Vol 69 Issue 15

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities The Reformed Witness Committee of the Hope PRC in Walker, MI recently sponsored a two-day combined Spring Lecture/Conference on Personal Witnessing. This conference took place on the 2nd and 3rd of April in Hope Church’s auditorium. On Friday evening Rev. R. VanOverloop, pastor of Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village, IL, spoke on “Winning Souls.” Rev. VanOverloop based his remarks on Proverbs 11:30. Using that text for a base, he emphasized that we do not have the power to persuade, but that winning souls involves, rather,...

The Presbyterian Conflict, by Edwin H. Rian. Philadelphia: The Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1992. 242 pp. (paper). [Reviewed by the Editor.] From this exceptionally valuable history of the conflict between faith and unbelief in the Presbyterian Church in the USA in the early 1900s, there is much to be learned. The book tells the story of the struggle between theological modernism and genuine Christianity that resulted in the formation of Westminster Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The champion of orthodoxy was J. Gresham Machen. The Presbyterian Conflict gives the history of that controversy...

Rev. Houck is pastor of Peace Protestant Reformed Church in Lynwood, Illinois. There are many who do not recognize the power of the preaching. They see the preaching as merely an offer of salvation by God to the lost sinner, an offer which the lost sinner can accept or reject. They say that God loves everyone, and that He therefore sincerely desires the salvation of everyone. He expresses His love and desire by making His generous offer in the preaching. Thus the preaching is merely the presentation of certain information. It is information about man and his need of salvation,...

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  Philippians 2:1, 2 The adoption of the Declaration of Principles by the synod of 1951 in no way resolved the tensions within the churches. Actually there was one more opportunity left to register objections to it. Protests could properly be brought to the next meeting...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. “I will set no evil thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” Psalm 101:3 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”  Ephesians 5:11 Dateline: Central Command, Hell, 1940s  Subject: Covert Mass Destruction of Enemy In the reddish glow of the command center, surrounded by his dark angels, Satan turns over in his mind his hatred for the Woman and Her Seed. Premeditating his destruction of the Seed, he...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Word of God places great emphasis and value upon good order. We will undoubtedly be surprised at the frequency with which this word appears and the implications that it has. There are several root words, both in the Hebrew and the Greek, that convey the sense of good order. All these words agree in their basic meanings: to set aright, to ordain, to arrange, to set in order, to walk orderly. The church and her members are to demonstrate orderliness in all their lives, “for God...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. A Precursor of Things to Come The congregation of the LaPorte Church of Christ in Fort Collins, Colorado is having its property confiscated by the state because it refuses to pay a $10,075 fine for violating election laws. In 1988 the church lobbied against a proposed Fort Collins gay rights ordinance without registering as a political action committee. The pastor of the church, Rev. Pete Peters, maintained he was exercising his freedom of religion in opposing the ordinance. Said Peters, “Christ did not say, ‘Go all over the...

The Rev. E.C. Case is a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). He is pastor of two PCA congregations in Mississippi. Memories of twenty years ago were evoked for many as approximately 150 people, most of them members of the Presbyterian Church in America, assembled at the Ebenezer Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC on March 23, for what was billed as “Concerned Presbyterian Day.” Dr. Morton H. Smith, Dean of the Faculty at the Greenville (SC) Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and former Stated Clerk of the PCA General Assembly, made direct reference to this twenty-year connection...

Must the Minister Preside? My question concerns Article 37 of the Church Order of Dordt. This article requires that the minister preside at consistory meetings. What is the reason for this? Why may not an elder preside? Is not this rule contradicted by Acts 6:4? I very much appreciate the SB. It is a magazine with much in-depth teaching helpful for daily life. Harv Nyhof Holland, MI Response: Very little is written by the commonly regarded authorities on church polity about your question. Our answer would be that the minister is to preside because he is the most qualified for this...

Clearing the OPC I could not let the opportunity pass without thanking you for your rebuttal of Mr. Ernie Springer’s letter in your editorial, “1994? – ‘Maybe Wrong’?” (the Standard Bearer, March 15, 1993). There is only one thing I should like to add. Early in his letter Mr. Springer mentions that he is a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I, too, am a member of the OPC and would like to clear our denomination’s good name of any false conclusions your readers may have come to concerning our eschatology. I am not aware of any other OPC member,...