Vol 67 Issue 13

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Ministerial Calls Rev. Steve Key received the call from the Hudsonville, MI PRC to serve as missionary to the saints in Larne, Northern Ireland. Evangelism Activities A few months ago we noted that a group of five families in Boise, ID requested and received a visit from Rev. C. Terpstra and Elder Ed Stouwie, Sr. of our South Holland, IL PRC. Due to the continued interest of this group, the consistory of Loveland, CO PRC has approved the request of the council of South Holland to release...

Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, by Alfred Jones. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1990. pages viii-382, paper, $16.95. [Reviewed by the Editor.] You are reading the Old Testament Scriptures for family devotions or in preparation for a Bible study class and come across the name, Molech. You wonder what the name means, how it is pronounced, what the idol was, and in what other passages the word appears. Jones’ Dictionary is intended to answer these questions for all students of the Bible, advanced and beginners. It is a dictionary of the proper names in the Old Testament, places as...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Far, far away in the country of Denmark there is a wonderful playground for children. This playground is a “junk playground.” All kinds of scraps are brought here and children are encouraged to build things out of pieces of wood and other odds and ends with their own tools. A child such as you may go to this playground any time and begin building a cabin or a fort or an airplane or a boat. There is no limit to the things you can...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. In a sense we can call Naomi a prodigal daughter (Luke 15:11ff.). She left her spiritual Father’s house and lived for ten years in a place where He did not reveal Himself in His love in Christ. And she did return to Bethlehem-Judah, even as the prodigal son returned to his father’s house. She returned because she realized that there was no other place on earth where she could find blessedness. By God’s grace her return was in the way of acknowledging her sin and her Lord’s faithful...

Rev. Kamps is pastor of the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. (Correction: An error in editing in Rev. Kamps’ article in the March 1 issue not only confused the meaning of a sentence, but also left it not a sentence. The correct reading of the sentence in the middle of the center column on page 255 should be as follows: “If only men would learn that the New Testament, which declares to us the great victory of Christ Jesus over sin, guilt, death, and Hell, testifies that this victory was accomplished for the elect of God alone, they...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The World Council of Churches Thousands of observers, guests, advisors, and visitors joined the 811 official delegates to the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Canberra, Australia, February 7-20. The theme of the Assembly was “Come Holy Spirit, Renew The Whole Creation.” Most of the issues, we are told, were not at all related to the theme. The issues which most excited the participants dealt with politics, racism, feminism, and ecology. The host country, Australia, was the object of a scathing indictment concerning its...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. It was therefore error for the trial judge to instruct the jury to disregard evidence of Cheek’s understanding that . . . he was not a person required to file a return or to pay income taxes and that wages are not taxable income, as incredible as such misunderstandings of and beliefs about the law might be.  Cheek v. U.S., Supreme Court (1991) Tax Protesters The tax protest movement is a loosely organized group of Americans who refuse to file income tax returns and pay income...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the 8th century, the time in which Alcuin lived, Europe was in a sorry state. In the 5th century the Roman Empire had fallen before the barbarian hordes that swept over Europe, and the old Graeco-Roman culture of the Roman Empire had ceased to exist. In its place, the roving and militant tribes of uncivilized barbarians had inhabited Europe and a great darkness had settled on the continent. Although by the 8th century a great deal of missionary work had been done, Europe remained...

The Puritans on Common Grace Thanks again for all the fine and edifying articles that you publish in the Standard Bearer. Very recently in my reading of a great Puritan classicDirections for a Comfortable Walking with God by Robert Bolton (originally published 1626; reprint edition 1991—Soli Deo Gloria), I fastened on a passage that is clearly indicative of the Puritan’s firm grasp of the diametric differentiation that exists between the elect and the reprobate, delineating forcefully what the Puritan and Reformed attitude would be towards the chimerical notion of “common grace”: If thou be not justified by faith, and accepted through CHRIST,...

In the Standard Bearer of March 15, 1991 appeared a long letter from Canadian Reformed (“Liberated”) theologian Dr. J. DeJong in response to my editorials on the Reformed doctrine of the covenant. The letter defends the “Liberated” teaching on God’s covenant with the children of believers against my charge that this teaching “conflicts with the Reformed gospel of salvation by sovereign grace.” It also criticizes the covenant doctrine of the Protestant Reformed Churches as an “election theology” of the covenant. The editorial in that SB clarified the issue between the “Liberated” and the PRC. The issue is the “Liberated” doctrine that the...