A Note about Rev. H. J. Kuiper

The March/April 2024 issue of The Outlook includes a timeless article by Rev. H. J. Kuiper about the historicity of the resurrection, originally published in 1959. Rev. Kuiper wrote:

It is not easy to explain the skepticism of the apostles. We can scarcely imagine that the three predictions of Christ, when he was still alive, that he would rise from the dead the third day, had been forgotten completely by all the disciples. Yet it seems not to have registered with them. The very idea of a suffering and dying Messiah was wholly out of line with their carnal conception of his kingdom. Since there was no room in their theology for a suffering and crucified King, the idea of a resurrection did not fit in with it either. No wonder the prediction that he would rise the third day did not impress them! It afforded them no comfort during the awful suffering of Golgotha and the gloom of the three sad days when he was dead.

But let us not fail to consider that the very unbelief of the apostles, sinful though it was, adds immeasurably to the value of their subsequent testimony that Christ had truly been raised from the dead. Their conviction on this point could not have been the fruit of wishful thinking, of an overwrought imagination. The last thing they expected was that Jesus would rise and that in heavenly glory. Their grief and despair, the extreme reluctance with which they gave credence to the various reports that their Lord had been seen alive, the dejection of the two men of Emmaus, and the eclipse of their faith as revealed in their melancholy words to Jesus: “We hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel”—all this indicates that when the disciples finally were convinced that the Master had risen, it was because they could not but accept the overwhelming evidence of the reality of that glorious event.

The rest of Rev. Kuiper's article is available on the Outlook archive website. It also called our attention to the incredible legacy of Rev. Kuiper's life and ministry.

Rev. Henry J. Kuiper

You can read a memorial of Rev. H. J. Kuiper by Edward Heerema here. We hope our readers will make full use of Reformed Fellowship's extensive Outlook archive website. It offers a valuable window into Reformed church history.