Vol 73 Issue 10

Mr. Wigger is an elder of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Minister Activities The councils of two of our vacant churches presented new trios to their congregations, from which they were to call a pastor. Hope PRC in Walker, MI was to call from a trio of the Revs. R. Cammenga, S. Houck, and K. Koole; and the congregation of the South Holland, IL PRC would call a pastor from a trio made up of the Revs. A. denHartog, S. Key, and K. Koole. Denominational Activities The regular semester for our Protestant Reformed Seminary began on January 21....

Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.  Ephesians 1:5 A few days ago I received from Mr. Roelof Jansen of Inheritance Publications a copy of a new book he has published which includes within it a translation of Dr. Klaas Schilder’s booklet, Extra-Scriptural Binding – A New Danger. This work appeared originally as a series of articles in De Reformatie criticizing the “Brief Declaration of Principles” soon after it was drawn up by the Protestant...

The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Temptation and Fall We are now ready to give our attention to the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve as recorded in Genesis 3:1-6. In this simple and brief historical record of the temptation and fall of our first parents there are various easily discernible steps. The first of these is described in the first three verses of Genesis 3: “And he (that is, the serpent) said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. He’s got you ‘n me, brother, in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands….” Such are words of a song popular years ago. The words betray a religion. It is the religion of the universal brotherhood of man. It is the religion of the universal fatherhood of God. But Jesus does not sing that song. This we-are-all-one-family religion was never His. Jesus’ denial of the universal brotherhood of man, and His denial that God is the Father of all, are seen clearly in His clash...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. Visits of the Virgin Mary – And the Millennium Recent news reports speak of a reflection said to be of the Virgin Mary on the windows of the Seminole Finance Corp. in Clearwater, Fl. The account brought to mind similar reports made in the past. I recall being in a campground, years ago, tenting next to a Roman Catholic family. The man joined us at our campfire and promptly began telling of his own encounter with the Virgin Mary. He claimed to have been at a site where...

Mr. Climer is a member of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church of Redlands, California. Returning to archaeological excavations in the lands of the Bible, let us review the case of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. The current secular view is that no battle took place there, and no walls existed. The proof is in the pottery, so to speak. But the final word is not in, and it never will come in. This is not the conclusion of a religious fanatic defending Scripture, this is the method of the science of archaeology, as demonstrated in the search for Troy,...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Though it does not happen often, there are times when God is pleased to raise up in His church men of such outstanding ability and conviction that their work leaves an indelible mark on subsequent history. It is as if, by them, God alters significantly the course of events. Augustine was such a man. So was Martin Luther, and so was John Calvin. One hesitates somewhat to put Abraham Kuyper in such lofty company, and there are reasons why he does not completely fit....

At the end of the letter in which he candidly confessed the character of a conditional covenant, Rev. Cecil Tuininga appealed to several texts in Scripture in support of his doctrine. These texts are Matthew 23:37; Romans 10:21; I Timothy 2:3, 4; and II Peter 3:9 (see the Standard Bearer, Jan. 1, 1997, p. 150). Although he presents no explanation of the texts, Rev. Tuininga makes clear what his understanding of the texts is. For him, the first two texts mean that God loved every physical descendant of Abraham in the time of the old covenant, and willed to save them...

Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.  Romans 1:28 In my explanation of verses 24 and 25 I compared the way and development of sin to a smooth and slippery road upon which the sinner slides down to destruction. He is forced down by a power which the apostle described as the revelation of the wrath of God. God is the doom of the sinner. For this same...