Vol 72 Issue 01

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Denominational Activities The warm, lazy days of summer have given way to the cool, crisp days of fall, and it’s time for you and me to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Not just you and me, of course, but our churches, schools, and seminary as well. That’s just what happened on the evening of August 30 in the auditorium of the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI. Our denomination’s seminary went back to work for another year. A crowd overflowing into the narthex at Southwest...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Bauer, Michigan. No one likes to be told that he is immature. Children want to be older, so they may be allowed to do the things they see their parents or older siblings doing. Young people want to be considered adults, or old enough to be allowed to do certain things. And no one likes to be told he is an immature Christian. At least twice in the New Testament, Christians were called immature. The apostle Paul charged the Corinthian Christians with being “babes in Christ” (I Cor. 31). Paul...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. We cannot be sure what feast it was to which Jesus went up, and at which He healed the man beside the pool of Bethesda. If it was the Passover, and we are inclined to think that it was, then Christ’s ministry covered a space of about three and a half years. (See ch. 2:13; 5:2; 6:4; and 12:12.) This much is certain, it was our Lord’s second appearance in Jerusalem recorded by John. While in Jerusalem Jesus went on a Sabbath day to walk among...

* Chapter 9, in the Clark-VanTil Controversy (Hobbs, New Mexico: The Trinity Foundation, 1995.) Reprinted by permission. See the editorial in this issue. The last point of the Complaint concerns the so-called sincere offer of salvation on the part of God to all men, particularly to the reprobate. Here the Complaint descends from the stratosphere of philosophical contemplation and theological debate to the lower spheres of plain, even superficial reasoning, where even common mortals that may have been present at the examination of Dr. Clark and at the subsequent debate about the questions involved, must have felt that they were able to participate in...

News from Seminary Hill The Protestant Reformed Seminary began what promises to be a very active school year on August 28. Eleven men registered for classes or internships. Another, presently in college and purposing to attend Seminary, enrolled in the Dutch Theological Reading course. There are students in all four years of the Seminary curriculum—two in the fourth (and final) year; six in the third year; one in the, second year; and two in the first year. Nine aspire to the ministry in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). One third-year seminarian is being trained for the Evangelical Reformed Churches of...

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar 08, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.  Acts 2:39 At the heart of the controversy over the covenant which took place in the Netherlands fifty years ago was the question of what happens to a child at the moment of his baptism. Between the two sides, the Synodicals (those who agreed with the decision of the synod on this matter) and the Liberated (those who considered themselves liberated...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. “To obey the Establishment Claus, it was not necessary for the University to deny eligibility to student publications because of their religious viewpoint. The viewpoint discrimination inherent in the University’s regulation required public officials to discern the student newspaper’s underlying philosophic assumptions respecting religious theory and belief. That course of action was a denial of the right of free speech and… undermines the very governmental neutrality the Establishment Clause requires.” Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, U.S. Supreme Court (1995) (majority opinion) “[The student newspaper in question...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. On the “Free Offer” The question of the “well-meant” or “free” offer of the gospel has had a very important part in the life of our churches. It is part of the First Point of Common Grace adopted by the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in 1924 at Kalamazoo, Michigan. The concept has been incorporated into the doctrine of most Reformed and Presbyterian churches today. Many become very upset if this “free offer” is questioned or condemned as being not Reformed and not Scriptural. The claim is...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the passage from which the title of this rubric is taken (II Corinthians 8:1-7) the apostle Paul exhorts the saints in Corinth to give liberally to the relief of the poor. Paul begins by holding before the Corinthian saints the example of the saints of the churches in Macedonia, i.e., the churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. The saints in Macedonia in the midst of great affliction, and we take affliction to mean persecution and extreme poverty, had exceeded their ability in the contributions they had made...

Just off the press is a new book by Herman Hoeksema, The Clark-VanTil Controversy. The press, interestingly, is not that of the Reformed Free Publishing Association, or of any organization associated with the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). The publisher is The Trinity Foundation headed by John W. Robbins and “committed to the reconstruction of philosophy and theology along Biblical lines.” The Foundation seeks to fulfill this mission by the publication mainly of the writings of the Presbyterian philosopher and theologian Gordon H. Clark. The new book consists of a series of Standard Bearer editorials that Hoeksema wrote in the years 1944-1946 concerning a controversy...