Earlier in this booklet, “Questions about the Way,” the five Dutch Reformed ministers had demonstrated that the pluralism of the new church is due to its refusal to base itself on Scripture as interpreted by the Reformed confessions.

     By the merger of the two Reformed churches in the PKN, the apostasy of the NHK and the GKN is full and final.  In fact, the two churches have been pluralistic churches for a long time, tolerating and approving teachings and practices opposed to the Reformed faith.  By the merger, the two churches make their apostasy a matter of their own official declaration.  The gravestone, with its fitting epitaph, is placed upon the corpses.  The corpses themselves write the epitaph and put the gravestone in place.

     A church that despises sound doctrine invariably corrupts itself ethically as well.  The new church in the Netherlands, made up in large part of the former NHK and GKN, will have an article in the ordinances, or rules, of its church order authorizing consistories to bless homosexual unions in the congregations.

Article 4 [of the ordinances of the PKN] declares the possibility that the consistory—after deliberation in the congregation—blesses other relationships of life [alternative life styles] than the marriage of two persons as a covenant of love and faithfulness before the face of God (“Questions about the Way,” p. 24).

     The typically clever Dutch theologians speak of “blessing” (Dutch:  “zegenen”) homosexual unions, whereas marriage between a man and a woman is to be “consecrated” (Dutch:  “inzegenen”).

     Behold!  The church of Dordt, churches of the Afscheiding, and the churches of the Doleantie:  a false church!  adulterous paramour of the man of sin!

     Perhaps we are too far removed by history and geography to weep.  But who does not grieve?

     Nevertheless, God preserves a remnant.  The five ministers in the NHK who wrote the booklet, “Questions about the Way,” will not go along with the merger.  As a matter of conscience, for the honor of God, they will maintain churches that are “exclusively Reformed” in confession and walk.  They promise to be faithful to the Word of God as set forth in the Reformed confessions regardless of the cost.  They recognize that the cost will be high.  Presumably, their congregations will stand with them.  The five ministers call on others in the NHK to reject the merger.

     Evidently, the faithful are few.  Only five ministers in the huge NHK sign their names to the booklet exposing and condemning the apostasy of the merger.  I have it on good authority that many of the ministers in the conservative grouping in the NHK, the Gereformeerde Bond (Reformed Alliance), are now willing to go along with the merger and become members of the PKN.

     Are there none in the GKN who take a stand for the Reformed faith and speak out at this critical moment?

     That the faithful in the NHK and perhaps in the GKN are few comes as no surprise.  Always the people of God are a remnant ( Isaiah 1:8, 9 ; Romans 11:5 ).   With reference to these last days, of which apostasy must be a prominent feature according to II Thessalonians 2:3 , our Lord asked whether He will find faith on the earth when He returns ( Luke 18:8 ).   Besides, the spiritual condition of both churches has been so corrupt both as regards doctrine and life for so long that it is a wonder anyone remains who fears God.

     Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in the Netherlands, whom God has wonderfully preserved, that God will strengthen them to their difficult, costly calling on behalf of the dear Reformed church and truth in the Netherlands.  They are called to form the church anew on the basis of the Reformed confessions and church order.

     It will be an important part of their calling that they repent of their sins and the sins of their fathers.  For many years, the godly in the NHK have in fact lived just as the PKN officially prescribes.  They have tolerated lies and immorality.  The leaders in the movement to merge the churches in the PKN throw this in their face.  “Why now,” they ask the five ministers, “do you object to a church that is pluralistic when for years you have willingly lived in the pluralistic NHK?” 

     Besides, the NHK persecuted the saints of the Afscheiding of 1834 and of the Doleantie of 1886 because of their confession of and discipleship after Jesus Christ.  All the members of the NHK are corporately responsible for this persecution of God’s people.

     But God is gracious.  He will forgive these heinous sins, if those who now want to be faithful to God repent of them.

     The deep darkness now falling upon the Reformed churches in the Netherlands is not restricted to the NHK and the GKN.  The Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken (Christian Reformed Churches [in the Netherlands]) harbor in their bosom the very same unbelieving criticism of Holy Scripture that destroyed both the NHK and the GKN.  This criticism of Scripture is public.

