Verbi divini minister : 'n teologiese analise en evaluering van die diens van die predikant soos verwoord in die Kerkorde (1998) van die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The problem investigated in this thesis entails ordinance articles of the Dutch Reformed Church(1998) pertaining to the relevance of offices in the church in the modern world, and more specificallythe office of the minister of the Gospel.During the past 30 years several authors doubted and questioned the authenticity of these offices asfar as relevance, origin and content are concerned. Questions concerning the offices and especiallythe office of the minister of the Gospel, are posed because the Dutch Reformed Church ordinance is,allegedly, not based on the Scriptures and the ordinance also is accused of not providing explicitanswers to these problems.The literature review clearly reveals that this questioning of the offices and more specifically the officeof the minister of the Gospel, is not new in overseas literature.This tendency is also lately encounteredin South Africa. The literature review also reveals that these questions are mainly driven by theauthority crisis and ideologies such as pragmatism, functionalism, secularism, and post-modernismthat leads to secularisation and democratisation. This fact emphasises the urgent need for the Churchoffices to be accounted for and investigated afresh in order to measure (test) its relation to the Biblicalprinciples as found in the Scriptures, in the articles of faith and as they are formulated in the DutchReformed Church Ordinance.A large part of the study is dedicated to the investigation of the principles underlying the ChurchOrdinance and in chapter two an account is also given of the Scripture readings that are relevant toand justify the institution of the church offices according to the New and Old Testament. Theordinance articles pertaining to church offices, are analysed and evaluated in historical context toestablish validity and to account for the natural historical development of the ordinance articles. Thearticles of faith to which the Dutch Reformed Church subscribes, are also scrutunized for evidence ofbasic Biblical principles in order to determine the extent to which these articles of faith support and arereflected in the rulings contained in the Church Ordinance.A critical, analytical, theological and historical investigation of the ordinance articles and the articles offaith reveals that they abundantly account for Christian principles and that the Dutch ReformedChurch ordinance is based solidly on the Scriptures. in accepting and declaring that Jesus Christ isthe Lord and Master of his church on earth, that He instituted and still maintains the church offices asinstruments through which he, himself rules. Attention is also given to the need for reformulation ofredundant or ambiguous articles on the order in the church regarding the clergymen preaching theWord of God.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University