Vol 70 Issue 12

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Minister Activities Rev. R. Dykstra, pastor of the Doon, IA PRC, declined the call extended to him from the Loveland, CO PRC. Since that decline the Council of Loveland has formed a new trio from which their congregation will call, in their continuing effort to obtain a man of God’s own choosing. That trio consists of the Revs. A. denHartog, C. Terpstra, and G. VanBaren. In a follow-up to a recent issue of the “Church News,” we are happy to report that Prof. R. Decker, of our...

The Epistles of Peter, by J.H. Jowett (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1993), 174 pp., $9.95 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.] Rev. John Henry Jowett was a Congregationalist preacher in England during the last part of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th. He was, from 1918 till his death in 1923, minister in Westminster Chapel in London, a predecessor of Campbell Morgan and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. This book is not a commentary in the strict sense of the word. It is rather a collection of meditations on various passages in Peter’s two epistles – 18 on the...

Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. It is indeed striking, and very revealing, that the apostle John presents in the Scriptures the awesome truth that in his day there were many antichrists. We do well to bear in mind that the word “antichrist” refers to those who are against Christ. That prefix “anti” means against, even as we use it in the word antifreeze, which -plainly means that which is against freezing. And here John presents that word antichrist five times in his first and second epistles, referring to men who were against Christ. In I...

War! Bombs and bullets; rape and torture; death and maiming! Even we Americans, who have not had the dogs of war unleashed on our land, on our cities, and on our homes, tremble at the horror of war. Scarcely less horrible than war is the aftermath of war: famine, pestilence, and social chaos. War is no stranger to us. Those of us who are eighty have lived through two world wars, the Korean conflict, and the war in Vietnam. We have witnessed countless other smaller, yet violent, conflicts besides. Who knows when and where war will next erupt? If we...

The later Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In this chapter we turn to the consideration of the specific creative works of the Lord our God on the first three days of creation-week. These are recorded inGenesis 1:3-13. By way of introduction, we may note that each creative work is introduced by the significant formula, “And God said . . . .” By these words Scripture very definitely and directly ascribes the works of creation to God Himself. Moreover, in close connection with this, the Bible attributes these works of creation to...

* An excerpt from the sermon of this title preached in 1888 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This excerpt is taken from the printed copy of the sermon distributed by Chapel Library in Pensacola Florida. This is the suggestion of the present hour:. if the world will not come to Jesus, shall-Jesus tone down his teachings to the world? In other words, if the world will not rise to the church, shall not the church go down to the world? Instead of bidding men to be converted, and come out from among sinners, and be separate from them, let us join...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction In the last article we introduced our readers to Caspar Olevianus who, along with Zacharius Ursinus, authored the Heidelberg Catechism. Our readers will recall that we discussed Olevianus’s early life in Trier, the city of his birth, his studies for law in France, his studies in theology and preaching in Geneva, and his subsequent return to the city of his birth. Although Olevianus was hired in Trier as teacher in the local school, and was limited to teaching philosophy in Latin, his conscience still...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On the fourth day of the creation week, God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Gen. 1:14). The word seasons in this verse does not refer exclusively to our four seasons; in fact, it refers to the four seasons only potentially, since our seasons did not begin until after the flood. But there are many other kinds of periods or seasons...

We have asked James Lanting, editor of our “Church and State” column to respond to this question.  – Ed. Comm. For the past few years the State of Illinois has sponsored a Pupil Transportation Reimbursement program. Illinois, and perhaps other states in similar programs, offer parents of nonpublic schools a partial reimbursement for costs of busing their children to Christian schools, if the school confirms attendance. There is also talk about tuition vouchers becoming available to parents of our Christian schools. The argument is made that these forms of government aid are merely permissible assistance to the parents rather than...

Still the 7,000 I express my sincere appreciation for the Standard Bearer, to which I am a recent subscriber. The very existence of this publication comes to me as a most pleasant surprise. Biblical Christianity firmly rooted in the Pauline-Augustinian-Calvinist tradition is in most of this country, and throughout the world, an almost invisible presence. Arminianism dominates, and Arminianism is a halfway house to outright secularism. So it is perhaps well that in this darkened day Calvinism is not the stuff of common currency. It is a good day to be “contra mundum.” I wish to assure you that there...