NR #1995-083: Grand Rapids Gets Third Dutch Reformed Seminary [[CORRECTION 10-26-95, ADDED IMMEDIATELY BELOW: The article "Grand Rapids Gets Third Dutch Reformed Seminary" [URNS NR #1995-83, dated August 29, 1995] contains a statement that is erroneous. The statement is "...the new seminary will accept an offer by the Protestant Reformed Seminary to teach a number of courses at the HNRC seminary." The Protestant Reformed Seminary did not offer to teach courses for students at the HNRC seminary. A training committee of the HNRC approached the Protestant Reformed Seminary and requested that their students enroll for select courses at the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In response to this request, the Protestant Reformed Seminary informed the training committee of the HNRC that their seminarians may enroll for courses, and would be welcome. It is the express purpose of the Protestant Reformed Seminary, not only to train men for the ministry in the Protestant Reformed Churches, but also to "train others for the ministry who intend to serve in other churches" (Constitution, Art. 1). Prof. David Engelsma, Rector Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary I'm writing on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Mid-America Reformed Seminary to clarify our present position with respect to the new seminary of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations. To date our executive committee has received a proposal from Dr. Joel Beeke which invites MARS to help and be helped by the new HNRC seminary by our providing some instruction for their students and by our receiving some assistance from them in the training of our students. While we wish the HNRC seminary well, we want to give their proposal serious thought before acting on it. To that end we have referred this matter to our faculty for their reflection. Rev. Roger Sparks, Board Secretary Mid-America Reformed Seminary ... END, CORRECTION, 10-26-95]] Known since 1876 as the home of Calvin Theological Seminary, the official denominational school for training Christian Reformed ministers, Grand Rapids has also played host since the 1920's to the Protestant Reformed Seminary. On August 7, the city gained a third Dutch Reformed theological institution: the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, operated by the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations (HNRC). NR #1995-083: For Immediate Release Grand Rapids Gets Third Dutch Reformed Seminary by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (August 29, 1995) URNS - Grand Rapids may not always deserve its reputation as the "New Jerusalem" of the Dutch Reformed world, but it surely must be the only American city to have three Dutch Reformed seminaries. Known since 1876 as the home of Calvin Theological Seminary, the official denominational school for training Christian Reformed ministers, Grand Rapids has also played host since the 1920's to the Protestant Reformed Seminary. On August 7, the city gained a third Dutch Reformed theological institution: the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, operated by the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations (HNRC). The president and founder of the new seminary will be Dr. Joel Beeke, pastor of the Grand Rapids Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation. "Our goal is indeed to tie training for the ministry very close to the church and to give it a truly pastoral, experiential, and evangelistic flavor," said Beeke. "Our goal is not simply to mimic the Puritans but to take their principles and apply them to our modern situation." Beeke, who received his doctorate in history from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, pastors a congregation of almost a thousand members, and edits his denominational periodical. However, he is better known in other Reformed and Presbyterian circles for his role as a conference speaker for Banner of Truth and his leading role in arranging for the editing, translation, or republication of a number of English and Dutch Puritan works through such publishers as Banner of Truth and Solo Deo Gloria. This attention to Dutch Puritanism will be reflected in the instruction at the new seminary. According to Beeke, the new seminary will focus not only on the better-known distinctives of English and Scottish Puritanism but also on that of the Dutch Second Reformation. Otherwise known as the "Nadere Reformatie," this reform movement in the Dutch state church of the 1700's eventually led to the Afscheiding, an 1834* secession from the Dutch state church. Most of the Afscheiding churches eventually federated in 1869 to become the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk, the majority of whose churches merged in 1892 with a second secession movement to become the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, the "mother church" of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. The churches which refused to merge in 1892 still exist in the Netherlands under the CGKN name; their counterpart in North America was once known as the "Free Christian Reformed Church" or "Old Christian Reformed Church" but is now known as the "Free Reformed Church." Beeke comes from a tradition of churches which never merged in 1869 or 1892 and retain doctrine and piety much like that of the original Afschieding churches. Known in the Netherlands as the Gereformeerde Gemeenten, this tradition's American wing split in 1993 into two denominations, the 8000-member Netherlands Reformed Congregations and the 1600-member Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations. [*Editors Note: The Afscheiding which split the Dutch state church was in 1834, not 1837. The 1837 date represented a split within the secession group, the majority of which eventually became the Christelijke Gereformeerden. The others were known as the "Kerken zonder het Kruis" (Churches under the Cross), one of the predecessors of the Netherlands Reformed Congregations. The issue in the 1837 split was whether the seceding congregations should seek state recognition; the majority of the seceders chose to do so but a minority, similar to the Scottish Covenanters, refused to seek recognition on terms which would imply the state's right to withdraw that recognition and which would require them to give up their claim to be the legitimate continuation of the state church.] Despite its strongly conservative background, Beeke's new seminary is already exhibiting an unusually high degree of cooperation for the conservative Reformed world. Although Beeke will serve as president and fellow HNRC minister Rev. James Greendyk will serve as vice-president, most of the other instruction will be from non-HNRC sources. The seminary's third regular faculty member teaching Greek, Hebrew, and Latin will be Rev. Charles Krahe, the retired pastor of Seventh Reformed Church, a strongly conservative congregation in Grand Rapids which was recently expelled from the Reformed Church in America for refusing to pay denominational financial assessments. Rev. Ray Lanning of the Alliance of Reformed Churches will also lecture on the history of the Psalter. An even more significant possibility for interdenominational cooperation may loom on the horizon. If approved by the HNRC classis on September 13, the new seminary will accept an offer by the Protestant Reformed Seminary to teach a number of biblical, historical, and theological courses for students at the HNRC seminary and propose, subject to approval by the board of Mid-America Reformed Seminary the following week, a similar arrangement with Mid-America. This second arrangement would have Beeke serve as an adjunct professor teaching onsite classes at MId-America's new location in Dyer, Indiana, open to students at both seminaries. Additional instruction at the new seminary would be provided through prepared videotape lectures from professors at Westminster Theological Seminary in California, Whitefield Seminary, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. According to Beeke, tapes from Westminster-California president Dr. W. Robert Godfrey would be among the earliest to be used. "By using an eclectic approach, we are hoping to put together a pretty reputable program on the full seminary level," said Beeke. While admission of students from other denominations will be under consideration, for now, all four students at the seminary are members of the HNRC and entered under an extremely strict program of admission to ministerial training. Candidates for ministerial studies in the HNRC must meet very high personal standards and exhibit clear testimony of their conversion and call to Christian service, but those who meet such standards receive free tuition and have most or all of their other costs subsidized. According to Beeke, the denomination is in the process of raising an anticipated $17,000 per student which will be necessary to cover seminary fees and living expenses during each year of the four-year seminary program. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1993-030: Netherlands Reformed Synod Deposes Beeke, First NRC Consistory; Church Expels Synod Delegates from Building Contact List: Dr. Joel Beeke, Pastor, Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation 2115 Romence NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 * H/O: (616) 459-6565 * E-Mail: JRBeeke@aol.com ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr95-083.txt [corrected version], [and corrected again, 10-25-95] .