     By its doctrine of a conditional covenant with all the children of godly parents, which involves a justification of all the infants, the Gereformeerde kerken in Nederland (“vrijgemaakt”) (Reformed Churches in the Netherlands [“liberated”]) fatally compromise the Reformed doctrines of election and the perseverance of saints.  Recent synods of the “liberated” churches have cut the churches’ Sunday loose from the fourth commandment, thus effectively destroying Sabbath observance; revised the marriage form to remove mention of the husband’s headship and the wife’s duty to submit to the authority of the husband; relaxed the stand on marriage and divorce, to allow those divorced on unbiblical grounds and even guilty parties who remarry to be members of the churches; and flooded the songbooks used in public worship with “evangelical,” that is, unreformed, hymns.

     The winds of false doctrine are blowing powerfully in the Reformed churches in the Netherlands, as throughout Europe.  The spirit of the age—the spirit of the ungodly world, which is antichrist—proves well-nigh irresistible.

     We do not imagine for a moment that the PRC are immune.

     In the apostasy of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands is a loud, necessary warning to us—to every minister, every elder, and every member who loves God and His truth:  “Hold the traditions which ye have been taught” ( II Thess. 2:15 ).

     Hold the traditions in light of a work that God is doing in the churches in these last days:  sending many a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, so that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ( II Thess. 2:11, 12 ).

     This is what is appalling about the apostasy in the Netherlands.

Letters:

Hard Stands

      Thank you for your useful work
     Common Grace Revisited, originally a series of editorials in the Standard Bearer (March 15, 2002 – December 1, 2002).  I am a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and have struggled with the doctrine of common grace ever since I read A.W. Pink’s book The Attributes of God.  I am especially grateful for your work in light of the desire of many within the church to blur the line between the church and the world.  I am especially impressed with (or depressed by) the quotations of Mouw and Smedes at the end, which show where amazingly undiscerning thought on the part of theologians will take us.  I hope that your work moves the church to recover the truth of grace as the unmerited favor of God toward His elect.

     Also, the editorial in the sample issue of the Standard Bearer brought forth some points which were refreshing to hear.  I have sometimes felt that the confessional stand of the Protestant Reformed Churches was perhaps overly rigid.  I wondered if the preaching would end up as an exegesis of the catechism rather than the Word of God.  I was therefore really pleased to read of Rev. Hoeksema’s insistence upon the freedom of the preacher and your candid assessment of the sometimes stiffnecked response on the part of the congregants.

     I also appreciate the role of the Standard Bearer in keeping the ecclesiastical windows open to admit the breeze of the Holy Spirit.

     I heartily appreciate, however, the insistence of your editorial that with that liberty we strive to build on the work of those who went before.  New and fresh must simply be our view or development of the same well proven old truth.

     Thank you for your willingness to take hard stands.

William J. Gilbert

Pasa Robles, CA

Emphasis on Responsibility

      I have read Rev. Kortering’s article on “Mission Preaching in the Established Church” (Standard Bearer, June 2003).

     On page 395, he says, “… whom God wills to save will hear what is necessary to respond properly and be saved.”  Could you explain in detail what you mean by this statement?  Is the proper response of the unconverted a prerequisite to his salvation?

     Secondly, what do you mean to express by, “So also those who are not willing to embrace the true faith because they do not want the responsibility that it requires will know that they are not right with God”? (p. 396).  How does a person’s willingness or unwillingness to accept the responsibility of the true faith impact his or her salvation?  In fact, what do you mean by the word “responsibility”?

     In these articles, heavy emphasis is laid upon the responsibility of both the Christian and non-Christian alike to repent and believe.  Are we to make any distinction between the two?  If we are, what is the difference?

Herman D. Boonstra

Hull, IA

 RESPONSE:

     I want to express my appreciation to Mr. Boonstra for his interest in the Standard Bearer and more particularly in the subject of the preaching of the gospel and a proper response to it.

     He makes reference to two quotations within the body of my Standard Bearer article.

