Vol 63 Issue 05

Ben wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Candidate Charles Terpstra has accepted the call extended to him from our congregation in Pella, Iowa. We are thankful that God has provided a place for him in our churches. This call also means that there was to have been a special meeting of Classis West in South Holland for his examination on November 19. Rev. Slopsema has also accepted the call he received from Hope Church in Walker, Michigan. Since Rev. Slopsema will soon be leaving our church in Randolph, Wisconsin, the consistory there has made...

Cornelius Hanko is an emeritus minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The Scriptures speak of baptism as “the washing of regeneration, and the renewal of the Holy Ghost,” as inTitus 3:5. In Romans 6:3, 4, we are told, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” The figure is obvious. By our first birth...

George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. It is well to grasp at the outset the central point of our subject. There are the terms “regeneration” and “sinlessness.” The term regeneration refers to the initial implanting of the elect sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, making him alive with Christ. This term is also called being born again, or to be born from above, or born anew (John 3:3). It is to be born of water and of the Spirit; thus only can a man or woman enter the kingdom of heaven! The term “sinlessness”...

Robert C. Harbach is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The theme, in the title above, we, in our Protestant Reformed Churches, understand to be in sharp contrast to the Calvinistic (or the Reformed) conception of regeneration. It is the latter point of view we must and always do presuppose in our theological stance and thinking. So, at the outset, we quote from Buck’s Theological Dictionary, out of the article, Regeneration, p. 395: Regeneration “is an irresistible, or rather invincible work of God’s grace, Eph. 3:8 . . . It is an instantaneous (immediate, RCH) act, for there can be no medium between life and death...

Carl J. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. We can know our regeneration. We can be assured of our being born from above and thus be assured that “now are we the children of God” (I John 3:2). Assured that we are born again by the will of God, we will also be convinced of the love of God towards us (I John 4:16), and possess the perfect hope that one day we shall see Him as He is (I John 3:3). Assured of our regeneration, we will also live in holiness and as dear...

Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The truth of God’s regenerating grace, that spiritual renewal and new birth which God works in our hearts by His Spirit, affords us as believers a rich measure of comfort and consolation. As justification is the answer of God’s grace to our guilt before the judgment seat of God, so also regeneration, as the first work of God’s grace in our hearts, is the answer of God to our spiritual and moral pollution, to that total depravity of nature which is ours according to our first...

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

As we stated earlier, the subject of the Order of Salvation is going to be the subject of our next several special issues. We must, therefore, say a few words about this Order of Salvation.  First of all, what is meant by it?  The order of salvation is the arrangement or order in which the various blessings of salvation are applied to the elect, but in himself lost and dead, sinner.  In the second place, what is that order? 

As was stated in my Editor’s Notes, this issue is the first in a planned series on “The Order of Salvation, I’ sometimes referred to in dogmatics by its Latin name, the Ordo Salutis. And in Reformed dogmatics this “Order of Salvation” forms the chief contents of the entire fourth main division of dogmatics, namely, Soteriology. “Now, prof,” I hear someone say, “don’t throw around those big terms; you’ll go way over my head. Remember, you’re writing for the Standard Bearer; you’re not teaching dogmatics at seminary.” Well, let me give you a little lesson in dogmatics, or Reformed doctrine. Or rather,...

New Feature. Elsewhere in this issue you will find a new feature: a directory of all of the Protestant Reformed Churches, together with their locations, their time of services, and a telephone contact number. This directory will not appear in every issue, but will appear a few times per year. It is placed for the convenience of our readers who may be traveling in various parts of the U.S. or Canada, as well as for any non-Protestant Reformed readers who might wish to visit one of our churches. Later we hope to publish a directory of our Protestant Reformed “Outreach”...