Vol 75 Issue 13

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Mission Activities The February 28th bulletin from the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI contained an update of our churches’ mission work in Pittsburgh, PA. “As previously reported, Rev. J. Mahtani (missionary to Pittsburgh)is under the care of a psychiatrist and a Christian counselor and on their advice has been relieved of his duties as missionary for 4-6 weeks. The consistory of the Kalamazoo, MI PRC has graciously consented to Southwest’s request that Rev. W. Bruinsma, Kalamazoo’s pastor, spend alternate weekends (Wednesday to Monday) in Pittsburgh during the...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. “In the churches only the 150 Psalms of David, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Twelve Articles of Faith, the Songs of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon, the Morning and Evening Hymns, and the Hymn of Prayer before the sermon shall be sung.”  Church Order, Article 69. Historical Background The earliest Dutch Reformed synods addressed the matter of singing in the worship services. Already the synod of Wezel, 1568, decided: As for singing in the church, the use of the Psalms as rendered by Peter Datheen shall be...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. Jesus is seized. Mob hands take Him in the dead of the night to Annas, father-in-law to Caiaphas the high priest. Before Annas there is a preliminary hearing of sorts. Later, toward the dawn of that Friday, an official meeting of the Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, is convened. Under oath Jesus affirms that He is the Christ the Son of God. This affirmation is considered blasphemy by the Jewish jury. And Jesus is judged worthy of death. He is passed on to the Roman authorities for their...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dating in the Church – 1 When a person dates, he must seriously look for a life’s mate. That fact has already been established. Dating is not in itself a form of recreation. It is a serious matter. For that reason, never may a young person of the covenant date an unbeliever. The Bible is clear: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” This we established in the last article we wrote concerning courtship. Dating someone who is not a professing believer and who shows no interest...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction In the last article we left Nestorius in the high office of patriarch of Constantinople. He thought it his business, from the very beginning of his rule, to root out heresy in whatever form it would take; and he was utterly ruthless in his efforts. That is, he was totally impatient with any heresy except the one against which Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was fighting, the heresy of Pelagianism. He gave comfort and support to two men who had been condemned in Western North...

In Defense of Universal Salvation I saw your comments on Jan Bonda’s book, The One Purpose of God: An Answer to the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment, in a newsletter that I regularly receive (see “Universalism in the Reformed Churches” in the August, 1998 issue of the Standard Bearer). The newsletter is “Saviour of All Fellowship” (Jan., 1999). About your review article on Bonda’s book, the newsletter remarks: We were interested in a review of Jan Bonda’s book, The One Purpose of God (Eerdmans, 1998), by David J. Engelsma of the Protestant Reformed Church…. The Protestant Reformed Church tries to maintain...

The Grace of God, The Bondage of the Will, ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware, vol. 1: Biblical and Practical Perspectives on Calvinism; vol. 2: Historical and Theological Perspectives on Calvinism. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995. 521pp. $16.99 per volume; $29.99 the set (paper). In 1989 a number of prominent, nominally evangelical theologians and philosophers published a vigorous defense of Arminianism, The Grace of God, The Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism (ed. Clark H. Pinnock, Grand Rapids: Zondervan). In defending traditional Arminianism, the authors frankly acknowledged that the implication of the theology of free-will is the rejection...

ECT unites evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics in the fellowship and work of Jesus Christ. Such union must have a basis. The basis proposed by ECT is the oneness of evangelicals and Roman Catholics in the Christian faith, including the fundamental truth of justification. Therein lies ECT’s fatal compromise of the biblical and Reformation doctrine of justification. For Rome’s doctrine of justification is heresy—the Galatian heresy of justification by works (see the editorial in the March 15, 1999 issue of the Standard Bearer). By uniting on the basis of a common faith, the evangelicals approve Rome’s heretical doctrine of justification....

Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. This article is a reprint of a Meditation from the March 15, 1929 Standard Bearer. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Matthew 27:39, 40 My words a cause for scorn they make, The lip they curl, the head they shake, And, mocking, bid me trust the Lord Till He salvation shall afford. Thus, centuries before the bloody scene on...