     The first quotation is taken from the early part of the article.  Let me quote the entire sentence.  “When this is done regularly (when the local church includes a call to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in its preaching, jk), as it ought, then any non-Christian, unconverted person whom God may place under such preaching and wills to save, will hear what is necessary to respond properly and be saved.”

     The first request is to explain in detail what I meant by this statement.

     God saves non-Christians through the preaching of the gospel.  He does this by the message brought forth, which includes the call to repent and believe.  This is done both in the mission field and in the home church.  For this reason, if God is pleased to bring into our worship service here in America a non-Christian, and the pastor sounds forth the call that sinners must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, this non-Christian will hear in the gospel that which is necessary for him to become a Christian.  One becomes a Christian by repentance of sin and faith in God and in His Son, Jesus.  The preaching forms the bridge between God and man to accomplish this great wonder.

     The outcome of this encounter is God’s work.  That is why we mentioned, “whom God may place under such preaching and wills to save.”  It is truly amazing how God brings His elect in contact with the preaching and works His work of salvation through such preaching.  God is sovereign in all of this.  This is evident in the vision of the Macedonian man to Paul ( Acts 16:9ff .).   God wanted Paul to go to Macedonia because there, waiting for him, was the Philippian jailor.  That is not all; God also works His will through the preaching so that it accomplishes His purpose.  The great truth of sovereign grace establishes the blessedness of the outcome.  God draws men unto Himself to hear the preaching, but God also works salvation in such a person whom He wills to save.  For this reason, the answer to your second question is no, the response of the unconverted is not a prerequisite for his salvation.  That would make faith conditional upon the will of man.  Rather, the act of repenting from sin and believing is the God-established way in which a man is saved.  Repentance and faith are the means whereby the sinner appropriates Christ unto himself and by which he enjoys the blessings of salvation.  That, according to Ephesians 2:1-10 , is God’s great gift.

     This leads to the second quotation, taken from the article a bit later.  “The point is that if there is a person sitting in church who is not right with God because he is walking in sin and making excuses for it, he will not feel comfortable while sitting under the preaching of the gospel.  So also those who are not willing to embrace the true faith because they do not want the responsibility that it requires will know that they are not right with God.  The preaching will expose to themselves their sinful response.”  You ask for an explanation.

     Here we are dealing with the person who is sitting under the preaching of the gospel.  There are only two ways in which one can sit under the word preached.  It is either faith or unbelief.  True, there are many who may struggle for some time to come to terms with the message of the gospel and in the process be confused or seeking, yet before God it comes down to faith or unbelief.  This is true because the power of the gospel is twofold, a savor of life unto life or of death unto death ( II Cor. 1:14-17 ).   For those who persist in their unbelief, the preaching of the gospel does not allow them to remain in some indifferent or ignorant state.  The truth set forth in the preaching is not declared as if man may do with it whatever he pleases.  Rather, it comes in such a way that man has a duty to repent and believe.  There is only one correct way to respond to the gospel and that is God’s way.  Because of this, the message of the gospel includes not only a call to repent and believe, but also warnings of judgment for those who persist in unbelief.  Hence, a person who is not right with God, who does not sincerely repent from his sins and embrace Jesus as the only way of forgiveness and peace with God, must go home a condemned man.  He has scorned and mocked the sacred call of God unto salvation.

     One reason why some reject the gospel is that they are “not willing to embrace the true faith because they do not want the responsibility that it requires.”  I use the word “responsibility” in the sense of “duty.”  Among the greatest hindrances of people becoming Christians is the change God commands of converts.  Holy living is not a luxury that perhaps some Christians enjoy.  It is implicit in faith itself.  Faith without works is dead ( James 2:26 ).   A working faith is the believer’s duty, which he owes to his heavenly Father out of love and thankfulness for his salvation.  Many there are who might be interested in Christianity and the Reformed faith if they could only get away from God’s holy ways.

     This answers your question, “How does a person’s willingness or unwillingness to accept the responsibility of the true faith impact his or her salvation?”  Unwillingness leaves one in the state of guilt and condemned before God; willingness opens the doors of heaven for forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God.

