All Articles For Letters

From K. H. of Redlands, Calif., we received the following communication: Dear Rev. Hoeksema: It looks in many ways as if Babylon’s fall is now taking place, as written in Rev. 17, 18. Therefore, I ask the question: what is there against the view that Babylon’s fall is now going on? In favor of this view are several facts. The ten horns shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Babylon’s merchandise is carried over many waters. After Babylon’s fall the merchants are weeping, and all the...

Kalamazoo, Mich. July 30, 1940. “To the Protestant Reformed Church 924 Worden Street Grand Rapids, Michigan. Attention—Rev. D. Jonker. “Esteemed Brethren in the Lord: “The Consistory of the Protesting First Christian Reformed Church of Kalamazoo acknowledges receipt of your communication of May 28 and after carefully reading and considering the contents of same has come to the following conclusion: “a. The Consistory does not accept any of the accusations mentioned in your missive and feels that if any contact is to be made these will have to be retracted. “b. The Consistory has shown its willingness in the past and...

From a certain brother we received the following missive: Dear Brother: I read your article on “Hoopers” and found you in complete accord with other ministers writing on this very interesting topic. All the ministers, you included, show no sympathy for the “looper.” All the ecclesiastics are opposed to him. But does this mean that his doing is groundless? The “looper,” as compared with the minister, is but an ordinary layman, generally a pariah. Now according to the teaching of Paul in I Cor. 3, all the ministers are Christ’s gifts to the laymen. Is this teaching not opposed to...

To the Editor of the Standard Bearer Dear Editor: Please give us space in your paper to place these few lines of protest, for it is for the efforts on our part for the reunion of the congregation of which we are members, with the Protestant Reformed Church Denomination, that we are placed under censure and as members of this independent congregation, and by the action of the consistory of said congregation, we have no other way of voicing our protest and neither do we have any appeal to any Classis or Synod. Thanking you in advance, we remain, B....

Our last Synod decided to address the President of the United States with regard to the matters of the increasing evil of the closed shop and of Sunday labor for national defense. A copy of the letter, the composition of which is to the credit of the Rev. Vos, here follows: Grand Rapids, Michigan May 23, 1941. The President of the United States, Washington, D.C. Sir: The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches, in session May 21-23, come to you with the following address and petition: First, we would respectfully acquaint you with the twofold occasion for this address. They...

I submit this letter reflecting on the discussions taking place in the “Letters to the Editor” section of the SB. I do not take writing this lightly, but do so out of love for Christ and His church. My intention is not to hold myself above anyone else. These words that I write are to be applied to me and my shortcomings in this life, as much as or more than anyone. I fear that we are being influenced greatly by the world’s ways of discussing an issue. Respect is not be­ing shown to those with whom there is a...

A brother sen[t] the following questions for me to answer. Rev. G. M. Ophoff, Dear Brother: I read with considerable interest your article, in the February 15 issue of the Standard Bearer, entitled, “The Author of the Book of Ecclesiastes.” In general, I agree with your conclusions, especially in regard to the Solomonic authorship of the book. I believe that the article is very instructive and therefore serves toward a better understanding of the book of Ecclesiastes. There are, however, a few questions that I would like to have answered. They are as follows: In the first place, how must...

The Rev. A. H. Bratt, Manhattan, Montana. Esteemed Brother: For the cause of God and truth I hereby come to you with the following simple yet important question; How dare you, in the light of the fact that you so frequently emphasize the absolute sovereignty of God Whose purposes never fail, subscribe to the following statement of the Professor Berkhof in his pamphlet on the ‘Three Points,’ as you did before me and your consistory. “[DUTCH REMOVED]” pp. 27, 28. If this is not a denial of God’s Sovereignty then I can not understand plain Holland language, and yet you...

From Sioux Center’s Men’s Society I received the following question: “In Romans 8:19-22 we read that the creature hopes for the coming glory of the sons of God. How does the creature know about this coming glory?” With thanks, H. Brands. Reply From the question I gather that the Men’s Society of Sioux Center had no difficulty in determining what is meant by “the creature” in the passage referred to. They evidently came to the conclusion that by “the creature” is meant the whole creation outside of all rational creatures, angels and men. Just the irrational, brute creature is meant....

Having waited in vain for response to one of the editors’ calling Herman Hoeksema’s denial that faith is a work “nonsense,” with an exclamation point (see the Standard Bearer, vol. 95, no. 12, p. 279), I am compelled to write in protest. (I confess that I hesitate still, even though my name has been raised, because the entire, ongoing debate over good works is a “red herring” among us. The debate over works in the Christian life was occasioned by a sermon on John 14:6 that was not in error on the matter of antinomism, indeed had nothing whatever to...