All Articles For In His Fear

The Sunday School teacher must study the passage upon which his lesson is based. That is the first step in the preparation of his lesson. He must do so not only in order to present the story in its correct light but also in order that he may have an interesting explanation of the lesson for his pupils. He is not there to entertain his pupils, but because he is dealing with children whose attention is easily distracted, he must seek always to hold their attention by presenting the truth in as interesting a way as he possibly can. Plan...

A statement is made in the word of God of those in the city of Berea where Paul preached on his second missionary journey which ought also to be said of us. It is stated that they searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul claimed the Old Testament Scriptures declared of Christ was really recorded there. When we say that this ought also to be said of us, we do not mean that we must critically listen to the Word of God upon the Sabbath and then daily search to see whether we have not been deceived or...

Our societies, organized for the study of God’s Word, afford us a wonderful opportunity for searching the Scriptures. This fact we began to discuss with you in our last installment of this department. In continuation of that thought we would like to point out to you now why our societies are such a wonderful and valuable means to this end. You have first of all this fact to consider, that in connection with our society discussions we are called upon to do personal investigation of the Word of God, searching these Scriptures in order to be prepared for the discussion...

In our societies, organized for the purpose of studying the Word of God, the after-recess program is very often quite a problem. We are all agreed without a doubt that the after-recess program is not and should not be intended for mere entertainment. The purpose of this program as well as the study of God’s Word in the first part of our meetings should be to build one another in the faith. Our Confessions, which we may find conveniently located in the back part of our Psalters provide us with a wealth of material for after-recess discussions. How many readers...

In His fear. That excludes no part of life. We know that God is ONE and we have ONE Lord, therefore the life of the saint must also be ONE in fearing and serving God, not only here and there, now and then, but everywhere, always. That includes also what we call social life, our life in the married state, labor, industry, business, economics, politics, etc. We intend to apply this idea of the fear of God to this aspect of life, and thus attempt to bring to the surface somewhat the Sociology of Scripture. Social Gospel? Is that what...

The Gospel, we have seen, touches on the whole of our social life, not with the purpose of supplying the world with a social science, but with the purpose of supplying the redeemed with grace to reveal themselves as God’s party in this world. The reason why Scripture touches on social things is not in the social things themselves, but lies in the purpose of sanctification of the redeemed. Hence the Gospel is socially spiritual, and spiritually social. That is, the Gospel is ever spiritual and of spiritual content, also when it speaks of social things. For that very reason...

Reformed Sociology. Sociology is the science which deals with the laws and principles that control our relation to the neighbor. The Bible is no text book on sociology, but Scripture certainly enunciates the laws and principles according to which we must conduct ourselves towards the neighbor, whether in the sphere of marriage, economics, politics or labor and industry. I would first like to emphasize again that Scripture addresses itself, not to a mankind in general, but to the saints, as they are principally redeemed in Christ and now walk in sanctification. Then there are principles which underlie this sanctification-process in...

Scripture’s Sociology Scripture’s primary interest is spiritual. Scripture insists that we shall deal righteously with our fellowman, treat him with respect and in the fear of God. In short, we shall love our neighbor. I believe it may truly be said that Scripture is not much interested in how well you fare economically or financially. With us this is often the primary thing, and no wonder, because we are of the earth, earthy and carnal. In I Cor. 7:20-22 we find Paul saying: “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called. Art thou called, being a...

Reformed Sociology Applied I do not believe that the social evils of this world can be cured. Instead I believe that Scripture teaches us that the world socially and in every way involves itself ever more deeply in the curse of the righteous God. While we contemplate our social calling in this world we must not overlook what God’s Word teaches us, especially in the Book of Ecclesiastes, more particularly about the crooked which cannot be made straight. If we look back over history we get a picture as follows: A series of evils arise; there comes a clash, a...

That the readers of these lines are children of God, we firmly believe. The unbeliever finds no delight in the things spiritual and looks elsewhere for his reading material. As children of God the readers of these lines then also confesses that they fear the Lord. Yet we live in a world of superficiality and of great temptation and in a time when the material things are increasingly crowding out our spiritual activities. We so easily assume the habits of the world and practice their evil works. We so easily let the world set our styles and determine our behavior...