In His providence, in January of 2020 Jehovah God unleashed a pandemic upon the world. This consequence of the fall into sin and harbinger of the judgment to come left nearly everyone in the world waiting and wondering what the SARS-CoV-2 virus was going to do if it infected their bodies. As is usually the case for humans when something too big for us to control confronts us, we “cried every man unto his god” (Jonah 1:5). Whether that god was an idol, science, man himself, or the true God, men cried out. According to God’s decree, once sick, some...
Results 1 to 10 of 85
INTRODUCTION Last time we focused on John Calvin’s important sermon on Deuteronomy 22:5 (the Bible’s condemnation of cross-dressing). In that sermon Calvin had important things to say that apply to transgender behavior and transgender activism in the church. Among many other important points Calvin made, one was that the ninth commandment demands honesty in clothing. Therefore, a person must not use his clothing to lie to others about the sex and gender he has been created by God to be. Does that same ninth commandment have anything to say to the rest of us about how we dress? What does...
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God— Deuteronomy 22:5 INTRODUCTION The church of Christ, especially in Western nations, exists in societies undergoing a moral revolution. The center of that revolution right now concerns whether or not biological sex and gender are one. Historically it has been so, but transgender activism separates the two, teaching that the source of one’s gender ought not necessarily be one’s biological sex. Inward feelings of dysphoria concerning one’s sex may...
INTRODUCTION In my previous article (see December 2025, p. 101), I pointed out that the foundation for unity in the Reformed Christian school is biblical, creedal truth. On that foundation all involved in the life of the school can effectively handle the twofold concern that can at times create division in the school community; namely, the concern to maintain the whole/institution and the concern to care for the individual student. I stated that we maintain unity in the school on that foundation by working to keep and preserve the whole without idolizing it or worshiping it, while simultaneously working for...
INTRODUCTION How thankful we must be for the schools God has given us! They are the implication of marvelous truths of Scripture, the fruit of conviction worked into the hearts of many who have gone before us, the outcome of great sacrifice through both years of lean and of plenty. God forbid we take them for granted! How thankful we must be for our teachers! They sacrifice themselves for the sake of the covenant seed. They strive to develop what has been placed in that seed along the lines of antithetical living to God’s glory in all aspects of life....
INTRODUCTION The Reformation did not come quickly to England. Separated from continental Europe by water, and held tightly by Rome under a united monarchy and clergy, England sat in medieval darkness longer than Germany and the Lowlands. To be sure, there had long been discontent with clerical corruption, the wealth of the monasteries, and, since Wycliffe, the church’s resistance to Scripture in the English tongue. Yet, it was not until the 1530s that the Reformation formally began to take shape in England. One man God used to ensure the English Reformation’s shape was the shape of Scripture was William Tyndale....
professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of First PRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan INTRODUCTION Holiness is a concern to the Protestant Reformed Churches. The fathers of the PRC saw that Abraham Kuyper’s common grace doctrine theoretically destroyed the spiritual difference between church and world. There were concerns about the effects that Kuyper’s doctrine was clearly having in the lives of the people of God, concerns that many of the leaders of the CRC shared with the fathers of the PRC even if these men did not see the doctrinal root of the problem....
professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of First PRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan GOING TO THE SERMON During the Reformation period, if a Roman Catholic person was on his way to church and someone asked him where he was going, he would say, “I am on my way to the mass.” If the same question was put to a Reformed person, however, it was widely known that he would respond, “I am on my way to the sermon.” The preached word was central to the worship services of the Reformed even as the...
Introduction Jon A. Roebling, a genius of a man, engineered and built the Brooklyn Bridge. Having already built complex bridges in Pittsburgh, in Cincinnati, and over the Niagara Falls, Roebling was convinced such a bridge could and should be flung over the East River connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. Though he was an unbeliever, Roebling was so convinced that such a bridge would benefit the common good that he gave much of his own time and money to get the project started. Once it was in motion, he willingly allowed himself to be cheated out of much financial gain to keep...
professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of First PRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan INTRODUCTION On December 10, 2024, WOOD TV 8 in Grand Rapids aired a three-part special report on sexual abuse in the PRCA under the title, “Private Sins.” For anyone who has not seen the report, you can find it here: https:// www.woodtv.com/news/target-8/private-sin-how-a-church-protected-child-molesters/. The report further publicizes a number of high-profile cases of sexual abuse in the PRCA, also giving public voice to a number of people who experienced that abuse. Who can fault the news station for this report? Although...
