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Seminary Heidelberg Catechism Conference: Saturday's Closing Session

PA193712Saturday morning was the closing session of the HC Conference held at Hudsonville PRC. Once again there were two great speeches, with Rev.Angus Stewart of the Covenant PRC of Ballymena, N.Ireland going first and speaking on the irenic/polemical nature of the HC. Explaining these two terms, Rev.Stewart taught us that the catechism could be called a "war and peace" manual, since it teaches us both how to battle against the errors that oppose the Reformed faith (from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism to Anabaptism) as well as how to maintain true peace in the church - unity in the truth of the gospel. To listen to pastor Stewart's message, visit this page at Hudsonville PRC's Sermonaudio site.

 

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Prof.R.Dykstra closed out the conference by addressing us on the HC’s teaching on God’s covenant. Proving that the HC is firmly grounded in the biblical and Reformed doctrine of God's sovereign covenant, even though it is only mentioned specifically four times, Prof.Dykstra also showed us the nature of this covenant doctrine: not an agreement but a relationship of friendship; not conditional but unconditional; not general (for all) but particular (for the elect). In other words, the covenant doctrine found in the HC is that of sovereign grace! And he showed us how this was in harmony with what the chief writers of the HC, Ursinus and Olevianus, openly taught, both before and after the HC was written. To listen to Prof.Dykstra's speech, visit this page at Hudsonville PRC's Sermonaudio page.

Even though the numbers were a little less for this session, we still had a good crowd, and we learned afterward that over 200 people were also listening on the live-stream! All of the speeches were also video-taped and the videos will be made available in the near future.

If you wish to find all the conference speeches in audio in one place, visit this special Sermonaudio page.

Hudsonville PRC proved to be a most gracious host for the conference and all those involved in its planning and preparation are to be thanked for all their hard work in making this PR Seminary-sponsored conference a big success.

More pictures from the final day:

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Sem. Stephan Regnerus mans the Seminary tables.        Our German guests with their gifts of facsimile editions of the 1563 HC.

Last modified on 20 October 2013