All Articles For Smit Richard J

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2021, p. 308. Evidence of the PRCA’s commitment to the three-self formula can be observed in the synodical decisions and missionary reports of the PRCA’s foreign mission work. Growth in the understanding of the three-self formula and a commitment to it is evident in PRCA’s past mission work in Jamaica, the first of four examples I will reference here. Initial involvement of the PRCA in missions in Jamaica began in 1962. At some time in that year, the Mission Committee (which in years later became known as the Domestic Mission Committee) was contacted...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2020, p. 138. A fourth example is the foreign mission work of the Netherlands Reformed Churches (NRC) in Irian Jaya in the 1960s and 1970s. The NRC was not the only Reformed denomination laboring in that part of Indonesia, but the NRC published a small book about their mission work that gives some helpful insight into their methods and goal—a work that was truly foreign, that is, among people who in their generations had never heard the gospel. The book, Mission on Irian Jaya: Church Visitation and View of Building and Destruction of...

We look now at a selective overview of the history of the embrace and use of the three-self formula in Reformed foreign missions. The first example is the mission work of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) in its Arcot mission field in India, which began in the 1820s.1 This date is significant because it pre-dates the influence of Venn, Anderson, Nevius, and Allen in Protestant foreign missions in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which indicates that some sense of the three-self formula already existed among Reformed missionaries and the calling churches at the beginning of their work in...

Among various things one can consider in foreign missions, there is this significant question: “What is the goal of missions?” Many, varied, and sometimes erroneous are the answers to that question in books about missions. Prof. Robert D. Decker, now emeritus professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Theo­logical Seminary, gave an answer to that question in an article at the conclusion of his thorough series on “Mis­sionary Methods” in the Standard Bearer in April 1985. He wrote that “certainly in all mission work the goal must be the gathering of the elect out of the nations into the...

January 2020 Dear Congregations of the PRCA, Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Here is an update regarding our labor and life here in service to our sister churches of the PRCP in the metro Manila area and in our continuing PRCA mission work in Southern Negros Occidental. Family life One of the two main highlights of our family life in the past several months is the blessing of the birth of Violet Joy to Rev. and Mrs. Holstege on December 10. Mother and baby were able to return home soon after birth, and they are both...

One of the aspects of mission work in cross-cultural settings is the day-to-day differences that a missionary must face and to which then he must respond appropriately and wisely. This day-to-day reality of cultural differences is true for all missionaries and their families, who are sent across cultural and linguistic boundaries, no matter their originating background, birth-nationality, and home-culture. Although the degree of differences can vary between the culture in which the missionary labors and the culture in which he was born and raised, yet they are an unavoidable part of his daily and weekly work. In this article, we...

Previous article in this series: July 2019, p. 429. Some of the interesting highlights of the Guanabara Confession include, first, that this document was written by regular church members, not highly trained and ordained theologians. Understanding their God-given place in the body of Christ and their theological limitations, they answered according to their ability. They admitted this fact when writing about one aspect of the doctrine of marriage in Article 14: “…nevertheless, we will leave the judgment on this matter to ones more knowledgeable in the Holy Scriptures….” Although they humbly admitted that they were not gifted, trained theologians like...

The history of the spread of the Reformed faith in the sixteenth century during the early and difficult decades of the Protestant Reformation is always interesting, especially in connection with the work of Reformed churches in missions. Since the Reformed faith, with its doctrines of sovereign particular grace and double predestination, is often maligned as uninterested in and unable to do world missions, it is encouraging to see from the Lord’s work through His church examples that show that this accusation from enemies of the Reformed faith is historically unfounded. One example of this is found in the history of...

This is a common question in our homes. Usually, an answer is not far away with many wristwatches, smartphones, and various clocks in our houses. However, more important than what the time is in our particular time zone is the current time in history. For the covenant family, this question and God’s answer is fundamental for a pure confession, godly life, and realistic hope in the increasing spiritual darkness of this world. Since the beginning, God is the timekeeper of history. He does not need a physical, atomic clock to measure and govern time. He made time. He fully knows...

That the Heidelberg Catechism was intended from the outset to be preached and taught in established churches is evident from the Preface written by its royal sponsor, Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate: We do herewith affectionately admonish and enjoin upon every one of you, that you do, for the honour of God and our subjects, and also for the sake of your own soul’s profit and welfare, thankfully accept this proffered Catechism or course of instruction, and that you do diligently and faithfully represent and explain the same according to its true import, to the youth in our schools...