Vol 73 Issue 16

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities The Evangelism Committee of the Randolph, WI PRC recently sponsored their church’s annual Spring Lecture. This year Rev. R. Cammenga, pastor of the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI, was the guest speaker. His speech, entitled “Angels Unawares: What the Bible Teaches About Angels,” was given on April 17 ‘in Randolph’s sanctuary. The Evangelism Committee of the Grandville, MI PRC planned a special service on Easter Sunday morning to promote their church in the Grandville area. They encouraged their congregation to invite family, friends, and acquaintances...

The Rev. John Pedersen is a minister of the gospel in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He lives in Gettysburg, PA. This copyrighted article is printed here by permission. For many in the tolerant, cultured world of evangelical religion, there is no scum more vile than a harsh, judgmental, pontificating buffoon who goes about judging whether others are “true Christians.” Such a one is seen as patently bad, and leaves a sour taste and a sick stomach in his preachy wake, cutting a smelly swath through people who have learned not to put God in the kind of box that can...

Rev. Brummel is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota and secretary of the Foreign Mission Committee. Ghana, West Africa This past year has been a significant year for the Foreign Mission Committee (FMC). We have been busy implementing the decision of Synod 1996 regarding the establishment of a mission field in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. This has involved working closely with the council of Hull Protestant Reformed Church (HPRC), the calling church for this field. It has been almost 18 years since we last occupied ourselves with calling a missionary to a foreign field. In August of...

Mr. Doezema is secretary of the Domestic Mission Committee. “Yes! Send us a missionary!” Those words constituted the headline of a June 1996 “BRF News Alert” which gave the results of a survey conducted to determine interest in “a second missionary from the Protestant Reformed Churches of the USA, in the light of the successful labors of that denomination in Northern Ireland.” The Committee of the British Reformed Fellowship reported a decidedly positive reception of the idea among the readers of their journal. In a recent letter to the BRF there was this related advice: “As I see it their...

Rev. Miersma is home missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. One of our principle concerns, as churches, over the past few years, though a happy concern, has been our mission work. This has dominated our synods and is reflected in our budgets for both foreign and domestic missions. This has been reflected also in past Standard Bearer articles on such topics as a home missionary- at-large. As the mission work of our churches will probably dominate this year’s Synod also, it may be profitable to reflect upon our current approach to mission work, specifically home mission work. Moreover, we have...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. Salvation Through Christ Alone? (Try Again!) We reported in the last article that the Reformed Church in America defeated at its classical level the proposal to ask annually of every consistory and minister the question: whether “the doctrines of the gospel [are] preached in your church in their purity in conformity with.. .the truth that divine redemption from sin is only by grace through faith in the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, the only mediator between God and humankind.” There were 23 classes that approved...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. How can a believer put into words the intimate love and communion he shares with his God? He cannot! Yet, though it may be difficult for us to express this relationship, nevertheless God gives us to experience it in this life in a real and concrete way. God has entered into a covenant of friendship by which He binds believers to Himself. As a result, God’s people experience in their joys as well as in their sorrows the presence and favor of their God. Likewise, there is nothing...

The pressure that I have in mind is the force of the ungodly world upon the instituted church. The purpose of this pressure is that the church conform her thinking, her message, and her life to the thinking, the message, and the life of the world. At present, in the West at any rate, the forms of the pressure are education; the mass media, especially television; public opinion; and the example of the world’s life. Before long, there will be the oppression of overt persecution. The fact is not new. Scripture warns that conforming to the world’s rebellious thinking and...

Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Romans 2:14, 15 The thought in the immediate context is that God shall judge every man according to his works. The revelation of the righteous judgment of God in the day of Christ –...