Vol 76 Issue 18

Classis 2000 of the Evangelical Reformed Churches in Singapore Convened on the 26th February 2000 At First Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore. Date: 11th May 2000 The synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America To convene on the June 2000. Dear brethren of the Synod, Special anniversary greetings to you in the name of our dear Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. It is with great joy in and thankfulness to our triune covenant-keeping God that we write this letter of greetings to you, knowing what He has done in your midst during the last 75 years of battle for...

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Denomination Activities Our seminary has licensed Mr. Angus Stewart and Mr. Rodney Kleyn to speak a word of edification in our churches as part of their seminary training. Mr. Kleyn just completed his second year in our seminary and is a member of the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI, while Mr. Stewart has just completed his third year of studies and is a member of the Covenant PRC in Northern Ireland. In addition, the seminary has also made arrangements with the Hudsonville, MI congregation for his internship...

May 10, 2000 Hope Protestant Reformed Church Classis East met in regular session at the Hope Protestant Reformed Church. The churches were represented by two delegates with the exception of Covenant PRC, Wyckoff, whose delegate had to return home after being stranded in Chicago for some hours. Part of this session was observed by church history students from Covenant Christian High School. Rev. J. Laning was the chairman of this session. Several matters required extensive attention from the classis. The first dealt with Rev. Richard Flikkema’s request not to extend his eligibility for a call in our churches and thus...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Women in Office This week, as I write this article, the synod of the Christian Reformed Church will begin its meetings. At these meetings, that synod will treat a committee report on “Women in Office.” Five years ago the synod had decided to allow the ordaining of women as ministers, elders, and evangelists. The individual classes were given permission to waive the rule of their Church Order which allowed only male leadership within the church. Although there were some legitimate objections to this course of action, there were 18...

Rev. Smit is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa and secretary of the Foreign Mission Committee. Do you know what that word means? The title illustrates what our Foreign Mission Committee (FMC) and our foreign missionary face in the foreign mission work of our churches. We regard it a privilege to work with foreign peoples, but in our contact with them we immediately realize from their correspondence that they speak their own native languages, and also English, but then only as a second or third language. The Ghanaian word “akwaaba” reminds us of the truth that God’s...

Twanging Hearts Your classification of instrumental accompaniment as an attending “circumstance” of worship where the church has liberty, rather than as an element of worship regulated by express command of Scripture, is erroneous (Standard Bearer, May 15, 2000, “Shall We Please God or [Certain Kinds of] People…?”). Instrumental accompaniment was introduced into the Old Covenant worship by (and only by) the express command of God. “And he (king Hezekiah) stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the...

Synod 2000 of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) met from June 13 through June 19 at the Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI. Included were unusual sessions late into the evening on Friday and much of the day on Saturday. The reason was the necessity to finish the work before the beginning of the 75th anniversary celebration of the denomination on Monday evening, June 19. Synod made it with barely two hours to spare. At the worship service that traditionally precedes the meeting of synod, Rev. R. Cammenga, president of last year’s synod, preached on Joshua 4:1-9, 19-24, the memorial to God’s...

Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. The events recorded in our text occurred at an important juncture in the history of Old Testament Israel. For forty years Israel had wandered in the wilderness. There were reasons for Israel’s forty years of confinement in the wilderness. The main reason, of course, was Israel’s rebellion against God and refusal to enter the land at Kadesh-Barnea. In unbelief the people had listened to the evil report of the ten spies. Because of that unbelief, God had not permitted Israel to enter the promised land but had made...

As is our custom, we devote much of the July issue of the Standard Bearer to the annual synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches. This issue contains a report of most of the more important decisions of synod (the editorial), the text of the sermon preached at the pre-synodical service (as the meditation), pictures (by Don Doezema) of synod at work and at coffee, the official greetings of synod by the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland and by the Evangelical Reformed Churches in Singapore, and a report on foreign missions by the secretary of the Foreign Mission Committee....