Vol 78 Issue 17

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. The matter which engaged our attention in the foregoing article was whether the believer of the old covenant perceived in the shadows any reference to future realities of the gospel. We confined ourselves to the right of expiatory sacrifice. The question was faced whether the believer of the old covenant regarded the sacrificial victim as an image of the Christ who by His suffering and death...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. Dating is the way, the truth, and the life of the ungodly. It is the sought-out Savior of many-a-youth too scared to go through adolescence alone. It is the Silver Cup from which many older lonely and unmarried folk long to drink in order to live a Life they fear has passed them by. Believe me, dear Grace Life readers! Believe one who has been in the land of the pagans, believe a pastor and friend of all who would be the friends of Jesus—Dating is the Idol...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A temple is a place where God dwells. Idols such as Dagon, Moloch, and Diana also had their temples. Antichrist himself will sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (II Thess. 2:4). But in Scripture we learn that the only God worthy of the name is the God who dwells in the temple, and that in a way that He is not present elsewhere. The word dwell is very rich; one of the Greek terms for temple has the basic meaning of...

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. The Day   With us, evening is part of the day, while in the East, as soon as evening comes the day is done. You see this with the Jews in our midst, who do not begin their Sabbath on Saturday morning, but on Friday evening. As soon as the sun is set it is Sabbath. While we say: “Every morning and every evening,” the Scripture says: “Every evening and every morning,” and...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. What does it mean to be strong? How does a Christian show himself to be a strong believer? To answer questions like these we must turn to the Scriptures to see what God says is a chief characteristic of one who is strong. There are a number of animals in the Scriptures that illustrate for us the idea of strength from one point of view or another. In this article we consider strength as it is pictured for us in the lion. God not only mentions the strength...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Contentment is a Christian virtue that needs our careful attention. Since it is often mentioned in the Word of God, it ought to occupy a prominent place in our lives. Contentment is a spiritual virtue that governs the attitude we have toward everything earthly. To be content is to be satisfied within, with regard to all the outward circumstances of one’s life. But contentment is more than that. It is an inner satisfaction with regard to all the outward circumstances of life that is not dependent upon or...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament History in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Reformed Confessions (concluded) The last article—Article 37—of the Belgic Confession (1561) is devoted to the doctrine of the last things (the French original and an English translation are found in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3, Harper & Row, 1877; because of the length of the article and because copies of the creed are readily available, I do not quote the article in its entirety here). In this article, Reformed believers confess a future corporal and visible coming of Jesus Christ as Lord. His...

Biblical Method of Dating As a teenager who has been faced with the difficulties of worldly dating, I agree with Rev. Dick on his article “Dating and the Deep Blue Sea … and the Way of Christ (2)” (Standard Bearer, April 15). The world’s type of dating is indeed a “voracious” monster that “consumes everything in her path.” The heavy pressure on teens to go along with worldly dating has caused many teens to suffer lifelong scars, and in order to avoid these scars, our churches need to educate teens in the biblical method of dating. Many teens suffer these...

Missions Missions will again be a major part of the agenda of the 2002 synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRC). Synod will consider the detailed reports of the missionaries, calling churches, and domestic and foreign mission committees. The Domestic Mission Committee (DMC) is recommending that synod approve the calling of another home missionary. He is to work mainly with a core group of some four families in Fayetteville, NC. The DMC also proposes a change in an earlier synodical decision regarding confession of faith on the mission field. The change would authorize confession of faith on the...

Rev. Miersma is pastor of Immanuel Protestant Reformed Church in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:10-12 For some time now we have been working our way through the first part of Christ’s sermon on the mount as recorded in Matthew...