Vol 75 Issue 21

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities Early this summer, the Evangelism Committee of the First PRC in Edmonton, AB, Canada sought help from their congregation to help distribute “Welcome” brochures, plus magnets, in the mailboxes of the surrounding neighborhood. Plans called for the volunteers to meet in church, divide into approximately ten groups, each with an adult and a car, and go to work. We are happy and thankful to report that through these efforts nearly l,000 homes were reached, and perhaps, if it is the Lord’s will, this project could...

Mr. Lanting, a member of South Holland Protestant Reformed Church, is a practicing attorney. We confess some of our own “sins” for once believing that we could make things right through manipulation of the political system…. The Moral Majority folded in the late eighties, giving way to the Christian Coalition and other organizations that have taken up its agenda, using, with minor variations, the same strategies to achieve the same ends we failed to achieve. Two decades after conservative Christians charged into the political arena, bringing new voters and millions of dollars with them in hopes of transforming the culture...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. John 20:31 tells us the purpose for things being written by God in the gospel according to John. Listen: “These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”The things of God written down by John to accomplish such a wonderful purpose probably refer first of all to the accounts of the various appearances of Jesus after His resurrection, and to the miracles Jesus performed then in the presence of His...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Authority of Parents “Who gives this woman to this man in marriage?” “Her mother and I.” These are words that have been spoken over and over again by fathers who have given their daughters in marriage. But do we really understand the implication of these few words? They refer to the active exercise of parental authority in the marriages of our covenant children. When a father walks his daughter down the aisle to give her hand in marriage to a man, he is placing his stamp of...

The church ought to embrace “homosexual people who live faithfully in covenanted partnerships.” This is the plea that Lewis Smedes addresses particularly to the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). Writing in the May, 1999 issue of Perspectives, Smedes urges the acceptance of practicing homosexuals in the CRC. He exhorts the CRC to “embrace,” that is, accept as members of the church in good and regular standing, “Christian homosexual people who have committed themselves to a monogamous partnership” (all quotations in this editorial are from the article by Lewis Smedes in the May, 1999 issue of Perspectives, pp. 8-12). Perspectives is a...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. John 10:16 “Other sheep.” Our Lord had just said, “I am the good Shepherd.” In distinction from hirelings, who do not own and love the flock but who prove to be thieves and robbers, Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who loves and cares for His flock. When Jesus speaks of “other sheep,” He adds, “which are not of...