Vol 71 Issue 09

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Mission Activities For the second consecutive year, the Council of the Hudsonville, MI PRC, the calling church for our denomination’s mission effort in Northern Ireland, has decided to send a delegation to visit with missionary Rev. Ron Hanko, his wife Nancy, and their family, as well as the members of the Covenant Reformed Fellowship. However, different from last year, instead of two elders and their wives going from Hudsonville, it was decided to send Rev. Barry Gritters, newly installed pastor at Hudsonville, along with his wife Lori....

An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning, by Walter C. Kaiser and Moises Silva. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1994. 298 pp. $24.99 (hard cover). [Reviewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.] As the title suggests, this book is intended to be a textbook on hermeneutics. From many points of view, it is an excellent textbook which can be used with great profit in seminary courses on hermeneutics; but it is also sufficiently worthwhile for ministers who have all their hermeneutics under their belts, to read and study. But the book is not without its difficulties, most of which arise...

The later Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. God’s Creation of Man: (1) The Fact of Man’s Creation We have seen repeatedly in these studies of Genesis 1that unbelief and faith, when confronted by the same set of facts, come inevitably to different conclusions with respect to those facts. This is also true with respect to man. It is unquestionably true that man is the highest creature of the earth, that he represents the apex of all creatures, that he stands, at the pinnacle of all earthly things. It is also without doubt...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Although Jesus does not use that exact word, there can be no doubt that in Matthew 24:24, He sets forth the truth about the Antichrist: “For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Jesus teaches that another sign of the end of the world will be the coming of Antichrist. That Jesus refers to that which the church has always called “Antichrist” is evident, first, from the...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove, Illinois. This beautiful account of the Lord and Nicodemus was part of the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover. While He was there He performed some miracles which are not recorded in the Scriptures. Many believed in Him as a “wonder- worker,” but their belief went no further than that. Jesus, therefore, did not commit himself to them. Yet, Jesus did at this time commit Himself to this one man named Nicodemus. Why? Nicodemus shows that he is one of the sheep Christ has come...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. The good works of the strong in faith are first of all the works of humility and meekness. The first fruit of faith is a deep recognition of one’s own unworthiness before God. It is remarkable that one of the greatest commendations that Jesus ever gave of anyone’s faith was the one He gave of the Syro-Phoenician woman. This woman was not deterred in her pleading with Jesus even when He told her that it was not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There are anthropomorphisms in Scripture, figures of speech in which human characteristics are ascribed to God in order that we may better understand Him and His works. God’s repentance is such a figure: God is not a man that He should repent; He never changes or does any thing for which He is sorry. Yet we read of the repentance of God several times, because to our limited minds it seems that God changes in respect to His dealings with the sons of men. When we read...

Rev. Hanko is missionary to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Our family arrived in Northern Ireland, appropriately, on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1993. Now that we have been here nearly two years, we have been asked to write about the work we are doing and about our experiences living and working in another country. But first of all a little geography. Most people living outside the United Kingdom do not realize that the island of Ireland is not all one country, nor do they know that Northern Ireland, with England, Scotland, and Wales, make up the United Kingdom, or Great...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Dordt College Founder Dies The Rev. Bernard J. (B. J.) Haan passed away on December 8, 1994. Born in Sully, Iowa in 1917, Rev. Haan spent part of his childhood in Orange City, Iowa before his family moved to Grand Rapids. After graduating from Calvin Seminary in 1942, Haan was ordained to the ministry of the Christian Reformed Church. His first congregation was the CRC in Ridott, Illinois. Haan accepted a call to First CRC of Sioux Center, Iowa in 1945. He remained in Sioux Center the rest...

Children know the strange world of “Alice in Wonderland.” Lewis Carroll created this world in two books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderlandand Through the Looking-Glass. It is truly a wonderland. It is not that this world is wrong but that it does not make sense. It is a world of “sentence first—verdict afterward”; a world in which the “sun was shining on the sea” in the “middle of the night”; a world in which one believes six impossible things before breakfast. Premises are absurd in this world; conclusions, solemnly drawn, do not follow. Alice’s reaction to a remark is that she “felt dreadfully...