Vol 72 Issue 05

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Young People’s Activities The young people of the South Holland, IL PRC have voted to have as their theme for next year’s convention, “Godly Friendship,” with speeches on the three topics of personal friendship, friendship in the church, and friendship in marriage. They also chose Revs. W. Bruinsma, B. Gritters, and R. VanOverloop as their speakers. Young people, make your plans to attend! Sometimes we get the impression that all young people’s fundraisers are directly tied to each year’s convention. This may be true for a majority...

Submitting to One Another out of Reverence for Christ: Eight Sermons on Marriage and the Family, by P. G. Feenstra. Privately published, 1995. 7Opp. $10 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] This booklet consists of eight sermons on marriage and family including such topics as “An Appeal to Married Women to Know their God-given Position”; “An Appeal to Married Christian Men to Submit to their Wives by Loving Them”; and “Christ Teaches Why Divorce Makes One Sin against the Seventh Commandment.” 

Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed minister-on-loan to Singapore. Well do I recall walking the streets of Grandville, discussing with Pastor Mahtani the potential for outreach by the Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore. That was back in 1990, at the time of the Sister Church Conference, a time when Singapore seemed so remote. Both Pastor Mahtani and Pastor Lau presented to the conference the real possibility of the ERCS becoming the Antioch of Southeast Asia in the cause of the Reformed faith. God used the presence of these brothers to move the PRC Synod to heed their request for a...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. Women in Office For those interested in the continuing developments in the Christian Reformed Church on the women in office issue, the following has been gleaned from the “United Reformed News Service,” Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer. As of October 18 it appears that six classes have declared the word “male” inoperative in the church order. That means, of course, that within these classes women can be ordained as elders or ministers. These classes are: Classis Pacific Northwest (passed by one vote); Classis Holland (passed 29-25); Classis Grand...

The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. It is important, first of all, that we understand the significance and the idea of what is told us in the second chapter of Genesis concerning Paradise and related matters. To this we must pay attention before we begin our discussion of the subject of Paradise as such. This significance and idea are set forth in the first verse of this section of Genesis, Genesis 24: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The civil war, between the army raised by Parliament, and the forces loyal to the king of England, can be divided into four separate phases. The first phase involved skirmishes chiefly around the area of Cromwell’s home. When Parliament decided, partly at Cromwell’s urging, that the time had come to raise an army under its direction to oppose Royalist forces, Cromwell immediately proceeded to do so by forming a troop of 60 men from his own home area to fight the king’s armies. It was...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning…. “ Psalm 5:3 The variety of the human voice, its modulation, tone, and expressiveness nearly rivals the human face for creativity. Even though one who makes a telephone call should identify himself when making a call, it’s really quite unnecessary. The voice gives one away. Could anyone, though he were blindfolded, mistake Professor Hanko’s voice? What a marvelous God to create so much variety by the fairly uncomplicated process of stretching small bands of tissue (vocal...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

Love for the Old Faith With great delight I received my first copy of the Standard Bearer. Your love for Christ and the truths of grace has deeply impressed my heart. I have a number of theological works in my bookcases, and without question Herman Hoeksema is the top of the top, in my humble opinion. I find that I agree with you on all points of doctrine other than baptizing of babies and sprinkling. Other than that I could and would gladly call myself a part of the Protestant Reformed Churches. I came out of a Southern Baptist Church,...

For the first time since Rev. Herman Hoeksema retired in the early 196Os, the Reformed Witness Hour (RWH) – for 55 years the radio broadcast of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) -has a permanent preacher. The new radio voice of the PRC is Rev. Carl J. Haak, pastor of the Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL. With the approval of his consistory, Rev. Haak has agreed to give 40 messages during the next year over the RWH network. The first message, “Faith Cometh by Hearing (Rom. 10:17),” aired on October 8. It explained what the RWH is and why people should...