Vol 64 Issue 03

Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. We now continue our church profiles with a look at the Hope Protestant Reformed Church of Redlands, California. Hope Church originated when a request was sent to Rev. H. Hoeksema for advice and assistance by some forty families in Redlands who were burdened by circumstances in their mother church in 1932. After their organization, their first pastor was the Rev. G. Vos, who served them for eleven years and left a lasting imprint upon the fledgling congregation. Soon after organization, the members constructed a new church, which...

Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. To say that young people wring their hands over the question of what to do after high school is to say something to which every young person grimly nods. The rare bird that knows from the third grade on what he/she is going to do is enough to make the other 99.9% of the flock a bit jealous and perhaps all the more troubled besides. “Why don’t I know what I need to do for the rest of my life? Now that I’m 18 years old...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Dying was once, from a certain point of view, a rather simple matter. A person grew up, took up his life’s work, worked hard (usually without vacation) until he was in his sixties or seventies, and after his “threescore and ten years” or “fourscore years if strength was great,” he died. He never thought of retirement, social security, pension plans, spending his “golden years” profitably. He lived and worked—and went to his eternal reward. As is true of so many things in life, modern...

“And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold; of beaten work shalt thou make them, at the ends of the mercy seat. . . and there I will meet with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. Exodus 25:18, 22 We will now consider the place of the cherubim in the Old Testament tabernacle as they overshadow the mercy-seat of God’s ark. We find it to be an interesting and profitable study to consider the office...

Ronald H. Hanko is pastor of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church, Houston, Texas. 1.The testimony of Scripture (continued). The evidence of Christ’s divinity as found in Scripture is of many kinds, and taken all together is clear proof that He is everything: that His people believe Him to be. We must not be swayed, either, by the arguments or numbers of those who deny Him, into thinking that this evidence is anything less than incontrovertible. The failure of so many to receive this truth is not due to any defect or insufficiency of Scripture, but to the willing ignorance of unbelief,...

Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The philosophy of Descartes (1596-1650) which we considered in this column last time proceeded from the principle that man can by his own reason and without the need of divine revelation arrive at truth. Descartes’ starting point was that of unbelieving doubt which calls into question th’e reality and existence of everything and seeks some starting point, some fixed point, from which to arrive at truth. That starting point he found in his own process of thinking and experience and the very existence of that process...

John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. It is interesting and important to take note of the fact that Elimelech, Naomi, and their sons left the promised land to go to Moab in the days when the judges ruled the Israelites. This is interesting and significant because it reveals that their departure from the promised land—which was a type and shadow of the coming Kingdom of Heaven—took place in the days when the Israelites had no spiritual leaders to warn them, counsel them and rebuke them when they walked in sin. They had for a...

Steven R. Houck is a missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches in Modesto, California. Prayer is a very important part of the Christian life. Every Christian is to be a praying Christian. The apostle Paul exhorts us, “Pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17). It is the calling of every Christian to take care that he does not neglect to pray. But the Christian must also take care that he prays proper prayers. If our prayers are not proper prayers, we pray in vain. Our prayers are meaningless. In this regard, there is one very important aspect of proper prayer which...

[Editor’s Note: Mr. & Mrs. Dewey Engelsma, of Hope P.R.C., Walker, Michigan, were present at the institution of the second congregation of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore, a very important event in the history of the young E.R.C. and in the lives of the saints there. This report, in the form of a letter, is from the Engelsmas. HCH] Dear Friends of the Protestant Reformed Churches: On the 6th of September a very important event took place on the island of Singapore. The second congregation of our sister church was instituted, choosing the name of Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church....

Considerable space has been given in this issue to a report on the institution of the second congregation of the E.R.C.S. in Singapore, and therefore my editorial space will have to be limited in this issue. However, I recently received a new recording, taken from the sound track of a video recording, of the speech by Prof. Hodgson at Hillsdale, Michigan. This is a very clear recording, and in the interest of accuracy I shall quote again, in corrected form, the concluding paragraphs of Prof. Hodgson’s speech, so that there can be no question as to what he said in...