All Articles For Editorial

It comes as no surprise, of course. A Christian Reformed study committee (this one rising out of a classis) recommends approving same-sex marriage, which proposal its classis adopts with a view to bringing it as an overture to Synod. In light of all the other unbiblical positions the CRC has adopted over the last several decades, it was only a matter of time for one of its broader assemblies to decide that the time had come to revisit this issue too. What has governed the CRC assemblies over the last number of decades has been their extreme sensitivity to social...

(The text, slightly revised, but maintaining as much as possible the spoken form and personal address, of the graduation speech for the Protestant Reformed Theological School. Commencement took place on June 15, 2017, in Hudsonville PRC auditorium, for seven graduates: Matthew DeBoer, Brian Feenstra, Joseph Holstege, Jonathan Langerak, David Noorman, Stephan Regnerus, Justin Smidstra.) Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy...

The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches was not the only synod to meet this past June and make decisions settled and binding for their federation of churches. Others did too. One in particular was the General Synod of the Vrijgemaakt-Gereformeerde Kerken (GKv), known to us as the Liberated Churches of the Netherlands, the mother church and sister denomination of what we commonly refer to as the Canadian Reformed Churches. The GKv synod made a couple of significant decisions this past June, decisions dealing with granting women the right to hold office in Christ’s church. We speak of ‘decisions’ in...

Editor’s note: The decisions of the 2017 Synod have been reported to the Protestant Reformed congregations in daily emailed reports, and are available online at prca.org. Therefore, this editorial makes no attempt to be a comprehensive report. Prayer is a wonder. It is a privilege that God gives to His people whereby they communicate with God. It is an act of worship, clearly. A believer, a sinful, earthly creature, is given access to the courts of heaven. From this earth, he addresses God, the “wholly Other,” the glorious Creator, exalted far above all that He has made. He is the...

Previous article in this series: April 15, 2017, p. 317. Asking the readers’ forbearance, we have decided to devote one more editorial to Kenneth Stewart’s book, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011). We do this first of all because Stewart’s book has received good reviews in various Reformed Journals (a review by Alan Strange in the Mid-America Journal of Theology, vol. 22, 2011, pp. 223-28 is a case in point). This is troubling because, as we stated in our April 15 editorial, what is clear from Stewart’s book is...

The April 15 deadline for submitting material for treatment at synod has passed.1 The material for synod’s work has now been distributed to consistories. With the exception of a few items that may come through supplements, synod’s agenda is fixed. It is a large agenda, larger than average both in bulk and in the number of individual matters synod must deliberate. The subjects range from the mundane (but necessary) to the most profound and weighty. They vary from recommending approval of one minister’s retirement to the examination of seven young men who seek that office. From financial support of needy...

I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Ps. 119:68 Thou, O Jehovah, art my portion! That, evidently, is the dominating thought of this particular section of Psalm the one hundred nineteenth. And that, too, is the basis, the background, of the confession the psalmist makes here, that he is a companion of all Them that fear Jehovah, that keep His precepts. We remember that this psalm is divided into twenty equal sections, according to the number of characters in the Hebrew alphabet, each verse of each section, in the original,...

The strike, as a refusal to work at a job which we still consider ours, and for one whom we still recognize as our employer, is rebellion against proper authority. But it also obstructs, in fact, makes impossible the manifestation of true righteousness and justice, i.e. the justice and righteousness of God. The very opposite is frequently stated as an argument in favor of the strike. The strikers claim to have a just and righteous cause. The laborer is oppressed. His wages are held to a minimum. Working conditions are bad. He is compelled to work long hours. And when...

* Speech delivered by transcription on the Field Day, July 4, ‘44. Twenty years ago today the Christian Reformed Church, convened in synodical gathering in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was travailing in the pangs of birth, about to be delivered of a doctrinal child. She labored hard, and even though some ten days before mother had been taken to the hospital, and a consultation of expert doctors and professors had been held, that had given detailed advice just how this particular case should be treated, when finally mother was brought to the synodical delivery room, it seemed as if there were no...

The, business agent of Local No. 12, the same local that proposed the anti-strike overture to the last annual convention of the C.L.A., having noticed that the Standard Bearer took interest in the matter, was kind enough to send me a complete copy of the above mentioned overture, and we here offer it to our readers: To the Annual Convention of the Christian Labor Association of the United States. An overture. The board of the Christian Building Trades Local No. 12, proposes to this convention that it shall rescind its stand in regard the strike issue. In its official documents...