     Finally, you have concern with the emphasis upon responsibility.  I can best summarize it this way, God’s sovereignty does not negate man’s responsibility (here it is used in the sense of accountability).  If we use the word responsibility as man’s ability to respond to the gospel, then of course the natural man has no ability to respond, it must be given him from above.  Jesus eloquently said, “No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” ( John 6:65 ).   This is the rock of truth that makes all salvation possible.  If it was up to man to fulfill some condition, no one would be saved.  The marvelous thing about the gospel encounter is that here God in His sovereign way deals with man who is accountable before Him.  Jesus made that plain in His thunderous words of condemnation to the Jews, “It shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you” ( Matt. 11:24 ).   The reason is obvious:  the men of Capernaum heard Jesus preach.  They are accountable for this.  Those who reject the gospel will suffer more in hell than Sodom, which was burnt with fire and brimstone in this life.  If you ask, how can God hold man accountable for that which he cannot perform, Paul answered that in Romans 9:19ff .

     From a more positive point of view, the narrative of Paul’s encounter with the Philippian jailor is noteworthy.  God spoke through earthquake and judgment.  The jailor was desperate, and upon hearing from Paul that the prisoners were all there, he fell on his knees and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ( Acts 16:30 ).   Paul did not say to him, wait a minute, you have your theology wrong.  You should not ask, what must I do.  You can’t do anything.  No, that question was stirred in his heart by the Holy Spirit to prepare him for the good news of salvation.  Thus Paul brought to him the call of the gospel, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  This is how God works salvation in the hearts of men.  He calls them to do what they cannot do in themselves.  The necessary grace He supplies in order that, in the end, all glory is unto God, the great God of our salvation.

— Rev. J. Kortering 

On Target

      I complement you on the special, Reformation Day issue of the Standard Bearer (Oct. 15, 2003).  I found the articles on Calvin very edifying.  I hope that there will be more on Calvin’s life and work in future issues.

     I found especially the article on predestination by Rev. Charles Terpstra to be on target.  Much has been made of the fact that predestination in Calvin’s theology is placed in the category of ecclesiology by those who wish a “kinder and gentler” view of that doctrine and the allied doctrines of election and reprobation.  Actually, they wish to obscure the Reformer’s, and the Bible’s, teaching of these truths and have a faith that is neither outright Arminian, and thus Pelagian, nor outright Calvinism, an impossible quest.  Terpstra tackles this right on, clearly affirming that Calvin’s placing predestination within the locus of ecclesiology makes no difference from placing it within theology proper.  I myself, while a student at Western Theological Seminary, was taught that there was a substantive difference in Calvin’s teaching on predestination from that of his successors in Geneva, Beza, and later Turretin, largely on this basis.  I could never see a substantive difference.  Thanks to the Standard Bearer for affirming Calvin’s doctrine of predestination.

Charles Fles

Muskegon, MI 

Feature Article:

Prof. Decker

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

*The text of the sermon preached at the combined seminary convocation/installation service (for Prof. Barrett L. Gritters) on September 4, 2003.

Committing the Truth to Faithful Men (1)*

     Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
     And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

II Timothy 2:1, 2

        This text speaks of the task both of the professors and of the students.  What the apostle says here to Timothy he says to the professors in the seminary.  What you have “heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”  And those faithful men are the students of the seminary.

     The apostle is nearing the end of his ministry and life when he writes this letter.  He is concerned that his spiritual son Timothy, a young minister, remember what he has been taught:  the gospel of God’s sovereign grace in Christ Jesus.  That truth must be preserved by Timothy, the young preacher in Ephesus.  If that is to happen, then Timothy must commit what he has been taught to faithful men.  These faithful men are the future ministers of the gospel.  They must be not only faithful but also able to teach others.  All of this is highly necessary.  In this way, chiefly by means of the preaching of the gospel (to borrow the language of the Heidelberg Catechism in answer 54), “the Son of God, from the beginning to the end of the world, gathers and defends and preserves unto Himself a church chosen to everlasting life.”  God is pleased to save His elect in Christ by means of the preaching of the sacred Word, the preaching of faithful men who are able to teach others.  Hence, it is essential that the truth be committed to these faithful, able men. 

