Vol 70 Issue 04

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Psalm 116:12, 13 .

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Denominational Activities On the evening of September 21 the annual Fall League Meeting of the Mr. & Mrs. and Adult Bible Societies of West Michigan was held at the Hudsonville, MI PRC. Rev. R. Van Overloop, pastor of the Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village, IL addressed those gathered there on the very informative and timely subject of “The Suffering of the Church in Connection with Aids.” The Reformed Free Publishing Association of our churches, publishers of this very magazine, met for their annual meeting on the...

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17

Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Will the pouring of ice-coldwater on your head warm you up and improve your physical lot? Can running up a hill bring you to someone who behind you is running down that hill? Can we break one of the ten commandments of God’s holy law in order to keep one of the other commandments? In the day of shadows – the Old Testament dispensation – we have presented to us in Genesis 34 the sin of adultery committed upon Jacob’s daughter Dinah by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. Also...

Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.  I Timothy 3:8-10 We ought to notice that the requirements for a deacon are not of a lower order than those for the teaching and ruling elders. All are called by God, all must be fit instruments to conduct themselves properly in...

Mr. McAuley is a member of the Covenant Reformed Fellowship in Northern Ireland. The Covenant Reformed Fellowship here in Northern Ireland have been greatly blessed by our God over the past few years. We now enjoy regular live preaching of the gospel in our worship services, our children receive full catechism instruction, and we ourselves enjoy continuous study in our Father’s precious Word. All this is so because the God who loves His people from before the foundation of the world has provided us with a missionary pastor through the Protestant Reformed Churches, in the person of Rev. Ron Hanko....

The Exodus Continues Two more secessions from the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) have recently occurred, bringing the number of independent congregations to 38, with7800 total members. These figures do not include the Korean churches which have recently seceded and which are in the process of forming a new denomination. Both churches voted to secede on September 8. The Eastmanville CRC located in a rural area just west of Grand Rapids, by a vote of 85 to 35, decided to cease affiliation with the CRC. The new church, which calls itself Eastmanville Reformed Bible Church, thus becomes the thirteenth independent congregation...

Resource for Edification I wish to thank each and every individual who contributes in the writing editing, and publishing of the Standard Bearer. My only regret is that it comes to my home but once a month during the summer months – lean times for me! Because the Standard Bearer has been such a testimony for the truth and such an irreplaceable resource for spiritual edification in my own life, I am writing to subscribe for a dear brother and sister in the Lord, whom I pray will be equally blessed by the Lord by its use as I have...

Calvin College professor Philip C. Holtrop has just given us a historical and theological study of the controversy between John Calvin and Jerome Bolsec over predestination: The study is contained in two volumes entitled, The Bolsec Controversy on Predestination from 1551- 1555 (Lewistown, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1993). The cost of the two volumes, that run to more than 1,000 pages, is $199.90. The issue was Calvin’s teaching of God’s eternal, double predestination, election and reprobation. Bolsec rejected predestination as an eternal decree. Although he raised his objection specifically against reprobation, Bolsec likewise opposed election as an eternal...