Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 21 April, 2019
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering ...”
(Col. 3:12)
Morning Service - 11:00 AM - Rev. A. Stewart
Scripture Twisting
[download]
[youtube]
Scripture Reading: II Peter 3
Text: II Peter 3:15-16
I. The Scriptures
II. The Twisting
III. The Destruction
Psalms: 5:1-8; 105:1-7; 19:7-11; 119:97-104
Evening Service - 6:00 PM - Prof. D. Engelsma
Remarried!
[download] [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Romans 7
Text: Romans 7:1-4
I. What
II. How
III. Why
Psalms: 145:1-8; 105:8-14; 45:6-11; 92:12-15
For CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services,
contact Stephen Murray
If you desire a pastoral visit, please contact Rev. Stewart
or the elders
CPRC Website: www.cprc.co.uk • Live Webcast:
www.cprf.co.uk/live.html
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quotes to Consider
Westminster Confession 1:7: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”
B. B. Warfield on Scripture twisting: “It is very plain that he who modifies the teachings of the Word of God in the smallest particular at the dictation of any ‘man-made opinion’ has already deserted the Christian ground, and is already, in principle, a ‘heretic.’ The very essence of ‘heresy’ is that the modes of thought and tenets originating elsewhere than in the Scriptures of God are given decisive weight when they clash with the teachings of God’s Word.”
Augustine on difficulties in Scripture: “I do not doubt that all this was divinely arranged for the purpose of subduing pride by toil, and of preventing a feeling of satiety in the intellect, which generally holds in small esteem what is discovered without difficulty ... Nobody, however, has any doubt about the facts, both that it is pleasanter in some cases to have knowledge communicated through figures, and that what is attended with difficulty in the seeking gives greater pleasure in the finding ... the Holy Spirit has, with admirable wisdom and care for our welfare, so arranged the Holy Scriptures as by the plainer passages to satisfy our hunger, and by the more obscure to stimulate our appetite. For almost nothing is dug out of those obscure passages which may not be found set forth in the plainest language elsewhere” (On Christian Doctrine, Book II, chapter 6).
Rene Pache on II Peter 3:15-16: “The wresting of the sense of the Scriptures—here is a plague from which Christendom still suffers! May God give us grace not only to receive the divinely inspired Scriptures but also to interpret them correctly and to apply them to our own lives! Then we shall be able to talk about them with authority, ‘speaking as it were oracles of God’ (I Peter 4:11)” (The Inspiration & Authority of Scripture, p. 231).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
Rev. & Mary Stewart leave for the US tomorrow morning. Rev. Stewart is one of the speakers at the PRC Dordt 400 Conference. They return on Tuesday, 30 April.
Tuesday Bible Study at 11 AM will not meet this week and will resume on 7 May.
S. Wales Lecture: Rev. McGeown will speak on “The Development of God’s Covenant (5): Jacob” in Margam Community Centre on Thursday, 25 April.
On Thursday to Saturday (25-27 April), the Protestant Reformed Seminary in Michigan will be holding a three-day conference entitled “Safe-Guarding the Reformation” to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dordt (www.Dordt400.org). The conference will be live-streamed from Trinity PRC, where it will be hosted (www.trinityprc.org/sermons-2/).
Men’s Bible Study meets this Saturday at 8 PM at the Kennedys to discuss Acts 9:10-22.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. R. Kleyn is entitled “Love Believes All Things” (I Cor. 13:7).
Prof. Engelsma will give a lecture entitled “The Other Decisions of the Dordt Synod and Their Importance for the Reformed Churches Today” on Wednesday, 1 May, at 7:30 PM.
There will be tea after the evening service on 5 May, since it is Prof Engelsma’s last Lord’s Day with us. Tea Rota: Group A.
Offerings: General Fund: £1,122.33. Donations: £300 (Wales), £200 (England), £50 (England).
Translation Addition: 1 French.
PRC News: Rev. Guichelaar declined the call to Immanuel PRC (Lacombe, AB); the new trio is Revs. McGeown, Spronk and Vanderwal.
The Men at Dordt (2)
by Prof. Herman Hanko
(Standard Bearer, Volume 74, Issue 2)
Simon Episcopius
Episcopius was born in 1583, and studied theology under both Gomarus and Arminius at the University of Leiden. The teachings of Arminius appealed to him rather than those of Gomarus, and he became a follower of his mentor and an eloquent defender of his views.
In 1610, the year the Articles of the Remonstrants were drawn up, he began his work as a pastor but soon took the place of Gomarus as professor in Leiden when Gomarus resigned. He was so widely known as Arminian in his thinking that he was cited along with twelve other pastors to appear at the Synod of Dordt to give account of his views before the synod.
Episcopius was really the spokesman of the Arminians at the synod, and the strategist of their campaign to delay the synod and prevent it from discussing the real problems. When in fury Bogerman dismissed the Arminians from the synod, Episcopius left piously shouting, “With Christ I shall keep silence about all this. God shall judge between me and this synod.”
