Vol 53 Issue 03

“We confess, therefore, that God did fulfill the promise, which he made to the fathers, by the mouth of his holy prophets, when he sent into the world, at the time appointed by him, his own, only-begotten and eternal Son, who took upon him the form of a servant, and became like unto man, really assuming the true human nature, with all its infirmities, sin excepted, being conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Ghost, without the means of man, and did not only assume human nature as to the body, but...

Rev. Kortering was scheduled to preach his ‘farewell sermon’ on October 10 in Hull, Iowa, before departing with his family to his new charge in Redlands, California. The Hull congregation extended a call to Rev. R. Van Overloop of our Hope (Walker, Michigan) church. 

Classis East met in regular session on October 6, 1976 at the First Prot. Ref. Church. The business before the session was routine. The chairman of the session, Rev. M. Joostens, in commenting upon the routine nature of the business before classis, expressed gratitude to God that the churches were at peace and that, routine as the business, the classis must keep in mind the seriousness of doing the business of the Kingdom of God.  The Finance Committee for this session was Rev. Van Overloop and Elder H. VanderKolk. Expenses authorized amounted to $378.65. 

Dear Members and Friends of the RFPA:  Once again near the end of our 52nd year of publishing the Standard Bearer, your Board comes to you with a report of the activities connected with its publication during the past year.  On October 1, 1924, the Standard Bearer made its first appearance. Since that date, almost 52 years ago, the Standard Bearer has been faithfully published. 

REFORMED ECUMENICAL SYNOD  From the Reformed Ecumenical Synod News Exchange, of July 6 and September 7, 1976, we received a brief review of the meeting of the R.E.S. Some one hundred and ten delegates from 38 denominations of Reformed persuasion from around the world met in Cape Town, South Africa, from August 2 to 20. Fifteen of these denominations come from Africa itself. 

Does the subject of the title strike you as a strange question? Do we really have a need for such an institution? Do you really understand what it takes to be a Protestant Reformed teacher? I think that there is more involved than we may first think. I had not given the subject much thought until I had opportunity to visit with a young man from one of our congregations who was considering going into Christian Education. This young man related to me some of the soul vexing experiences that he had gone through at one of the existing Christian...

Yes, you may laugh.  Solomon does indeed say in Ecclesiastes 7:3, “Sorrow is better than laughter.” Yet laughter is not necessarily foolishness, nor it is always sinful. It can be both, and so often it is both foolishness and sin. Yet remember that God laughs, and a child of God may laugh in the joy of the fulfillment of God’s covenant and of its promises. There is such a thing as covenant laughter.

(Note to reader: The next series of letters will be addressed to the “Members of the congregation at Philadelphia,” a congregation which once, in fact, existed (see Rev. 3:7-13), but which is now an imaginary congregation which includes all the people of God in every place).  To the Members of the Congregation at Philadelphia: 

[Note: The following article is a continuation of the paper presented by Rev. Lubbers at the Office-bearers Conference held on March 4, 1975.] 

At first he sought to free himself from all suspicion of strange doctrine, to such a degree that he even defended the doctrine of the Reformed Churches concerning the satisfaction of Christ, concerning justifying faith, concerning justification through faith, concerning the perseverance of true believers, concerning the certainty of salvation, concerning the imperfection of men in this life, and other chief points of doctrine, all of which he later contradicted and which are today opposed by his disciples, contrary to his own views (as Johannes Amoldi Corvenus openly admits in a certain Ger