On behalf of the board of Reformed Believers Publishing, I want to give a hearty welcome to everyone who came out tonight, especially those who came from far away. That you have joined us this evening is a great encouragement to the board and to the editors.

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the schism and reformation of 1953 in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC).

So the question for us tonight is, Why is Reformed Believers Publishing commemorating the covenant controversy of 1953, and what significance does 1953 hold for us now at this juncture in church history? We are not interested in 1953 as a merely historical event with its different persons and personalities involved. No, not that.

But this: nearly four years ago Sword and Shield began to wage a fierce battle against a form of conditional covenant theology that had again raised its ugly head in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

That witness and testimony was rejected by the PRC, and we were slandered as schismatics, antinomians, and rabble-rousers. The denomination cast out faithful officebearers, who had rebuked her for her errors and departure. Because of the PRC’s hardness and persistent departure from the truth, we seceded from the PRC and formed a new denomination of churches where the truth of the pure gospel of sovereign grace could again be preached.

What now is the divine judgment of our controversy with the PRC in behalf of God’s covenant? What is God’s own appointment of the matter?

Was our separation from the Protestant Reformed Churches necessary?

Was the suspension and deposition of officebearers with all the pain and sorrow required?

Was our movement reformation and a return to the old paths, or was our movement mere revolution, as many have charged?

Was separation and reformation needed for the wellbeing of the church of Christ?

Will that reformation be for the spiritual prosperity of our generations?

Would it have been better to make some concessions, to bend a little, and to be nicer and more tolerant?

Would it have been better to shave off or to negotiate away the truth of the gospel for the sake of peace and external unity?

In light of these important questions, our reexamination tonight of the covenant controversy, schism, and reformation of 1953 is for our instruction and serious reflection.

The covenant controversy of 1953 sheds much light on our doctrinal controversy with the PRC, that it was a matter of the preservation of the gospel. At stake in 1953 and then again in our controversy with the PRC was the doctrine of free, sovereign, unconditional grace itself.

The unconditionality or conditionality of the covenant is a matter of the gospel. The proclamation of the unconditional covenant of grace is the good news of salvation by grace alone. Nineteen fifty-three was doctrinal reformation and decisive victory for the truth that covenant salvation is determined by election, is absolutely unconditional, and is the only doctrine of the covenant that honors Jesus Christ.

Nineteen fifty-three shows that our reformation of 2021 was a return to this same confession of our fathers in 1953 and to the pure gospel of grace.

God now shows to all and sundry that we are not the schismatics and revolutionaries who departed from the truth of the unconditional covenant, but by God’s grace we are the continuing representatives of the doctrinal and spiritual heritage that once belonged to the Protestant Reformed Churches. The Protestant Reformed denomination is no longer. God has taken away that doctrinal and spiritual heritage from her in judgment for despising her deliverance in 1953 and for not loving that heritage and its truth.

We humbly confess that we did not deserve to have the pure gospel of sovereign grace fully restored to us. We ourselves are guilty for letting the gospel of God’s gracious, unconditional covenant slip away. We sat in the churches and tolerated Christ-less sermons for decades. God in his mercy has graciously given the pure gospel back to us.

This is worth celebrating! Praise the Lord!

Our remembering 1953 and its doctrinal heritage is at the same time a witness and a sharp warning to Protestant Reformed members still lingering in the denomination.

First, we take note that the Protestant Reformed denomination does not commemorate 1953. The professors, ministers, and members do not honor 1953 or celebrate it as reformation and victory for the truth. They are dead silent on it. They despise the two stalwarts, Herman Hoeksema and George Ophoff, who stood and fought to preserve the truth of God’s covenant and were willing to split the churches for the cause of God’s honor and truth.

Second, Sword and Shield has irrefutably demonstrated that all the current theologians and ministers of the Protestant Reformed Churches are the spiritual offspring of the PRC’s own heretic, Rev. Hubert De Wolf. Everywhere now in the PRC, the pulpits spew forth his false doctrine of salvation by man’s efforts, which is Arminianism.

Our fathers warned us: “Arminianism is born out of hell and leads to hell.” This is our warning to the PRC today.

 

Scripture Reading

I have chosen to read three verses from Luke 6, spoken by our Lord, as an encouragement to us in our battle for the truth in the face of the extreme opposition we continually receive from the false church and because of the defection from our ranks that we suffer for our bold defense of the truth and blunt condemnation of the lie.

22. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.

23. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

26. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:22–23, 26)

 

Prayer

O Lord, we bless thy name and confess that thou art the sovereign and almighty who has created the heavens and the earth.

We thank thee for our salvation in Jesus Christ, thy Son. We thank thee that thou hast made Christ the head of thy eternal covenant and made him responsible to deliver us from sin, condemnation, and death that was due unto us. We thank thee for his perfect sacrifice of death on the cross which made satisfaction to thy justice for all our sins. And we thank thee for his perfect obedience all his life long to thy holy law, which obedience thou hast imputed to us as our own, so that we can stand before thee as perfectly righteous.

We confess this is all for free. It is apart from anything we are or anything we have done to deserve it. We praise thee for so great salvation.

We confess Christ’s atonement, his obedience—Christ alone.

Lord, we thank thee that thou hast given Sword and Shield magazine to the office of believer. We thank thee for the privilege that is ours to maintain a clear witness to the gospel of thy sovereign and particular grace of salvation.

Bless us tonight as we encourage one another in this task and as we commemorate thy great covenant faithfulness to preserve us in the same glorious truth of our fathers in 1953.

We thank thee that in the way of controversy and battle waged on the pages of our magazine thou hast led us in the way of reformation and recovery of the full truth of thy unconditional covenant.

We thank thee for our editors and writers. Continue to give them great boldness in the gospel, zeal for the truth, steadfastness in the face of opposition, and confidence that thy truth will triumph.

Give us courage to stand fast in these last days of great apostasy, to be faithful to thy truth unto the end, that no one take our crown.

We pray for thy blessing upon our speaker this evening and upon all of our other activities tonight. Hear us in mercy with the forgiveness of all our sins.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

 

Introduction of the Speaker

We now come to the main part of our program this evening. It is a great pleasure for me to introduce our speaker. He is going to speak to us on the subject as announced: “The Covenant Controversy of 1953.”

We are especially excited about this subject, and it is of deep interest to us because we represent the continuing spiritual children of the reformation that God wrought in 1953.

The Protestant Reformed denomination despises the reformation of 1953, hates the doctrine of the unconditional covenant that was victorious in that controversy, and refuses to commemorate 1953 as reformation.

It is our privilege as Reformed Believers Publishing to celebrate and champion this great controversy and this event as God’s gracious deliverance and restoration of the truth to the church of Christ. If we did not commemorate this glorious event, the stones would have to cry out.

Our speaker was ordained into the ministry of the word and sacraments in 2023 in the Reformed Protestant Churches. He is serving the pastorate of Zion Reformed Protestant Church in Yucaipa, California. He is also the rubric editor of Our Doctrine in Sword and Shield.

Join me in welcoming Rev. Luke Bomers.