Hope class of 1930; Western Theological Seminary class of 1933; RCA minister;
Hope professor of Bible, 1939-1944; Western Theological Seminary professor of practical
theology, 1956-1963; preacher on Temple Time radio program broadcast from Grand
Rapids, 1952-1972; president of General Synod, 1960-1961. Collection contains printed radio
messages, sermons, articles and his Western Theological Seminary graduation address. Also
includes a copy of a doctoral thesis, "Thematic--Ideational Study of Selected Sermons of Dr.
Henry Bast on the Temple Time Radio Broadcast," for the University of Michigan by Jacoba
Dalebout.
Accession
No.:
W88-0007
Provenance:
Henry Bast
Donor:
Western Theological
Seminary
Processed by:
Chad A. Boorsma, December,
1991
History
Henry Bast was born in Zaalbommel, the Netherlands on May 6, 1906. He
immigrated to America in 1909 and grew up near Fennville, Michigan. Bast graduated from
Hope College in 1930 and from Western Theological Seminary three years later. He
received a doctorate from Hope College in 1956.
Dr. Bast's first charge was at the Richmond Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, MI.
He held this position until 1939 when he accepted the opportunity to become a professor of
Bible at Hope College. In 1944, Henry Bast accepted the call to become the pastor of the
Bethany Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. He remained Bethany's pastor for 12 years,
until he joined the faculty of WTS as professor of practical theology. In 1963, Bast felt the
call to return to a pastorate, namely his former church, the Bethany Reformed Church in
Grand Rapids. Bast was also the speaker on the Temple Time radio broadcast from 1952-
1972. His second tenure with Bethany ended in 1972 when he gave up his position as senior
pastor of the church and become the minister of calling. This final position ended in 1976.
Dr. Bast died on March 29, 1983 in Grand Rapids, MI after a long battle with Parkinson's
disease.
Dr. Henry Bast was a well-known person in the Reformed Church in America.
While president of the General Synod from 1960-1961, he originated the idea of the General
Synod Executive Committee. It was widely held that Bast was an excellent teacher, speaker,
and preacher of the Word of God. He once told Dr. M. Eugene Osterhaven that, "I so love
to do it, I'd pay to preach."
Container List
Box 1
Articles
Bast, Henry
"An Appeal to the Ministers and Laymen of the
Chicago and Iowa Synods," n.d.
"The Authority of the Bible," n.d.
"The Lord's Prayer," 1957 (book)
"Ordination Vows of Ministers and Elders," 1947
"The Preacher and the Word of God," 1933 (WTS graduation
address)
Church Herald, 1947-1973 (scattered) Intelligencer-Leader, 1939 Reformed Review, 1958-1962
Book
The Lord's Prayer, 1957
Clippings, 1958-1983 (scattered)
Dalebout, Jacoba. "Thematic-Ideational Study of Selected Sermons of Dr. Henry
Bast on the Temple Time Radio
Broadcast," 1973 (doctoral dissertation
for the University of Michigan)
Sermons - Bethany Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, 1944-1945
First Annual Henry Bast Festival of Preaching brochure,
1989
Henry Bast Memorial Preaching Program, n.d.
Installation as professor of Practical Theology,
1958