When it comes to today’s church music, we have run so far from the actual, God-given standard that most don’t even know one exists. I was struck by this reading Abraham Kuyper’s comments about church music in Our Worship. Think for a minute how far we drifted from the originalContinue Reading
The confessional Presbyterian and Reformed (P&R) churches […] begin with the assumption that it is not the function of singing in worship for us to say whatever we want to God but to repeat God’s Word after him. The role of a song in worship is not for us toContinue Reading
Keith Getty, author of the widely sung contemporary hymn “In Christ Alone”, lamented that, in its quest for “cultural relevance”, modern worship music is “de-Christianizing people”. He said: “Over 75 percent of what are called the great hymns of the faith talk about eternity, heaven, hell, and the fact thatContinue Reading
By Simon Jooste and Johannes Potgieter Undisputed is the fact that the Doppers desired and realised a return to the 1619 Church Order of Dort (Louw 1999:597). Scholars are in agreement that the secession of the VGK from the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk (NHK) had much to do with what wasContinue Reading
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