Vol 74 Issue 20

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Congregation Activities We include here some information on the recently disbanded Trinity PRC in Houston, Texas, provided thoughtfully by Mrs. Trudi Hopkins, a member there. “June 7, 1998 was the last service of the Trinity congregation in West Houston, Texas. The consistory passed the motion to disband on June 8, 1998. Pastor Mahtani and family moved that week to Michigan and another member followed shortly thereafter. Three families remain waiting on the Lord. Our desire is to join with one of our fellow congregations, as soon as...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. McEverything. So one has described this age. A fair description, I think. We live in an age where almost everything is and must be quick and easy. And to go. Whatever it is we want we want it short, simple, sweet, quick, yummy, and cheap. Hot’n Now. Your way. For people on the go. McEverything. Our kind of age. Our kind of place. Well then, the question is fair: have you ever gotten a cheeseburger, fries, and coke…at Bible Study? Which is to say: have you ever not...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Article 81 of The Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches (hereafter, the Church Order) requires that, “The ministers of the Word, elders, and deacons shall before the celebration of the Lord’s Supper exercise Christian censure among themselves, and in a friendly spirit admonish one another with regard to the discharge of their office.” Officebearers in the churches know this to be the practice of censura morum. In some Reformed churches the practice is called censura fraterna. This latter terminology speaks of “brotherly censure,” and the former speaks...

Rev. Higgs is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. It has been four years now since we returned from your country to our own, and just over three years since I was ordained to the office of minister of the Word and sacraments. Life in the ministry is always busy, but never so busy that we forget you as churches, or the many friends that we made in your midst. Indeed, rare is the occasion when we do not pray publicly for you in our congregations — for you as denomination; for your ministers and other officebearers;...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction The ways of God are always perfect and wise. Sometimes we are given a glimpse of this perfection and wisdom; sometimes, not. So it is in the development of the truth of Scripture from the time of Pentecost. As the truth developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of Christ, we are sometimes given a peek at the astounding perfection of God’s ways. So it is in the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. The perfect wisdom of God is revealed in the...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When infants are presented for baptism by the church, three questions are asked of those presenting these infants. According to the Form for the Administration of Baptism that we use (p. 86 in the back of the Psalter), the third question reads, “Whether you promise and intend to see these children, when come to the years of discretion (whereof you are either parent or witness), instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. Three things made me interested in writing an article on this subject. Recently I preached a sermon on the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer, in which our Lord teaches us to pray that the will of God be done. This is one of the great petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. It has profound meaning and significance for our daily lives. In preparation for this sermon I read, among other things, a book with the same title as the one I have chosen for this article. The book...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. Evolutionists Worry Would you really think so? Have they not, in effect, won the war concerning origins? The books of science, the museums of the land, the periodicals—all unabashedly promote and maintain evolution. There is simply no room for another view—at least not the view of Scripture. To prove that they are not scientific ignoramuses, many within the churches go along with these views, howbeit with an emphasis that it is “theistic.” An interesting article about this debate appeared in the Denver Post, July 2, 1998. It had...

Explaining why the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) repudiate Abraham Kuyper’s worldview of common grace, the previous editorial contended that the worldview of common grace is neither biblical nor confessional. A third reason is that, although there are scattered, ambiguous references to a “common grace” in the writings of John Calvin, common grace in Calvin does not have the meaning, the prominence, or the role ascribed to it by Kuyper. This is to say that for the Reformer common grace is not the foundation and impetus of the Christian worldview. In his fine study of Kuyper’s Princeton lectures on a Calvinistic...

Rev. Joostens is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Lynden, Washington. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” I Peter 3:15 Like Abraham of old, we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. We have no abiding place here below, but seek a heavenly homeland. For this very reason we are so different from the world by which we are surrounded. They oftentimes do not understand our actions and behavior. They...