From the Editor — December 2025

The issue that you have in your hands is the annual special issue of Sword and Shield that features the speech and remarks that were given at the annual meeting of Reformed Believers Publishing (RBP). This year the meeting was held in Northwest Indiana at the facilities of Second Reformed Protestant Church. We thank the church for making those facilities available to the association for its meeting. The speech was well attended by association members from around the Reformed Protestant Churches. I note especially that there were many children and young people in attendance.

The meeting was noteworthy because the association purged its ranks of those of Ephraim who were armed with bows and turned back in the day of battle. Over half the membership was voted out at the meeting. In this Reformed Believers Publishing maintained its claim that it teaches and publishes the truth.

This year the editor gave the keynote address. This address makes up the bulk of the editorial for this special issue. The editorial is not a transcript of the speech. It is an expansion on the speech. The speech was occasioned by three speeches that were given at an officebearers’ conference of the Protestant Reformed Churches in Crete Protestant Reformed Church this past September. The speeches are still more proof that the Protestant Reformed Churches have forsaken the gospel-truth of justification by faith alone and are false churches. What is shocking in the fall of the Protestant Reformed Churches is that there does not seem to be anyone in those churches who can listen to an old sermon by Herman Hoeksema and then listen to these speeches and ask, “What has happened?”

The editorial for this month is the editor’s analysis of the first speech, given by Rev. Joshua Engelsma. Unlike his namesake Joshua, he does not preach rest in Jesus Christ but binds on the shoulders of the people burdens that are heavy and grievous to be borne, and he does not lift one finger to help them. He is a disgraceful minister of reconciliation. He was charged by Christ to preach that God reconciled the world to himself, and all Joshua can do is preach that the people are not reconciled but must yet do something to be reconciled. The other two men who gave speeches at that conference were Rev. Richard Smit and Rev. Daniel Kleyn. These men only added to the massacre of the gospel that began with Engelsma’s speech. I will publish my analysis of those two speeches in coming issues.

In light of the subject matter of this issue and the next two, every Protestant Reformed household for which we have an address will receive a copy of Sword and Shield for three months free of charge.

There were timely remarks made at the meeting by Reverend Bomers and Reverend Ophoff. Their expanded remarks are included as closing remarks in this special issue. There were also secretary and treasurer reports given at the meeting, and they too are included in this issue.

The readers will also find in the issue a contribution by Reverend Pascual in his rubric, A Dry Morsel. He is continuing his series against Rev. John Flores, who contends against First Orthodox Reformed Protestant Church, Bulacan, that she is not a true instituted church with legitimate officebearers.

Mr. Michael Vermeer fills the Insights rubric with an analysis of Rev. Joshua Engelsma’s speech at the officebearers’ conference. Michael submitted his article prior to the meeting of RBP and the speech that was given there by the editor. Michael’s analysis is his own, and his analysis is spot on: Reverend Engelsma has been overthrown. The doctrine of justification by faith alone is not overthrown, though men try with their might to do so. The stone that the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner, and “whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Luke 20:18).

Take note of the announcement regarding an upcoming lecture from the evangelism committee of First Reformed Protestant Church. The lecture will again call out to members of the Protestant Reformed Churches to come out of her because she is false. Many chide us for our language and characterize it as harsh and unloving. This is not the case. We follow in the footsteps of our savior and the apostles, who did not spare the wolves if by any means God’s elect might be saved. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

We trust that if you have the Spirit, you will find the writing to be edifying. May the Lord bless it to your hearts.