He too was banished but returned in 1626 when the antipathy towards Arminianism had waned. He established an Arminian congregation and an Arminian seminary in which he taught, and he wrote an Arminian Dogmatics.
What is of particular interest is the fact that he was living proof that Arminianism is incipient Modernism, for his Arminianism led him in the direction of Socinianism, which denies the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. Would that present-day Arminians would learn this lesson from history.
Pieter Plancius
Pieter Plancius knew persecution. He was born in what is now Belgium but fled when the Roman Catholic Church persecuted the Reformed.
He had received his education in strongly Calvinistic schools in Germany and England, and became a defender of the Reformed faith until the day of his death. His early ministry was spent in Brabant, Flanders and Brussels, all of which came under Spaniard domination.
Plancius occupies a notable place among the great men of Dordt because he was one of the first to warn the churches against the horrors of the Arminian heresy.
This came about because he was called to be minister of the church of Amsterdam, where Arminius also became a minister. It was in the pulpit of the church in Amsterdam that Arminius first began to militate in his preaching against Reformed doctrine. Plancius was alarmed and, when Arminius’ answers proved unsatisfactory, he alerted the churches to the dangerous doctrines being proclaimed by Arminius. But, sadly, the authorities would not listen, and Arminius and those he influenced were permitted to propound their views for many years before the Synod of Dordt finally condemned them. Plancius’ role was a major one, for many were not aware of the grievous dangers hidden behind the subtle and devious teachings of those who would deny the great truth of God’s sovereignty.
Plancius also worked in revising the Dutch translation of the Old Testament part of the Staten-Bijbel, which is to the Dutch what the AV is to us. But equally as interesting, the church in Amsterdam was the calling church in sending missionaries along with the Dutch traders to all parts of the world. He was responsible for the development of nautical and geographical knowledge and skills, which were given to Dutch sea captains as they made the Netherlands for a short time “Queen of the Oceans.”
Francis Gomarus
As suave and friendly as Arminius was, so gruff and blunt was his chief opponent, Francis Gomarus.
Born in Germany in 1563, he was a refugee from the Palatinate. His education was extensive and the best available, for he studied in Strasburg, Oxford, Cambridge and Heidelberg, enjoying instruction from Ursinus (one of the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism) and Jerome Zanchius (who wrote a still popular work on predestination).
Gomarus was first pastor at Frankfurt, but his abilities and learning soon brought him a professorship, first at Frankfurt, then at Leiden. In Leiden, Gomarus was the colleague of Arminius and he fought him as Plancius had done in Amsterdam. When Arminius died and Conrad Vorstius, a greater heretic than Arminius, was appointed to take Arminius’ place, Gomarus resigned in utter disgust and took a pastorate in Middelburg, although, at the demand of various schools, he continued his career in teaching.
He was a professorial delegate to the Synod of Dordt, and made his own deep love for the Reformed faith and his implacable opposition to Arminianism a factor in all the discussions.
Gomarus was a supralapsarian, a profound theologian, and a gifted and influential preacher. His name has almost become synonymous with consistent Calvinism, and he emerged from the conflict at Dordt with the justifiable reputation of one who loved the Lord and the Lord’s truth more than anything or anyone else. The Arminians often wished him dead. The Lord used him, with all his bluntness and gruffness, to preserve the glorious truths of sovereign grace.
Johannes Bogerman
Johannes Bogerman’s name will be fondly remembered by all who love the Reformed faith, as the fiery president of the synod who finally, totally exasperated, dismissed the Arminians with such fierce words that they were literally driven out.
Bogerman was born in East Friesland in 1576 and served as pastor in the Dutch Reformed churches. He was an ardent defender of the biblical truths of sovereign grace and he fought from his pulpit the deadly heresies of Arminius which were strangling the churches.
Delegated to the Synod of Dordt, he was chosen as the president because of his commitment to the Reformed faith and his great ability. He was a short man and he possessed a beard which reached his waist. He was an imposing figure, due chiefly to the fire that flashed from his eyes when he was angry.
And angry he did become—at the Arminians. Patiently and with as much understanding as he could muster, he led the synod during the many days during which the Arminians used every delaying tactic they could think of to keep the synod from its work; when they vented their hatred and spite against the doctrines of the confessions; and when they attempted with subtlety and guile to win influence and approval among the foreign delegates and the representatives of the state.
But finally he had had enough. He rose in righteous indignation and, after a
short speech, ended with the words: “You have begun with lies, and you end with
lies. Dimittimini, ite, ite! (You are dismissed! Get out! Get out!)”
So powerful was his voice and so fiery were his flashing eyes that the Arminians
almost stumbled over each other in exiting the hall. It was the end of their
presence at the synod and without them the synod could now get on with its work.
The greatest part of that work is the Canons, an incomparable creed in the defence of the doctrines of sovereign and particular grace.