All Articles For Vol 74 Issue 04 11/15/1997

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Minister Activities Rev. J. Slopsema, pastor of the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI, has declined the call he received to become pastor of the South Holland, IL PRC. Following that decline, the South Holland PRC made a new trio, consisting of the Revs. A. denHartog and J. Mahtani, and Candidate D. Kleyn. Rev. J. Mahtani, pastor of the Trinity PRC in Houston, TX, was scheduled to leave for India on October 20 to speak at the S.W.A.M.I. (Sindhis With A Mission International) Conference in Pune (central...

True Thanks I thank Thee, Lord, for blessings Which Thou hast given me; For health and strength, for freedom To freely worship Thee. For food and drink abundant For body and for soul; I thank Thee for a Savior Who cleansed and made me whole. I thank Thee, Lord, for fellowship, For hours spent in prayer; For grace sufficient to the need, Whatever need was there. I thank Thee, Lord, for loved ones, A home and church so dear; And for Thy loving presence Each day throughout the year. I thank Thee, Lord, for all things: For blessings which I...

Introduction Part of the mandate our churches gave to Rev. Kortering is that he is to assist the Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore (ERCS) with their mission work. For some time now the ERCS have been working among the United Reformed Churches in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The ERCS sent Rev. Kortering to conduct a conference in Myanmar. This conference met from January 5 through January 19 in 1996. What follows is a diary of that trip to Myanmar which Mrs. Kortering wrote for her children back in the States. When my wife and I were in Singapore earlier this year,...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. “The Lord’s Supper shall be administered at least every two or three months.” Church Order, Article 63 “The administration of the Lord’s Supper shall take place only there where there is supervision of elders, according to the ecclesiastical order, and in a public gathering of the congregation.” Church Order, Article 64 Frequency of Administration Article 63 of the Church Order concerns the frequency of the administration of the Lord’s Supper. It establishes a minimum requirement: “… at least every two or three months.” Nowhere do the Scriptures lay...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Having considered the effect of the fall on language, we must now examine the relationship between language and salvation. Two distinct aspects of this relationship must be noted: first, God uses language to save us, and second, we must use language to show Him our gratitude for that salvation. That God uses language has been demonstrated in an earlier article (Standard Bearer, August 1997). How does He use language for our salvation? He did so, first, in sending Christ, the Word of God (John 1:1). The fundamental...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. That God saves only a very small remnant of mankind is one of the greatest of all mysteries of God’s work of salvation. This truth is proven throughout the history of the world. It contradicts all human reason. It debases all human pride. Man himself would say that God must save the majority of the human race. Most, after all, according to the opinion of man, are good enough that they deserve to be saved. Liberal and apostate Christianity insists that the majority of mankind will indeed be...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. Manna and the RFPA All this leads us to the exclusivist, particularist position. We have presented the religious stew, pluralism, and the mush, inclusivism. We have spit both out. But now, what do we eat? What shall we eat? What food shall we publish? Manna! Manna is the food of the gospel. It is Jesus Christ, the bread from heaven. It is the only wholesome, saving food. Exclusivism promotes this Manna. It refuses to sell stew, or typeset mush. It publishes Manna only, and faith in Jesus Christ...

The RCA and “The Formula of Agreement” As a member of the RCA, I read with much interest your editorial, “The Sacraments are Still an Issue” (Standard Bearer, Oct. 1, 1997). Over the last years, the Lord has steadily drawn me to what I am convinced are more biblical viewpoints on several issues than what my home denomination professes. Consequently, the recent approval of the “Formula” distresses me greatly … to the point that I can no longer be “at home” in the RCA. You are right, the “resisters'” emphasis has been the UCC stand on the homosexual issue and,...

About books. About forthcoming books published by our own Reformed Free Publishing Association (RFPA). Two books are to appear before Christmas of this year, God willing. One is a reprint of Herman Hoeksema’s Believers and Their Seed, now subtitled, Children in the Covenant. This is Hoeksema’s definitive, ground-breaking treatment of the covenant of grace and the place of the children of believers in the covenant. The reprint is an attractive hardcover volume which was newly typeset. It runs a little longer than 200 pages. Included in this reprint edition for the first time is a preface that traces the interesting...

The ethical scandal in evangelical and Reformed churches today is unbiblical divorce and the remarriage that almost certainly follows. By “scandal,” I do not only mean iniquitous conduct that blatantly violates the clear command of Holy Scripture. But I refer to behavior that gives occasion to the ungodly to mock and reject the gospel and that causes many to stumble into sin and perish everlastingly. It is scandal such as Jesus had in mind in Matthew 18:6: “But whoso shall offend (Greek: scandalize) one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone...