Rev. VanBaren. PRCA.org. RBO. P.R. Special Ed. Not many today, I think, could put those four enti­ties together in one short sentence. But it can be done. In fact, the Covenant Reformed News could well be added to the mix. Protestant Reformed Special Ed plays an important part in the work of many of our Protestant Reformed schools. Who today remembers, or even ever knew, that it was Rev. Gise J. VanBaren whose initiative led to the formation and development of the Special Education So­ciety. Four girls at Hudsonville, way back when Rev. VanBaren was pastor there, needed special catechism...

Previous article in this series: January 15, 2019, p. 183. Scripture is silent with respect to the history of the Jewish state between the time of Malachi and the birth of John the Baptist some 400 years later. But we can learn something of that history from other sources. We know, for example, that the Jews were ruled by various world powers that rose and fell during this period. Since 536 B.C., they were under what proved to be a rather mild rule by the Persians. Medo-Persia, you will recall, constituted the breast and arms of silver in Nebuchadnezzar’s image...

Previous article in this series: January 1, 2019, p. 156. The temple of God in Jerusalem, as we saw last time, had at last been rebuilt—some twenty years after the return of the exiles. Jerusalem’s walls, however, lay still in ruins, having been thrown down more than a century before by the troops of Nebuchadnezzar. The weakest of the Jews’ enemies, therefore, had easy access to the city. They could, if they chose, march right in. That was much to their liking of course, because they hated the Jews. The decree of Cyrus had been a grievous disappointment to them....

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2018, p. 135. “This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built” (Hag. 1:2). The Jews knew exactly what the prophet was referring to. This had been their argument. “The time is not come. Sometime in the future, maybe, we can build the house of God. But not now. There is the decree of the king, you know. And times are tough. There are economic issues that make it inadvisable to carry on with so ambitious a project as building the house of the Lord...

Previous article in this series: October 15, 2018, p. 36. The history of the church in the old dispensation has been aptly likened to birth pangs. “For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail,” said Micah the prophet. “Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies” (Micah 4:9,...

Previous article in this series: September 15, 2018, p. 490. Nebuchadnezzar left Jerusalem in smoldering ruins. Thousands of Jews were either killed or carried off to Babylon. But, since the poorest of the people yet remained in the land, the history of what had once been the nation of Judah is not yet finished. Over the Jews who remained, Nebuchadnezzar placed Gedaliah as governor. Mizpah, a city about ten miles north of the ruins of Jerusalem, was chosen as the capital. After the departure of the Chaldean army and the establishment of Gedaliah, remnants of the scattered army of Zedekiah...

Previous article in this series: May 1, 2018, p. 346. “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.” Jeremiah 27:12-13 Hardly a popular course of action was that being advocated by the prophet Jeremiah. To submit meekly to foreign domination would strike the people as being so un-Jewish, so unpatriotic. There were, in fact, immediate attempts to discredit the message of God’s prophet. Of one of these attempts we read in chapter 28. Hananiah came to the people with what he claimed also to be the word of the...

Previous article in this series: May 1, 2018, p. 346. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so. Jeremiah 5:29–31 Indeed, “wonderful,” that is, “astonishing”! “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:11). Calvin, here, is instructive. It was no doubt enough to...

Previous article in this series: April 15, 2018, p. 320. The prostitution to idolatry that Ezekiel had already seen, by vision, in the temple of God in Jerusalem must have seemed incredible to the prophet. But then, astoundingly, the Lord says, “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do” (8:13). This time, the Lord brought Ezekiel to “the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north.” And there he saw women sitting, “weeping for Tammuz” (8:14). Nothing more is said here or elsewhere in Scripture about Tammuz. A reputable, recently published Bible dictionary...

Previous article in this series: June 2017, p. 395. The previous article in “Upon This Rock” was the twenty-second in a kind of series-within-a series entitled “Robbing Christ of His Honor.” Those articles, as you might recall, were dealing with the fascinating subject of typology, inspired in large part by articles of Rev. George Ophoff reflecting on it long ago in the SB. Much to my regret, my writing on it was interrupted. Lord willing, I will be able to return later to that aborted mini-series, but, for now, the best I can do is (using material I have already...