All Articles For Convocation Address

(This special submission is the text of the sermon preached by Prof. Cammenga on the occasion of the installation of Rev. Brian Huizinga as professor of theology in the PR Theological Seminary on September 4, 2019.) “… whose I am, and whom I serve.” Acts 27:23b Introduction Whose are you? And whom do you serve? Those are the two most important questions in the entire world. They are the two most important questions that every child of God must face. They are the two most important questions that every minister of the gospel must face. And they are the two...

Convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary were held on September 5, 2012 at Southwest Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville. The text of Prof. Cammenga’s address on that occasion continues here. Second installment of the address can be found in the March 15, 2013 issue, p. 276. Promotion of the “Good Christian Schools” Practically Besides grounding seminary students in the basis for the “good Christian schools,” the seminary also commends to the students all of the ways in which of­ficebearers, and especially ministers, ought to promote these schools practically. Practical promotion of the good Christian schools includes the wise promotion of...

Convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Theo­logical Seminary were held on September 5, 2012 at South­west Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville. The text of Prof. Cammenga’s address on that occasion continues here. First installment of the address can be found in the February 1, 2013 issue, p. 203. The “Good Christian Schools” Church Order, Article 21 calls Protestant Reformed officebearers, and by implication the Protestant Re­formed Seminary, to promote “good Christian schools in which the parents have their children instructed according to the demands of the covenant.” Thus far we have noticed that the calling is to promote good Christian...

Convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary were held on September 5, 2012 at Southwest Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville. The text of Prof. Cammenga’s address on that occasion begins here.   Reformed churches have always shown a keen interest in the cause of Christian education. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the Reformation itself was concerned for the education of the children of believers. The Reformers had harsh things to say about education in the existing schools, which education was largely under the control of the corrupt Roman Catholic Church and was shot through with the humanism...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48 Esteemed colleagues, students, members of the School Committee, and fellow saints: As I was pondering these words of our Lord in preparation for convocation, what Jesus says here began to frighten me. After all, we have received of the Lord so very much; and Jesus emphasizes that for that very reason much is also required. That is...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Our churches and our seminary represent and stand in a glorious tradition. That tradition is called the Reformed faith. It consists of the truth of Holy Scripture as expressed in the great creeds of the church; as restored over against the errors of Rome through the 16th century Reformation, especially under the leadership of God’s servants, Martin Luther and, more especially, John Calvin; and as expressed in the Three Forms of Unity, our Reformed Confessions. That truth is taught in the Protestant Reformed Churches along the distinctive lines...

Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. A convocation is an assembly called together by official summons to perform a specific task. The assembly in this instance is the professors and students of our seminary. God, we believe, has summoned us through our churches. God has called us together to perform a specific task. The professors have a divinely ordained task to perform and so do the students God in His mercy has given to our seminary and churches. The text upon which we base our address this evening speaks of...

Mr. Chairman, Faculty Colleagues, Students, Members of the Theological School Committee, Friends gathered with us:  I wish to call your attention this evening to an instructive example from yesteryear. There are many such examples in Scripture, and they are written for our instruction and warning. The basis of such examples lies in the principle stated in the little Dutch verse, “In’t verleden ligt het heden,  In het nu wat worden zal.”  Roughly translated, that is:  In the past lies the present, 

Text: “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” (The following is the substance of the speech delivered at the 1978 convocation exercises of the seminary held in Hope Protestant Reformed Church.) 

As I view the ecclesiastical scene, especially the Reformed scene, I am impressed with two facts. The first is the fact that the truth is being sold on every side; one is not even shocked by it anymore. Consider how the truth is being sold. The truths of creation and the fall of man into sin as recorded in the first few chapters of Genesis are denied. These chapters, we are told, contain not a literal account but are teaching models. The truth of definite (limited) atonement is denied in favor of universalism.