Vol 66 Issue 03

Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. When the sovereign God of our salvation told the devil that He would put enmity between him and his seed and the woman and her seed, He did not mean that He was going to make the devil hate Adam and Eve and their covenant seed. There was no need or reason for that. The devil already hated them. He hated them the moment that he learned that God had created them in His own image, and saw them walking in love to God. And the seed of the...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. “It thus appears that the mansion of constitutionalized abortion law, constructed overnight in Roe v. Wade, must be disassembled door-jam by door-jam, and never entirely brought down, no matter how wrong it might be.” Justice Scalia, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (concerning opinion).  Contrary to the theological “finding” of the Missouri Legislature [that life begins at conception], a woman’s constitutionally protected liberty encompasses the right to act on her own belief that—to paraphrase St. Thomas Aquinas—until a seed has acquired the powers of sensation and movement,...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. We will be studying, D.V., the short epistle to the Philippians in following articles. In preparation for that study, we should obtain certain background information. For this particular study, read Acts 16:6-40and Acts 20:6. The questions at the end of the article will treat especially these passages. The Apostle Paul with Timothy and Silas went to Philippi on his second missionary journey about A.D. 52. Philippi had not been their intended destination. First, Paul and Silas visited those churches established in the first missionary journey. After leaving the area of...

More on Home-Schooling I have some thoughts to express and questions to ask regarding your editorial in the September 15 Standard Bearer. The third question parents are asked at baptism is whether they promise to instruct and bring up their child in the aforesaid doctrine or help or cause them to be instructed therein. If parents choose the firstoption in fulfilling their baptism vows, should they be made to feel guilty about “turning their backs” on the P.R. schools? Perhaps instead, parents should prayerfully consider whether they are able and are called to teach their children themselves, beforeconsidering the second option of delegating this responsibility...

Rev. Houck is a home-missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. In our last article we noted the basic beliefs of the New Age Movement. In this article we will consider their practices and also begin an evaluation both of their beliefs and of their practices. All the practices of the New Age Movement are based upon their fundamental beliefs. Since man is really God and therefore has infinite potential, he has only to look within himself for the answers to all of his problems. Therefore many of the practices of the New Age Movement emphasize mystical experiences, particularly various forms...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Oral Roberts in Trouble The National & International Religion Report(September 25, 1989) informs us that: Barring “a miracle,” Oral Roberts will close the towering City of Faith medical complex Jan. 1 and shut down the Oral Roberts University’s 147-student medical school next May. The hospitals emergency room was closed Sept. 14. Roberts also said his home and the adjacent one of his son Richard (together valued at over $1 million), along with other ministry homes near the ORU cam pus and an 832 graduate housing compound, will be sold...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord…” I Peter 3:6 Wife. Strife. Not many words rhyme with wife; this is one of the ugly ones which does. With divorce in America at an all-time high (one out of four marriages ends in divorce), many today would also agree that this word most aptly describes their marriages. Irreconcilable differences. Enmity in the home. War in the bedroom. Strife. And what more can one expect when a daughter of Eve marries a son of Adam?...

THE MORE GLORIOUS COVENANT, by Gerrit Vos, Men’s Society, Protestant Reformed Church, Hudsonville, MI 49426, 1986, 312 pp. (Reviewed by the Rev. Norman L. Jones, Jr.) This review appeared in the December 9, 1988 issue of Christian Observer, a Presbyterian magazine published in Manassas, VA whose frequent references to the activities of the Protestant Reformed Churches we appreciate. The Rev. Norman Jones is a minister in the Reformed Church in the United States and a long-time, friendly observer of the PRC. The review is published with permission.  —Ed. The byline of G. Vos was a regular feature of The Standard Bearer for...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Congregational Highlights “Having a Heart for God” was the theme chosen by the Evangelism Committee of the South Holland P.R.C. in South Holland, IL for their Reformed Conference which was held September 22 and 23. The first speech was scheduled for Friday night. Prof. David Engelsma spoke on “Having a Heart for God Himself.” Following this speech the group of approximately 150 people was divided into nine different groups which met in various rooms in the church and the school. Friday night’s discussion was on the practical...

“Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel.” Paul the apostle is deeply concerned for the spiritual well-being of the saints in the church at Philippi. He loves this church very dearly. They are very much in his mind and heart, as he assures them in Phil. 1:1-8. He thinks of this church as the firstfruits of his labors in Macedonia. He had...