Vol 79 Issue 07

*This is the text of the speech given at the convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Seminary on September 4, 2002. The first installment appeared in the January 1, 2003 issue of the Standard Bearer. One of the worst threats to the true church of Christ in the world since the time of the Reformation is the present development of covenant doctrine that denies justification by faith alone. Theologians are working out the implications of the doctrine of a conditional covenant. They are demonstrating that the doctrine of a conditional covenant implies conditional justification. The conditions are faith as a...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Minister Activities   The Lord willing, Prof. and Mrs. H. Hanko were to depart for Northern Ireland the first week in December. They planned on laboring among the saints there from December 7 to December 23. Plans called for Prof. Hanko to speak at a couple of special meetings, as well as to lead mid-week Bible studies and preach for the fellowship on the three Sundays they were there. Rev. B. Gritters declined the call he received to serve as pastor of the Southeast PRC in Grand...

The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, by R. C. Sproul. Christian Focus Pulications, 2002. 159pp. (Hardcover) [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.] A commentary on Ephesians is always welcome, for Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians is a crown jewel among the New Testament books. It has as its main theme, “The glory of the church as the body of Christ.” It contains clear and unmistakable teachings on all the doctrines of sovereign and particular grace. Its emphasis on salvation by grace alone through faith permeates every part of it. Its practical section is a handbook on how the bride...

Miss Lubbers is a member of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan and administrator of Eastside Christian School. In the first article on this topic we made a start in attempting to understand the narrative approach to Reformed Christian education proposed by Dr. Bolt. We identified the narrative approach as one in which the Christian school, through its teachers, must tell a story. The story is about God and His children—a story that includes the Christian school because the school serves the mission of God and His people. It is the story of the triune God’s mission—commissioned by...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There are several words in the Hebrew Old Testament, the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), and the Greek New Testament that are variously translated must, must needs, necessary, necessity, need, and ought or ought not. We want to take a careful look at the most common of these words (dei in the Greek), noticing first of all that it is derived from a verb that means to bind or to be in bonds. The idea is that two things are bound together in such a way that...

Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. I Corinthians 12:18 The human body is an unfathomable, marvelous work of God. It is made up of a multitude of members—each of which has been created for a unique purpose that contributes to the complex, yet harmonious, workings of the body. These members can be categorized into ten major systems—the respiratory, circulatory, immune, muscular, skeletal, digestive, excretory, reproductive, endocrine, and...

Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Psalm 78:5-7 Who is responsible for the training of children in the home? There is much talk concerning...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. The truth that we now consider is the very bedrock of true Christianity. Justification is that truth that proclaims the glory of the sovereign God and the wonder of sovereign, particular grace in Christ Jesus. It sets before us the value of our religion. That God’s people are righteous before Him in Christ—that is the bedrock of true Christianity. Any so-called Christianity established on anything other than the perfect and imputed righteousness of Christ is a sham. It is nothing more than a sham. For without the perfect...

Rev. Koole is pastor of Grandville Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan.   The Church Under the Cross   While we in the West have been enjoying our ‘Christmas pudding’ and reveling in the abundance of good things, there are those who are bearing the weight of persecution and the cost of confessing Christ Jesus as Lord. The animosity toward the Christian faith (with its resulting suffering) is intensifying especially in the Far East, notably in China and India, but in Indo-China as well. We, in the midst of our affluence and ease, must not forget the very real suffering...

IVF and an Absolutely Sovereign God I read with interest Mr. Lanning’s article (Nov. 1 and 15, 2002) and must admit subjects like these prompt questions. The answers in some cases will not be available. We are not God, and when the vessels of dishonor point a bony finger at the vessels of honor to explain why in vitro fertilization is wrong, it once again comes down to faith and unbelief. Can IVF be classified as unbelieving science? I would say without a shadow of a doubt that it is! Man’s depraved moral decisions and dilemmas impatiently try to sidestep...