All Articles For I Timothy

Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Lady in the Pulpit The teaching of Holy Scripture on the place of women in the church is so clear that even a child can understand it. The Bible says, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be...

The recent book, Behold Your God (BYG), by Scottish Presbyterian theologian Donald Macleod is a passionate plea for the doctrine of common grace. Three of the sixteen chapters are devoted to common grace explicitly. A fourth consists of the application of common grace to the saving will of God and the atonement of the cross. Macleod’s defense of common grace involves the denial of the Reformed doctrine of total depravity. For common grace keeps the unregenerated from being completely defiled by sin. The Presbyterian theologian defends his denial of total depravity in three ways. First, he redefines “total” to mean merely...

I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. I Timothy 2:8 Men are to pray in every place as Christ’s ministers at the altar. Introduction In the first place, we note, that Paul is writing the authoritative words in this text in the capacity of having been appointed by Jesus Christ to stand in the office of preacher, apostle, and teacher of Gentiles (I Tim. 2:7; II Tim. 1:11; cp. Gal. 2:6-10). Note also that verse 8 stands at the head of this unit. It is basic. It really is the rock-bottom pillar of the truth...

Obviously the texts of Ephesians 5:18, 19 and Colossians 3:16cannot be used as a Scriptural basis for the introduction of hymns in the worship of the church. One reason for this is that the term “hymn” in these passages does not have the same meaning as is commonly given to that word today. Rev. F. Frazer stresses the point that a correct understanding of these passages necessitates “that the words in them be taken in the sense obviously intended by the writer.” What this meaning is he attempts to show in the following article. We quote: “Controversies within the church have produced, for...

Oct. 20, 1959  Rev: G. Lanting, of Grand Haven, received the call from Holland from a trio which included Revs. G. Lubbers and G. Vanden Berg.  Rev. J. A. Heys, of Hull, is considering a call from South Holland. The other members of the trio were Revs. G. Vanden Berg and B. Woudenberg.  Rev. G. Vanden Berg declined the call extended to him from Edgerton. 

Such is the title of an interesting and timely editorial appearing in The Bannerof February 5, 1960, written by ‘the Rev. John Vander Ploeg. 

In the April 2000 issue, the Calvin Theological Journal (CTJ)commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Christian Reformed Church’s adoption of its doctrine of common grace. In so doing, the journal of the seminary of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) was calling to mind the 75th anniversary of the existence of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). For the PRC came into existence as the direct result of the adoption of the three points of common grace by the CRC in 1924. Two articles in the CTJ reflect on the common grace controversy that came to a head at the 1924 synod...

The passage which we will this time consider contains instructions from Paul to Timothy in regard to what must be constantly held before the attention of the church in order that she may truly walk in godliness, steadfast in the truth in Christ Jesus. The church must be built and established in Christ and walk in all good works of faith and gratitude. The saints in Christ must walk in the good works which have been before prepared for her that she should walk in them. 

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. We now move on to the fifth section of Reformed dogmatics, known as ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. It includes a study of what the church is and of how she grows and is governed. It can be distinguished from soteriology, which we have just considered. Soteriology is the study of how God saves an individual believer; ecclesiology is the study of how God saves the church as a whole. The church is an object of faith. We confess that we “believe an holy, catholic...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Reflections on Synodical Decisions By the time this report appears in the Standard Bearer, it will be old news. Yet several items have appeared in magazines and newspapers that should be of interest to our readers. The first is the action of the Synod of the Reformed Church in America. Synod took note of the fact that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the first ordination of a woman to the ministry within that denomination. That was 1979. In 1980 the RCA Synod took a decision establishing in...