The snow and ice are deep here at Reformed Believers Publishing headquarters as we put the finishing touches on this February 1 issue of Sword and Shield. We trust that the articles in this issue will help thaw the veins and stir the blood as you once again take up your sword and shield in the battle of faith. 

I suppose that not everyone has warm, friendly feelings about the magazine. A man recently wrote in to inform us that he uses Sword and Shield for kindling fires at his hunting camp. If this particular article happens to catch that gentleman’s eye before he burns it, might I suggest that he try reading the articles in this issue first, which will undoubtedly warm his blood sufficiently that he can save this kindling for a later date.

Regardless, whether you are friend or foe, we present this issue for some warm fireside reading on a cold winter’s eve.

In this issue there appears an open letter from four saints in Singapore, which is their response to an article from Prof. Herman Hanko to his longstanding email forum. In his letter Professor Hanko accuses the members of the Reformed Protestant Churches of not obeying and submitting to the elders of their local congregations when they left the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). This article was especially aimed to discredit God’s people in Singapore and the Philippines, since Professor Hanko sought and received approval for his letter from the session (consistory) of Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore and from Rev. Daniel Kleyn in the Philippines. Professor Hanko’s article is slanderous and wicked. Its slander is that it accuses God’s people in Singapore, in the Philippines, and in North America of sins they did not commit. The wickedness of the article is that it places God’s people under the absolute authority of men instead of the absolute authority of Christ. The response of the four saints in Singapore is masterful and edifying, for the saints bring God’s word and the confessions to bear on the question of the obedience and submission of God’s people to the elders in the church.

The joyful news in this is that God is working his reformation in Singapore. The four who have signed their names to the letter have been placed under Christian discipline by their session for holding an unsanctioned Bible study, in which Bible study the members investigated the doctrinal issues in the recent controversy in the PRC. The four members have a different view of the controversy than the PRC, and therefore the PRC’s sister sprang into action to silence them. The persecution is so oppressive in Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore that the session is in the process of sending these four members to everlasting destruction for meeting together for an unauthorized Bible study that teaches an unauthorized view of the controversy! If anyone thought that the doctrinal controversy of the PRC was hers alone and that it had nothing to do with her sisters, God is currently showing that line of thinking to be wrong.

We thank the four saints in Singapore for submitting their letter for publication at our request, and may the Lord give you the joy of those who lose all for the sake of the gospel of Christ. Their letter and the article from Professor Hanko are reprinted here unedited.

Also in this issue is an edifying article by Mr. Elijah Roberts, who calls to our attention the instruction of Herman Hoeksema on the baptismal vows and the relationship of those vows to the matter of the good Christian school.

The rest of the authors in this issue are well known to the readership by now. We thank God for giving us much to write about. May God speed the truths written herein to your heart and the next issue into your hands.