Vol 77 Issue 07

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Young People’s Activities   In early November the Young People’s Society of the First PRC in Holland, MI met for one of their special monthly meetings.  Mr. Paul Goh, a student in our seminary from our sister churches in Singapore, and his wife Suet Yin, gave a slide presentation of the churches there. Some of our readers may also know that First in Holland is this year’s host church for our denomination’s annual Young People’s Convention.  Since August 13-17 is now only eight months away, you can...

Religion, Pluralism, and Public Life: Abraham Kuyper’s Legacy for the Twenty-First Century. Ed. Luis E. Lugo. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. Pp. xviii + 385. $28 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] We are seeing a renewal of interest in the life and thought of Abraham Kuyper. That aspect of his thought that receives attention is his theory of the Calvinistic Christianizing of society. The Kuyper that is resurrected is the Kuyper of common grace and the Stone lectures on Calvinism. Religion, Pluralism, and Public Life is part of this Kuyper-renascence. A number of scholars examine Kuyper’s thought with a view to...

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This series has reviewed articles written about seventy years ago in the Standard Bearer by Rev. Herman Hoeksema and Rev. George Ophoff. We have stated that the ideas and concerns expressed in these articles written during the first decade of the existence of the Protestant Reformed Churches have provided some of the direction and incentive that have served to promote the development of the Protestant Reformed Christian schools. It may seem strange and out of place to some of our readers that we should spend so...

Mr. Lanting, a member of Cornerstone Protestant Reformed Church of Dyer, Indiana, is a practicing attorney. In light of the school’s history of regular delivery of student-led prayers at athletic events, it is reasonable to infer that the specific purpose of the policy was to preserve a popular state-sponsored religious practice. The delivery of such a message—over the school’s public address system, by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school faculty, and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly encourages prayer—is not properly characterized as “private speech.” The common purpose of the Religion Clauses...

Rev. Moore is foreign missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. The Protestant Reformed Churches have never been accused of being innovative in their worship practices. They have never had the reputation for modernizing their liturgy. They refuse to follow the latest trendy practices. The reason for this is not that we want to be stuffy traditionalists. Simply put: the PRC desire to be obedient to Jesus Christ. They are opposed to the modern forms of worship because they believe them to be disobedient to Jesus Christ. If worship were a matter of personal preference, no critique of modern...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. We have considered the necessity of being born again, and have seen it as a wonder work of divine grace. The question now becomes, also as a matter of personal importance: How is that wonder of regeneration brought to consciousness with all that it includes? How do I know that I am regenerated? That is an urgent question, as you who are elect strangers can certainly sense. We have seen that the Holy Spirit works the wonder of regeneration by implanting the incorruptible seed of Christ’s life in...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Abelard’s Doctrine of the Atonement As I said earlier, the real is-sue in the controversy over the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ was concerning the necessity of the atonement. It seems that actually the controversy involved the relation between some of God’s attributes and the suffering and death of Christ. For example, the question was asked: If God is omnipotent, could He not simply save men by His power without having to send His Son to the suffering of the cross? Or, if...

With the words, “Behold, He cometh,” the last book of the Bible begins and ends. Since these words fix the hope of the church in these last days, and since the church is especially mindful of her one hope at the beginning of the new year, they are fitting for a January 1 editorial. These words are also the title of Herman Hoeksema’s 726-page commentary on the book of Revelation. The work appeared first as articles in the Standard Bearer, beginning with the issue of May 15, 1956. The Reformed Free Publishing Association published the commentary in book form in...

Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Hebrews 11:8 The call came to Abraham when he was still in Ur of the Chaldees, in the land of Mesopotamia. The Lord of glory appeared to him and required of him that he leave his home to go to a land that God would show him. This call meant for Abraham this: Forsake all thy former attachments...