Vol 78 Issue 14

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Young Adult Activities   The Young Adults’ Society of the Covenant PRC in Wyckoff, NJ hosted an evening of activities in their church fellowship hall for Christian young adults in their community on February 22. Pizza and refreshments were provided. Covenant’s young adults were encouraged to invite their friends and were reminded to bring some games along as well. Once again this March the Young Adults’ Society of the Loveland, CO PRC served as host society for their annual Spring Retreat. This year’s retreat was held between...

March 6, 2002 at Loveland, Colorado The March meeting of Classis West was held in Loveland Protestant Reformed Church in Loveland, Colorado on Wednesday, March 6. Rev. Steven Houck chaired the meeting. Classis treated a rather lengthy agenda, including two appeals. Both appeals concerned a discipline case in one of our churches and were treated in closed session. In both instances, the consistory was upheld in its actions in the case. In other business, a discipline case was carefully considered in closed session and approval was given to the decision of the consistory to proceed to the second step of...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. The Way of Heathen Dating   There is mystery in the wonderful way of a man with a maid. Wise men say, “Who can know it?”(Prov. 30:18, 19). There is theology, good and sound doctrine for the godly way of a man with a maid. It is ours. God has graciously given it to us. It is God’s covenant. It is marriage. It is godly fathers giving their daughters in marriage. It is godly men and women, when they are spiritually mature, committing themselves with their parents and...

Reprinted from When Thou Sittest In Thine House, by Abraham Kuiper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1929. Used by permission of Eerdmans Publishing Co. We read in Matthew 6:7: “And when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Does Jesus mean by this that every prayer must be brief, and that a somewhat longer prayer already by itself is judged on account of its length? Certainly not. For in John 17, the Savior Himself has set a pace in sending upward an extensive prayer;...

Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member in Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Psalm 66:10The physical, material parts of creation undergo radical transformations when exposed to fire or extreme heat. Impure gold is dull in appearance but is transformed by a process involving intense heat, making it shimmer and shine with great brilliance. A strip of magnesium metal is gray and shiny, but when exposed to intense heat it transforms into a white, powdery ash. A lush, thriving...

George Ophoff was Professor of Old Testament Studies in the Protestant Reformed Seminary in its early days. Reprinted here, in edited form, are articles which Ophoff wrote at that time for the Standard Bearer. We have seen that the shadows of the old dispensation were indeed accompanied by Messianic revelations—that is, by the spoken word, describing the very objects and events that were prefigured by the shadows. There are two questions which may now be raised. Was it but an enlightened few who were expecting Him who would demolish the head of the serpent, or was the advent of the...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. We have seen from Scripture and the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 7, that the activity of saving faith consists of two elements, a certain knowledge and an assured confidence. Having considered the certain knowledge of faith, we turn our attention now to the element of confidence. Both aspects of saving faith are seen in the apostle’s confession in II Timothy 1:12b: “…for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” He not...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Strictly speaking, the title of this article is not correct. That part of the Anabaptist movement, often called the Right Wing of the Reformation, of which we speak in this article was not found much in Germany and was not, therefore, the object of Luther’s immediate concern. Luther had to deal with the more radical branches of the Anabaptists. The movement of which I now speak was born in Switzerland and was the primary concern of the Swiss reformers, particularly Zwingli, Bullinger (the...

Fellow Members of the Body of Christ Although I am a member of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), I find your magazine to be a wonderful source of biblical truth and doctrine. But I wanted to comment on your editorial “A Temptation of the PRC” (Standard Bearer, March 1, 2002). I am a young man of only 24, so I have not fully researched the history of the common grace/particular grace controversy between the CRC and the PRC. But I want to point out that there are still Christian Reformed churches today that are true to the Word of God...

Even though the reasons for Dr. Mouw’s embrace of common grace are his perception of good in the world of the ungodly, his feelings of delight and pity regarding the abilities and the woes of the wicked, and his conviction that believers must cooperate with unbelievers in the building of a good culture, he does appeal to one biblical text in support of his belief. He also refers to two significant passages in the Reformed confessions. Before we consider his arguments from the apparent good of the ungodly, from the Christian’s pity for the distressed idolater, and from the involvement...