Vol 75 Issue 12

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities We begin this issue of the “News” with a heartfelt thank-you, first to the Evangelism Committee of the First PRC in Holland, MI for serving as host for a very timely and worthwhile conference on the millennium, entitled “Biblical Sanity Amid Millennial Madness,” and second to the three men who so capably presented the biblical aspects of that theme. Prof. D. Engelsma spoke Friday night, February 5, to an overflow crowd on “The Proper Perspective of the New Testament Age and the Return of Jesus...

The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary, by Herman Ridderbos (translated by John Vriend). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997. Pp. xiii-721. $42.00. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Robert D. Decker.] Herman Ridderbos, now retired, taught New Testament for many years at the Theological School of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands in Kampen (GKN). Throughout his long career he wrote many books, among which are the excellent Commentary on Matthew in the Korte Verklaring Der Heilige Schrift series and Paul: An Outline of His Theology. As the book’s title indicates, Ridderbos purposed to write a theological commentary...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24:7b And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. A historical survey of the office of the diaconate will demonstrate that the fundamental work of the deacon is to care for the church’s poor and that the proper functioning of the office has been neglected since its institution. Demonstrating this will set the stage for a more thorough discussion of the nature and work of the office. In this article we begin such a survey by examining the institution of the office in the early New Testament church. The diaconate as we know it today was...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. A Perfect Lordship Christ’s is a perfect lordship. He owns us completely. He alone is our Lord and we are His property. Is that your confession? When we are partakers of His death and resurrection, we are the property of Christ. He owns you completely. You are His with body and soul, with your husband or wife and children, with brothers and sisters in the Lord, with all your life and possessions. All belongs to Christ! He owns us. Do you acknowledge that lordship of Christ over you?...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. We enter now into a study of the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, the truth of God. Note well: we will be studying the trial of the Wonderful Jesus Christ. Not the trial of William Jefferson Clinton. I hope this relieves you. The trial of the President, concluded now, has tried us all. But there is much to learn comparing the trial even of a president-scoundrel, and the trial of the King-Savior. About the trial of the President. No one in his right mind would or could deny...

Miss Lubbers is a member of the First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In two preceding articles (Nov. 15, 1998 and Feb. 15, 1999) I have reviewed important early writings about Christian education and Christian schools. These articles by Herman Hoeksema and George M. Ophoff in the earliest years of the publication of the Standard Bearer influenced and helped in the eventual development and formation of the Protestant Reformed Christian schools. When I began my teaching career in the Protestant Reformed Christian schools in the early 1950s, I was not aware of the discussions and articles about the...

Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado. A Matter of Semantics? An increasing number of articles have been appearing both in the secular and the religious press which comment on growing trends toward unity of the major church bodies. Is that not a further indication that just as the world at large is growing increasingly to be a “one world” and global society, even so the churches have increasingly been drawn together—if not in organic unity, nevertheless into unity of purpose and intent? It is strange indeed how the leaders of denominations can gloss over...

The Church Fulfills Israel Your defense of the amillennial position was great! (Standard Bearer, Jan. 15, 1995-Dec. 15, 1996) It certainly focused on the errors of the postmill eschatology. I did not realize that they believed that the persecution of the church by Antichrist has already been fulfilled by the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 and the Roman emperor Nero. Now, how about a similar series of articles on dispensational premill. To me the fundamental and potentially dangerous error of both pre and postmill is the denial that the church is the fulfillment of O.T. Israel. From...

Justification by faith alone, as briefly described in the preceding editorial, is the heart of the gospel of grace. This is compromised, and thus effectively denied, by the movement, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” (ECT). In order to understand what this compromise is, as well as the seriousness of it, we must remind ourselves of the error warned against in the book of Romans and especially in the book of Galatians. The Error of Works-Righteousness in Romans Romans 3 and 4 warn against the sinner’s working in order to be righteous. All our working and all our own works are excluded...