Vol 73 Issue 20

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. School Activities After a year and a half of planning, East Side Christian School emerges at 2800 Michigan NE in Grand Rapids, MI. This pre-K—9th grade facility will open its doors for the first time in September at its temporary home, the lower level of First PRC. East Side School Board and parents are excited with the group of educators that have committed themselves with their varied talents to this effort. The four teachers and one administrator who begin this inaugural year at East Side have nearly...

Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.  Colossians 2:8 Few things enable us to understand better what happened between the Rev. Herman Hoeksema and Dr. Klaas Schilder during the decade of the forties than the realization of the close similarity of the covenant view of Rev. Hoeksema to that of Dr. Herman Bavinck, by every measure the greatest and most balanced scholar of the Secession, if not of all Dutch...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Bauer, Michigan. Children and young people must expect it. Parents and consistories must insist on it. Instruction and discipline by parents and by the church must follow the administration of the sacrament of baptism to the infant children of professing believers. Instruction and discipline are a necessary part of the concept of infant baptism. The infant children of believers also must be baptized because God graciously promises to gather in generations (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39). But a charge has been brought against paedobaptism. It is the charge that baptizing infants...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In previous articles we have discussed the elders’ calling to shepherd the flock of God. In this and succeeding articles we will consider the more specific calling of the elders to exercise church discipline with respect to those in the congregation who impenitently walk in sin. The seriousness of this matter of Christian discipline is obvious from the emphasis placed upon it in Scripture, the Reformed confessions, and the Church Order. We have in previous articles repeatedly called attention to the various Scripture passages which speak of the...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. Good Bible study is the study of Jesus. Jesus, He and no other, is the eternal, living Word of God. Jesus, He and no other, is the name, the revelation of God, whom to know is to know the Father, whom to call upon is to call upon the Father, whom to praise is to honor the Father. Jesus, the Word, the communication of God given among men. Come, He is, incarnate. In flesh! He is also in ink! Not that Jesus is John 1 verse 29. Or...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. In previous articles we saw that language is both God’s creation and His gift to the human race. God created Adam able to speak and understand language—one language. For many years that language was the only language any human knew. Today, however, there are many languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, to name only a few. In this article we will examine how so many languages came into existence. Those who deny that God created language also deny, for the most part, that there was one...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. “Prom birth… just plain wicked” So wrote George Will of the Washington Post as printed in the Loveland, CO Reporter-Herald, June 12, 1997. We have all read of the horrific crimes of young girls who give birth to a child and promptly kill that child. George Will makes some very valid and moving points—based not on Scripture or a specific religion, but upon biological facts. Listen: According to a friend, 18-year-old Melissa Drexler paused in front of the mirror in the bathroom to touch up her makeup before...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church The word imagination occurs thirty-six times in Holy Scripture. It is striking that every occurrence of this word, with one exception, is in the evil sense; and almost every use of the word is found in context with the words “evil heart.” God makes plain in His Word that He does not think much of the imaginations of men! Just before the flood, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5)....

One of the great signs of the coming of Christ is the uniting of the apostate churches as the false church. This is the beast from the earth of Revelation 13 and the great whore of Revelation 17. One of the great works of Christ in history is the uniting of His people in manifestation of the oneness of His church. This carries out His purpose, “that they all may be one” (John 17:21). The Reformed Christian and the Reformed church must be aware of these two great events in history. They must be able to distinguish them. They have...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Romans 5:5. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God! In joyful and eager anticipation we look forward to the eternal day when the glory of our God will be fully revealed to us in Christ Jesus, and we with all the saints will reflect that glory and will show forth the praises of Him who is all in all. Now we...