Vol 68 Issue 02

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Ministerial Calls On Sunday, September 22, the Hudsonville, MI PRC extended a call to Rev. R. Cammenga, to serve as missionary pastor to the members of the Covenant Reformed Fellowship of Larne, Northern Ireland. For the Venice, FL mission field, the congregation of the Kalamazoo, MI PRC formed a trio consisting of Revs. Bekkering, Bruinsma, and VanOverloop. On September 15 they extended a call to Rev. Bekkering. The Consistory of the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI scheduled a congregational meeting for Sunday, September 29 for the...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. Under the grace of God, the Reformation restored to the church not only the pure doctrine of the gospel, but also proper church government. The Reformers to a man were concerned that the church be organized along biblical lines. Part of the deformation of the church prior to the Reformation was the deformation of the church’s structure and government. The Reformers reacted to the unbiblical hierarchy of Roman Catholicism and were determined to deliver the church from papal tyranny. But the battle for proper church government was a...

Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan. World-fight or world-flight? Which is the Christian life? There was a time when all who went by the name of Calvinists would have said “world-fight.” That they were biblically accurate is not so difficult to demonstrate. Today, however, more and more of protestantism, given the choice, would respond, “Neither.” World-fight is as foreign to them as world-flight. The threat of “worldliness” is a clear and present danger on which far too many Protestant pulpits have become silent. What has occurred is rather insidious. World-fight, that legitimate and necessary...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. What is to the child of God most precious in his life? To know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord. . .” (Jer. 9:23-24): This we believe with heart and soul. So did the Anabaptists. But what they meant by...

Rev. Hanko is pastor of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Houston, Texas. And although our young children do not understand these things, we may not therefore exclude them from baptism, for as they are without their knowledge, partakers of the condemnation in Adam, so are they again received unto grace in Christ. This passage from the Form for the Administration of Baptism that is used in the Protestant Reformed Churches very nicely sums up what we wish to show in this article, that is, that infant baptism is part and parcel of the doctrines of sovereign grace, and that a...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The Anabaptists (as distinct from Paedo-baptists) thought the Reformers stopped half-way, and “did not go to the root of the evil. Their fundamental doctrine was, that baptism is a voluntary act, and requires personal repentance, and faith in Christ. They rejected infant-baptism as an anti-scriptural invention. They could find no trace of it in the New Testament, the only authority in matters of faith” (Philip Schaaf, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VII, p. 607). The Anabaptists believed that infant-baptism “was an invention of the popish...

Mr. Kuiper is administrator of Heritage Christian School in Hudsonville, Michigan. Elsewhere in this issue we are introduced to the history of the Anabaptists. In the light of that history it is clear that the Reformers regarded them as great enemies of the Reformed church. John Calvin was aware of the danger they posed to the church and he was persuaded by Farel and others in 1544 to write against them in a pamphlet entitled, “Brief Instruction for Arming all the Good Faithful Against the Errors of the Common Sect of the Anabaptists.” This pamphlet was translated and edited by...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was a mighty work of God by which the church of Christ was preserved through church reformation. To the student of history, it never ceases to be a wonder how God brought about this reformation and kept it on a steady biblical course. Not only were the Reformers giants of theology who successfully combatted the errors of Rome in doctrine, worship, church government, and the Christian life, but they also successfully steered the church away from radical movements on...

Anabaptists? Who are they? And does a Reformed church have to bother itself with them? Are they such a threat to the Reformation faith as to warrant devoting an entire issue of the Standard Bearer to their errors? Our people must know that the Anabaptist heresy is alive and well. Indeed, it is thriving as never before. Of the two great foes of the faith of the Reformation in history, Roman Catholicism and Anabaptism, Anabaptism is by far the more serious danger to the faith today. Every Reformed Christian worthy of the name is on his guard against Rome. But...

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.  John 18:36 The Jewish leaders have brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. The charge these leaders bring against Jesus is very serious. Jesus perverts the nation. He forbids the people to give tribute to Caesar. He says that He is Christ, a king (Luke 23:2). In the privacy...