All Articles For Gritters, Barry

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...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Review A couple of months ago I began by saying that, although we do not know when the end will come in terms of days or even years, the Bible does give us good instructions as to what we must expect before the Lord returned to make all things new. I hope and pray that you will know these things! Close to the end there will be a wholesale “divorcing” (apostasy means “putting away”) of the truth by the churches. Men and women in leadership and in...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. That is a good question. Why have Reformed churches always had a high view of catechism? Why are parents spending so much time making sure their children know their catechism, in order that sometime during the week their pastor or possibly an elder can ask them to recite the questions? Or, more basically, why do covenant parents send their children to catechism? On evening, while washing dishes after a hard day and looking up against a hectic evening, Mom had an idea. Drying her hands, she...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. What do you think of yourself as a person? How is your self esteem? In other words, in your eyes, how much are you worth? This isn’t a burning question just in the church world today. (It is that, too. I own and have read just two of the many books written about “self esteem” lately. Ray Burwick wrote one called, Self Esteem: You’re Better Than You Think, and Robert Schuller, Self Esteem: The New Reformation. And, though Burwick’s does not attack the basics of the Reformed faith as Schuller’s does, it...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Before you turn the page, because you know you are not nearly close enough to marriage even to think about preparing for it, stick around a bit. This iswritten for you. It is not written for those close to marriage. In fact, if you are engaged, and marriage is around the corner, it is almost too late to think about preparing for marriage in the sense that I am speaking of it. This article is written for all of you who would like to be married some...