Vol 80 Issue 16

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. We now move on to the fifth section of Reformed dogmatics, known as ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. It includes a study of what the church is and of how she grows and is governed. It can be distinguished from soteriology, which we have just considered. Soteriology is the study of how God saves an individual believer; ecclesiology is the study of how God saves the church as a whole. The church is an object of faith. We confess that we “believe an holy, catholic...

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Mission Activities Everyone in and around the Grand Rapids, MI area was cordially invited to an open house and presentation by our denomination’s eastern home missionary, Rev. Jai Mahtani, at Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI on Sunday evening, April 11. Rev. Mahtani gave an update on the labors in Pittsburgh, as well as throughout the eastern United States. There was an opportunity for questions and there was a time of fellowship and refreshments after the presentation. Rev. Angus Stewart, our churches’ missionary to the Covenant PR Fellowship...

When Thou Sittest in Thine House: Meditations on Home Life, by Abraham Kuyper. Wyoming, MI: Credo Books, 2004. Pp. x + 408. $39 paper). [Reviewed by editor]. What the Standard Bearer thinks of Abraham Kuyper’s When Thou Sittest in Thine House is plain from the fact that we are publishing most of it in installments. The book is a compilation of a series of Kuyper’s meditations on the family and home life. Kuyper views the many aspects of family life in the light of Scripture and from the Reformed perspective. Because the work was originally Kuyper’s famed “meditations,” the chapters...

Mr. Doezema is secretary of the Domestic Mission Committee. At our most recent regular monthly meeting, Rev. Bruinsma remarked that it’s not always so easy for him to look objectively at questions that arise about the work in “his” area because he is so personally involved in it. He appreciated, therefore, he said, the more balanced approach that could be taken with the input of other members of the committee. We find repeatedly that that kind of balance has served us well. The work of the Domestic Mission Committee has been structured accordingly. We have three main sub-committees—one for the...

Rev. Smit is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Doon, Iowa, and secretary of the Foreign Mission Committee. In years past, it has been common for the secretary of the FMC to give, for the SB, an annual review of our denominational mission work in our foreign fields by summarizing a year’s worth of foreign mission work from his own perspective. This time we will instead give you a window on the work through the eyes of our missionaries themselves, by means of their newsletters, monthly reports, and their annual reports for synod. We are taking this approach because...

Slabbert Le Cornu is married to Dorothea, and they have three daughters: Joanette (6), Hannelie (3) and Doret (1). He is fourth-year theological student at the Reformed Churches of South Africa’s Theological School, in Potchefstroom. They are members of the Reformed Church, Potchefstroom-South. Slabbert is the founder and director of Die Esra Instituut (‘The Esra Institute’), which is a teaching ministry to advance the biblical-reformed faith and worldview in the world today. He is also the editor of the magazine Die Esra Verslag (‘The Ezra Report’). For further information, he can be contacted at: esra@netlab.co.za 5. The deformation in the...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. “Theologians debate God’s foreknowledge” It was the headline in Loveland, Colorado’s Reporter-Herald of December 6, 2003. (Thanks to one of our “contributors” from Loveland for the article.) The article, though dated, is really very current. Its report concerning the position of some calling themselves evangelical Christians shows the degree to which “Calvinists” or “conservative” Christians have fallen. The eternal foreknowledge of God represents one of those undebatable subjects for Christians—particularly Reformed Christians. It is surely part of the creeds of Reformed churches. There are also many scriptural texts that...

The second volume in the Reformed Free Publishing Association’s paperback series, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, has just come out. The title is Reformed Worship. The book is a timely treatment of the lively, controversial, and crucially important issue of the public worship of the church. The book demonstrates from Scripture, the Reformed confessions, and the Reformed tradition that the worship of the church must be regulated by the Word of God. God does not leave the “how” of worship up to the worshiping people. The fundamental issue in the current “worship-wars” is the second commandment of the law...

A new form of covenant theology takes hold in many of the reputedly conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches in North America. In accordance with its fundamental teaching, this doctrine should be called “covenantal universalism.” In the April 15, 2004 issue of the Standard Bearer, I showed that covenantal universalism is a bold attack upon all the truths of the gospel of sovereign grace. The attack consists of denying that grace is sovereign in the sphere of the covenant. Covenantal universalism denies that eternal, sovereign predestination—election and reprobation—applies to the children of godly parents in the sphere of the covenant. In...

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. III John 11 The good and the evil! That which is good is that which is in harmony with the law of God. Goodness has an absolute standard. Ultimately, God is good. He is the source of all good and standard of all good. And He has revealed His goodness to us in His law. That which is good,...