Vol 65 Issue 11

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Ministerial Calls Rev. Carl Haak declined the call he received from our Faith church in Jenison, Michigan. And from the trio that was included in the last news, our South Holland, Illinois congregation has extended a call to Rev. Charles Terpstra, who presently serves the Pella P.R.C. in Pella, Iowa. Congregational Highlights Prof. H.C. Hoeksema writes in a letter to the congregation of the Hudsonville P.R.C. in Hudsonville, Michigan that one advantage of the year that he and his wife are spending in Tasmania is the avoidance...

When sister church relations were established with the Protestant Reformed Church of Wellington, New Zealand, that small congregation asked permission to call one of our ministers. As most of our readers know, this permission was granted by Synod and subsequently Rev. Rodney Miersma was called and accepted that call. In order to provide for their minister, financial help from our churches was asked. An appeal was made to our people for such help, and the money was abundantly provided. This money, now collected, was to be sent to New Zealand over a five-year period of time. Last Autumn a check...

Reprinted from the November, 1988 issue of Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, Scotland. Charles Spurgeon lived from 1834 to 1892. An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them....

Prof. Hoeksema is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Dear Readers of The Standard Bearer: It is high time that I write once again and try to keep my promise to tell you a little of the visit of Prof. Hanko and me to the Synod of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church last September. It will be impossible for me to go into detail, for our report to the Contact Committee was 4 1/2 pages long; and I cannot very well hog so much space in our magazine. However, before I write about the Synod, let me...

Rev. Kortering is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville, Michigan. We come now to the ninth judge, Samson. The Lord delivered Israel into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years (Judges 13:1). The angel appears unto the wife of Manoah, of the city of Zorah from the tribe of Dan, and announces that though she is barren, she will conceive and bear a son. He is to be a Nazarite unto God from the womb; hence she is to drink neither wine nor strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. When this son is born, no razor must...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. “Ministers, who by reason of age, sickness, or otherwise, are rendered incapable of performing the duties of their office, shall nevertheless retain the honor and title of a minister, and the church which they have served shall provide honorably for them in their need (likewise for the orphans and widows of ministers) out of the common fund of the churches, according to the general ecclesiastical ordinances in this matter.” Church Order, Article 13. This article of the Church Order deals with the subject of emeritation or retirement of ministers, even...

Rev. Harbach is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. True Shepherds Enter by the Door “He that entereth in by the door is the (literally, a) shepherd of the sheep” (John 10:2). In the previous article we pointed out that most commentaries in their exposition apply this verse to Jesus. But this, we believe, results in a faulty exegesis. It is a shepherd who enters in by the door of the sheep. This shepherd represents the teaching and preaching elder of the church. To this person, “the doorkeeper openeth.” The spiritual shepherd of the sheep does not climb up...

Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Regarding your January 1 editorial, “Whither the P.R.C.?” I want to show my appreciation for the thoughts expressed, especially in a paragraph which I quote in part: “The P.R.C. must not be blind to the internal threat of division and strife born of pride, fanned by wicked tongues, and justified by a zeal that ignores Christian liberty in the area of adiaphora, the demand of the gospel that strong and weaker brethren live together in peace, and the Apostle’s tribute to charity.” A clearer and more concise commentary on Psalm 15 I have never read. Keep up the good work, Mr. Editor;...

The State of Florida recently carried out its duty as the servant of God by executing His wrath upon a murderer in the form of the death-penalty. This was obedience, whether conscious or unconscious, to the will of God. God commands, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen. 9:6). The purpose is primarily retribution: the justice of God, Who made man originally in His own image, avenges itself upon the murderer. But in this way Florida also proved itself a servant of the citizens of the...