Vol 74 Issue 14

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Where to Search for a Spouse Jack had been wandering the aisles of a large hardware store for about a half hour before being approached by a store assistant. When asked if he needed help, Jack explained that his teacher in school had instructed the class to purchase a book on ancient history. He had been looking for that book for some time now but could not seem to find it. The assistant stood there with his mouth open. “Um, sir,” the assistant finally replied, holding back a...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities A recent bulletin from our Loveland, CO PRC included correspondence from an individual living in Finland. This reader of Loveland’s home page on the Internet was very impressed by Rev. S. Houck’s article “God’s Sovereignty in Salvation,” calling it “the best concise summary of the doctrines of grace that he had ever read.” He ended his note by asking for permission to translate the article into his native language, giving all due acknowledgments and links to the original article. The Evangelism Committee of the Bethel...

I Believe … Living the Apostles Creed, by Lester De Koster. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian’s Library Press, Inc., 1996. 174 pp. $14.95 (cloth). [Reviewed by the editor.] Reformed thinker, teacher, and author Lester De Koster has written a brief, popular explanation of the twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed. His addressing the work to his grandchildren lends simplicity, clarity, and urgency to the exposition of this summary of the Christian faith. Much of the doctrinal instruction is sound, and much of the practical application (with which the book abounds) is godly. Defending the reality of the virgin birth as a miraculous...

Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed minister-on-loan to Singapore. God did great things for the spread of the gospel through the seventeenth century Reformation. From Pentecost onward, the Holy Spirit has moved the church to bring the gospel to the lost. The same Spirit used the Reformation to liberate the saints so that they could properly and enthusiastically bring the gospel to all nations. This applies in two ways. The Reformation gave back the message to the church. Not that it was entirely gone. Rather, it was obfuscated by an apostate church. God’s work in the heart and life of...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. “Promise Keepers Woos Catholics” We continue to read much concerning the “Promise Keepers.” Recently this organization has decided that there will be no more charge for attending meetings. The organization will continue in “faith” that God will provide what they need. Bill McCartney has asked that each individual church in the United States contribute $1000 towards this “ministry.” Despite its obvious slant towards Pentecostalism and its increasingly open embrace of Roman Catholicism, many find nothing wrong with the organization. Does it not promote the good of family life?...

The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. God’s Temporal Judgments (cont.) In this context we may try to discover something of the meaning of each of those pronouncements of the Lord and its effect upon human existence. We may take note, first of all, of the extent of those judgments. They embrace the entire earthly creation. The woman, the man, the ground, and with it the plants and the animals—all of these are included. In other words, the whole sphere of earthly life is affected by them. The entire realm which...

Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The title expresses a question faced by believers in various situations. Sometimes it is asked by a neighbor or fellow worker who, having sent his children to the public schools, wonders why a Christian would spend “all that money” to educate his children when it is available free. At times a student faces the question from a coworker who attends a public school. Our own sinful flesh may raise the question in order to undermine our enthusiasm for Christian education, hoping our time and money...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Part of the elders’ care of the people of God involves supervising the reconciliation of repentant sinners with God and His church. In distinction from Article 73 of The Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches, which speaks of the reconciliation of private sins, Article 75 speaks of “The reconciliation of all such sins as are of their nature of a public character, or have become public because the admonition of the church was despised.” The article reads as follows, The reconciliation of all such sins as are...

Over the past few months several editorials lamented the approval by Reformed churches of unbiblical divorce and of the remarriage that invariably follows (Nov. 1, 1997; Nov. 15, 1997; Dec. 1, 1997; March 15, 1998). The evil is widespread. Many churches quietly tolerate this great wickedness against God and the neighbor. Many others openly defend it. Various factors contribute. A significant factor is the churches’ conformity to the world. In these last days, the churches become worldly, as Christ forewarned. Therefore, lawlessness increases both among the membership and on the part of the institute itself. “And because lawlessness shall abound,...

Rev. Moore is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.” Matthew 27:9 The event of our text took place during the time between the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and the public trial before Pilate, and is the conclusion of the matters in which Judas Iscariot was involved in...