Vol 70 Issue 19

Congregational Activities   We extend our congratulations to our Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI which celebrated its 50th Anniversary Commemoration as an organized congregation on the weekend of June 10-12. On Friday evening June 10, there was a program in Southeast which included a speech by Rev. D. Kuiper (Southeast’s pastor), special musical numbers, photo displays, and a coffee hour. Saturday the celebration continued with an expanded version of Southeast’s annual church picnic. This year’s picnic was held at Heritage Christian School in Hudsonville, MI, the afternoon being filled with activities for all ages, followed by a special program...

The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. And God said, Let the wafers under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:9, 10 God’s Creation of the Earth and the Seas When a man builds for himself a house (and all man’s work is, after all, but a very faint reflection of the work of his...

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3 God is a logical God. He cannot lie (Numbers 23:19); and therefore He cannot deny or contradict Himself, which is the foundation for the basic principle underlying all true logic. And because of it, God’s revelation to us, the Bible, can be relied upon and understood. We can exegete it, which is to say, we can glean from it truths which can be received with certainty, knowing that...

Letters to a Young Pastor: Letters to Rev. R Harbach by A. W. Pink. Grandville, MI: The Evangelism Committee of Grandville Protestant Reformed Church, 1993. 40 pages (paper). N. p. [Reviewed by the Editor.] The Evangelism Committee of the Grandville, MI PRC has published a 40-page booklet containing letters written by well known Bible expositor A. W. Pink to Rev. Robert C. Harbach. Pink wrote the letters during the years 1943-1949. The letters contain little explanation of Scripture; some advice to a young pastor concerning the ministry; and repeated expressions of concern that Pink’s magazine had relatively few subscribers. One...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction It is a popular pastime nowadays to attempt to find one’s roots. No one can deny that this is indeed interesting to learn of one’s ancestors, their struggles and sorrows, their lives and callings. It is a more profitable pastime for people of God who recognize the truth of God’s covenant that God saves His church in the line of generations, to trace their spiritual roots. To know one’s family roots can sometimes be embarrassing, for often skeletons are found in unexpected closets. To...

No one can possibly fail to see the lawlessness that pervades our society from the highest levels of government to the lowliest slum-dwellers in the great cities. Lawlessness screams out at us in every news report. It shakes the very foundation of the state when it is exposed in the lives of the heads of government. It is the reason why none of us dares walk the city streets after dark and why many tremble behind locked doors and barred windows throughout the night. We see lawlessness, but do we understand? Jesus foretold this lawlessness in Matthew 24 as one of the...

Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, the laborer is worthy of his reward.  I Timothy 5:17, 18 Compare the following Scripture references: Philippians 2:29; Acts 28:10; Deuteronomy 28:29; I Corinthians 9:9; Leviticus 19:13;Deuteronomy 24:14; Matthew 10:10. Some observations on the text and context: 1. It might seem that Paul is digressing from the central theme of chapters 4 and 5. However, when we look...

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. IV. The Nature of the Growth A final area in which the modem church growth movement is to be examined and critiqued is in the area of the nature of growth itself. As Guinness points out in his book, the term is capable of double meaning: qualitative growth, referring to spiritual depth and character; and quantitative growth, referring to size and numbers. The church needs both, he says, but while they may be distinguished, they ought not to be separated. One of the problems is that in...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Church’s Response to Homosexuality Again, as it had at three previous synods, the Reformed Church in America (RCA) dealt with this issue at its General Synod which met in June at Central College in Pella, Iowa. Jeff Japinga reports that the RCA did, “. . . what no other mainline denomination has been able to do: find some common ground on one of the most divisive issues facing the North American church today—the issue of the church’s response to homosexuality.” In study papers and statements adopted by...

The Reformed Christian may not simply fall in with the thinking of the decent heathens or even of all other Christians on abortion. Abortion is murder, the killing of humans, who were originally created in the image of God, without divine warrant. The law of God forbids and condemns murder (Gen. 9:5, 6; Ex. 20:13). Humans begin to exist as persons at conception, as the Word of God teaches in Psalm 139:13-16: “… thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb…. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance...