Vol 76 Issue 17

Our Goodly Heritage Preserved, published by the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, 2000. 136 pages, $15.00 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Russell J. Dykstra.] For a homey and personalized presentation of the Protestant Reformed Churches, the reader is encouraged to pick up Our Goodly Heritage Preserved. It is a commemorative book drawn up in connection with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America. The soft-covered book is intended to be a companion volume to the work on the doctrinal history of the PRC, For Thy Truth’s Sake. Our Goodly Heritage Preserved was proposed as a “booklet” which would...

Mrs. Kregel, a member of Grandville PRC, is a daughter of Herman Hoeksema. This is an intensely personal story. A glimpse behind the walls of the parsonage at 1139 Franklin Street where I grew up, walls which were already made of glass, as any preacher’s kid could testify, does not necessarily constitute Standard Bearer material. It was not our family, however, but my father in his relationship to it, no doubt, that sparked the interest in this article and gave rise to the request for it. He was not an ordinary man, although to us he was and to himself,...

Rev. Hanko, an emeritus minister, served as pastor of various congregations in the PRC from 1929-1977. Now Israel may say, and that in truth, If that the Lord had not our right maintained, If that the Lord had not with us remained, When cruel men against us rose to strive, We surely had been swallowed up alive. The church of Jesus Christ is a militant church. I can testify to that from my own experiences, from my earliest memories. During my teens there was in fact great unrest and upheaval in the church. That was true also in the world...

* This article was originally an editorial commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. It appeared in the April 15, 1975 issue of the Standard Bearer under a different title. Homer Hoeksema was the second editor of the Standard Bearer. If someone asked you what is the single, most important factor in the life of our Protestant Reformed Churches which has served to keep us what we were from our beginning and which still distinguishes us as a denomination today, what would you answer? Some would undoubtedly answer: our insistence upon doctrine, the doctrine of our Reformed confessions....

Henry Danhof was a Christian Reformed minister who was put out of the Christian Reformed Church in the early 1920s with Herman Hoeksema and George Ophoff in the common grace controversy. In 1920, Danhof published a booklet on the covenant that was important for the unique development of the biblical truth of the covenant in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Prof. David Engelsma has translated Danhof’s work. The translation appears in the April 1997; November 1997; April 1998; and November 1998 issues of the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal. The excerpt published here defines the covenant as the living friendship of love....

* This article was written on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. It appeared in the “Souvenir Album” of the celebration of the 25th anniversary. The article has been edited for publication in this issue of the Standard Bearer. Herman Hoeksema was the first editor of the Standard Bearer. On this occasion it is fitting to reflect on our calling. What is the general calling of the church in the world, both as an organism and as an institute? And what is the specific calling, if any, of the Protestant Reformed Churches, considered in the...

Love for the SB from “Far Off” On behalf of all those who love the Standard Bearer from “far off,” I express my heartfelt thanks to all those involved in the production of this most excellent periodical. I have learned so much from its pages. It stands as a beacon for the Reformed faith in an age of backsliding and apostasy among those who claim the title “Reformed.” It is good for us to know that we are not alone or isolated in holding to the truths of sovereign election, the covenant, reprobation, and the denial of a common love...

The Protestant Reformed synod that meets this month, God willing, is not the 75th synod. The first synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) convened on May 22, 1940 at the First PRC of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Rev. Herman Hoeksema preached the pre-synodical sermon on Acts 15:28a: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.” Rev. Gerrit Vos was president of the first synod. Rev. C. Hanko was a minister delegate. Among its decisions were the following: that the official language of synod would be English; to advise the churches to take offerings for the relief of war-torn...

The occasion for the forming of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) 75 years ago was the adoption of three points of common grace by the 1924 synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). As part of its official treatment of the common grace controversy, the synod gave a remarkable testimony to the orthodoxy of the two Christian Reformed ministers who were opposing the doctrine of common grace. The two ministers were Herman Hoeksema and Henry Danhof. Both were deposed by Christian Reformed classes a scant six months after the 1924 synod concluded its meetings. The testimony was this: “It cannot...

Gerrit Vos was a minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches from 1927-1966. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Romans 9:18-20 There is more and more religion in this world, but less of the fear of God. There are more and more churches built and congregations...