Vol 79 Issue 12

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Erroneous Views of the End: Common Grace A third eschatological error exposed by the truth that Jesus Christ is the end, or goal, of all things is the theory of common grace. As propounded especially by the Dutch Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper, the theory of common grace teaches that, alongside His purpose of redeeming the church, God has a purpose of developing a good, God-glorifying culture. The fall of Adam made the fulfillment of this purpose impossible. But God realizes this purpose in unregenerated men and...

Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. The elders’ office is to observe and supervise the doctrine and conduct of the minister. Last time (SB, Nov. 15, 2002) I pointed out that the minister’s life must be an object of scrutiny, and that, for the sake of the doctrine. The Form for Installation of Elders, the Church Order, and the Questions for Church Visitation all enjoin the elders to “have regard to the doctrine and conversation of the minister of the word.” Reformed and Presbyterian churches have always recognized the importance of elder-supervision of the...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Young People’s Activities   The Young People’s Society of First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI sponsored a concert on January 26 in their church. The concert featured cello and piano, organ and a brass quartet. A collection was taken for the 2003 Young People’s Convention. Members of Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL were invited by their Young People’s Society to a Valentine’s Day Supper at their church on February 14. The evening featured a punch bowl, a tasty barbecue steak dinner, a special program including a Young...

Faith and Salvation, by Thomas Halyburton. Gwynedd, Wales: James Beggs Society, 2002. Pp. ix + 417. £15.60 (cloth). [Reviewed by the editor.]   The Rev. Thomas Halyburton was a Scottish Presbyterian preacher and one of Scotland’s greatest theologians. Born in 1674, he died in 1712 at the young age of 38. One who reads Faith and Salvation will acquaint himself with the theology of Scottish Presbyter-ianism in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and will learn something of Presbyterian preaching at that time. The book is a series of sermons originally titled, “The Great Concern of Salvation.” After an...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. Dating must die. And Grace Life, you will recall, has been all for its swift demise. There have been several articles (cf. SB, Dec. 15, 2001; March 1, 2002; April 15, 2002; June, 2002; August, 2002; September 15, 2002). In them we have written just what convicts and condemns dating; it is everything she is about. For this is she: The unbiblical coupling and cavorting of two who are not yet ready for marrying, The pairing off of those who confess Fun, but who have not yet confessed...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Our fathers at Dordt said that those who teach that the believer in this life normally does not arrive at the complete assurance that he is a child of God are guilty of introducing into the churches “the doubts of the papist.”1 This is a strong condemnation of what our fathers saw to be a very serious false teaching. Since faith is the bond that joins us to Christ, our spiritual foes would lead us to deny the truth concerning the nature of faith. The devil knows that...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction   Calvin and Servetus—what a contrast! The most abused men of the sixteenth century, and yet direct antipodes of each other in spirit, doctrine, and aim: the reformer and the deformer; the champion of orthodoxy and the arch heretic; the master architect of construction and the master architect of ruin, brought together in deadly conflict for rule or ruin. Both were men of brilliant genius and learning; both deadly foes of the Roman Antichrist; both enthusiasts for restoration of primitive Christianity, but with...

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. Of Nova Zembla Tollens* sings: “Here the Prince of Winter has erected his throne.” Yet at heart this is ungodly and fundamentally heathen speech, as though there were a Prince of winter, who brings ice and snow and hoarfrost. A language that contrasts strongly with what in Israel a David and an Asaph sang: Our God gives snow like wool, he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes, he casteth forth his ice like morsels:...

*This is the text of the speech given at the convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Seminary on September 4, 2002. The first five installments appeared in the issues of the Standard Bearer immediately preceding this one. The speech has been revised and expanded for publication by naming theologians, books, and articles and by giving full citations. What is truly significant about the movement we have been considering in these editorials in the past few issues of the Standard Bearer is not that there is widespread denial of justification by faith alone in reputedly conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches. Neither...

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern: Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye...