Vol 74 Issue 11

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women … if it be a son, then ye shall kill him…. Exodus 1:16 Two women. Two women who, through Gods gracious guidance, forever changed the course of human history. Two women, distinguished by names! The first Hebrew names mentioned since the death of Joseph some 300 years earlier. Shiphrah and Puah. Shiphrah and Puah were two relatively obscure midwives living in the land of Goshen in Egypt under the cruel and tyrannical...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. School Activities Our Christian schools continue to enjoy increases in their enrollment. Addressing that “problem,” the school society of the Hope Christian School in Redlands, CA met on December 15 to consider two proposals submitted by their school board. The first was to approve adding an additional teacher to their staff for the upcoming year, and the second was to approve the construction of another building, consisting of two classrooms and additional bathroom facilities. Both proposals, after discussion, were passed unanimously. The Lord willing, construction will begin...

January 14, 1998 Southwest Protestant Reformed Church Classis East met in regular session on Wednesday, January 14, 1998, at the Southwest PRC. The churches were each represented by two delegates; Rev. W. Bruinsma chaired this session. Present for the first time as active pastors were Revs. Laning and VanderWal. Mr. Cal Kalsbeek’s church history students from Covenant Christian High School were in attendance for part of the morning session. This was a relatively light session for a January classis. No one seemed to mind the change. Reports were heard from the Stated Clerk, the Classical Committee, and the church visitors....

Believers and Their Seed: Children in the Covenant, by Herman Hoeksema. Grand Rapids: Reformed Free Publishing Association, revised edition, 1997. 166 pages. $17.95 (hard cover). [Reviewed by Rev. D.H. Kuiper.] There are really only two views of the covenant of grace. One view holds that the covenant of God is unilateral. The other view is that it is bilateral. That the covenant is unilateral or one-sided means that God is sovereign in every aspect of the covenant: He conceived of it, established it, maintains it, and perfects it. There are not two parties in the covenant, but one, and that...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. “In time of war, pestilence, national calamities, and other great afflictions, the pressure of which is felt throughout the churches, it is fitting that the classis proclaim a day of prayer.” Church Order, Article 66. The Original Article of Dordt As is well known, the Roman Catholic Church multiplied special days of fasting and prayer. The Reformed churches condemned this multiplication of days. At the same time, they saw the spiritual benefits of fasting and prayer. They believed that there were certain times when circumstances called for the...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. In the first couple of weeks of December the author of this article and Pastor Allen Brummel from our church in Edgerton, Minnesota were sent by the Foreign Mission Committee of the Protestant Reformed Churches to visit the islands of the Philippines to investigate the possibility of a mission field for our churches there. We are thankful for the exciting opportunity given to us to make this trip. In the short two weeks that we were in the Philippines we had enough interesting experiences for me to be...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Throughout the history of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, heretics have been present to trouble the church, attempt to lead her astray, and attempt to destroy the church by robbing her of her dearest treasure and her most important reason for existence. The lives and teachings of these heretics are so closely interwoven in the life of the church that it is impossible to know anything about the church without knowing something of the heretics that periodically appeared and the false doctrines...

Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. With this issue, the Standard Bearer restores an old and honored department, namely, a rubric devoted to covenant education. The SB has from early on shown a dedicated concern for Christian schools and the instruction of covenant children. This had been my general impression, and a search of the index confirmed this, no rather, astounded me. Articles on the Christian school are found in the first volume of the SB. From that volume to the present, 44 SB articles discuss Christian schools in the Protestant...

Rev. Miersma is home missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. In the previous portion of this article, October 1, 1997, I touched on the Reformed doctrine of preaching, something which has also been addressed in recent articles on Reformed worship. I also discussed the historical roots of the well-meant offer in the attempt in the past to marry the Reformed and Arminian doctrines of election and the atonement within the history of Reformed and Presbyterian doctrine. It is in that historical context that this article now returns to the subject under discussion. The well-meant offer, or free offer, and the...