Vol 77 Issue 19

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Sister-Church Activities   We begin this issue of the “News” by passing along our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to the newly ordained and installed Rev. Angus Stewart, pastor of the Covenant PRC in Northern Ireland.  First, we say thanks because from a personal point of view we grew to know and love the brother during his four years of study at our seminary.  He will be especially missed by those in the Hudsonville, MI PRC where he had his membership for four short years.  And then we...

May 9, 2001 Southwest Protestant Reformed Church Classis East met in regular session on Wednesday, May 9, 2001 at the Southwest PRC. Each church was represented by two delegates. Rev. C. Terpstra served as the chairman for this session. In attendance also were students from the church history class at Covenant Christian High School, as well as the delegates ad examina from Classis West. Classis had the delightful experience of approving the organization of a new congregation. The consistory of Hudsonville PRC brought a request, signed by 40 families and 5 individuals, to organize a new congregation in the Hudsonville...

Registers of the Consistory of Geneva in the Time of Calvin: Volume 1, 1542-1544. Robert M. Kingdon, general editor. Thomas A. Lambert & Isabella M. Watt, editors. M. Wallace McDonald, translator. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. IL + 470pp. $50 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] The consistory minutes of any church make interesting reading. When the minutes are the detailed records of the proceedings of the consistory of the church in Geneva during the ministry of John Calvin, they are very interesting indeed, and instructive. The student of the Reformation will find these records fascinating. A group of scholars headed by...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Byron Center, Michigan. Because deacons serve as official representatives of Jesus Christ to His church, God requires His church to choose qualified men for that office. We have already noted that they must be men, and that they must be believing men who have received from God the spiritual graces of salvation in Christ. One who receives such grace must and will manifest that grace in his life. With regard to every child of God, this is the case. We must manifest it, to show our gratitude to God for...

Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the providence of God, and by His grace, a new school will open its doors this fall. Heritage Christian High School, located this year in the educational wing of the Calvary Reformed Church in South Holland, will begin instructing students in grades nine and ten. The opening of this new school will go largely unnoticed in the world—the newspapers certainly will not promote it. The school will begin without great fanfare, and will scarcely produce a ripple on the educational scene. Yet, this new...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Growing up in the 1950s, I thought the King James Version of the Bible was delivered directly from the hand of God. I was more than a little disappointed when the minister would exegete Scripture, instructing how a certain word or verse in the KJV could better be translated such and such. To find out that the KJV was a translation from Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and other earlier translations cast an aura of suspicion around an otherwise perfectly elegant book. The discovery of...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. The second aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work in our salvation is that of the calling. The calling is that work of God bringing the regenerated sinner into the consciousness of his salvation in Christ Jesus. Through the Spirit of Christ the triune God addresses the elect, regenerated sinner by the Word of the gospel, enlightening the understanding and drawing him out of darkness into the light of life. When we continue the figure of the seed (of regeneration), as we considered from I Peter 1:23-25, the calling can...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Zero Tolerance   We’ve all heard of “zero tolerance” in the public schools. There is zero tolerance for any kind of guns or other weapons in school. In fact, there is a “zero tolerance” even for discussing of guns by the pupils in the schools. Some of the instances of carrying out of this policy seem absurd to the extreme. One young lad was suspended from school for several days for taking a gun to school—a toy gun about an inch long of the Cracker Jack toy variety. Another...

Good Gifts to the Wicked, and the Love of Jesus I am a British subscriber to the Standard Bearer. After finding the magazine difficult going at first and nearly canceling the subscription at one point, I now find it a real source of blessing and look forward to receiving it. My query is this. I can follow the theology of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) for 95% of the way. In particular, your doctrine of the covenant is the only one I can find scripturally satisfying. I also agree with your emphasis on the antithesis. What I find very difficult...

“Who … hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” Colossians 1:13 The spirituality of the kingdom of God is offensive to multitudes today. That many stumble over the spiritual nature of the kingdom of God grieves us. But it does not surprise us. Exactly this was the offense of the kingship and kingdom of the Messiah to the Jews of Jesus’ own day. According to John 6, the Jews had their hearts set on a carnal, political kingdom with earthly power, prosperity, and peace. This was how they understood the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messianic kingdom,...