The Christian conviction of the absoluteness of the Christianity has entered so deeply into the consciousness of the Church that the whole history of Christian doctrine may be viewed as one great struggle for upholding it over against all sorts of opposition and denial.
All the developments of the doctrine of Christ take their start from and move within the limits of the Chalcedonian Symbol, but very many Christians have been unable to find contentment in this formulary.
Dutch theology during the present century has been subject to various influences. Its character has been molded in turn not only by Calvinism, which has always continued to live among the people, but also by the Swiss Reveil; both by the German Vermittelungstheologie and by Greek philosophy.
As has often been remarked, there is between Christianity and all other religions one prominent characteristic and real difference. Christ is, as it were, Christianity. He is the living Lord who now sitteth at the right hand of God and continues the work of redemption through His Word and Spirit. No other religion can compare.
In spite of two influential groups of Churches in the Netherlands, both originating in a secession from the Established Church, the one in 1834, the other in 1886, being brought together and holding their “First General Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands”, the model of reformation remained in contention.
The centuries preceding the French Revolution (1789) are in many ways different from the epoch that followed. The radical change of direction introduced into the life and thought of the nations by this tremendous event shattered the continuity of history and impacted the matter of our faith.
When a person looks at the world round about him for the first time, a multitude of questions throng in upon him from all sides. For the questions that we are concerned with in our lives are innumerable and most of them are so insoluble that, after once having come to grips with them, we seem to feel unable to withdraw from the contest.