Why were all the male Israelites to be circumcised? Some Baptists will answer that question by saying that all the male Israelites were to be circumcised because God had made a gracious (though not saving) covenant with Abraham’s natural seed. The idea is that God made two covenants with Abraham: a covenant of saving grace with Abraham’s spiritual children and a covenant of common grace with his natural descendants. Though these Baptists may or may not use the phrase “common grace,” their teaching that God promised “physical blessings” to the natural seed of Abraham amounts to saying that God promised...
Results 1 to 10 of 145
Did God make a gracious covenant with Abraham’s natural descendants? There are many who say that He did. We know that God said He would establish His everlasting covenant with Abraham. Often we quote God’s covenant promise found in Genesis 17: “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for...
Numerous are the disagreements today regarding God’s covenant. There are different views on what God’s covenant is. Some speak of God making different covenants with different groups of people. Many say God has made both a common-grace covenant and a particular-grace covenant. In answer to the question whether God’s covenant is conditional or unconditional, some would say it depends on which covenant you are talking about. With all the distinctions people make when talking about God’s covenant, it can become confusing trying to explain all the different views. So where does one begin to write about all this? I have...
home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan “Do you hold to covenant theology?” If someone asked you that question, how would you respond? To answer the question, there must be a common understanding as to what covenant theology actually is. With this article we turn to a discussion of a number of issues in what is called covenant theology, and how these issues have a bearing on our understanding of the church institute and the sacraments. My most recent articles in this rubric have been on the church of Christ: The...
home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan It has been a joy and a privilege for us as churches to promote the preaching of the gospel in various nations around the world. In this article we look specifically at the work over the past twenty-five years. During these years the Protestant Reformed Churches have been busily engaged in mission work, both foreign and domestic. I take a moment to explain what we mean by foreign and domestic, seeing as in mission work we use those terms in a way that differs...
home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan May 2025 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, We are very thankful to God for the saints whom we have come to know in Texas, Hungary, and elsewhere. The saints here in Fort Worth are doing well, and we are getting to know them more as we labor in their midst. It is indeed a great joy to hear what our Lord has done in their lives. Here is a brief update on some of what is taking place in Texas, Hungary, and France (see...
home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan In his 1851 classic, Moby Dick, Herman Melville had this to say about the whale: In his System of Nature, A.D. 1776, Linnaeus declares, “I hereby separate the whales from the fish.” But of my own knowledge, I know that down to the year 1850, sharks and shad, alewives and herring, against Linnaeus’s express edict, were still found dividing the possession of the same seas with the Leviathan.… Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the...
home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan Inspired by the Spirit, Paul told the church in Thessalonica that their “faith groweth exceedingly” (2 Thess. 1:3). How did that happen? What must have been taking place in a church where the faith of the saints was growing like that? Some might answer by making reference to trials. In the context there are references to this. In the very next verse the apostle thanks God for their “patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure” (2 Thess. 1:4). God certainly...
Rev. James Laning, home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord, Recently my wife and I made trips to Texas and Hungary. According to the decision of Synod 1993, Hungary and all of Europe fall under Domestic Missions. It was a great joy to begin to get to know some of the saints in both places, and we are very much looking forward to working with them in the future. Texas Our trip to Texas in December went very well. We had an opportunity to visit...
Rev. James Laning, home missionary in the Protestant Reformed Churches and member of Zion PRC in Jenison, Michigan Previous article in this series: February 15, 2024, p. 250. [Note: The previous article was supposed to follow this present article. We apologize to Rev. Laning and the readers for this mix-up.] The first two articles in this series have been on the church as the elect body of Christ. The first one was on the church as the kingdom of Christ, and the second one was about the church as God’s one, chosen, covenant people. In this article we begin to...
