All Articles For Flikkema, Richard

Well, this is the last article that you will read written by the undersigned, at least for awhile. For the next twelve articles in this rubric you must look to Rev. Bruinsma and Rev. Koole. It is my prayer that you who took the time to read my articles might have been edified by them. And further, it is my prayer that you who take the time to read the future articles written by my colleagues might also be edified by them. I am confident that you will be. 

Rev. Flikkema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Wyckoff, New Jersey. This article is written out of joy and thanksgiving to God and with the desire that the churches and readers of The Standard Bearer might rejoice with us. God in His grace has given to us our own house of worship! Through the years of our existence the Lord always gave us a place in which to worship Him on the Lord’s Day. But not until now do we have our own church building. The history is very long, spanning some ten years. As early as 1975, two years...

That we live in what the Bible calls “the last time” there simply can be no question. The signs of Christ’s coming about which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to us in a passage such as Matthew 24 are all being fulfilled: wars and rumors of wars, nation rising up against nation, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. All these are occurring today in ever greater measure.

The last time: how are we living? Are we living in these last times by partaking of the king’s meat? Do we like the king’s meat? Do we find that it is desirable and that it tastes delicious? If our answer to those questions is yes, then we, you and I, are simply not living in these last times as we should. To put it bluntly, if our answer to those questions is yes, then we, you and I, are in deep spiritual trouble. We are in deep spiritual trouble. We are in deep spiritual trouble exactly because the Word...

The last time: how are we living? That we live in the last times means that we must live our lives in complete separation from the world. As we walk in the midst of this world we must be distinct. We must manifest in our lives that there is indeed something different about us; something so completely different that we have absolutely nothing in common with the world of sin and iniquity which surrounds us. 

The last time: how are we living? Are we living in these last times as humble children of God, who ascribe all the glory, might, and honor to God? Or are we living as proud boastful people, who ascribe all the glory, might, and honor to ourselves? If the former is true, then we are living in these last times as we should. But if the latter is true, then we had better give heed to the vivid warning of Scripture as that is found in Daniel chapter 4. 

It is the purpose of this writer in this article and in the subsequent articles that have been assigned to him to treat the idea of the signs of the times in a rather different way.

In our series under the above heading, we have now reached the final article that I have been called upon to write for this rubric. And, therefore, that means that we will finish this series with the powerful Word of God as that is set forth for us in the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel. 

Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Pilgrim Watcher. My God-fearing parents gave me that name as an expression of the faith that lived in them, and in order to express to me what my life must be.