We again near the end of another summer, and preparations begin anew for another year of covenant education. The Reformed Protestant Churches fought a hard battle over the Christian school. Scurrilous men who really wanted no school at all labored with all their might against the demand that there be Reformed Protestant schools. But God is not indifferent to the Christian school. He delivered to his church the underlying principle of the Christian school—the covenant of grace and the banding together of believers to educate their covenant children in distinctive Reformed Protestant doctrine in the carrying out of their baptismal vows. To reject the school is to reject the covenant.
The education of the covenant children in the school sets the framework for seminary instruction. The Christian school has the ministry of the gospel in view. The children are immersed in distinctive Reformed doctrine from their youth. They are not tossed about with every wind of doctrine in a public school or a nominally Christian school. And although the Reformed Protestant schools are full of children, the seminary has no students this year. There is a need for men to preach the gospel. There is always a need, no matter what earthly calculations we might make. Christ himself said that the harvest is great and the laborers are few.
And so the editorial this month sets its sights on the young men in the Reformed Protestant Churches and also sets forth the importance of preaching and preachers in the church of Christ. There is no more noble calling in all the world. There is no comparison to the ministry in the world of men. In the preaching of the gospel, God shakes the earth and establishes his unshaken kingdom. In the preaching of the gospel, God speaks peace to the troubled souls of his people. The Reformed always have esteemed highly the preaching, as it is the preaching of Christ that creates faith in the heart of the elect sinner. Having faith worked in his heart by the Spirit, the elect sinner calls upon God for all his salvation.
Our editor in chief, Reverend Langerak, has been provided a break from his editorial duties this month. I take this opportunity to thank Reverend Langerak for his tireless labor in his writing and overseeing of Sword and Shield magazine month in and month out. It is no small task and undertaking.
Reverend Kamps opens the issue with a meditation from Revelation on the letter to the church of Laodicea. Laodicea did not know who she was, and she was something in her own eyes. The church must know that she is nothing, and she must find all her wealth in the saving blood of Jesus Christ alone.
Reverend Bomers continues his instructive series on the sacrifices by introducing the sin and trespass offerings that God instituted in the Old Testament. These offerings had a close connection with the coming of the law. The law was delivered to Israel at Mount Sinai, and Israel withered under that law. These two sacrifices set before the Israelites the wonder of an abundantly gracious salvation over against all their sins through ignorance.
Reverend Pascual continues his blistering criticism of the conditional covenant throughout history that is dependent on man’s act of faith and is entirely divorced from election.
In the Running Footmen rubric, Lucy Griess goes on the offensive against the congealing and coalescing efforts of the church world today to unite together under a common cause other than Christ and his gospel.
May the Lord speed this issue into your hands and the content into your hearts.
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