All Articles For Smit Richard J

Previous article in this series: September 1, 2015, p. 469. In the previous article, we began a consideration of the relationship between missions and the final appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. We explored the thought that faithful missions serves the final appearing of Christ by its authoritative proclamation of the second coming of Christ. In this article, we explore another aspect of how missions serves the second coming of Christ. Missions serves the coming of Christ as a power that is actually guided by the Lord to prepare the church and the world for His final appearing. The preaching...

This is the edited text of the speech Rev. Smit gave at the annual meeting of the RFPA on September 24, 2015. I had the privilege to experience firsthand the topic of tonight’s lecture. I was not involved with Reformed literature on the mission field in the Philippines to the extent that Rev. and Mrs. Daniel Kleyn have been. They established and organized the “Reformed Bookshelf ” in order to fulfill a goal of our mission work in the Philippines, which is to promote the spread of Protestant Reformed literature in the Philippines in a financially accessible way. They continue...

We are reminded, according to I John 2:18 that we live in the last time. That we are living at the very end of time is becoming more evident according to the God-ordained signs of the second coming of Christ. This certain and imminent return of our Lord has a significant relation to and an important effect upon faithful mission work in our day and age. That there is an important relation between the second coming of Christ and missions was revealed by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24:14, where He says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached...

Annual synodical reports from our foreign missionaries are published in the PRC Acts of Synod. Slotted in the supplements along with the Foreign Mission Committee’s (FMC) annual reports rest the yearly snapshots from the eyes of our foreign missionaries about their labors on our foreign mission fields. Members of our denomination can read those reports and familiarize themselves with the history and the current status of our foreign mission work in the Philippines. However, one aspect of the reporting that our foreign missionaries do may not be so well known. That is our monthly reports. These are submitted at the...

At first glance, one might think from the title that this article will fail to promote a healthy interest in missions. Who would be interested in biblical and Reformed missions if he is told that it is a humanly impossible work from many perspectives? Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to remember that the work of faithful missions, including its important result of positive fruit, is truly a wonder of grace alone. Faithful missions is the wonder-work of the sovereign Lord of the harvest, in which the faithful missionary is only a servant and a tool in His hand. Due regard to...

Rev. Smit is a missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, stationed in Manila, the Philippines. I recently read a book written by Prof. David Engelsma and published by the RFPA in 2013 about the history of the origin, the writing, the adoption, and the rocky reception in the PRCA of The Declaration of Principles of the Protestant Reformed Churches during the early 1950s. While reading the book, I wondered whether in our mission work with those brought out of superstition and idolatry, cults, false churches, or churches far down the road of apostasy, the Declaration has any value today...

Perhaps you have never thought of the question in the title before. In the July 2012 issue of the mis­sions magazine Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Professor Lee Beach, a professor of Christian missions at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, raises this question about Queen Esther of the Old Testament as an example for foreign missions. Is Queen Esther a model for foreign missions today? “Yes,” teaches Prof. Beach. Prof. Beach promotes this answer in light of the dif­ficulty in reaching limited-access nations and cultures. Limited-access nations and cultures are those who might allow people who may be Christians to...

Previous article in this series: June 2013, p. 404. John the Baptist understood and believed that tran­sition was a “must.” Christ “must” increase, and he “must” decrease. What does that mean? First, the transition from John the Baptist to Jesus was necessary because that was the will of God. It was the will of God that once the forerunner’s work was completed, then Christ would fulfill His earthly ministry. God’s purpose was not for John to continue His ministry side-by-side with Jesus for three-and-a-half years. It was the will of God that John’s work come to an end after only...

Among other significant parts and stages in mission work, there is this one, which ought not to be overlooked, namely, that of transi­tion. John the Baptist experienced the reality of it and confessed his response to it in the words of John 3:30, quoted as the title for this article. The apostles expe­rienced it. Preachers experience it when moving from one congregation to another. Faithful missionaries and their calling churches have experienced it. In fact, in the PRCA foreign mission labors in the Philippines, the missionaries have experienced an example of the same phenomenon very recently. What John the Bap­tist...

Previous article in this series: January 15, 2013, p. 177.   A ready cheerfulness to give (II Cor. 9:7) and a giving according to how God has prospered us (I Cor. 16:1-2) are important elements in the believer’s giving to needy causes, especially in the church. But are these the only elements in the good giving of benevolence or other gifts, especially to fellow saints who live on the poorer side of an economic gap? In connection especially with missions in developing countries, it should be understood that also the exercise of godly wisdom is an important part of proper...