All Articles For Editor's Notes

Apology. Dykstra and Kuiper are both good Dutch names. In fact, my own middle name is the Anglicized form of Kuiper: Cooper. But one should not call a Kuiper Dykstra, nor should he call a Dykstra Kuiper. Yet the former is what I did in my article about Seminary Convocation (Oct. 15 issue). We have no pre-sem student by the name of Doug Dykstra; his name is Doug Kuiper. The explanation? Due to some inexplicable mental quirk I think of him as Doug Dykstra. Sorry, Doug! Eleven Point. I hope our readers—especially those with older eyes—will enjoy this issue more...

New RFPA Catalogue. Within the past month a new catalogue of all our RFPA publications, plus most other Protestant Reformed publications, has become available. A supply of these catalogues should soon be available in many of the churches. But if you want one immediately, write to RFPA Publications, P.O. Box 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501

Elsewhere in this issue the annual reports of the Board of our Reformed Free Publishing Association appear. Your editor delivered a brief speech at the rather poorly attended annual meeting, and was asked to place this speech in the Standard Bearer. This will appear in a later issue, D.V.

A Word of Farewell and Hearty Thanks to our faithful News Editor, Mr. J.M. Faber. Brother Faber has faithfully taken care of our Church News department for a little more than twelve years. At our annual staff meeting last June, he tendered his resignation, to take 1 effect at the end of the volume-year, but he agreed to stay on as head of this department until we could find a suitable replacement. We have now obtained that replacement, and therefore Mr. Faber’s contribution to the Church News department in this issue is his last.

Once in a while when we try to plan a given issue, it turns out to be impossible to avoid breaking up an article and continuing it in the next issue. This happened in our December 1 issue, and the victim of the surgery was Rev. Kortering’s department. You will find the conclusion of his article on “The Error of Situations Ethics” in this issue.

The Staff of the Standard Bearer is pleased to introduce in this first issue of Volume 40 a new department, on missions. During the coming year it will appear seven times, according to the decision of the Staff, and will be headed, “The Lord Gave The Word . . . ” Ps. 68:11. The Reverend C. Hanko has kindly consented to write for this department, and we welcome him back among our Staff.

We draw the reader’s attention to the insert in the last issue of our Standard Bearer giving you the opportunity to get gift subscriptions for Christmas gifts. For most of our readers it is probably not too late yet to take advantage of this opportunity if you send in your subscriptions promptly. I am sure our capable business manager will take care of such subscriptions promptly. And by this means you both solve your own “shopping problem,” and you further the cause of ourStandard Bearer. 

With this issue we begin a new volume, the forty-fourth! It is our purpose again to present in the pages of theStandard Bearer a well-balanced diet of pertinent comment about today’s ecclesiastical scene, particularly in the Reformed community, and of solid Scriptural and Reformed instruction. The new volume will bring no major changes in the format and content of our magazine; but a few minor ones may be noted. For one thing, you may expect to see in the future reports from our Mission Board and from our Theological School Committee concerning their activities.

With the October 1, 2007 issue, the annual subscription rate of the Standard Bearer will increase to $21 (domestic) and $25 (foreign). This is the first increase since 1995. The Board of the Reformed Free Publishing Association recently made this decision because on July 15, 2007 the mailing rate increased by 23% for domestic and almost 300% for foreign! The new subscription rate is still reasonable for twenty-one issues of the Standard Bearer. We can offer the magazine at this low rate because of the generous support by Protestant Reformed churches through regular collections, and by individuals both within and outside the PRC....

With this issue, the Standard Bearer begins running the translation of a seventy-two page pamphlet written in the Dutch by the Reverends Henry Danhof and Herman Hoeksema. The title in Dutch isNiet Doopersch Maar Gereformeerd. It bears no date, but it was almost certainly printed in 1923. The Reverends Danhof and Hoeksema were at that time respected ministers in the Christian Reformed Church. The title indicates the authors’ conviction that the rejection of common grace is Reformed. Ministers within their denomination had charged them with being Anabaptist. In particular, the well-known Rev. Jan Karl Van Baalen had written a pamphlet in 1922...