Vol 63 Issue 04

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. A second attempt means that one failed in one’s first attempt. There is no need, no reason, or even possibility of making a second attempt to do that wherein one has already succeeded. It is true, having broken a world’s record in running, jumping or the like, one can try to repeat what one did before; but this is a first attempt at duplicating what had already been accomplished. It is not a second attempt to do a particular thing, but a first attempt to repeat what had...

Ben wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Rev. C. Hanko, a former pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, perhaps said it best. “We build churches not for the past, or the present, but for the future.” And judging from the new facilities of First Church, the church building should serve their needs for some time to come. On Thursday, October 16, the flock of First Church along with many friends and well wishers from surrounding churches met to dedicate what God has so graciously provided. It proved to be both...

Classis East met in regular session on Wednesday, September 10, 1986 and in continued session on Wednesday, October 15, 1986 at the Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. M. Kamps was the chairman for these sessions. The main item of business at the September 10th meeting was the examination of the pastor-elect of Southeast, Steven Key. After preaching a sermon onPsalm 25:14, Pastor-elect Key was examined in the six loci of dogmatics, in the knowledge of scripture and the confessions, in controversy, and in practical matters. The delegates to classis along with the delegates and examina from Classis West gave unanimous...

(In the previous article Kuyper, in speaking of the present calling of his church to engage in church reformation, has made a distinction between three groups of churches which exist within the State Church. One group of churches has retained a somewhat Reformed character. Another group of churches has become truly the false church. And a group of churches which comprises the third group stands somewhere between these two extremes. Kuyper has insisted that this must be borne in mind as his church considers the need for separation.) What now concerns the question, in what way the reformation of the...

George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The Christian Wife Predicted (Gen. 3:16) At first hearing of these words from the lips of Jehovah to the woman who has so deeply fallen, having so grievously disobeyed God and her husband, we might receive the impression that they are the announcement of the death-knell to this helpmeet of Adam. Listen to the text from the lips of Jehovah God. The text reads: “. . . thy desire shall be to they husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen. 3:16b). Surely we cannot interpret these words...

Herman Veldman is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. We now continue with our exposition of the first article of our Apostles’ Creed as interpreted by our Heidelberg Catechism in Question and Answer 26 of Lord’s Day 9. In our preceding article we called attention to the Fatherhood of God in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ. In this article we call attention to this Fatherhood of God in connection with the eternal Son of God. This, too, is fundamental. If our Lord Jesus Christ be not the eternal Son of God He cannot possibly be our Lord...

Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. There is much misunderstanding and many misconceptions today regarding the church. By the vast majority the church is looked upon as a purely human institution. Others view the church as a Divine institution all right, but a Divine institution on a par with other Divine institutions as, for example, the Christian home, the Christian school, the Christian labor union, and the Christian political party. Others raise the question, in apparent seriousness, whether the church has really not outlived its usefulness, whether it is not out-dated and ought...

Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. After about a week in the hospital, Alice came home again. Now she could be fed through a tube directly into her stomach. It seemed a strange way of being fed, and Alice herself did not always appreciate it. The insertion of a plastic tube into the small opening into her stomach did not hurt, but seemed to be a bit uncomfortable for her. Not a few times the tube would be inserted too far—and Alice was sure to let us know; or it was not...

Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Drop-outs, Cults, and Fast Growing Churches: Three different news reports in three different Church magazines at first glance appear to have little in common. Upon a bit of reflection, however, they do have something in common. That something is crucial to the life and well being of the church. The first concerns a ministers’ conference recently held in the Netherlands. The church must neither shut itself off from the world nor accommodate herself and her message to the spirit and thinking of the modern...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. [Note. This is a continuation of the subject under discussion at the conclusion of Installment #9, in which Prof. Hanko was quoting from Bibliotheca Sacra.] — Even more revolting is another technique which results from IVF to which Bibliotheca Sacra refers in the same article. Almost daily, new advances in artificial reproduction further erode the biblical categories of marriage, procreation, and family. For example researchers have developed a technique in animals that will soon allow lesbian couples to have children. Already lesbians have used artificial insemination...