Vol 80 Issue 20

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Most, if not all, of our congregations have an “Evangelism Committee” or have what is sometimes called a “Church Extension Committee.” The general purpose of such a committee is to put forth effort to get the message of the gospel, as proclaimed in the local church and in our churches, to those who are without. The scope of their labors usually is not limited by geographic proximity to the local congregation; rather, most of them develop contacts anywhere in the world. The reason for this is obvious: whenever efforts...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. * In the July 2004 issue, p. 427, Wesley’s birthdate was incorrectly given as 1723. The correct date is 1703. Introduction John Wesley was born in the early part of the eighteenth century.* He was born and baptized in the Church of England or Anglican Church, in which his father was a rector in the parish of Epworth. His life was a struggle to attain holiness, but the quest of holiness led him into paths of mysticism. While many different influences turned him towards...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. It is easy to find references that explicitly say that there is one church, and that this church is holy, but the word “catholic” is not found in Scripture. The term means “universal in extent” or “throughout the whole,” and is used to describe the church as a body of believers that is universal in extent, gathered throughout the whole human race out of all the nations of the world. The term is found in the titles that have been given to the epistles of James, Peter, John,...

Measuring the Music: Another Look at the Contemporary Christian Music Debate, by John Makujina. Willow Street, PA: Old Paths Publications, repr. 2002. 369 pages. $16.99 (paper). [Reviewed by the editor.] Measuring the Music is an important examination and convincing condemnation of “contemporary Christian music.” Reformed young people especially need to be warned. But so do their parents, if they are to warn their children. So also do the churches, if they are to keep this corruption out of the lives of their young members and, by this evil day, out of their official, or semi-official, gatherings. Justification, by Francis Turretin....

Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. (Previous article in this series can be found in the May 1, 2004 issue, p. 351.) “And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32 …On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank,...

Reprinted from When Thou Sittest In Thine House, by Abraham Kuyper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1929. Used by permission of Eerdmans Publishing Co. There are a few simple but extremely important facts in life that mock at all human self-willedness and scorn all arbitrariness. One of which is the great creation-fact that when God created man, He created them man and woman. Think these three small words out of existence, and imagine that it would have pleased God to create man after the rule that applies to the angels, of whom Jesus said, that they neither...

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. What Is “Marriage?” A petition drive was held recently in the state of Michigan that, if sufficient signatures were obtained, will require the issue of “gay marriages” to be placed on the November ballot. If the desired amendment passes, the Michigan constitution will define marriage as that only which is between a man and a woman. Though the state already has adopted a law declaring marriage to be only between two people of opposite sex, activist judges could conceivably declare this unconstitutional. The ground would be that the law...

Who is it now that actually assures me, a believer in Jesus Christ, not only that the Bible is true and that Jesus Christ is a complete Savior from sin for everyone who trusts in Him, but also that Jesus Christ is my Savior? Whence comes the certainty—the infallible certainty (which alone is certainty)—that I, even I personally, am saved, have been saved from eternity, and will be saved everlastingly? Must I assure myself? Is it the church that assures me? The answer of Scripture to our question is clear: the one who gives assurance to the children of God...

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land...