     That is possible not because of our own strength, not because of Timothy’s or our own superior abilities, and not because of anything at all in us (it may safely be said that no preacher ever saved one soul).  It is possible only by being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

     What is more, because it is possible only by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, it is absolutely certain that the truth of the gospel will be committed to faithful men and they will be able to teach others also, so that that true gospel of Christ is preserved in the generations of believers.

     We call your attention, then, to the text as it speaks to us of committing the truth to faithful men.

Committing that truth to whom

     According to the text, that truth is to be committed to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.  These must be faithful men, men full of faith, men who are, therefore, trustworthy, reliable — men whom the people of God in the church know to be men of faith, men upon whom the people of God in the churches can depend faithfully to do the work of the ministry. 

     These men, too, obviously, must be able to teach others.  They must have the abilities, the gifts, to teach others.  One of the necessary gifts of the office of bishop mentioned in I Timothy 3 as well as in the context of our text is that he be apt to teach.  To these must be committed the things that Timothy heard from the holy apostle among many witnesses.

     Now there are certain essential spiritual gifts that characterize these faithful men — gifts, you understand, apart from which a man cannot be considered faithful.

     The first is spirituality, or genuine piety.  A faithful man is a child of God.  It is true, sad to say, there are hypocrites in the ministry.  God even uses false prophets occasionally (like Balaam) to bless His people.  Two things, however, may be said about this.  First, these hypocrites never last.  Sooner or later, but inevitably, they are exposed and they either leave the ministry or must be suspended and deposed from that holy office.  Secondly, these are not the rule or norm.  They are the exception.

     Ministers must be spiritual, pious, godly men — men saved by grace through faith, God’s gift; men in whose hearts burns the love of God in Jesus Christ; men who love God with their whole being and manifest that love of God to the neighbor; men who love God’s people and who love God’s church and who love God’s cause; men who have, as one preacher put it, “a fascination with the Bible”; and men who live exemplary, godly lives.

     A second gift is humility.  There is no room whatsoever for pride in the ministry.  Pride, the Scriptures say, goes before a fall.  That is especially true in the office of the minister.  Self-seeking pride, selfishness, the seeking of the praise of men — all of these are abominable sins among God’s people and especially among ministers of the Word.  If you seminarians want the praise of men and the honor and fame, do not pursue the ministry.  Faithful men are humble men.

     Like the apostle, they are, literally, slaves of God and of His church.  They know the truth of what the writer J.J. VanOostersee wrote in his Practical Theology, “The flock does not exist for the pastor but the pastor for the flock.”  They must give their very lives in the service of God’s church.

     That means faithful men are of necessity men of prayer.  They know that all that they are and all that they have are of God.  They know, these faithful men, that they cannot make or preach one sermon, perform one pastoral task, visit one person who is sick, comfort one of God’s sorrowing saints, apart from God’s grace.  They pray without ceasing for the grace of God and the Holy Spirit to enable them to be faithful, humble men, able thus to teach others.

     In addition, faithful men are men of sympathetic understanding.  Jesus, our great and merciful High Priest, is, according to Hebrews 4 (the last part of the chapter), touched with the feeling of our infirmities, tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin.  That is why you and I can go to God’s throne of grace and find mercy and obtain grace to help in all our needs. 

     Ministers of the gospel, the servants of Jesus Christ, must be in this regard Christ-like.  They must emulate their Master.  They must know God’s people — know their needs, know their struggles, their joy, their affliction, their sorrow.  In other words, faithful men must literally feel with God’s people, understand them so as to be able to bring God’s Word to their needs.  They must weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.  If you are going to do that, you need to live with God’s people.  You must be given to hospitality, according to I Timothy 3:2 .   A faithful minister and his wife do not shut themselves in the parsonage and have as little to do with the people of God as possible.  No, they live with the saints and they fellowship with the saints so as to know them and to know their needs.

