“Professor Engelsma paints a picture of the PRC that is completely at odds with reality.” Such is the assessment of Aaron Cleveland in his article in the Running Footmen rubric this month. And the assessment is true. Professor Engelsma’s recent article in the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal gives the impression that the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) still stand alone as the one voice that is crying in the wilderness against the apostasy of the modern Reformed church world, its amalgamation with the world, and its development of the false doctrine of salvation by the willing and working of man. But that impression is false. Reverend McGeown alone is proof of that with his deceitful use of scripture and his cry for peace among all professing Christians.
Professor Engelsma writes against modernism. But what is modernism? It is nothing more than a word to encapsulate the massive apostasy from the truth of the broader Reformed church world as it adopts the thinking, language, and goals of the world around it. In modernism the thoughts and wisdom of man are the rule of truth, and modernism inevitably gives way to postmodernism, in which there is no objective truth and every man does what is right in his own eyes. The PRC and her members not only do not stand against modernism, but they also have progressed to postmodernism, in which everyone who says he is a Christian is considered to be a real Christian, regardless of what he confesses and believes. The PRC belongs to the world, and Professor Engelsma has helped to bring the denomination there. The PRC embodies that corrupt religious organization called Babylon in scripture.
The world to which the PRC belongs is being swept along on the raging torrent of time as time rushes to bring the end of all things with the final coming of Jesus Christ. As part of that coming of Christ, there must come the final form of antichrist as a religious entity who causes all the world to wonder after antichrist as a political entity, who is a deified man and his deified state. All Christian sects and all the world’s religions must become unified. And they will become unified under the principle of the salvation of man by his willing and working. They will worship man and the abilities and accomplishments of man. Man will become the measure of what is true and right. This unified religious entity will cause all men to worship the deified antichristian political power, who will throw off all semblance of the worship of a god and will declare himself and his worldwide government to be God. Of this the PRC is a part. Of this all churches and religious entities who deny the gospel of Jesus Christ and his full and free righteousness received by faith alone for God’s elect alone are a part. Jesus Christ alone is the rock that God set as the headstone of the corner. Indeed, he is rejected of men to their own destruction. But he is precious and sure for all who place their trust in him. In him alone there is safety from that raging torrent that sweeps the whole world toward the damning worship of antichrist, which is nothing other than the worship of man.
At Sword and Shield we are privileged to be witnesses of these developments, to be witnesses against these developments, and to be witnesses for the truth of Jesus Christ, the rock, in whom alone there is salvation and safety.
In this issue the editor continues his series on the end of all things by beginning a treatment of the subject of antichrist. Antichrist in scripture is a multifaceted reality. What is important to remember is that as fearsome as antichrist is in scripture, he is but a creature and a tool in the hands of the Lord of lords and the King of kings, Jesus Christ. There is also a new rubric, Wondrous Works, by our newest regular writer, Rev. Earl Kamps. He writes on the pernicious error of the Pelagians. Reverend Bomers continues his edifying series on the Old Testament sacrifices by concluding his treatment of the peace offering. We hope that his series will benefit the readers not only in their reading of the articles but also in their reading of those sections of the Old Testament that speak of these sacrifices. We hope that these articles will help the readers to see Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The meditation is again a translation by the editor of a meditation originally written by Rev. Herman Hoeksema in Dutch and published in The Standard Bearer in the early 1940s. It is a very comforting meditation that reminds the child of God during the upheavals that characterize the end of all things that every power, every event, and every creature are soldiers in the army of the Almighty who do his bidding and accomplish his work for the destruction of the ungodly, for the salvation of God’s elect people, and for the coming of God’s eternal purpose in Christ. What a great God we have who has set his king, Jesus Christ, upon his holy hill in Zion!
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