Vol 75 Issue 15

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Minister Activities Rev. Carl Haak, pastor of the Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL, has declined the call he had been considering to serve as the next undershepherd of the Hull, IA PRC. Congregational Activities The council of the South Holland, IL PRC has scheduled the organizational meeting of the Northwest Indiana congregation for the evening of May 5, D.V. The congregation of the Hope PRC in Walker, MI met recently and approved proposals from their council to remodel their church basement, and to provide some new furnishings...

Ethical Dilemmas in Church Leadership: Case Studies in Biblical Decision Making, by Michael R. Milco. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1997. 192 pages. $10.99 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] The weaknesses of the book leap out at the Reformed reader. There is no clear recognition that the sole standard of Christian ethics is the law of God whose end (goal) is Jesus Christ. Whatever does the Christian pastor have to do with Kant’s categorical imperative? The main use of Scripture consists of finding an example in some character or event that bears some similarity to the person or incident that is...

Prof. Decker is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the previous article we remarked that the elders must not ignore the needs of the loved ones of the dying. They need to be prepared for the reality of the death of their loved one as much as or more than the dying person himself. If this be true, and it is, certainly the elder must not ignore the bereaved. They need the comfort of the Word of God. They, the ones left behind when the Lord takes a loved one to glory, experience the loss of...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:11 God eternally appoints the Son to be the Christ, the great Servant of Jehovah, the great Prophet who reveals the Father through the preaching of the Word. John speaks of Him in Revelation 6:2 as a white horse and its rider who go forth conquering and to conquer. He is given a crown, for He already has attained the victory and is exalted at the...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Holy Scripture uses the words poverty and poor in two senses. First, these words refer to those who do not have a sufficient amount of natural, earthly things to exist; they lack food, clothing, and other necessary items so that they cannot fulfill their callings. If we ask the question, Why is this so? the ultimate reason is given in I Samuel 2:7, “The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.” As the Lord exercises His sovereignty in regard to the distribution...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. For several decades, cultural conservatives’ strategy has been to elect conservatives to government offices and then rely on their help to retake society’s institutions. I was an architect of that strategy…. In terms of the culture war, this strategy has failed. In truth, I think we are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great it simply overwhelms politics. That’s why I am in the process of rethinking what it is that we, who still believe in our traditional, Western, Judeo-Christian...

Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. * This is the transcript of a speech given by Herman Hoeksema at a Ladies’ League Meeting in Hudsonville, MI on April 29, 1943. The subject that has been as signed to me is not a new one, but I think it is a very important one. The subject concerns the education of our children, and that is always important. It is recognized by all, that the education of children in general is not an easy task. But the subject I am to speak on is much more specific than...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dating in the Church — 2 The safest place for young people to date is within the confines of their own church or denomination. Who can deny that? When looking for a book, we search in a bookstore. When searching for a loaf of bread, we look in a store that sells groceries. When looking for a life’s mate, we look in the sphere of our own denomination. That is where we will find believers, and that is where we will find people of like faith with us....

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction With the adoption of the Creed of Chalcedon the Trinitarian and Christological controversies were, to all intents and purposes, brought to an end. Many different controversies continued to perplex the church, especially in the East; but they were vain and useless, mostly due to philosophical speculations of men who were out to promote their own private agendas more than to learn the truth of Christ. Chalcedon established for the church of the new dispensation the doctrine of the person and natures of Christ. The...

The preceding editorials have demonstrated that Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) is evangelical compromise of the biblical and Reformation doctrine of justification. By affirming together with Roman Catholics that “we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ,” deliberately omitting the word “only,” the evangelicals compromise with the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification by faith and works. They compromise for the sake of the culture wars, for the sake of evangelism, and for the sake of church unity. But they compromise the truth of justification. How serious is this? A Reformed criticism of ECT would condemn a number of...