Who Is to Blame for the Scandal of Rome’s Priests (OR: What Else Would One Expect?) In the wake of Rome’s sex-abuse scandal the U.S. conference of Catholic bishops undertook an in­vestigation into the allegations against its priests and the irrespon­sible response of its Bishops. The results have recently been pub­lished. According to the study, the bishops concluded that 4,392 priests allegedly have abused more than 10,000 victims over a 50-year time span. [You may be sure this is the most favorable estimation (and spin) possible.] What is noteworthy is that the study was honest enough to ac­knowledge that the...

In our previous article, written to bring the reader up to date on our work as Contact Committee (CC), we focused on our contacts with churches with whom we stand in formal ecclesiastical relationships, sister churches or in a corresponding relationship. In this article we report on contacts we have with churches and groups with whom we have no formal re­lationship as yet, some of recent vintage, a couple of others of longer duration, but groups of believers that have reached out to us either to explore the possibility of establishing formal relations someday or for assistance in development in...

As we stand near the beginning of a new year, the year of our Lord 2020, it is appropriate to consider the church universal, and, along with that, our denomination’s contact with small but greatly varied manifestations of it. Be they ever so small, they are ever so important. An important element of our prayers during this coming year (as it ought to have been in past years) should be for the church universal, of which the PRCA are only a small part. I still remember visiting an old saint in her mid-90s in a rest home in Artesia, California,...

For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:17 For the wages of sin is death….Romans 6:23 Since by man came death…. As in Adam all die….I Corinthians 15:21, 22 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and the name that sat on him was death, and Hell followed with him….Revelation 6:8 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. I Corinthians 15:26 Death, death, death. It marches through Scripture like a seemingly invincible army and down through history invades life like a monster with an insatiable appetite. Once it fixes its gaze...

Like Luther in Germany, Zwingli was compelled to deal with Anabaptist “brethren” in Zurich and the Swiss cantons. What is significant about the Anabaptists is that they were supporters of the Protestant movement and the Reformers, men who had been former allies and, in some instances, even personal friends—Carlstadt with Luther, and men such as Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz with Zwingli. For the Reformers, this made having to distance themselves from these former allies, and finally having to denounce them, all the more painful and diffi­cult. “They have sprung from us,” Zwingli was report­ed to have lamented.1 Those who...

Editor’s Note: The March 1 issue contained a letter from Rev. A. Lanning and the first half of Rev. K. Koole’s reply. However, prior to that printing, Rev. Lanning had sent the SB a revised letter, one that we intended to print, and to which Rev. Koole is responding. We inadvertently sent the wrong letter to the printer. We apologize to Rev. Lanning for this error. Therefore, in this issue we print the revised letter that Rev. Lanning intended to be printed, as well as the second half of Rev. Koole’s reply. Dear Editors, I write regarding the editorial in...

Hatred. War. Lamentation. Despair. Not words found on too many year-end Christmas greeting cards, are they? The words love, peace, joy, and hope? These dominate as the world looks towards a new year. But not their antonyms, that is for sure. But it’s hatred, war, lamentation, and despair that are loose in this world of sin and evil. These are what dominated AD 2018, and they will only intensify in the Year of Our Lord 2019. Sorry to put such a sour ice-cube in mankind’s New Year’s martini, but that is how it was and will continue to be. That...

Love. Peace. Joy. Hope. Four words that appear on almost every year-end Christmas or holiday greeting card sent and received. Wonderful words and appropriate. But also, very exclusive. But more on that later. What strikes me is that if the church of Christ was going to mark yearly God’s great redemptive event of the Advent (the promise and birth of the Messiah, the Christ), year’s end is the best time. Not the middle of July or sometime in August or such like, but year’s end, as the church and the believer are compelled to mark the passing of time. And...

This article was first published in the October 15, 1997 issue of the Standard Bearer (vol. 74, no. 2), part of a special Reformation issue on the Synod of Dordt, the 400th anniversary of which we commemorate this year and next. When the Enemy launched a full frontal assault against the doctrinal walls of the church, the church responded with a ‘Canons’ blast of confessional truth to ward off the assault, to show that there is plenty of life in the old city yet, and that those “set for the defense of the gospel” (Phil. 1:17) do not intend to...

(This editorial is an answer to the letter “Letter about “What Must I Do…?”) Brother N. Langerak: I find your letter with its allegations that my editorial of October 1, 2018 was an attempt somehow to resurrect charges of antinomianism against a protestant exonerated by recent synodical decisions more than a little baffling, to put it mildly. In your opening comments you note that my editorial of October 1 made reference to the “issues being discussed in our churches,” to which phrasing you take exception (“an affront”) because such, in your estimation, minimized the weight of the charges made and...