     Faithful men — spiritual, humble, sympathetic men — are also men of spiritual courage or boldness.  This same apostle exhorted the church at Ephesus to pray for all the saints, “and for me, …that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.”  That must be the prayer of every faithful minister.

     I am always struck by that.  When you read the history of the work of the apostle Paul in the book of Acts and when you read his epistles, you cannot help but be impressed that Paul was not only a faithful man, but very bold in his preaching and teaching, afraid of no one, unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing it to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, the Jew first but also the Greek.  He could not wait to preach in Rome, even where he was imprisoned and likely put to death.  What was the secret of Paul in that regard?  He was a man of prayer!

     The minister needs boldness to preach and teach the truth of the gospel that declares on every page of sacred Scripture that we are by nature totally depraved sinners who are unable to do any good at all and are inclined to all evil except we are regenerated by the grace of God — the truth that salvation is all by the grace of the sovereign God in Christ to His own glory.  That takes boldness!  Especially today.  People do not want to be told about their sins and their sinful nature.  It destroys their self-esteem, you see.  Preaching must connect with people in such a way as to make them feel good and to attract them and to tell them of all their wonderful deeds and how they can minister and do great things for the Lord.  But to preach the truth of the gospel of God’s sovereign grace takes courage and boldness.  Ministers, in the real sense of the word, are in the vanguard, the front line of the battle of faith.  That is precisely why Paul tells Timothy in the very next breath after the exhortation of our text to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 

     Faithful men must be able to teach others also.  Apt to teach.  They must have that ability.  And that, too, must come from God.  Christ gave pastors and teachers to the church.  Thus the relationship in Ephesians 4 is this, as is plain from the context, especially what follows in Ephesians 4:11 , that one shepherds the flock by means of teaching the flock.  That does not refer just to preaching or catechism teaching.  In all his labors, publicly and from house to house, the minister, like the holy apostle, must shun not to declare to the people of God the whole counsel of God.  He has to teach. 

     That means the minister needs the ability to study.  That, too, is in the context:  Study to show thyself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth.  Faithful men must be able to teach others chiefly by means of the preaching of the gospel.  A minister needs the ability, therefore, to read and understand the Scriptures, to think and to organize his thoughts clearly and logically.  He needs a broad background in the history of civilization, in philosophy and literature, in the original languages of the Bible (a liberal arts background).  In addition, he needs to know the original languages of the Bible and be able to expound from the original languages of the Scriptures.  He needs to know the doctrines of the Word of God as summed and set forth in the confessions.  He needs to know the history of those doctrines.  He needs to know the history of the church.  He needs to be instructed in practical matters concerning the polity of the churches and the preaching and catechetical instruction and missions and all the rest.  And all of that he must make his own so that he is able to explain the Word of God to God’s people and to show them how that Word of God applies to their lives. 

     That takes hours and hours of hard work — work bathed in prayer.  That is the only way to make a good sermon.  Fifteen to twenty hours per sermon per week — at least for a beginning preacher.  That is thirty-forty hours, besides all the other aspects of the work.  The bulk of the minister’s time must be spent in the study.  Yes, he is on call and when called he must go.  But he needs time to prepare for the pulpit.

     He must have the gift of public speaking.  His chief task is to preach the Word of God twice per Lord’s Day as well as in special services.  And that preaching must be lively.  God will have His people taught, not by dumb images, the catechism instructs us, but by the lively preaching of the Word!  And the minister must teach the children and youth of the church in that special aspect of the preaching of the Word we call catechism instruction.  These gifts, too, must come from God.

     We have classes in homiletics, of course — the art and science of preaching — how to construct and how to deliver a good sermon.  That is one of the most important (if not the most important) course Rev. Gritters will be teaching, God willing, soon.  We teach catechetics — how to teach catechism classes — another course Rev. Gritters will be teaching.  But a man, you see, needs that gift from God.  The seminary classes only help him develop what he already has been given from the Lord and to use those gifts properly.  

… to be continued.  

Annual Report:

Mr. David Langerak

Mr. Langerak is a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan and retired secretary of the RFPA.

