Another special issue of Sword and Shield has arrived! This one is the fourth annual meeting edition. Every year near the end of October, Reformed Believers Publishing (RBP) holds its annual association meeting. These meetings are where the new board members are elected to replace those retiring members; we hear fitting remarks from the board president; we hear a status report from the board secretary; and we are appraised by the board treasurer of the association’s financial state. You will find all of these remarks and reports in this special issue. We also have a word on behalf of the board of Reformed Believers Publishing from the new board president, Joel Langerak.

Since its inception in 2020, Reformed Believers Publishing has been guided by the able leadership of Henry Kamps. This year he retired from the board along with Jon Langerak, another founding member of RBP. The newly elected board members are Andy Birkett, Doug Mingerink, and Ed Ophoff III.

The annual meeting is always a time of reflection. Many changes have happened at the board, in the association, and with Sword and Shield. Many, who at first joined their names to this righteous cause, later—through fear of men, their own cowardice, their willingness to sacrifice the truth for an unholy unity, or their being ensnared by false doctrine—abandoned Jesus Christ’s work. After the first issue of Sword and Shield was published and distributed, there were many orchestrated acts of intimidation and threatening that continued in attempts to make the board cease publishing the magazine or, at the very least, to blunt its sharpness. Through all that upheaval the board remained steadfast. And that brings to mind the question, will the new RBP board have the same zeal for the truth and the same steadfastness in the face of fierce opposition that the old board showed? And as we hear from the new board president in his article “Born of Fire: Believer’s Battle,” we are encouraged to see that the commitment of RBP to publishing the truth and to fighting the good fight of faith through Sword and Shield is as strong as ever! We as the writing staff are thankful for such zeal and look forward to working together with the new board.

This issue is a good time to remined you that if you are edified by the content of Sword and Shield and you have the time, drop us a note, either to the editor or to the office of RBP. If you are edified by the content of Sword and Shield and want to see the content continued to be published, consider a donation. Sword and Shield is printed and distributed to its readers free of charge, and this cost is paid through the generosity of our readers.

At the annual association meeting, the highlight is a speech by a speaker invited by the board. This year we were treated to a speech on the topic “The Covenant Controversy of 1953” by Rev. Luke Bomers. You will find his speech published in this issue. As you will see from the content of the speech, we are not interested in the event of 1953 as a merely historical event. Rather, we view the event as a demonstration that the specific form of the doctrinal error of the conditional covenant with which Sword and Shield has done battle is the same error in essence as that faced by our spiritual fathers in 1953. The Protestant Reformed Churches and her theologians will not answer the charge that they teach the same false doctrine as did Rev. Hubert De Wolf and sometimes in the same words. They will not answer because they cannot answer without condemning themselves. We also maintain that the doctrinal truth of the unconditional covenant that is defended on the pages of Sword and Shield is the same doctrine as was defended by our spiritual fathers in 1953. Certain features have been sharpened and refined, as is always true of the truth when there is doctrinal controversy. But no honest person can deny that in essence the unconditional covenant defended in 1953 is the unconditional covenant defended on the pages of Sword and Shield.

You will also notice in this issue that there are two contributions from our readers for the Insights rubric. Keep the contributions coming!

Regarding the whole special issue, we pray that the Lord will refresh you by its content and with it arm you for the battle.