All Articles For Revelation

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. As has been pointed out before, the destruction of Jerusalem and the persecution that the Jews experienced at that time are a type of the great tribulation that comes at the end of the ages just before the return of our Lord. The word “tribulation” means literally “pressure,” like a boa constrictor encircling itself around its victim and slowly tightening the pressure to crush him to death. Or we might use the example of a straitjacket with sharp points, used as an instrument of torture in times past to...

Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. *The Psalter. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1927, #14, stanza 6—Versification of Psalm 8. By the grace of God, King Solomon “gave his heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven” (Eccl. 1:13a). Of all the things Solomon searched out and contemplated he wisely took time to examine the things of the creation around him. He was not ignorant of the vast and intricate creation in which God placed him but,...

Rev. Hanko is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. Previous article in this series: December 15, 2008, p. 127. Wisdom’s Doctrine The most important parts of the book of Proverbs are Wisdom’s three speeches, found in Prov. 1:20-33,Prov. 8:1-36, and Prov. 9:1-18. In those three speeches Wisdom identifies Himself as the Son of God and demands a hearing of all who come within the range of His voice. In those speeches is found the principal doctrinal content of Proverbs, the doctrine applied in all the wise sayings of the book. The doctrines taught in these discourses are especially two:...

Rev. Miersma, is pastor of the Loveland Protestant Reformed Church in Loveland, Colorado. “…fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:5-7 We live in days when the nations of the earth are very unstable. There are wars and rumors of wars. The recession in the United...

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. We shall never be clearly persuaded, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the wellspring of God’s free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, which illumines God’s grace by this contrast: that he does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to others. J.Calvin, Institutes, III, xxi, 1 Dearly beloved brethren, we must not be amazed if the article of the everlasting predestination of God, be so assaulted and fought against by Satan’s...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” Psalm 15:1 Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the psalmist writes: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem” (Ps. 122:1, 2a). In the old dispensation, if anyone were to ask, Where does God dwell? he would have been informed that there was only one place in the whole world where God dwelled. He would have...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Denomination Activities The Psalm Choir, made up of members of many of our west Michigan PR churches, was once again able to give two quality and very enjoyable concerts this late winter. On Sunday evening February 27 they presented their selection of favorite psalms in the auditorium of our First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI, and then they followed that up one week later with a concert at our Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI. We could also add, by way of a reminder, that if you have...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. We ended our last article by asking why Christ told His disciples, who had already received not only the sacrament of baptism but also the spiritual baptism to which it pointed, that they could not go forth preaching the gospel to the nations until they had received the baptism in the Spirit, and were thus endowed with power from on high. Evidently there was a sense in which they had already been baptized, and a sense in which they had to wait until they were baptized. How is...

*Recently, I discovered this article in my files as an old, yellowed manuscript. How and where I got it, I do not know. The manuscript bears the title under which we publish the article, “The Covenant Concept.” In addition, the manuscript states that the article was “dictated by Herman Hoeksema in 1943.” The date is important. In 1943, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands were debating the doctrine of the covenant. By this article, which undoubtedly circulated among the ministers in the Protestant Reformed Churches, if not also among the people, Hoeksema carefully and clearly laid out the Protestant Reformed...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Religion and Politics Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, often writes on the subject of politics and religion. In the Grand Rapids Press, April 19, 2000, he addresses the question under the heading, “Falwell should keep pulpit out of politics.” He makes some interesting and true remarks. At a news conference last week in Washington and on his “People of Faith 2000” Web page, Falwell announced a drive to register 10 million new voters in order to impose a moral code through government which most citizens,...