As the college of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), Calvin holds to the position of the CRC on human sexuality, articulated in 1973 and 2002. We believe that homosexual orientation is not a sin, and we strive to love our gay, lesbian, and bisexual students as ourselves, as God expects of us. We also affirm […]

In his fine essay on the providence of God, Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield mentions the frequent saying of a certain woman familiar to him. That housewife was fond of saying, “We will not be robbed of God’s providence.” That quotation and its source are instructive for the consideration of the doctrine of providence, especially […]

The Reformed confession of providence includes the confession that God is sovereign over evil. This is a particular emphasis of the Reformed confession of providence. The Belgic Confession in article 13 gives a general statement of the doctrine of providence and quickly moves to an extended treatment of the doctrine of providence and evil. The […]

When we speak of God’s providence as his personal government of the world, we mean that he governs all things. The scope of providence extends to all things. It includes the entire universe, every creature in the universe, and every event that happens in that universe from the explosion of a star, to the oscillations […]

The doctrine of providence is the confession of the church. In the Old Testament Enoch preached it when he preached that all things culminate in the Lord’s coming. Noah lived by faith in it and built an ark to the saving of his house. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed that God suffered no man to […]

Recently we increased the size of Beacon Lights from 24 pages to 28 pages. Now the staff is pleased to announce another enhancement to the magazine. At our June meeting we decided to increase the number of yearly publications from the current 11 issues to 12 issues. No longer will there be a combined August-September […]

In the preceding article in this series, I contrasted the kingdom-life of doctrinal, ecclesiastical, and spiritual Calvinists in all the spheres with the cultural-Calvinists’ dream of Christianizing the world. What now is the expectation of us citizens of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ?  What is our expectation with regard to the kingdom of […]

Rejection of the (impossible) project of Christianizing the world by a (fictitious) common grace of God in no wise implies an Anabaptistic flight from the world.  The Reformed Christian who heeds God’s call in Scripture, rather than Abraham Kuyper’s in Lectures on Calvinism, lives a kingdom-life by the grace and Spirit of Jesus Christ in […]

In this installment in the series examining the crusade in Reformed and evangelical circles in North America to Christianize the world, I present the kingdom alternative of genuine Calvinism.  Rejection of the project of common grace to influence the culture of the world does not imply rejection of the calling of the Christian to live […]

Those who promote the Christianizing of the world as the duty of the church and of the Christian present the project as the coming of the kingdom of God in the world.  The Christian colleges that are on this bandwagon beat the drum of the coming of the kingdom.  Not much is heard of church […]