All Articles For I John

Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. What counts is not what man says, unless it is our God speaking through him. And what Jacob had said to his father, namely, that he was Esau and that he was seeking the blessing which his father had promised him, was a lie which called for God’s holy wrath upon him. But because Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau, in his blindness declared God’s blessing upon Jacob – even though he planned to bestow it upon Esau, the first of the twins born unto him- we with...

Rev. Kamps is pastor of the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. Introduction The Reformed believer makes a most profound confession. He confesses what God has said. The Reformed believer is in agreement with the living God. Most men find themselves at odds with the living God over this book, the Bible. The men of this world cannot say from the heart that they believe “without any doubt, all things contained” in the divine Scriptures (Belgic Confession, Art. V). But the Lord always preserves to Himself a few who enter in at the strait gate and joyfully confess what...

A Supra, Pre-Trib, Pre-Mill Friend of the SB In your editorials, “The Kingdom has Come” (Feb. 1 and 15, 1993), your system of doctrine seems to be your final authority, not the Bible. Enclosed is a book by Tim LaHaye, No Fear of the Storm. I challenge you to read it thoughtfully and objectively. I like the Standard Bearer very much, and some articles in it are outstanding. I am a supralapsarian, pre-trib, and pre-mill believer in my Lord and Savior Jesus the Son of God, the Christ. I agree with the five points of John Calvin. I read his...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. In our last article we considered something of the reality and seriousness of spiritual decline in the Christian’s life. Such decline is not to be dismissed merely as something quite natural and inevitable because of the normal character of the Christian life. We ought to be on our guard against such decline and be deeply concerned about it. It can have very serious consequences. It makes us vulnerable to the attacks of the devil and endangers us for falling into great sin. The example of David ought...

Anabaptists? Who are they? And does a Reformed church have to bother itself with them? Are they such a threat to the Reformation faith as to warrant devoting an entire issue of the Standard Bearer to their errors? Our people must know that the Anabaptist heresy is alive and well. Indeed, it is thriving as never before. Of the two great foes of the faith of the Reformation in history, Roman Catholicism and Anabaptism, Anabaptism is by far the more serious danger to the faith today. Every Reformed Christian worthy of the name is on his guard against Rome. But...

Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church, Houston, Texas. 1.The importance of this doctrine. The confession that our Savior is both God and man is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. It is fundamental to every doctrine of the Scriptures and to our confession of those same doctrines. Very obviously, everything that we believe about Christ Himself as Savior hangs upon the truth of His incarnation. Unbelief staggers at the doctrines of the virgin birth, blood atonement, and the resurrection, and will not acknowledge His miracles, because it does not know Who and what He is. For...

Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity, Ed. by Charles W. Hedrick & Robert Hodgson, Jr. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts; 1986. 332 pp., $14.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.) Gnosticism was a heresy which appeared in the early church and against which the church had a long and bitter struggle before victory was achieved. Its basic character was its synthesis of Christianity, Oriental mysticism and pagan philosophy; and because of this character, its threat was a synthesizing of Christianity with pagan thought, which would have destroyed Christianity. In many respects, it is similar to today’s more liberal ecumenical movements which...

As the great apostasy that precedes the coming of Christ intensifies, believers are witness to the wildest of religious teachings and the weirdest of religious practices. All is in the name of Christ. This was foretold. False doctrines and evil practices in the churches are part of the coming of “antichrist.” The mystery of iniquity is always working. And antichrist opposes the Christ of Scripture by taking His place. The Greek word “anti” in I John 2:18 (“as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time”) combines the...

In previous articles we have seen that our adoption as the children of God is predestinated from eternity by God the Father and prepared and sealed in time through the work of Christ, the First-begotten Son. Now we turn to the third phase in the revelation of the wonder of our Sonship, the work of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption. It is through the Spirit of adoption that the adoption of sons is possessed by the children of God. 

In defense of the error of the falling away of the saints reference is made to the Scripture passage in Hebrews 6:4-8, which reads as follows: