All Articles For Haak, Carl J.

And David said unto him [Mephibosheth], Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually—2 Samuel 9:7 What a day it was when kindness came to the sad village of Lodebar to “fetch” a lame, lost, and fearful son of the covenant and carry him to be seated at the king’s table! Was this merely David’s kindness to a lame man? Was it only a kindness kindled by David’s memories of his beloved Jonathan? No,...

Rev. Carl Haak, minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches, Michigan and member of Georgetown PRC, Hudsonvile, Michigan Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Hebrews 13:3 Imprisonment, torture, beatings, death threats, bombings of churches, burning of homes, looting of property—to these things most of us are strangers. Yet, for millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ worldwide these things are a daily reality. In North Korea, Somalia, Myanmar, India, Nige-ria, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, China, and other nations, Christians are being killed, sentenced to prison,...

Marriage is a permanent bond—for life. When God joins you in marriage to your husband or wife, He forms a bond that cannot be dissolved except by God Himself in death. Not even divorce dissolves a marriage so that you are free to be married again to another while your spouse lives. When God joins you to a wife or husband, He makes for you a lifelong bond. And He calls you to glorify Him by living with each other in the true love of God, which is faithful, sacrificial, and enduring—a love that seeks not your own but seeks...

This message was aired on the Reformed Witness Hour on March 1, 1999. What contributes to dead orthodoxy? What con­tributes to mere formal worship? What contributes to a lack of pastors? What contributes to an increase of complex conflict in family and church? What contrib­utes to many young people exiting a doctrinally sound denomination like ours? Of course, there are other components, but I strongly suggest that alcohol abuse is a far stronger factor than we have been willing to consider. Quickly to disagree and dismiss this diagno­sis is to ignore what Scripture frequently indicates to be a problem in...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan and radio pastor for the Reformed Witness Hour, on which this message was aired. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” I Thessalonians 1:8 In this chapter of I Thessalonians the apostle Paul states that he knew that the believers in Thessalonica had been eternally chosen of God unto salvation. He says to them in verse 4, “Knowing, brethren beloved,...

I Chronicles 29: 11-14 (Lord’s Day 32; Q&A 86)   For four and half centuries the biblical teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism has molded the spiritual lives of Reformed believers. The apostle Paul confesses that it was grace alone, by the revelation of the Word alone, and though the Spirit of God alone, that made him to be what he was (I Cor. 15:10; I Tim. 1:14). And all who have been bless­ed under the rearing of the Catechism paraphrase Paul’s confession: “I am what I am by the grace of God, and that grace was exceeding abundant towards me...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, MI. This article is the text of one of the six speeches given at the PR Seminary-sponsored conference, in October of last year, commemorating the 450th anniversary of the writing of the Heidelberg Catechism. The other five were printed in the November 1, 2013 issue of the SB. “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” Psalm 116 In Psalm 116, the psalmist David gives...

When will Jesus come again? After seeing in the Word of God that Jesus comes yet once more in the future, comes to destroy this present world and to gather unto Himself His church, to judge the wicked, and to bring about the newheavens and the new earth we might ask the question: When will He come? Can we know the time? Can we make predictions? Should we, as Christians, begin to set dates when Jesus is expected to come? Our Lord Himself gave a very clear answer to this question. He said in Mark 13:32, 33, “But of that...

The controversy between Jehovah the living God, and Pharaoh king of Egypt, is recorded in the Bible to show the power of God to save His people and to redeem them from all their sins. The apostle Paul, inRomans 9:17, when speaking of the sovereign, almighty predestination of God, that is, God’s eternal determination of who will be saved and who will not be saved, shows from the life of Pharaoh that this is accomplished by the mighty will of God: “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my...

In a recent broadcast we made reference to a debate that was provoked by a decision made in Kansas to allow creation to be taught in the public schools. The opponents of that decision argued vehemently that the evolutionary explanation of the origin of the world is a scientific fact. The decision that was made in Kansas pointed out that evolution is not a fact but is a theory. That is, the evolutionary explanation of the origin of the world is an explanation that is ultimately unprovable by the accepted scientific method. The opponents of the decision simply would not...