Vol 63 Issue 14

Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. The Church Extension Committee of our Randolph Church reported to their congregation recently on some very ambitious plans. “We want to continue to emphasize in our congregation the need for doing the work of evangelism in our community. In the past we have sponsored lectures to which we have invited people of our community. Though the fruit of our efforts has been small by human standards, let us not be discouraged. We must continue to do the work which the Lord calls us to do. For this...

SALVATION—THE GIFT OF GOD OR THE CHOICE OF MAN? by W. H. Molland; A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter. 86 pp., 3 pounds (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko) This book was sent to me by the pastor of the North Road Chapel (Evangelical) in Bideford, England, along with the note: “This . . . book just published . . . has been written out of a deep concern as to the need in this present day for a clear statement of the ‘Doctrines of Grace.’ If after reading it, and should you consider it worthy, any publicity or recommendation...

Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. There are certain truths that are taught in Scripture which must be borne in mind, if one is to understand and appreciate the book of Jonah. And having followed the incidents recorded in that book, we do well to look at the entire book in the light of all that happened before the days of Jonah, happened afterward in the Old Testament times, is recorded in the New Testament Scriptures, but also is the situation of the church of today. Let it first of all be recalled what...

Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Church Union in the Netherlands: The Clarion, Feb. 2, 1987, quotes from an Australian church magazine, Una Sancta, Dec. 20, 1986, concerning the developing church union between the (synodical) Reformed Churches and the state church, the Reformed (hervormde) Church. The article correctly points out that this union can surely not be reason for any kind of joy in Reformed churches. Rather, it is part of the continuing activity of the churches of the world to seek union—not on the basis of the truth, but simply to erase all...

George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. “The River of God is Full of Water” (Gen. 2:10, Psalm 65:9) When one reads Genesis 2:10 there comes to mind a beautiful symbolic picture of heaven’s glory; it is the earthly picture of the heavenly paradise of God. Truly, we have here some indication of what makes paradise the garden of God’s delight: Eden! There is great speech in this “river of God” in the flowing of this river out of Eden to water the garden. We read: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In our last article we concluded a discussion of various medical means which have been employed to enable childless couples to have children. A few other scientific techniques, techniques which we have not yet discussed, are so closely connected with this subject that they should be at least briefly addressed in connection with our broader subject. Four such subjects have often been treated by ethicists as they ponder the problems which advances in medical science have created. These four are: frozen embryos, sex selection,...

Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church, Houston, Texas. When we understand that the eighth commandment is founded on the truth that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof,” we will not only have a better understanding of what the eighth commandment requires of us, but the only possible motive for obeying it. We have seen that God’s sovereign ownership of all things, as expressed in this verse from Psalm 24:1, and His sovereign right in distributing them, are aspects of His glory as Creator, and therefore that we confess the sovereignty and glory of God...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Correspondence Dear Rev. Gritters, I enjoyed your article in the Standard Bearer relating to “Catechism: Official Ministry of the Church” in the February 15, 1987 issue. However, I have a question which I wish you would address in a future article. You state,” 1. Teaching catechism is the work of the minister or elders in the local congregation.” Then in the paragraph following “If, for some reason, the minister cannot teach, it is the duty of no one else but the elders to take over.” Again in the...

We should remember that our little digression into what John Calvin thought was after all not fundamentally a digression, but intrinsically related to our subject. Dr. Van Till in his The Fourth Day only does lip service to Calvin’s teaching on this subject. That is, he does not really believer that we can only properly view God’s book of creation and history through the spectacles of the Scriptures. Instead, he constantly adjusts Scripture in the attempt to make it conform to his evolutionistic view of the universe. This has become evident in our consideration of Van Till’s view of Scripture thus far...