Books

In Holy Service covers a wide range of interesting and practical topics which can help to answer questions such as: what does it mean to be a believer and share in Christ’s anointing? What is the place and calling of a woman as a single person, as married, as a member of the church? How can she best use her gifts? What exactly is the calling of a minister of the gospel? What do his duties entail? What about the office of elder? How is our secular age similar to what the early Christian church experienced? How can we learn from their example? And much more can be found in this book.

Concerned with an apparent shift among conservative scholars to answer in the negative, Cornelis Van Dam argues that reading Genesis 1 and 2 as history is not only justified but necessary. Van Dam clarifies the different roles that ancient Near Eastern literature and scientific theories should play in our understanding of the Bible as he carefully deals with the exegetical details of the first two chapters of the Bible.

This book records the written and oral debate of several seminary professors of Reformed Protestant persuasion. In it they discuss the contours and details of the theology of the covenant as it has developed particularly in the Canadian Reformed and United Reformed Churches of North America, in an effort to promote church unity. Co-edited with John A. Bouwers.

The office of deacon is God’s gift to his church to ensure that all can share in the liberating joy of redemption, but today it is often undervalued, misunderstood, and perceived to be of little importance. In The Deacon, the author considers the Old Testament background for this calling, the deacon in New Testament times and in church history, and the current function of the office. You will rediscover the high and privileged calling of deacons and come to a better understanding of what God requires of them.

Struggling Christians are often drawn to the book of Job, which relates how a suffering child of God wrestled with the problems that threatened to overwhelm his life. We can easily relate to Job’s distress and questions. But what is the main teaching of this part of God’s Word? These sermons show that the focus of the book of Job is on God’s faithfulness to his work of renewal in spite of satanic attacks and human stumbling. This gospel is the true source of hope and comfort for all who experience earthly trials. This book can be used for personal enrichment and encouragement, as a study guide with questions included, or for public worship with liturgy provide.

Do you want to delve into the riches of the gospel more deeply and live out of them more consistently? This three-volume set explores the central truths of Scripture so that those who are already familiar with the basics of the Christian faith continue to grow in understanding the height, breadth, and depth of God’s Holy Word. At the same time, our God gave us sound doctrine for daily living. Thus, each chapter draws connections to everyday life as it is experienced by moms and dads, teens and young adults, married and unmarried, as well as people who are healthy, sick, happy, and distressed–in short, real people living real lives in a really broken world.

Author: J. Van Vliet. Publisher: Lucerna: CRTS Publications, 2016. ISBN 9780994805935

We are in the last days. Living well in such a time depends upon believing that Christ has conquered sin and death and is ruling today, alive at God’s right hand. These essays on the end time will help Christians live like people who really have eternal life already–the life of the Spirit of Christ who lives and moves in both Christ and Christians.

Editor: T. G. Van Raalte. Publisher: Pickwick/CRTS Lucerna Publications, 2016. ISBN: 9781498234061

How should the Word of God be interpreted and applied today? In this volume, no less than sixteen Reformed scholars from four different countries join together to tackle the hard questions that often arise when we busy ourselves with the weighty responsibility of interpreting Holy Scripture. As iron sharpens iron, so also these Reformed scholars challenge each other and their readers to ask not only how hermeneutics can be done, but ultimately, how it should be done so that God’s Word of Truth may be handled correctly (2 Tim 2:15).

Editor: M. te Velde, G.H. Visscher. Publisher: Wipf and Stock, 2014. ISBN 9781625649119

This book addresses such fundamental issues through the eyes of Scripture and against the backdrop of North America’s dual heritage of Christianity and humanism. Government, politics, and the Bible do not seem like a good mix. But as this book aims to show, the Bible has much wisdom to teach us about the place and role of government and its citizens.

Author: C. Van Dam. Publisher: Wipf and Stock, 2011. ISBN 9781610973267

Which fountains of wisdom, which never-failing streams, which wells of joy-filled salvation are we missing out on, if we neglect the Old Testament? In this celebratory volume, fifteen scholars collaborate to explain diverse aspects of the Christian life, with a special focus on drawing lines from the Old Testament.

Editor: J. Van Vliet. Publisher: Pickwick Publications, 2011. ISBN 9781608999491

Offering both a scholarly overview of Farel’s life and access to his own words, this book demonstrates the importance of Farel to the Reformation. It will be welcomed not only by scholars engaged in research on French reform movements, but also by students of history, theology, or literature wishing to read some of the earliest theological texts originally written in French.

Authors: T.G. Van Raalte and J. Zuidema. Publisher: Ashgate, 2011. ISBN 9781409418849