven books on biblical hermeneutics with the general title, “Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation,” some of which we have previously reviewed. The series is edited by Moisés Silva, professor of New Testament in Westminster East. The author of this volume is associate professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary.