Vol 80 Issue 08

Redeeming Pop Culture: A Kingdom Approach, by T.M. Moore. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R, 2003. Pp. vii + 167. $11.99 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] A pop treatment of the weighty subject of the Christian and culture. “Once, after a morning service in which guitars had been used to lead the congregation in praise songs, I was making my way back to the pulpit to retrieve my Bible and sermon notes. One of the young men of our congregation was standing with his back to me, playing something on one of the guitars. As I approached, I discerned the familiar opening...

Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa. One of the most beautiful and comforting truths of Holy Scripture is that pertaining to the preservation of the saints and their perseverance in the faith. It is a truth that permeates the entire Word of God. On the one hand, it is drawn forth by God as the inspired confession of the psalmist in Psalm 16. Christ stands in the loins of David, as the New Testament quotations of this passage make clear. And because Christ was in him, David confessed (and we do with him), “I have...

Rev. Koole is pastor of Grandville Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. Hell Hath No Fury Like… Of all the evils that threaten the world and that Satan is using against the Christian witness against sin, there is probably none so diabolical, dangerous, and influential as the radical feminist movement. This movement seems to mother, nurture, and carry all the other demons in its womb. It carries the seed of the serpent, is filled with malice towards the Woman and her seed, and will stop at nothing to put itself and its offspring in ascendancy. It, like Herod and Athaliah...

The assurance of which Scripture speaks and which believers and their children have, and ought to have, is certainty. It is certainty about God, about the spiritual things made known in the Bible, and about salvation. Another word for this spiritual state of the soul of the believer and child of believer is confidence. This certainty is absolutely sure. There are no degrees of certainty, as though there can be certainty that is 75% sure, but 25% unsure, and certainty that is 90% sure, but 10% unsure. If certainty is not 100% sure, it is no longer certainty, but uncertainty,...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Mission Activities The congregation of the Hull, Iowa PRC was called to a divine worship service on the evening of December 11 to witness the installation of Rev. R. Miersma into the office of missionary to the saints in Ghana, West Africa. Rev. S. Key, pastor at Hull, led the worship service, preaching from Isaiah 60:4, 5, with Rev. D. Kleyn, president of our churches’ Foreign Mission Committee, reading the form for installation. The Lord willing, Rev. Miersma and his wife, Sharon, will join Rev. W. Bekkering and...

Rev. Hanko is minister in the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The First Prophecy (continued) We have seen that the Old Testament temple and the New Testament church have the same name in Scripture. They are both called the house of God because they are the place of God’s covenant, the house where God and His people live together under one roof and as one family—where He is their Father and Jesus is their elder Brother through the communion of the Holy Spirit. This identity of temple and church is our point of contact with the prophecy of Haggai....

Rev. Smit is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Doon, Iowa. Motivation for the Subject In the last couple of years, the Doon Martha Bible Society studied for its after-recess time the book Women of the Old Testament, which was written by Dr. Abraham Kuyper and translated into English. In this book, the author wrote about many women in the Old Testament, most of whom were godly women, such as Sarah, Naomi, and Ruth. By way of contrast, the author also included a few chapters on some wicked women of the Old Testament. With each individual, the author gave...

Rev. Kuiper is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The Hebrew and Greek words translated in the KJV as reproach contain the idea of shame, disgrace, reviling, upbraiding, chiding, and casting into the teeth. All reproach is for Christ’s sake, as He is God, and as He is in the flesh the Word and revelation of God. When the people of God are reproached, it is for Christ’s sake; it is because Christ is seen in them. Christ was reviled because all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, and He left behind a certain measure...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Randolph, Wisconsin. The fundamental work of the deacons in God’s church is the relief of the poor and needy. In order to do this work, the deacons must have the means available to relieve those in need. It comes as no surprise, then, that Reformed churches require their deacons “diligently to collect alms and other contributions of charity” (Church Order, Article 25), and again, to “collect and preserve with the greatest fidelity and diligence, the alms and goods which are given to the poor: yea, to do their utmost endeavors,...

More on Responsibility I thank Rev. Kortering for his detailed answers to my questions regarding his article on “Mission Preaching in the Established Church,” in the Standard Bearer of June 2003 (SB, Nov. 15, 2003, pp. 79, 80). However, the emphasis or viewpoint with which this article was written tends to focus entirely too much upon man in God’s sovereign work of salvation. In 1953, Rev. Hoeksema warned that overemphasis on the responsibility of man will eventually lead to the loss of the gospel (cd’s of 1953, Heritage Recordings). Let’s not make man’s response to the call of the gospel...