All Articles For Our Doctrine

This, then, that God, the Creator of the universe, is omnipresent, not only in His power, but also in His essence; that as the transcendent One He is immanent in all things, and that, too, as the living and. ever active God, Who continues to speak the Word that once creatively proceeds out of His mouth, and Who thus upholds all things by the Word of His power, is the basic idea of the providence of God. From moment to moment, therefore, God is the Lord, and remains strictly and absolutely sovereign with relation to the world He created, not...

Thus far we spoke of God’s providential government only with respect to the world as it exists and moves. He controls and directs every movement and all the activity of the creature, anorganic and organic, brute and rational, good and evil. But God’s government of the world also implies that He directs the course of its history and development, from its beginning to its end, and that according to His eternal good pleasure, and unto the end He has in mind and determined upon before the foundation of the world. When a big ocean liner leaves the harbor and plows...

The consummation of all things will certainly usher in the perfect world, the New Jerusalem in the new creation in which righteousness shall dwell, and in which the tabernacle of God shall be with men. But that state of eternal perfection and heavenly glory, it must be remembered, does not lie in direct line of development and progress with this present world. It is the kingdom of heaven. It is the world in which all things shall be forever united in Christ, as the Head of all, the Firstborn of every creature, through whom and unto whom all things were...

Q. 29. Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is a Savior? A. Because he saveth us, and delivereth us from our sins; and likewise, because we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other. Q. 30. Do such then believe in Jesus the only Savior, who seek their salvation and welfare of saints, of themselves, or anywhere else? A. They do not; for though they boast of him in words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus the only deliverer and Savior; for one of these two things must be true, that either Jesus is...

The name Jesus, a Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Joshua or Jehoshua, is explained by the Catechism as briefly meaning Savior: “why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is Savior?” Of old there has been and still is difference of opinion among scholars as to the proper derivation of the name Jehoshua. According to some it is supposed to be a simple verbal noun, and in that case the meaning is salvation. According to others, the name is composed of two parts, Jeho, an abbreviation of Jehovah, and shua, salvation or saves, and according to this derivation...

In the precious chapter we emphasized the truth that Jesus is a perfect and complete Savior, i.e. that He perfectly accomplishes all that belongs to and is implied in the work of salvation from beginning to end. He not only performs that part of the work of salvation that must be accomplished for us, in behalf of us, our redemption; but He also is the Author of the wonder of salvation that must be wrought within us and upon us to lead us out of sin and death and shame to everlasting life and righteousness and glory. Now, this really...

Q. 31. Why is he called Christ, that is anointed? A. Because he is ordained of God the Father, and anointed with the Holy Ghost, to be our chief Prophet and teacher, who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption; and to be our only High Priest, who by the one sacrifice of his body has redeemed us, and makes continual intercession with the Father for us; and also to be our eternal King, who governs us by his word and Spirit, and who defends and preserves us in (the enjoyment of)...

The central idea of an officebearer is that he is God’s friend-servant, authorized to function as God’s representative, as His vice-regent, in the visible world. In this general sense of the word Adam in the state of rectitude was very really an officebearer, for in virtue of the covenant relation in which he was placed by his Creator, he was God’s friend-servant. For, as we have seen before, the covenant of God with Adam in Paradise was not a sort of pact or agree­ment, did not consist in “condition, a promise, and a penalty,” but was a living relationship and...

Chapter 3: Christ our Chief Prophet Thus far we saw that the Lord God had formed the first man Adam in such a way, and placed him in such a relation to Himself, that he could function as God’s officebearer, as His friend servant in the midst of the earthly creation. We called attention, too, to the threefold implication of this office of man: he was prophet to know his God rightly, and to glorify Him in all things and before all creation; he was priest, in order that he might consecrate himself and all things in love to the...

3. Christ Our Chief Prophet (continued) As God’s prophet, Christ is far more excellent than the first man Adam in paradise. For He is the Person of the Son of God, Who is eternally in the bosom of the Father, the eternal Word, the express image of His substance, the effulgence of the Father’s glory, God of God, Who knows the Father with an infinitely perfect knowledge. It is this Person of the Son of God Who from eternity to eternity is essentially and truly God, assumed the flesh and blood of the children, took upon Himself our nature, and...