All Articles For Contending for the Faith

Although the Reformation was a movement which delivered the Church of God from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, championed the truth of the Word of God that justification is only by faith and wholly without works, and returned the Word of God to the people of God, wresting it from the Romish Church, this does not mean that the I reformers were in complete agreement on all matters of doctrine and of the truths of the Word of God. As we noticed at the conclusion of our preceding article, Luther did not break completely with Rome on the...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. rayer occupies a large place, not only in private and family life, but also in church life. Especially is that true in the worship services. But prayer also has an important place in Bible studies, lectures, and other meetings. In all these instances, the people of God are privileged to draw near to and speak with their almighty and loving heavenly Father. In addition to this, however, provision is also made in the life of the church to have special days of prayer. This is mentioned in Article...

We have already called attention to a three-fold distinction between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant conception of the sacrament of baptism. First, Rome maintains that the water in baptism is essential unto salvation, speaks of that water as the water of regeneration in that literal-natural sense of the word; the Protestant view emphasizes the symbolic significance of the sacrament and refuses to ascribe any magical power to the water of the sacrament itself. Secondly, Rome rejects the baptism as administered by John the Baptist as having the same force as the baptism instituted by Christ; the Protestant view maintains...

THE CANON OF SACRED SCRIPTURE  We concluded our last article on the canon of the sacred Scriptures with a quotation from Josephus, a noted Jewish historian. He writes that there are only twenty-two books (the Old Testament) which have been justly believed to be divine, and that the Jews have been led instinctively from the moment of their birth to regard them as decrees of God, and to abide by them, and, if need be, gladly to die for them. 

The Church of God, we noted in our preceding article, is the gathering of believers, and as rooted in Divine unchangeable election. This is the Protestant view of the Church, which we are now discussing in these articles, and as in distinction from the Roman Catholic view. And that Church of God is also most emphatically an object of faith. Because of its catholicity, its oneness, its holiness, and the fact that it is destined for everlasting and heavenly glory and immortality it cannot be discerned with the natural eye. We can only believe an holy catholic church. There are several aspects...

We concluded our preceding article on the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures with the observation that no man has the right to assume any other attitude toward the divine Scriptures than that of humble submission. God Himself wrote His own Word, and man should assume an attitude of neutrality over against it?! 

The Roman Catholic Church sets forth its conception of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, very briefly, in its Profession of the Tridentine (of or pertaining to the Council of Trent) Faith, A.D. 1564, in paragraphs VI and VII, as follows: “I profess, likewise, that in the mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is...

We concluded our preceding article with the observation that the Reformed view of the church, although agreeing principally with the Lutheran conception of the same, nevertheless does reveal certain peculiarities or differences which are not unimportant. In the first place, the Reformed conception, with respect to the institute of the church, declares that, although the Lord ordinarily bestows the benefits of Christ by means of the Word and of the sacraments, He is nevertheless not bound to them and, be it rarely, also bestows salvation outside of the institute of the church. A second distinctive peculiarity of the Reformed conception...

In our preceding article, we called attention to the Romish view of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper by quoting from the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent, and we quoted Chapters I through VII of these decrees. We now continue with these canons and decrees. CHAPTER VIII. On the Use of this Admirable Sacrament Now as to the use of this holy sacrament, our Fathers have rightly and wisely distinguished three ways of receiving it. For they have taught that some receive it sacramentally only, to wit, sinners: others spiritually only, those to wit who eating in...

Discussing the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, we were calling attention in our last article to this truth as it is maintained in the Word of God. We noted that there are passages in the Bible that directly teach this doctrine of divine inspiration. And we concluded our article by quoting Jeremiah 1:9; Jer. 36:17-18: “Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth.