“LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
(Psalm 90 : 1 – 2; NKJV)
Labour When we speak about ‘labour’ we often think about paid work. The Labour party is the party of the workers, which came up in the past to defend the rights of the labourers and make sure they got a fair pay. If Labour Day is used for more than just a day of, it… Continue reading Volunteer work as labour of love
We live in a day and age when truth is at a premium. People misrepresent the facts, twist the truth, and jump to false conclusions. This flippancy about the truth reflects a transition from modernism to postmodernism. Although modernism rejected the Bible as the Truth, it still acknowledged that there was truth, although it could… Continue reading The Lie is the Work of the Devil.
Every Sunday afternoon, we go to church to listen to the Catechism preaching. During the week, the ministers are teaching the catechism classes. This is an old tradition, established by the Synod of Dort, 1618/1619. It has a biblical foundation. In Deuteronomy 6 the parents are told that they should take every opportunity to teach… Continue reading Synod of Dort on Catechism Teaching
Acts of the National Synod of Dort, 1618-1619 – English translation The Seventeenth session On the 30th November, Friday morning, Is read the decision of the Synod regarding the further catechetical instruction of young and old, as extracted and put together from the written advice of both the foreign and domestic delegates as follows. In… Continue reading Synod of Dort – from the Acts
On 13 November 1618, the synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was convened in Dordrecht (in English often shortened to Dort). This did not go in the way we are used to in the Free Reformed Churches of Australia. It was called together by the ‘States’. In those days, the Netherlands officially was… Continue reading The importance of the Synod of Dort for us
Introduction The topic of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) has led to a lot of discussion and confusion in our circles. What follows is an adapted version of a report which I wrote for the consistory with the deacons of the Free Reformed Church of Kelmscott, to give direction in how to judge CCM in… Continue reading Contemporary Christian Music
Every year in January, the organisation ‘Open Doors’ publishes a world watch map on which it ranks several countries on this earth with regard to persecution of Christians. The latest map was published in January. It may not come unexpected that North Korea is the number 1 country if it comes to persecution of Christians.… Continue reading Persecution – World Watch Map
A Lie (1) On 17 January of this year, BuzzFeedNews reported that President Trump had directed his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to congress about the Moscow Tower project. This was what according to BuzzFeedNews was reported to the special counsel Robert Mueller who was investigating allegations of Mr. Donald Trump colluding with Russia in… Continue reading What is truth?
At synod Bunbury 2018, there were delegates present from three different church federations in Indonesia. Two brothers came on behalf of the GGRI, which are sister churches of the Free Reformed Churches of Australia. Two brothers were present who came from the GGRC, a federation with which the FRCA maintain contact, and which are sister… Continue reading Churches in Indonesia
In June of this year, after severing the ties with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, Synod Bunbury of the Free Reformed Churches of Australia (FRCA) decided to maintain contact with two small church federations in the Netherlands. These churches are usually referred to with the acronyms DGK and GKN. DGK stands for De Gereformeerde… Continue reading Attempt to church unity in the Netherlands
Some time ago, on this website in an article in November 2017, I raised the question if democracy may be on its way out. In that article I looked at the political situation in Australia, in a time that our government was struggling, still under then PM Mr. Malcolm Turnbull. I also described the situation in… Continue reading Democracy’s final crisis
Our Reformed News Website has added a new section to our website. This one is called ‘Christians in Academia’. In this section we will publish articles about how Christians can give a good testimony while working or studying in the academic world. It is in universities where Satan works hard to win the future leaders… Continue reading Christians in Academia
The attempt by churches to make themselves more acceptable to the world and to attract more members has led to a decline in those churches. We’ve seen a warning example of this in the Netherlands in the RCN (GKv). The following article by Christopher J Gordon [i]shows how this attempt to be more accommodating to… Continue reading The Burning of the Wooden Shoes – Christopher J. Gordon
Recently the USA’s Embassy in Israel moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This led to massive protests from the Palestinians. Dozens were killed. Many more wounded. What was the problem? West Jerusalem has always been Israeli territory since its independence in 1948. The USA did not move their embassy to the eastern part of Jerusalem,… Continue reading What to think of Jerusalem?
A recent article on WAtoday is quite revealing about the strength of one of the tools we have to oppose the push for “euthanasia” and presents additional perspectives in our struggle against this culture of death. It is the story of a 104 year old prominent Perth academic, Dr. Goodall, planning to travel to Switzerland to… Continue reading Pain and Euthanasia
Last week, the ABC ran an article about the Community Development Programme (DCP) of the Australian government. In that article it reported that many people who received funds under this program were slugged with fines for not completing all the jobs and activities required for which they received funding. Around 35,000 people are supported by… Continue reading How to help those in need
The website www.visualcapitalist.com publishes from time to time nicely done graphics to present statistics in an attractive way. Recently it published a graphic that makes the growth of the world population visible, and how it is divided over the continents. It is an animated graphic which leads you through the years from 1950 to 2100.… Continue reading World Population to reach 11.2 Billion in 2100
Over the last couple of decades there has been a move by Evangelical and Reformed churches to get closer to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) with the aim of removing obstacles for unity. Some say we have a duty to seek unity because of Jesus Christ’s prayer in John 17:21 “that they all may be… Continue reading Eternal life without faith?
Every so often you can read ‘prophecies’ about the end of the world. Often these ‘prophets’ claim to have a special kind of revelation through which they are able to understand the Bible better than anyone else, even better than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 24:36-44; Mark 13:32-37). The Rapture Now again, there is… Continue reading 23 April: The End of the World?
Three well known leaders within Christianity were in the news recently. Two because of their passing away from this earthly life, one because of his resignation as leader of a well known mega church: Billy Graham, R.C. Sproul, and Bill Hybels. Billy Graham Billy Graham is a world renown evangelist. In February, we published a… Continue reading About Bill, Billy and R.C.
