All Articles For Vol 78 Issue 21 9/15/2002

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities   The Evangelism Society of the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI sponsored a “Summer Sing-spiration” Sunday evening, July 14, in their church auditorium. In addition to inviting their congregation to join them, they made a special effort to invite families and friends from around their church home to come and join them. In addition to audience singing, there was instrumental and other vocal participation. In evangelism news from the Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL, we find that they are presently sending out tapes to...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. In Evangelio Dominus Ego sum, inquit, veritas. Non dixit, Ego sum consuetude! (Augustine, in De Baptismo, III.6.9, translated, “In the Gospel the Lord says—’I am the truth.’ He did not say, ‘I am custom.'”)Dating is fatherless. Modern American dating is determined to be fatherless. Not all fathers have succeeded in aborting all their children. But all daters do away with dads. Fatherless dating is a sign of the end of time. It is just one way, but a significant way, in which end-time worldling young and not-so-young people...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “Meditate on these things….” I Timothy 4:15 Ours is a noise-driven culture. From earliest morning, one’s life is governed by the continuous sounds of conversation, music, and background noise. Alarm clocks beep—or sing—to us. Telephones ring. Computers click. Doorbells buzz. Headsets crackle. Television keeps up its incessant chatter, often when no one is in the room. Many of us have taken to carrying our communication noise-makers along withus attached to belt or waistband, ensuring that we are never truly free from the cacophony of...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Jonathan Edwards—and Birth Control Christian News, August 5, 2002, presents articles pertaining to marriage and family. Included is an interesting quote from the book, “God’s Vision for Families—What the Bible Says About Having Children,” by Nancy Campbell. The quote is headed by the statement: “Jonathan Edwards and Laying the Foundation for Future Generations.” “Back in 1990 a trace was done on offspring of the Jonathan and Sarah Edwards family. Jonathan Edwards was a theologian, pastor, missionary and university president. He had a brilliant mind. At age ten he entered...

Mr. Adams is a teacher at Eastside Christian School and a member, with his family, of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You might think that the biggest news regarding the British Reformed Fellowship’s Family Conference is that it occurred at all. But in spite of rumors of its cancellation, it indeed was held this past July 20th-27th. There were 50 souls in attendance: 12 from Northern Ireland, 15 from Cambridge, England, 18 from the United States, and others from various places in the British Isles. The theme of the conference was “Assurance of Salvation.” Through a series...

Variation in the Liturgy   I enjoyed Rev. Terpstra’s articles on “The Believer’s Role in Public Worship,” but his January 15, 2002 article prompted me to write and ask a question. As the same liturgy is performed week after week, Rev. Terpstra notes that there is a temptation to fall into the “sin of formalism, of using the right means of worship in the wrong way, just going through the motions, as if the elements were empty, insignificant rituals.” I think this temptation is a strong one, which makes me curious about the Reverend’s solution to it. He says that...

Confusion of Grace and Providence It is a fundamental doctrinal error of the theory of common grace as taught by Dr. Richard Mouw in He Shines in All That’s Fair (Eerdmans, 2001), his mentor Abraham Kuyper, and his numerous allies in Reformed and Presbyterian churches worldwide, that it confuses grace and providence. The existence of the world is grace; that man did not become a devil at the fall was grace; rain and sunshine are grace; Beethoven’s musical ability was grace; that my decent, unbelieving neighbor does not commit the sins of the Marquis de Sade (so far as we...

Rev. Miersma is pastor of Immanuel Protestant Reformed Church in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Hebrews 13:5, 6 The words of our text look at covetousness from a different point of view than that to which we are accustomed. Usually we are addressed with respect to the negative, being warned of the dangers...