Vol 77 Issue 06

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities   The Reformed Witness Committee of the Doon and Hull, IA PRCs, along with the Edgerton, MN PRC, has been updating their web site at www.reformedwitness. org.  It now has available online all of the pamphlets which they distribute in their evangelism efforts.  Some of those included are, “The Foundations Are Shaking,” by Rev. B. Gritters; Rev. H. Veldman’s works on “The Well-Meaning Offer of the Gospel”; Rev. J. Kortering’s works on “Escha-tology”; and Rev. D. H. Kuiper’s “Attributes of God” series. In their on-going...

The Necessity of Reforming the Church, by John Calvin. [Willow Street, PA]: Old Paths Publications, 1994. xi + 117 pp. $7.95 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] How urgent that in this time of reunion with the Roman Catholic Church by bewitched Protestants many of the bewitchers and bewitched read this spirited defense of the Protestant Reformation! How urgent that in this age of tolerance of false doctrine and impure worship many of the tolerant ones, fancying themselves good, indeed superior, Christians (so full of love, they mistakenly suppose), read this vigorous call to resist impure worship and false doctrine even...

* A paper given originally for the officebearers’ conference of Classis West of the PRC on March 2, 1999 in Redlands, CA. Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Hudsonville PRC in Hudsonville, MI. What are the dangers of hyper-Calvinism regarding the truth of reprobation? There are errors that can be made with regard to reprobation, errors which must be classified as hyper-Calvinistic perversions of the gospel. They are just as deadly as Arminianism. Of them we must be warned. Pastors and elders may not allow their membership to promote or believe such sentiments. The Protestant Reformed Churches hold to no...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Balm was an ancient ointment or salve made from the resin of certain pine trees. Sometimes this resin was mixed with honey to produce an ointment of considerable medicinal value. The Old Testament several times speaks of the balm of Gilead because it was especially from the trees that abounded in Gilead, east of Jordan, that this balm was manufactured. It is also likely that people went to Gilead to be treated by physicians who were skilled in the application of this salve. The balm of Gilead...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction It is a bit difficult to make choices concerning the indi-vidual about whom to write when many others taught the same heresy as we wish to describe in this article. The heresy has to do with our Lord’s atoning work on the cross. The choice of the story of Abelard is, therefore, somewhat arbitrary. Yet, there are certain reasons why I have chosen to write about Abelard and not others who held to the same heresy concerning the atonement as this man. The first...

Mr. Doezema is editor of the Sunday School paper used in the PRC. We include one of the Bible stories here, so that a part of this Christmas issue of the SB can be used with or by children. “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7 For many hundreds of years the children of Abraham, the Jews, were looking for the Christ to come out of the line of David. David had been a great and...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. And I will put enmity…. Genesis 3:15 Bethlehem lies sleeping. The Judean hillside rises gently in the pre-dawn stillness. Sheep graze drowsily on their frosty slopes. A handful of bearded shepherds wrap their coarse outer garments ever more tightly around their shoulders to ward off the penetrating chill. Stars twinkle brilliantly. Inside a small but pristine shed another scene is played out. Mary and Joseph gaze adoringly at their newborn son. Is that a faint first glimpse of a smile playing about Baby Jesus’...

The late Gerrit Vos was a pastor in the PRC and for many years a writer for the SB. We reprint here an article of his which appeared in the December 1 issue in 1958. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34 … and on earth peace…. Luke 2:14 b … The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 b Higher criticism delights to find contradictions in the Bible. Well, the above texts seem to teach such. On the one hand we have heard the song of...

Reserve regarding Treatment of the Regulative Principle I have read with a great measure of reserve your assessment of the Psalm-hymn issue and the regulative principle in our churches (“Shall We Please God or [Certain Kinds of] People? or, the Regulative Principle of Worship,” Standard Bearer, Nov. 1, 2000). Your presentation, I’m afraid, raises more questions than answers and as I read through your article I keep seeing the title above your editorial “Shall we please God or certain kinds of people.” This should be foremost in our minds when we assess this issue. In reading your assessment, I find...

There is profit in our celebration of Christ’s birth—great spiritual profit. Reading, hearing, and taking to heart the gospel of the birth of Jesus Christ are of benefit to the church. This is why Holy Scripture proclaims the birth. And it does. The Old Testament rejoiced in the birth of the coming Messiah: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son … ” (Is. 7:14); “… unto us a child is born … ” (Is. 9:6). So also does the New Testament make something of Jesus’ birth. The modernists, bent on calling into question the account of the virgin...