Vol 76 Issue 09

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Congregation Activities It was interesting to note that soon after the first of this year a couple of our congregations used their church bulletin, or church newsletter, to encourage their members to lead a more sanctified life. Both our Hudsonville, MI PRC and our Loveland, CO PRC encouraged their members to begin a regular systematic reading of God’s Word by providing them with a daily Bible reading schedule. Hudsonville’s schedule, if followed completely, would make it possible to read through the entirety of God’s Word in just...

The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations, compiled and edited by Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999. Pp. xiii + 740. $35 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] Committees on ecumenicity, theological libraries, students of the universality of the Reformed faith, and world travelers will prize this thick book. It is a listing, alphabetically by country (beginning with Albania!), of all the Reformed churches in the world. “Reformed” is stretched to its uttermost limits and then some. The total is 746 church federations. Each denomination is very briefly introduced as...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. “As Christian discipline is of a spiritual nature, and exempts no one from civil trial or punishment by the authorities, so also besides civil punishment there is need of ecclesiastical censures, to reconcile the sinner with the church and his neighbor and to remove the offense out of the church of Christ.”  Church Order, Article 71. Introduction Article 71 introduces the fourth and last section of the Church Order. The section is entitled “Of Censure and Ecclesiastical Admonition.” The following overview of the articles in this section may...

Mrs. Meyer is a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Familiar words we know so well. But what a blessing it is when we ponder the depths of those words! What a comfort for the child of God to know that his heavenly Father is the Creator of all things. To know that time began in His hands, and time will end in His hands. Yea, to know His grasp is on eternity itself! Every word, every jot, and every tittle is important in Scripture....

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In our previous article (Jan. 1, 2000) we saw that Rabanus, the archbishop of Mainz, repudiated Gottschalk’s view of the sovereignty of grace in salvation; that Gottschalk courageously accused Rabanus of holding views which were Semi-Pelagian; and that the synod of Mayence condemned Gottschalk. The controversy, however, did not die with Gottschalk’s imprisonment, for he had supporters who not only agreed with his views but protested the scandalous treatment he received. Later synods therefore were forced to deal further with the matter. Synod of Valence...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Women in Office: the CRC and its Y2K Problem Almost five years ago the synod (1995) of the Christian Reformed Church gave the classes of that denomination the option to declare the word “male” inoperative in their Church Order. It represented a kind of “end run” around the requirements of the Church Order. This opened the way for women to serve in the ministry (or as elders and deacons). This could be done, however, only in those classes which decided to mutilate the Church Order as the synod allowed....

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. We have begun explaining the scriptural and theological basis for the diaconate by demonstrating that God has a special care for His poor and needy. This special care He manifests by commanding us, His church and saints, to care for the poor in our midst and by blessing us in the way of obedience to this command. While this command is reason enough for us to care for the poor, it does not in itself justify devoting an office of the church to this work. The basis...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. As has been pointed out before, the destruction of Jerusalem and the persecution that the Jews experienced at that time are a type of the great tribulation that comes at the end of the ages just before the return of our Lord. The word “tribulation” means literally “pressure,” like a boa constrictor encircling itself around its victim and slowly tightening the pressure to crush him to death. Or we might use the example of a straitjacket with sharp points, used as an instrument of torture in times past to...

Deliverance from Millennial Error Thank you so much for the Standard Bearer. I read each article (other articles are read repeatedly) in each issue with joy. I like God-honoring materials. I am learning a lot about amillennialism. In the seminary, we were not taught about it. All emphasis was given on dispensationalism. In fact, I began to have proper understanding of amillennialism through the Standard Bearer. Your series of articles, “The Preterism of Christian Reconstruction,” is very, very interesting. I really enjoy reading it! Through them I got a good understanding about preterism and Reconstruction started by Rushdoony. I have...

Believing the doctrine of the Bible that Jesus is coming and that His coming is near, the people of God will then live in hope of that coming. For the instituted church, this living hope will take form in a holiness that consists, among other activities, of preaching, defending, contending, and suffering. There is also the personal calling of the individual believer and of the children of believers. Hoping for the coming of Christ, each is called to a holy life. He is called to keep himself from the filthy, vile, depraved conduct of the world that increases in lawlessness...