All Articles For Colossians

Rev. VanOverloop is a missionary pastor of the Protestant Reformed Churches, in Northwest Chicago, Illinois. The church of Jesus Christ has the mandate to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). This calling is fulfilled by the instituted church through its officebearers. But this does not leave the individual church members sitting on their hands. They too have responsibilities in this regard. The “mission” efforts of the individual members fall into two categories of witnessing: general and specific. In general, every believer has a responsibility to maintain the spiritual health of the local congregation of which he is a...

Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. “We confess that this word of God was not sent, nor delivered by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the apostle Paul saith, And that afterwards God from a special care, which he has for us and our salvation, commanded his servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit his revealed word to writing; and he himself wrote with his own finger, the two tables of the law. Therefore we call such writings...

Herman Veldman is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. In our preceding article we were calling attention to the fact that Answer 24 of our Heidelberg Catechism cannot be understood to refer to the three divisions of the Apostolic Confession, and that each of the Divine Persons is distinguished and described here. Question and Answer 24 reads as follows: “How are these articles divided (the twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed)? Into three parts: the first is of God, the Father, and our creation; the second of God the Son, and our redemption; the third of God the...

Ronald J. Van Overloop is a missionary-pastor of the Protestant Reformed Churches in suburban Northwest Chicago. One of the vital issues of the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers. The Reformation abolished the idea that only a select group of men may function as priests. It pointed out that Scripture calls all of the members of the church “priests” (I Peter 2:9) and that each has priestly tasks (Hebrews 13:15, 16). One of the principal duties of priests was to know and to teach the Word of God to the people (Malachi 2:7). In the old dispensation the people...

Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In this article it is my intention to depart from the line of thought we have been following to take the time to respond to the correspondence of one of our readers, Mr. Harv Nyhof. The issues raised by his letter are important and worthy of an extended reply, as they deal with the question of what constitutes a meaningful translation. The letter addresses itself to some remarks in my column in the December 15 issue of the Standard Bearer. To see these remarks in their proper...

A most crucial moment had come.

In our last article we began to discuss the subject of the Christian and the ordinance of labor. We discussed the institution of labor by God and the teaching of the Scripture regarding the necessity of our working. In this article we want especially to consider the purposes of our labor and consider the truth that no matter what our specific calling in life may be, our labor is a divine vocation.

At least in some measure the confusion in the church over the special gifts of the Spirit and the so-called second blessing have risen because of a failure to understand what Scripture means when it speaks of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. This failure is, at bottom, a failure to understand the distinction which Scripture makes between the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Trinity, on the one hand, and as the Spirit of Christ, on the other hand. This mistake is very clearly evident in Edwin Palmer’s book, “The Person and Ministry of the...

Cornelius Hanko is an emeritus minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The following question has been submitted to the question box: “Was Adam in the state of rectitude in need of Christ?” Our first reaction might well be that we answer, “No.” We know that Adam was created good and after the image of God, in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, to know and to serve his God in love with his whole being. He was God’s friend-servant, serving God in the capacity of prophet, priest, and king over the earthly creation. He was filly capable of-fulfilling God’s mandate, “Be...

A big thing in the Reformed community today is children’s church. The children are present at the beginning of the worship service with their parents. But just prior to the sermon the children are dismissed to another part of the building. And while the adults hear the preaching the children are engaged in various other spiritual activities. The reasoning behind this is the idea that the preaching is far above the heads of our children and thus really of no profit for them. Better that for this part of the service they do something more meaningful and worthwhile.