Vol 72 Issue 13

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Sister-Church Activities The Covenant and First Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore, through their Evangelical Reformed Bible School, recently sponsored a new Bible study class. Rev. Lau Chin Kwee, pastor at Covenant, set the course direction for this three-month course. The course title was “Spiritual Gifts.” It was designed to address spiritual gifts in the church, treating I Corinthians 12, and applying it to the unique situation faced by those two congregations in Singapore. The course was to include also some workshops for practical applications as well. This...

The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Tempter (1) We now turn to Scripture’s record concerning the temptation and fall of our first parents in Paradise the First, and in particular to the record of Scripture concerning the tempter, the agent in that temptation and fall. He is described in the opening words of Genesis 3: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. We return in this article to the three exhortations that Paul, the inspired apostle of the Lord, gives to young women in the church in I Timothy 5:14. He exhorts them to: 1) Marry in the Lord. 2) Bear covenant children. 3) Guide the house. We saw in our last article how these three are related. Young women in the church must realize what a tremendous calling it is to bear covenant children. God has given you this calling in His grand and wonderful covenant purpose. It is...

Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. We recently received a copy of an article (which has by this time probably appeared in print) written by Dr. J. DeJong, editor of the Clarion magazine of the Canadian Reformed Churches, the Canadian wing of the Liberated Churches. I was happy to receive it; for, if we are to gain a full understanding of this important chapter of our history, it is important that we understand also how those on the Liberated side of these issues perceive the matters with which we have been concerned. His article read...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Almost from the beginning of the history of the Reformation in the Netherlands a Puritan strain could be found in the Dutch Reformed Churches. This Puritan influence was to continue for many years and it made an indelible mark on Dutch thought. Some even speak of “Dutch Puritanism.” The reason why a Puritan influence could be found among the Dutch was the close contact, throughout the centuries, between the Dutch and the English. The English came to the help of the Dutch in the...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Of the several passages which speak to this subject, I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 are the most comprehensive. These passages present the following qualifying gifts: blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to or lover of hospitality, apt to teach (“able to exhort and convince the gainsayers,” Tit. 1:9), not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler (“not given to riot,” Tit. 1:6), not covetous, rules his house well, not a novice, has a good...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. The Inclusive Bible You have doubtlessly read of the “Inclusive Bible.” It is man’s attempt to improve on the revelation of God to us given in Holy Scripture. It seems that in the minds of some the old Bible is no longer suitable for our current day and age. Nor is this merely a matter of translation — this is deliberate revision of the Word of Holy Scripture. We quote part of an article appearing in The Christian News, January 29, 1996. Christians have always believed that God...

News from Seminary Hill By this time we are well into the second semester at the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary. Prof. Engelsma taught the interim course this year on “Contemporary Theology.” In eight successive mornings right after the Christmas/New Year break, the class covered the development of liberal Protestant theology from Schleiermacher to Barth. In addition to their other course work, seven of the eight full-time students are presently involved in practice preaching. By the end of the semester, each will have preached twice before the faculty and student body on assigned passages of Scripture or Lord’s Days of the...

Psalm-Singing in the Consciousness of the Congregations Because the hymn/psalm question is larger by far than a mere difference of opinion between two writers of letters to the editor, please allow me to respond briefly to the letter of Mr. Gerald Kuiper (“Correction and Comment”) in the February 15, 1996 issue of the Standard Bearer. It seems to me that to argue, in defense of hymns, as Mr. Kuiper does, that some hymns are better versifications of the Scripture than are “many of the songs in our Psalter,” and that hymns based on “other parts of the God-breathed Scriptures” are...

The risk that an editor takes when he launches a series of editorials is that the series will be interrupted. Reasons for the interruption are varied — and sometimes compelling. The danger includes that the interruption will be extended for some time and several issues of the magazine.By the time the editor resumes the series, the reader has forgotten the earlier articles in the series. This danger with all its fullness has overtaken the editor of the Standard Bearer. In the January 15, 1995 SB appeared an editorial, “Jewish Dreams,” rejecting the earthly kingdom of postmillennialism as the hope of...