The Lord continues his wondrous work of preserving his church through reformation, including the reformation of separation and withdrawal. The council of what was formerly Wingham Protestant Reformed Church adopted an Act of Separation and Reformation on July 6, which Act was also signed by a couple of families from the congregation. The council of what is currently First Protestant Reformed Church of Edmonton took a decision to withdraw from the Protestant Reformed denomination, which decision they will submit to the congregation for its vote on August 5.

1. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

2. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.

3. The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. (Ps. 126:1–3)

The two councils each also adopted a respective supporting document to explain the reason for their separation (in the case of Wingham) and their withdrawal (in the case of Edmonton). These supporting documents are tremendously helpful in identifying the doctrinal issue in the controversy in the Protestant Reformed Churches. In fact, these documents overtook and surpassed the editorial this month, which also intended to demonstrate the doctrinal issue. I highly recommend these documents to the readership of Sword and Shield, and I happily offer the editorial this month as a subordinate companion to those documents.

In related news, we are putting the finishing touches on a special issue of Sword and Shield devoted entirely to the question of whether man’s activity of drawing nigh to God precedes God’s activity of drawing nigh to man in man’s conscious experience. A recent sermon in First Reformed Protestant Church touched off a series of public emails, a lecture, and letters on this topic. The editors of Sword and Shield agreed that this topic is worthy of a special issue. Keep an eye out for it around August 15.

May God speed the truths written herein to your heart and the next issue into your hands.