In the past five years the board has been busy completing the library of Beacon Lights. This library of Beacon Lights includes all issues from the time Beacon Lights was first printed up to the present issue. The library includes all copies issued in the past seventeen years. These copies are all indexed and filed according to subject and topic.

Beacon Lights is the most important magazine in this library, however, the library also receives Standard Bearer and several other religious magazines. The board hopes to place a complete set of Standard Bearers in the library in the future. Thus, this magazine is not available for use as of now. Other items which may interest our readers are a set of court records on the case of First Church, Acts of Synod and information for Young People’s Society after recess programs. There are some Convention booklets and speeches of the past few years.

If anyone wishes to use this library, they should write to the librarian for the topic. Information will be mailed to you in an envelope furnished with the return address and return postage. All material may he kept for two weeks frons the date it is mailed. Material that is overdue will be subject to a five cent a day fine.

Anyone desiring information and material from this library must mail their request at least a week in advance to the time they wish to have the material. Requests should he mailed to 131 Barret, Grandville, Michigan.

We hope that this library will be of much service to our young people and other interested readers.

“The Recipients of the Gospel of the Promise”

I.          Content of the Gospel

II.         Character of the Promise

III.       What Believers Themselves Are

IV.       Objections

The gospel of the promise has two meanings. One, the gospel as the content of the promise, and the other meaning the gospel as glad tidings.

God gave His people one promise which began with the fall of man. This promise is also known as the seed promise or the protevangel. This promise was given to our first parents, Adam and Eve, and God has renewed that promise through the ages constantly shedding light upon that promise. The protevangel was a promise only to the elect and a prediction of Satan’s destruction. (There was no promise for the devil.) In Genesis 3:15 God promises to bring into being the elect and to destroy the evil one. The content of the promise is Christ Himself in connection with the cross. (God sees His elect as holy and sinless.)

The character of the promise is that man by nature is a person of conditions, but God, on the other hand, is the unchangeable One Who has no conditional dealings with man. The promise is an unconditional oath to His people. Election is the supreme cause and fount of God’s salvation.

There are objections to this promise of the gospel. First, some say that the gospel of election can’t be preached because we do not know who the elect are. On the contrary, it is believed that, historically, the believers are the church and the true church can be seen. Election is not a hidden thing for God in His fulness expresses salvation and all its glad tidings to His people. Then too, God is the infallible and true preacher of the Word whose chief concern is the salvation of His people.

A second objection to this promise is that the gospel should not be preached to all men; however, the Bible teaches that the gospel should be preached to all men. Our confessions and catechism also teach that the gospel should be preached to all men.

The final objection to the gospel of the promise is that the gospel promise is a prophecy prediction and not a promise. Those who adhere to this conviction believe that the promise is given to everyone. Every baptized child receives the promise. The opposing view to this conviction is that he who wants a promise to all must deny that the promise is an oath given to the believers alone. To say that the promises of God are conditional is to destroy the promise of salvation and its benefits. God assures the election of His children in their hearts for we read that God’s spirit beareth witness with our spirit, telling us that we are His children.