All Articles For Editorial

A summary  With this article I conclude my treatment of the doctrine  of repentance. I have used the Scriptures to explain and  elaborate upon the decisions of our recent synods. The  synods responded to protests expressing opposition to  the doctrinal teaching that “we repent and in the way of  repentance experience the mercy of God.” What follows  are a handful of positively stated biblical propositions  for a simple summary of the whole series of articles: Repentance is a sorrowful turn from sin unto God  in seeking forgiveness. Repentance is commanded by God; you must repent. Repentance is the God-ordained way...

Remission in the way of repentance As I promised last time, I will now explain what we mean when we relate repentance and remission with the phrase “in the way of.” As the title to the series indicates, this gets to the heart of the issue. First, when we say that we receive the remission (forgiveness, pardon) of our sins in the way of repentance we are not teaching that repentance is a work of man that merits or earns forgiveness with God, or that repentance is the condition for, basis of, ground of, or procuring cause of pardon. In...

Repentance and remission: The issue Having thoroughly explained repentance and God’s sovereign grace in bringing us to repentance, we come to the heart of the issue in the disputed matter that came to the PRC synods. Is there a God-worked activity of the believer that precedes a certain, specific manifestation of God’s mercy? In this case, the God-worked activity of the believer is repentance. The certain, specific manifestation of God’s mercy is remission. Is it permissible to teach that repentance precedes remission? Or, would that necessarily be false doctrine, some kind of conditional theology? The issue is order, mere order....

Let’s go up to 35,000 feet to see the lay of the land. There are really two issues in the dispute over repentance. One: what is repentance? Two: how does it relate to remission? Is it permissible to teach that repentance precedes remission or does that put man before God, so that the pardoning God must wait upon the penitent sinner? The second issue is the main issue of dispute. Protests to synod said: repentance cannot be prior to remission, because repentance is a good work and good works always come after blessings of salvation. Synod rejected the protests because...

Last time, (Dec. 15), I defined repentance as the believer’s sorrowful turn from sin unto God in the seeking of remission. Now I want to go to the Scriptures to elaborate. A right understanding First of all, genuine repentance begins in the renewed mind as the seat of true spiritual knowledge and understanding. This is evident from one of the key biblical words for repentance (metanoia) which, as you might recall, means, “change of mind.” The turning of repentance commences when the spiritually enlightened mind apprehends both the awful reality of sin and the wonder of God’s mercy in Christ....

A definition I am not aware of any carefully and comprehensively constructed exposition of the biblical concept of repentance produced in the history of the PRC. From one point of view, the absence of such a work is not entirely surprising because repentance is one of the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, the renewed instruction in which the writer to the Hebrews deems unnecessary (Heb. 6:1). Yet sometimes we must revisit and sharpen, and perhaps even correct, our understanding of the elementary principles. Surely one of the good and praiseworthy purposes of our faithful God in laying His...

Distinguishing repentance and good works Before I explain the concept of repentance, I want to demonstrate that repentance and good works of obedience should be distinguished as stated in one part of the decision of Synod 2021. I also want to show that this distinction is important in light of the connection that Scripture makes between repentance and remission. In treating a protest against the decisions of Synod 2020, Synod 2021 demonstrated that the protest contained doctrinal misunderstandings, one of which was: 2) __________ fails to distinguish repentance and good works of obedience. a) The Bible distinguishes between repentance and...

The purpose of this editorial and those that follow is to  provide theological instruction on the disputed issue of  the doctrine of repentance as it was treated by Synods  2020 and 2021 of the PRC. The origin of the dispute  was the protest of a minister’s sermon on Proverbs  28:13. Before I lay out the background to the case as it  appeared at consecutive synods, a couple of comments  are in order by way of introduction. Introduction  First, one of the lessons we have learned in recent years  is that it is necessary for the church through her teaching  ministry...

[With this editorial, we bid farewell to Rev. Koole. As he says toward the end of this article: “As I take my leave as an editor of the Standard Bearer, I can state forthrightly it is this truth, ‘The fear of the Lord,’ that has governed this magazine (and those who have written in it) as a motto since its inception.”] We are all familiar with the phrase “the fear of the Lord.” And well we should be. It is a phrase, along with its parallel, “the fear of God,” that runs like a thread through the Scriptures, especially the...

Honor. Respect. Esteem. Three words. Synonyms. In fact, so much so, that to define any one of them is difficult to do so without using the other two. And yet, though they overlap in meaning, each has a different connotation. As my term as an editor draws to a close, we will use these words to reflect on important issues that face us as believers in our present lawless society, and then along with that, what must be true of ourselves as members of the Protestant Reformed Churches looking forward. That is, if we are to remain in unity of...