All Articles For Gritters, Barry

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Jesus Christ is coming again! I believe that! Every Sunday evening, in our heart or with our mouth, we confess this: “I believe in Jesus Christ . . . he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” This same Jesus who came to planet earth some two thousand years ago, who gave Himself in love for us, will come back in that same love for us. When? The battle of Armageddon (or Gog and Magog) will be the last battle the world experiences. In this...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. No, we cannot know the day and the hour that Jesus is coming again to make all things new. We can’t know when He will return to take the church to glory. We may not try to determine the day or even the year. But, you say, if we cannot pinpoint the time the Lord will come, is there any profit in studying about those days, and even asking how close they are? Definitely, yes! It’s not for nothing that the Bible gives us information about the...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. As preparation for reading or discussing this article, read and. study the following texts in their contexts:Daniel 7:10; Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 25:31-46, Acts. 10:42, Acts 17:31,Romans 2:16, Romans 14:10-12, II Corinthians 5:10, Hebrews 9:27, I Peter 1:17, Jude 1:14, 15, Revelation 20:12, 13. See also Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 19 and Belgic Confession; Article 37: Perhaps a good exercise would be to write out the shorter ones on a piece of paper, and summarize the longer ones in your own words. Now, with the Word of God at your hand, read what follows. When we stand before...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. O blessed Father, the great God of spiritual Israel, of Thine elect over the whole world; we, raise this prayer especially on behalf of the youth of the church, who are Thy chosen, on whom Thou dost look with loving eyes of favor, for those in the strength of their youth—the covenant young people.  Their needs are great, Father—sometimes greater than the needs of others. And if not greater, yet the position and experience of the young people in the battle of faith make their needs...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. A major sign of the end times is the rise and development of Antichrist. In the last days, shortly before the return of our Lord, Antichrist will come to rule the world, conquer the nations, and overcome the saints, as a power that cannot be resisted. He will be the antithesis to Christ. The name Scripture gives, him is “Antichrist,” in the singular. He is “the man of sin” and the “son of perdition,” who “opposes,” “exalts himself,” “sitteth in the temple of God,” shows “himself that...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. The biblical teaching about Antichrist, who will come in place of Christ and against Christ, is that he will be both a political and an ecclesiastical power. His reign of terror for the people of God will be a reign over both the “church” and the “world.” One horrible result of the reign of the Antichrist will be a persecution of God’s people. Even though some do not believe that there will be a great persecution (some postmillennialists) and others believe that, although there will be a...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. To say that young people wring their hands over the question of what to do after high school is to say something to which every young person grimly nods. The rare bird that knows from the third grade on what he/she is going to do is enough to make the other 99.9% of the flock a bit jealous and perhaps all the more troubled besides. “Why don’t I know what I need to do for the rest of my life? Now that I’m 18 years old...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Few men have the privilege to work with their own father. Probably fewer still have the privilege to work with their father in the gospel of Jesus Christ. For 30 days in February, my father – Elder Edwin Gritters from Redlands, California – and I had that opportunity to labor in God’s work in Jamaica. First PRC of Grand Rapids and the Mission Committee of the PRC asked us to work together to conduct the third seminar on the island. Gladly we accepted the invitation, and set...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Believing that God has a place for each of His children, we are encouraged in our search for work after we finish school. God’s place for each of us is our “divine office and calling.” In trying to determine what to do after high school, the old Latin phrase “Ora et labora” (pray and work!) sends us on our way. We pray with Paul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” and we work with all our might trying to find the answer of the...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. I ended last time showing the differences between the decisions the young men and young women make regarding what to do after high school. To summarize, we could say that the decision of what to do after high school has to be made in the light of these questions: First, what abilities has God given me? What are my God-given skills? Second, what does God tell me in His Word as to what is proper and what not? And third, what can I do that best...