By Simon Jooste and Johannes Potgieter The Synod of Dort that convened in the Dutch town of Dordrecht during 1618–1619 is best known for its formulation of the Canons of Dort. Not unrelated to, and arguably even more important than, this seminal Reformed creedal statement is the church order andContinue Reading
By Simon Jooste and Johannes Potgieter The key question to be explored in this article is whether the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) possess within her tradition the resources to perpetuate her predominating legacy of singing Scripture only. Did her 2012 General Synod decision to revise Article 69 ofContinue Reading
The final authority for Christian doctrine and the Christian life is, as the Westminster Divines wrote, the Word of God in the original languages. Textual criticism is the business of deciding, when there is a question, what the original text was, i.e., which is the most likely reading or textContinue Reading
There are those who see a tension between being Reformed and being an outward-looking church. I want to put out a number of theses about being missional and Reformed. I’ll divide them into negative and positive theses. I offer the thesis and then a little explanation/commentary (asking you to realise thatContinue Reading
By Rev. Simon Jooste As South Africa’s second-largest metropolis (after Johannesburg), Cape Town not only has a rich history but is also a melting pot of scenic views, cuisines and skin colours. She boasts incredible beauty but also thrombotic veins of prejudice and inequality, which are still fed by theContinue Reading
What unites […] various reactions to the collapse of Christendom is the marginalising of doctrine. Anyone who knows the history of Christendom, however, will not be surprised. As Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) observed as part of his argument for the revision of Belgic Confession article 36, the church-state complex (Christendom) wasContinue Reading
I received a piece of spam mail late last week offering to “elevate” the worship service at my church. I can think of a number of verbs that might pique the interest of a Reformed church: purify, reform, sanctify, solemnize are some that come to mind but elevate is notContinue Reading
These are notes from an adult Sunday school class taught by Dr W. Robert Godfrey at Escondido United Reformed Church, California, this month. You can listen to the teaching at Abounding Grace Radio. We have come to a time of dramatic change in the West. We are experiencing the endContinue Reading
There is much more to “end-times” or ultimate things (eschatology) than what we say actually happens in the last days. We say what we do about eschatology because of what we think God is doing in history. At the centre of the debate is the question of “the Israel ofContinue Reading
For Christians, the earthly city of Jerusalem has no religious significance. Scripture is fairly straightforward about this. Writing to Jewish Christians, who were tempted to go back to the Old Covenant, back to a temporary, typological system that had fulfilled its purpose, the pastor reminded them of a fundamental ChristianContinue Reading