All Articles For Vol 63 Issue 06 12/15/1986

Ben wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Candidate Charles Terpstra very successfully passed his examination at Classis West on Wednesday, November 19; and then on Friday the 21st he was ordained and installed into the office of minister of God’s Word at Pella, Iowa. May God richly bless Rev. Terpstra and the congregation at Pella as he begins his labors. Rev. Arie den Hartog writes that as the time of their departure draws nearer, everyone is asking them over for one last time. It looks as if they are going to be kept very...

lassis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches met in special session on November 19, 1986 in South Holland, Illinois, to examine Mr. Charles Terpstra, according to the requirement of Article 4 of the Church Order. The examination was requested by the Pella, Iowa Protestant Reformed Church, whose call Mr. Terpstra had accepted. Mr. Terpstra successfully sustained the examination. Classis advised Pella to proceed with Mr. Terpstra’s ordination into the office of the ministry of the Word and Sacraments. Classis also approved the “Ministerial Certificate of Dismissal and Testimonial” of Rev. James Slopsema, of Randolph, Wisconsin, who has accepted the call...

EVERYTHING IS POLITICS BUT POLITICS IS NOT EVERYTHING, A Theological Perspective on Faith and Politics, by H.M. Kuitert (translated by John Bowden); Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986; 183 pp., $8.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko) This is a very strange book. It is strange, first of all, because it just does not seem right for a book on politics to emerge from the pen of a systematic theologian—Prof. Kuitert is professor of Systematic Theology at the Free University of Amsterdam; although this may simply be indicative of the theological trends in the Gereformeerde Kerken. It is a strange...

In the third place, concerning ecclesiastical assemblies, the thoughts comes to us: 1)The consistories ought to be prepared to come to the help of churches of the second group and to work by mission activity in dead churches of the third group. 2)The consistories ought to strive to remove the non-confessing element from their midst and to break off all fellowship with unbelieving ministers. 3)The consistories ought to arouse their churches to a confession of guilt, to penitence and conversion, and to an improvement of life. To do this they must restore discipline. 4)The consistories must extend their church relationships...

Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. Last time we established the importance and the duty of membership in the visible, instituted church of Jesus Christ. There are many today who disparage church membership. There are many who find it quite sufficient to listen to the wide variety of religious programs broadcast these days over the radio and television. Others are content to read good Christian books or to listen to sermons on tapes. Others will attend worship services, but never actually join a specific church, and often drift from one church to another....

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. When one’s earthly life comes to an end, an end comes at once to one’s use of this present world and all that it contains. This then brings an end to one’s ability to misuse one’s time, talents, possessions and life, so that one’s sin here below is terminated in the most absolute sense of the word. This is true for both believer and unbeliever. But there is another way which God uses, one He uses in His grace and on His elect children; during their pilgrimage here...

Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. With this article we begin to direct our attention to the doctrine of Scripture and its development following the period of the Reformation. There are two basic elements which necessarily shape any consideration of this period in the development of the doctrine of the Word of God. In the first place, the Reformation laid down the fundamental principles of sound Biblical interpretation and the doctrine of Scripture. As reformed believers this forms our starting point. The reformed doctrine of Scripture was elicited from Scripture itself. It...

Robert D. Decker is professor of New Testament and Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Preaching Passe?: Many say it is. Preaching, so it is alleged, is a very poor method of communicating the Gospel. There are other and better ways to convey the message of the Gospel. Preaching is an out-moded form of communicating the Good News of salvation by grace through faith, God’s gift. At the same time, it is no secret that there is a great deal of criticism of preaching coming from the pews in many denominations. This is true not only of the more...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. That is a good question. Why have Reformed churches always had a high view of catechism? Why are parents spending so much time making sure their children know their catechism, in order that sometime during the week their pastor or possibly an elder can ask them to recite the questions? Or, more basically, why do covenant parents send their children to catechism? On evening, while washing dishes after a hard day and looking up against a hectic evening, Mom had an idea. Drying her hands, she...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Synod of 1986 decided to send a delegation to Singapore, at the invitation of the Evangelical Reformed Church, with a three-fold mandate: 1) to participate in the ordination of brother Jaikishin Mahtani’s ordination; 2) to lecture at a Reformation Day Rally which the ERCS was planning for the last week in October; 3) and to discuss with the Session of the ERCS and their Contact Committee various matters of mutual interest to their church and ours. In September the Contact Committee decided to...