Vol 68 Issue 04

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4 Last month the saints in Canada observed a national day of Thanksgiving. This month we do the same in the States. This national day of Thanksgiving is a day in which the leaders of our nations call us to give thanks to God for all the bounties He has given to us. We understand that our thanksgiving is not to be limited to mere material things. As saints of God we are also to give thanks...

(The preceding editorial in this series noted that there is an illicit holding of tradition. One form is that of the Roman Catholic Church. Another form is that condemned by Jesus in the Pharisees. This article picks up the subject at this point.—Ed.) Now the ministry of Paul, great apostle of freedom, was unrelenting warfare against this legalistic holding of the traditions, against what he calls, in Galatians 1:14, “the traditions of my fathers.” This makes it all the more striking that he commands believers to “hold the traditions.” This is what this most determined enemy of illegitimate tradition does in II...

Experimental Religion In a book review in the Standard Bearer (August 1, 1991), you wrote about the “second blessing” heresy, which “holds before the saint the real possibility of virtual perfection in this life.” You placed this under the general heading of “experimental religion,” which you said runs the danger of separating from “solidly doctrinal Christianity.” I understand the danger of “second blessing” as championed by certain Arminian denominations, but “experimental religion” is a term that has been used by (or about) some who are solidly in the Calvinistic tradition, such as M’Cheyne, Brainerd, Edwards, and Guthrie. They have spoken...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of the Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The consideration of the principles of missions legitimately includes a discussion of the methods of missions. The reason is simple. The methods are to be determined from the principles. The biblical basis for this relationship between principles and methods, between faith and practice, is easily shown. The Scriptures give us the contents of our faith – what we are to believe in order to be saved. They make one wise unto salvation (II Timothy 3:15), but they also thoroughly equip one unto every good work...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. In vain one searches for the treatment of or even. a reference to the terminology “means of grace” in the writings of Anabaptist leaders. It is difficult to ascertain whether the absence of such reference is due to their, loathing of systematized theology, or whether they simply denied the existence of any means of grace. Both are probably true. But we are interested in pursuing the latter, namely, that the Anabaptists denied the existence and the necessity of means of grace. This denial finds its source in the...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The book of Malachi is the last of the Old Testament prophecies written before the birth of Jesus Christ. Approximately 400 years of silence would follow the words of this prophecy, until the time when Gabriel would be sent to godly Zacharias and Elisabeth to announce the birth of the forerunner or our Lord (Mal. 3:1; Mal. 4:5, 6; Luke 1:1-20). The importance of this book of the Bible cannot be overstated. The times in which Malachi prophesied correspond exactly to our own; the sins current among God’s people and...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Immanuel Protestant Reformed Church in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. Not many times do the-words laugh and laughter occur in the Scriptures. We read of the laughter of the wicked, the laughter of the righteous, and, most striking of all, the laughter of God: As we consider this subject we ought to be reminded that we live in a world where comedy is king and where the insanity of unbelief is punctuated by forced humor, jokes, blasphemies, frivolousness, and inanities. How much the world is with us so that these things enter into the conversations of believers....

Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Our covenant God, sovereignly but also graciously, brought Abraham into a land where the descendants of Ham dwelt, and where they owned every inch of the land of Canaan. Thus, when Abraham’s wife, Sarah – who had in her 90th year brought forth for Abraham his son Isaac – died when she was 127 years old, Abraham had not one square inch of land wherein to bury her. Therefore Abraham had to contact the descendants of Ham, in order to be able to buy a place where he could...

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: . . . thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all . . . . Thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.  I Chronicles 29:11, 12 In this prayer of humble thanksgiving to Jehovah for the willing and generous offerings which the children...

D. Martyn Lloyd -Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981, by Iain H. Murray. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990. pp. xxiv-831. $36.95, cloth. [Reviewed by Prof. Robert D. Decker.] This massive work is volume two of a biography of the late great preacher of Westminster Chapel in London. D. Martyn Loyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, the first volume of the biography, was published in 1982, about a year after Lloyd-Jones’ death. The doctor himself authorized his long-time friend and former assistant pastor at the Chapel (1956-1959), Iain H. Murray, to write the biography. The two volumes present a...