Dear Editor, I have just read in Beacon Lights of Rev. H. Hoeksema, and his labors in the youth of the CR Churches. I especially enjoyed his article, called “Lost—A Thinking Cap.” I so enjoyed also, Prof. Engelsma’s articles on Rev. Hoeksema, so I was so happy to hear more of him now. I have many joyous […]
I visited with the Rev. Herman Hoeksema for the last time late in the summer of 1964. I called on him one more time in the summer of 1965. But by this time the earthly house of his tabernacle had so broken down that there could be no visit, only a call. In the late […]
The Final Test “That’s all I have, Mr. Chairman…” With these words to Rev. J. A. Heys, president of the synod, Rev. Herman Hoeksema leaned back in his seat, off to my left, in the front row of the delegates assembled as the 1963 synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches. Slowly he closed the black […]
Vignettes of a Seminary Training Vignette (vin-yet): “a short descriptive literary sketch;” “a brief incident or scene” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). Herman Hoeksema was an old man when I was in seminary (1960-1963). Born in 1886, he was seventy-four when I entered seminary and seventy-seven when I graduated. After my graduation, he had only two […]
Silence on the Schism During my three years of seminary training under him, from 1960-1963, Herman Hoeksema never spoke of the great schism of 1953 in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Never, whether in class or during the breaks, did he refer to, much less excoriate, the ministers who were responsible for the schism. Indeed, he […]
A God-given Leader In Richard Newhouse’s response to Herman Hoeksema’s “peccavi” (“I have erred”), “It took him forty years to admit he made a mistake, and then he did it in a language nobody can understand,” there was more than met the eye. The remark reflected the awareness of the members of the Protestant Reformed […]
Magnanimity During the three years of my close contact with the Rev. Prof. Herman Hoeksema in the Protestant Reformed Seminary, I found him to be unfailingly magnanimous. This will surprise those whose judgment of the man has been formed by the slanders of his theological and ecclesiastical foes. It may also surprise those who conclude […]
A Pastoral Heart (cont.) Herman Hoeksema had the heart of a pastor. His sermons were a public expression of his pastoral heart, as I demonstrated in the previous article. I saw this heart in Hoeksema’s ministry “from house to house” (Acts 20:20). It was the late spring of 1960. Grandpa Jasper Koole was dying. He […]
A Pastoral Heart Although a profound theologian, learned scholar, and formidable controversialist, Herman Hoeksema had the heart of a pastor. His published sermons demonstrate the love of a shepherd for the people of God, especially his own congregation, First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This came home to me many years after Hoeksema’s […]
Pictures from Therefore Have I Spoken: A Biography of Herman Hoeksema by Gertrude Hoeksema, Reformed Free Publishing Association, 1969. First PRC My earliest memory of the man, Herman Hoeksema, hardly counts. It goes back to the middle 1940s when I was six or seven years old. A member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, I would spend a […]