All Articles For Vol 80 Issue 02 10/15/2003

For many years now, we have made the October 15 issue of the Standard Bearer a special issue commemorating the sixteenth century Reformation of the church. We have highlighted a Reformer, a doctrine, a controversy, or some other aspect of the Reformation, whether of that time or of a subsequent age. It is high time that we feature John Calvin, the Reformer who completed the Reformation begun by Luther, spiritual and theological father of the Reformed churches, and one of the greatest men of God in the history of the church after the apostles. The reader will learn something of...

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities The Evangelism Society of the Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI recently served as host for a very important, interesting, and thought-provoking debate between Dr. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary and author of the recent book He Shines in All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace, and Prof. D. Engelsma, professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament studies at our Theological School. Professor Engelsma is also editor of this periodical, and you may remember that he originally wrote twelve editorials critiquing Dr. Mouw’s book....

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. We shall never be clearly persuaded, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the wellspring of God’s free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, which illumines God’s grace by this contrast: that he does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to others. J.Calvin, Institutes, III, xxi, 1 Dearly beloved brethren, we must not be amazed if the article of the everlasting predestination of God, be so assaulted and fought against by Satan’s...

Rev. Hanko is minister in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. Calvin as a Preacher Calvin is always remembered as a theologian, not always as a preacher. From the sixteenth to the twentieth century his sermons remained for the most part unpublished, and many of the manuscripts of his sermons were sold in the early nineteenth century for waste paper. Many, while extolling his virtues as a theologian and commentator, bewail his deficiencies as preacher. One writer, who seems not to have read Calvin’s sermons, says:

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. John Calvin’s role in the reform of Geneva was divinely ordained. Calvin himself did not seek it. In probably his most lengthy autobiographical sketch, found in the preface to his Commentary on the Book of Psalms, he pointed out that he had no intention of staying in Geneva more than a single night, let alone becoming a leading figure there. Calvin’s plan was to go to Strasbourg. His heart was set on a sheltered life of private studies. He ended up passing through Geneva, because in God’s wonderful...

Rev. Shand is a pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. A man is said to be justified in the sight of God when in the judgment of God he is deemed righteous, and is accepted on account of his righteousness; for as iniquity is abominable to God, so neither can the sinner find grace in his sight, so far as he is and so long as he is regarded as a sinner. Hence, wherever sin is, there also are the wrath and vengeance of God. He, on the other hand, is justified who is regarded not as a...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. John Calvin’s description of the Christian life in book three of his Institutes of the Christian Religion makes every charge that the Reformed faith minimizes holiness of life, not so much false as absurd. What a grand, gripping, humbling, sobering, moving description of the Christian life this is. It is no wonder that this section of the Institutes was very soon published separately and that it still is published in English as a separate booklet, The Golden Booklet of the Christian Life. Our ministers must preach...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. An outstanding aspect of the work of John Calvin was the fact that he wrote voluminously. His writings include his exegetical commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, his Institutes of the Christian Religion, his sermons and homilies, various catechisms and confessions, numerous polemical documents against opponents and errors, a number of apologetic writings in defense of specific truths, his ecclesiastical and liturgical writings, some minor treatises, and many letters. Without a doubt, the most important writing of John Calvin was his theological work, the Institutes...

Prof. Gritters is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11, 12 Great gift to the church of Jesus Christ God gave in John Calvin. Great example for pastors is this unusual man, fit by providence to serve God’s church at such a time. Great inspiration for all God’s people, young people too, is Calvin, whose dedication and patient love for...

Sermons on Election and Reprobation by John Calvin (Audubon, NJ: Old Paths Publications, 1996). The excerpt is published with permission from Old Paths. … and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. Genesis 25:21-23 It is...