Vol 67 Issue 04

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. How time flies. It has been over ten months since our last church profile. Well, this issue seems like a slow news month, so let’s include a profile of the Hudsonville PRC. July 26, 1926 is a date which brings pleasant thoughts to the members of the Hudsonville PRC in Michigan. It was on that date that about 25 families banding together decided to organize as a congregation. The first service was held in what was known as Spoelman’s barn. Cold weather forced the congregation to abandon...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Continuing Decline of the GKN Evidence of the continuing decline of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN), in which most of us have our spiritual roots, is evident from two decisions of its latest synod. With only nine delegates voting against the motion, the synod passed a decision making the second worship service on the Lord’s day optional. The synod changed Article 70 of its Church Order so that it now reads: “On the Lord’s Day, the consistory shall call the congregation together for worship, if...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Many events have taken place in the work of the Committee for Contact With Foreign Churches, and it is time to report to our people on some of these activities. In the latter part of August and the first part of September, Prof. David Engelsma traveled with his wife to England to speak at a Family Conference in Wales on August 31 to September 2. On the Sunday of August 26 Professor Engelsma preached for the Covenant Reformed Fellowship in Lame, Northern Ireland. While there...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. And they remembered his words…It was May Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. Luke 24 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. Mark 16 There are some things which are very dated. This was made clear to me when my...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. One of the main duties enjoined upon the elders in Article 23 of the Church Order is family visitation: “The office of the elders (is) . ..both before and after the Lord’s Supper, as time and circumstances may demand, for the edification of the churches, to visit the families of the congregation, in order particularly to comfort and instruct the members, and also to exhort others in respect to the Christian religion.” Family visitation is a distinctively Reformed practice. No other churches that I am aware of regularly...

Rev. Dykstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa. Introduction: The purpose of the column “The Strength of Youth” is to encourage and instruct you, the youth of Christ’s church. Because young, Reformed believers face a host of temptations and spiritual struggles in this ungodly age, we seek to help you with the doctrinal and practical problems with which you must grapple. Many of these articles will focus on some issues faced primarily by college students—both in the classroom and in everyday life. Some of the same issues affect high school students as well, particularly those not...

Mr. James Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. We assume that the United States Constitution would grant a competent person a constitutionally protected right to refuse lifesaving hydration and nutrition. [Majority opinion, Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health (1990)]  I would have preferred that we announce, clearly and promptly, that the federal courts have no business in this field; that American law has always accorded to the States the power to prevent, by force if necessary, suicide—including suicide by refusing to take appropriate measures necessary to preserve one’s life…. [Judge Scalia (concurring opinion),...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. Fearful and wonderful is the love of God. It is absolutely sovereign. It has all its reason and cause in God Himself alone. It is not dependent upon nor determined by any creature. It is perfectly holy, never in any way defiled or corrupted by evil passions or affections. It is unchangeable, the same from eternity to eternity. It is full of compassion and tender affection. It is faithful. Never does God forsake those who are the objects of His affection and loving kindness. It ever seeks...

Rev. Kamps is pastor of the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. Its Absolute Authority It hardly seems necessary, for members of our Protestant Reformed Churches, to write on the authority of Scripture. We have always enjoyed, as a denomination of Reformed churches, a united commitment to this fundamental understanding of God’s Word. It is impossible to find in any of our ministers’ writings, of past and present, or in any of our ecclesiastical decisions throughout all the years of our existence, any questioning of the sole authority of the Bible. This is truly an evidence of the blessing...

Presumptive Regeneration? Your series of editorials in The Standard Beareron the covenant has been truly a blessing. It is good to see that there are still those who are faithful to the scriptures and hold to a unilateral, unconditional, and unbreakable covenant. Even among our Reformed churches the error of “common grace,” “the well-meant offer” of the gospel to all people, and “conditional covenantal theology” show the compromises our churches have made with respect to Arminianism. In your fifth article on the covenant (July 1, 1990) you are quite correct in pointing out that we must not view our children as...