2003 Annual RFPA Secretary’s Report

Friends and Members of the Association,

        Tonight marks the completion of the 79^th year of producing the Standard Bearer and the 36^th year of book publishing for the Reformed Free Publishing Association.  We report to you the organization’s principal activities that have occurred throughout this year.

     Eight years ago this association merged the permanent book publishing arm (PCPPRL) with the RFPA, creating one organization and one board publishing both the Standard Bearer and books. Today the work of the board and its committees is a balance between these two endeavors.  Four board members work closely with our book manager in the planning, preparation, and production of every new book and reprint.  Four board members work with both business managers to develop and implement advertising, marketing, and promoting of the SB and books.  Three board members are responsible for the planning and oversight of all day-to-day operations of the RFPA through the business managers.  The board president divides his time between the activities of all three committees.

Book Publishing

     The year has been another busy and productive one for book publishing. It can take several years for a new book to develop from an idea to publication. This year three new books were finished and printed: Volume 3 of Unfolding Covenant History, our series on Old Testament History; Sin & Grace, Revs. Hoeksema and Danhof’s refutation of common grace; and Common Grace Revisited, the first in the Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth series.  Studies in I Peter, by Rev. Cornelius Hanko, was released as well. We plan to release one new study guide per year if good group Bible study material is available.  In addition, Saved by Grace and Whosoever Will were revised and reprinted to replace sold-out inventory.

     Book club members are critical to our book publishing success.  Because of their willingness to purchase every new book (at 35% off the regular price), we are able to pay the initial production costs and to produce more new books.  We are very pleased to see the number of book club members steadily increasing each year, so that we can report having 1,020 members at this time.  Thank you, loyal book club members!  Thanks also to our book club agents who have been instrumental in this increase.  We ask you to encourage family members or friends to build their library with good Reformed literature by joining the RFPA book club.

     Several book projects are in various stages of completion.  This coming year we plan to publish two more books in the Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth series, on the topics of Reformed worship and providence.  We are on track to release the fourth volume in the Unfolding Covenant History series, this one covering the wilderness wanderings and the conquest of Canaan. In the area of educational material, art curriculum books for grades kindergarten through sixth are being prepared.  This curriculum, originally developed by Connie Meyer for our Protestant Reformed schools, has been well received by the teachers who have used it in their classrooms.  The RFPA publications will make this valuable educational resource available to a broader market of schools and homes.  Another book being worked on is a compilation of 240 Reformed doctrines, each explained briefly by Rev. Ronald Hanko.  This book will be a useful tool for instruction in the home and preparation for catechism.  Some reprints being revised for future publication are Calvin’s Calvinism; Rev. Herman Hoeksema’s Reformed Dogmatics; and We and Our Children and Mysteries of the Kingdom by Prof. Hanko.

     There are those who discover our writings and request the board’s permission to translate them into their native tongue.  The Reformation Society associated with the Evangelical Reformed Churches in Russia recently published a Russian translation of the first part of Voice of Our Fathers, which treats Head 1 of the Canons of Dordt. Pastor Jan Sicula of the Slovak Republic has translated into Slovak and published Prof. Engelsma’s Marriage, the Mystery of Christ and the Church.

Standard Bearer and Books Sales and Promotion

     Book sales this past year were good, at 8,026 volumes sold, down 8% compared to last year.  358 new customers purchased books this year, 124 of whom agreed to become book club members. Standard Bearer subscriptions remained steady at 2,648 subscribers, down 53 subscribers compared to this time last year.  The fact that our literature is sharp and uncompromising in setting forth the truth and refuting the lie severely limits our market, especially in this age of apostasy and compromise.  Nevertheless, the message we proclaim is the everlasting truth of God’s Word.  Therefore we are working harder than ever to promote both the books and the Standard Bearer magazine.

     A number of successful promotional activities continued this year: publishing the semi-annual Update newsletter, sending new books for review in religious periodicals, and offering to PRC consistories free one-year subscriptions to the SB for their newly wedded couples and new members from outside the PRC.

     In addition, many new activities were implemented.  This year