All Articles For Anonymous

I have agreed to write anonymously, but I must caution all of us on this approach because of two dangers it presents. One, this sends an unwanted message to the abused that they must remain hidden from view and must not speak out about their abuse. Two, this provides relief to the perpetrator of the crime that they will not be found out and are actually allowed to continue to abuse in obscurity, leaving the lambs of God in grave danger as the wolf continues to roam unhindered amongst the sheep. This is what happened in my case.1 Sexual abuse...

By God’s grace, Georgetown PRC just celebrated her 25th Anniversary in 2019. Currently a congregation of 154 families and 32 individuals, we began as a group of 34 families and 1 individual. Georgetown is the 26th congregation to be organized in our beloved Protestant Reformed denomination. Our official organization took place on March 2, 1994 in the auditorium of Hudsonville PRC. On Au­gust 21, 1994 our first pastor, Rev. Ron VanOverloop, preached his inaugural sermon on Ephesians 4:19. The church began meeting first at Bauer Elementary and then moved to Heritage Christian School. The land at 7146 48th Avenue was...

In view of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ministry of Rev. Hoeksema, the following resolution was adopted by the P.R.Y.P.F. at the business meeting of the Convention. “Resolved that the 1940 Convention of our Protestant Reformed Young People undertakes herewith to extend the most hearty congratulations of the Federation to the Reverend Herman Hoeksema upon the completion of his twenty-fifth year as a Minister of the Gospel, feeling confident that all of us will be ever grateful for the work he has done for us as Protestant Reformed people. Our prayer is, however, that our lives will so clearly testify...

In July of 1942, Rev. C. Hanko came to the Randolph area and began to give speeches. Later, Rev. H. Hoeksema came with him and the Reformed truth was expounded. The church was organized in August of 1943 with eight families and several individuals. Worship services were held in the Congregational church in the afternoons and evenings. Special meetings and catechism classes were held in various homes. Later, a “ basement church” was purchased from the CRC and was used until 1974, when a new building was built beside the basement church. That building was outgrown and a new sanctuary...

In the 1970s the city of Hudsonville, Michigan was experiencing a population growth that also was reflected in the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church. Hudsonville PRC outgrew its little white building on the southeast corner of VanBuren and School Street, and decided to relocate to a brand new facility on a hill less than a mile away on 32nd Avenue. In the next few years the congregation experienced more steady growth in membership, so a decision was made to establish a daughter congregation in Byron Center, Michigan in order to help alleviate overcrowd­ing in the “new” church building. In 1994 the...

Peace Protestant Reformed Church is located in Dyer, Indiana. Our pastor is Rev. Ryan Barnhill. We are a congregation of 47 families, seven single adults, and a quiver full of 104 baptized children. Our roots are founded in the South Holland PRC, as we are a daughter of that congregation. Peace was organized as a church in 1988. Our first meeting place was Illiana Christian High School in Lansing, IL. We met there for seven years, and then built our first church building and parsonage in Lansing, Illinois. That building served us well for 22 years. Two years ago, we...

God has ordained elders for their place in the church, and God has worked in them spiritually in their upbringing in their homes, in catechism and in the preaching, to prepare them for the work they will need to do in their office. But this training is not sufficient for all the help some saints need. This contribution is not to criticize the work of our minsters and elders, but to make everyone more aware of some of the great and difficult needs of hurting saints, which the ministers and elders alone are not able to meet. (Read Prof. B....

Rev. Herman Hoeksema—The Amazing Cross. 183 pp. Eerdmans Publ. Co. $2.00. So much that is being published these days on Lenten themes is superficial and misleading. Too often the stress is laid on the external aspects of our Lord’s passion, as if the things that matter most about the Christ on the cross are His “manliness”, “heroism,” “patience under tremendous strain,” etc. In not a few Lenten books the cross of our Savior is presented as something to be described rather than expounded. There is a lot of sentimentalism printed about Calvary that is thoroughly unbiblical. Here is a book...

On April 11 the ministers of Classis East held the first meeting of their newly organized Ministers Conference. Taking a lesson from the past the organization has adopted a setup different: from the previous conferences which were organized only to pass out of existence after a few meetings. We may remember that the previous meetings were held after a day of busy classical activities, when some of the delegates were eager to spend a few quiet hours with relatives and friends, others had to hurry off to their trains. Now, however, we have an all-day meeting the day before Classis,...

Both because the discussion is interesting in itself, and because we are discussing the case of Dr. Clark in our paper, our readers may be interested in the following report, which we reprint from “The Presbyterian Guardian” of April 10, 1945: The Presbytery of Philadelphia of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church held its regular spring meeting on March 19th in Mediator Church, Philadelphia. The principal item of business was the consideration of the proposed answer to the complaint against the actions of the presbytery relative to the licensure and ordination of the Rev. Gordon H. Clark, Ph. D. Discussion of the...