Vol 75 Issue 14

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities The Evangelism Committee of the South Holland, IL PRC recently asked their congregation for some help. It seems they want to provide complimentary Standard Bearer subscriptions for offices, waiting rooms, libraries, etc. where the magazine can be displayed and read by waiting patients or customers. Any congregation member who works in or knows of such an office or waiting room that would be willing to display the periodical was asked to contact the committee. Rev. C. Haak, pastor of the Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL,...

March 3, 1999 at Redlands, California The March meeting of Classis West was held at Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California on March 3. An officebearers’ conference was held the day before. The theme of the conference was “The Doctrines of Sovereign Predestination.” Not only was the conference attended by the delegates of classis, but by several members of our Redlands congregation and numerous visitors. Rev. Richard Moore gave the keynote address, the theme of which was “Predestination: The Heart of the Gospel.” Several pastors also presented papers on the general theme of the conference. There was healthy discussion...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. Matthew 24:9, 10 Jesus had spoken of signs of His coming in the church, in the world, and in nature. He had spoken of false Christs, of wars and rumors of war, of famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. These are the foreshadowing of Christ’s return, the...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. One day, Matthew, Mark, and Luke confirm, Simon, a man of Cyrene, Came from the country To Jerusalem. Suddenly, soldiers! They compel Simon to bear the cross The Savior will soon hang on and die on. Simon … from the country. Called to the city of God. By God. Soiled man. Soil heart. Prepared soil? His way … intersecting via dolorosa! Compelled to bear the cross! Follows Jesus. Christian? Others … Daughters of Jerusalem, weeping for the wrong Person. Two thieves, hanging, sheep and goat. Those that pass...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. In previous articles we set forth two main principles governing our view of the diaconate. First, we argued that a scriptural view of the office of deacon places it on a par with the offices of pastor and elder. Second, by examining the institution of the diaconate, we saw that the fundamental work of the deacon is to care for the poor of the church. Although the church abided by these principles for a time, she gradually abandoned both. By the Middle Ages, the church’s government had...

Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go. Proverbs 22:24 Schilder was clearly angry. He had received Hoeksema’s first response to the extended series of articles he had been writing about our Declaration of Principles, and he didn’t like it. He said: The fact that I now provisionally stop finds its reason in an article from the Standard Bearer of February 15, 1951, which I received by airmail. In this article colleague Hoeksema begins to write something about my series of...

The late Homer Hoeksema was professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. It is well at this point in our discussion, after the history of Cain and Abel, that we give our attention to the genealogical and chronological data of the prediluvian period furnished us by Scripture. This is necessary if only for the reason that Scripture itself furnishes this data, so that we are compelled to face the question of its meaning and significance. Or, if you will, we are compelled to face the question of the revelatory significance of this data. Why, for example,...

The fatal compromise of the gospel of grace by Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) is easily demonstrated. For their cooperation in the culture wars, their working together in evangelism, and their realizing of the unity of Christ’s church, ECT needs agreement of evangelicals and Roman Catholics in the faith. Therefore “Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium,” the document that first identified ECT to the world and described its mission, confesses the oneness of evangelicals and Roman Catholics in the Christian faith itself. The last line of the opening section, “Introduction,” reads: “The mission that we...

Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. This Meditation is a reprint from the April 15, 1929 issue of the Standard Bearer. Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. Luke 24:34 Indeed! The Lord is risen indeed! This emphatic declaration of the fact of the resurrection, an expression of unbounded joy, was pressed from the hearts of the disciples on the evening of the resurrection day. The two travelers who had departed for Emmaus that afternoon forgot their weariness and returned to Jerusalem to impart to the anxious and wondering disciples the joy...