All Articles For Taking Heed to the Doctrine

Previous article in this series: October 1, 2012, p. 8.   Christianity is a revealed religion. Christians are “people of the Book.” The believer, accord­ing to the Heidelberg Catechism, the 21st A, “hold[s] for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word.” The child of God does not question, much less raise objections to or deny the accuracy of the Bible. Rather, he holds for truth—objective truth—all that God has revealed in His Word. He holds for truth all that God has revealed in the Bible. He does not distinguish in the Bible between that which is...

Previous article in this series: August 2012, p. 451.   Deus dixit! God has spoken! This is the pos­sibility of the knowledge of God. We know God only through His revelation to us. Apart from revelation there is no possibility of the knowledge of God. Apart from revelation God remains essentially unknowable. This is the necessity, the absolute necessity, of revelation. This we saw last time. We also saw that God reveals Himself, desires to reveal Himself, and delights in making Himself known because He is the covenant God. Why has God spoken? Why has God chosen to reveal Himself,...

Previous article in this series: June 2012, p. 398. Since these articles have appeared over a number of months, I will summarize what has been said thus far. Those who teach the relatively new “Reformational” theology¹ speak of a “Word of God” not found in the Scriptures. Denying that Scripture fully reveals to us the will of God, they say we must turn to the creation to discover many of the details concerning what God’s will is. Yet when they speak of the “creation” they are refer­ring to more than the animals, plants, and inanimate matter. Man is included in...

Deus dixit! The words are Latin. For centu­ries, Latin was the language of theology. The English translation is: God has spoken! That God has spoken means that God has revealed Himself. By speaking, God has made Himself known. Words, whether spoken or written, reveal. Words are the means by which we communicate our thoughts, purposes, feel­ings, desires—our inner self. So it is with God. God has revealed Himself! This is the possibility of the knowledge of God. That a man knows God and, knowing God, knows also himself and all other things is due to the fact that God has...

Yet another crucial element of the message of evangelism is repentance: heartfelt, godly sorrow over one’s sins. In Luke 24:47, Jesus charges that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached.” In obedience to the Lord’s mandate to him, Paul showed all men “that they should repent.” Then he called them to “do works meet for repentance” (Acts 26:20).

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:39 The recent studies which Prof. Engelsma has been providing us in the Standard Bearer on the subject of the Covenant of Grace are to be appreciated. It has been a needed study, and helpful to many. To it I have little to add. Nevertheless, in working with some problems regarding the covenant, especially earlier this year in Australia, I...

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: . . . thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all . . . . Thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.  I Chronicles 29:11, 12 In this prayer of humble thanksgiving to Jehovah for the willing and generous offerings which the children...

We concluded our last article by calling attention to the Scriptural truth that God is free. We noted that Pelagianism would maintain a freedom for the sinner in the sense that he is free, able to choose both the good and the evil. Otherwise, so he claims, we lose man’s responsibility. The Arminian, we understand, is guilty of the same heresy. Man, he asserts, must be free to accept the general, well-meaning offer of the gospel. To him, the preaching is such a general, well-meaning offer of a salvation which the Lord would bestow upon all that hear it.

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  Galatians 1:8 Besides strict logic (that which sees all truth as being harmoniously united together without contradiction), there is another logic in common use, that of rhetoric and eloquence, which is not nearly so demanding. This is a logic designed, not to determine truth, but to influence and persuade people. In our day we are surrounded by this kind of logic on...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. Having considered Christ’s names and work, we are left to consider His exaltation. He who perfectly satisfied God’s justice was then exalted to the highest place of glory. The exaltation of Christ is revealed to us as having taken place in steps. The first step was His resurrection from the dead; the second, His ascension into heaven; the third, His sitting at God’s right hand; and that which is yet to be seen, His final coming again in judgment, when He will also take His people to Himself...