In 1867 the church regulations had been changed: Ministers and other office-bearers could be called by the congregation, first it was the consistory. In this way a lot of anti-modernist elders came to the consistory of the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk in Amsterdam. The congregation was anti-modernist and therefore expected that Kuyper was going to lead the struggle for restoration to a Reformed (Hervormde) doctrine. There came a charge against a modernist preacher, who opposed the resurrection of Christ, but the classis didn’t want to depose him.

In 1883 Kuyper published the ‘Tractaat van de Reformatie der Kerken’ (Treatise on the Reformation of the Churches). He wanted resistance against church authorities, by Reformed office bearers and consistories. So Amsterdam now seriously headed for a conflict with the classis. They made the situation worse by doing the following:

-   The consistory didn’t allow modernist cathechism students to make confession of faith. They also didn’t give them the  attestation (good Christian behaviour), so they couldn’t make confession in other congregations as well

-   They tried to keep their church buildings and belongins, if they would be deposed.