Vol 81 Issue 21

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Evangelism Activities In a letter to their congregation the Evangelism Committee of the South Holland, IL PRC reminded their fellow church members that if they needed a good book to take on their summer vacation, they could possibly find a title that sounded interesting in the bookshelf the Evangelism Committee maintains in their church basement. In fact, one of their older correspondents related to them that he helped his grandchildren with their school tuition by paying them to read material from the bookshelf. We wonder if that...

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. The Mother With a beauty that never pales, the prince of poets celebrated in song the tie that binds the mother to her child, which she bore in sorrow, fed with milk at her breast, and had carried for so long under her heart, as that which “unites the blood.” The estimate was correct. The love of mother for the child she bore does not spring from a tendency of soul, but from the...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: September 1, 2005, p. 472. Two fundamental principles of Reformed church government are the autonomy of the local instituted church and the fact that a true church is called to unite with other faithful churches in a federation of churches, often referred to as a denomination. The calling of churches to federate was set forth in the previous article, over against the error of Independentism. This article continues this same subject, first considering the error of Congregationalism, since it is closely related to...

Rev. Hanko is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. Introduction The prophecy of Malachi, the last voice of the Old Testament, has special significance for those who live at the end of the New Testament era. As a book that describes end times and looks forward to better things, it retains its importance for those who live at the end of all ages and who are waiting for the better things of the everlasting and heavenly kingdom of Christ. The book tells of covenant unfaithfulness—the unfaithfulness of God’s church and of His people in the last days...

Rev. DeVries is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Wingham, Ontario, Canada. The Religion of Youth—and Many More?? This is scary—a book by Christian Smith and MelindaLundquist Denton, researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), entitled, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press). Cultural Editor of World Magazine, Gene Edward Veith, explains in the June 25, 2005 issue ofWorld: After interviewing over 3,000 teenagers, the social scientists summed up their beliefs: (1) “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human...

It is a most interesting site. It is a most informative site. It is even dangerous, in its own way. At least if you are interested in Reformed theology past and present. Once you enter it, it is hard to extract yourself and get back to real time and to things that need more immediate attention. It is easy to ‘get lost,’ as they say, and let more pressing matters ‘go begging’ for a time. I am talking about an online website that was recently brought to my attention by a colleague—[www.monergism.com]. If you wonder about the word “monergism,” it...

In this issue, Rev. Ron Hanko begins a series of articles on Malachi for the rubric “Search the Scriptures.” The observant reader will notice that the last issue of the Standard Bearer carried the first installment of Prof. Herman Hanko’s exposition of Galatians. A word of explanation is in order. Rev. R. Hanko has been the regular contributor for this rubric and had already submitted his work on Malachi. The material by Rev. Hanko is exactly what we desire for the SB—brief expositions of Bible passages. Prof. H. Hanko, who is drawing his series “Mark the Bulwarks” to a close, expressed an...

Rev. Miersma is a missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. Psalm 17:15 When David wrote this Psalm he was surrounded by enemies, as can be seen from verse Ps. 17:9: “From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.” But as a child of God, he loves God and is sure that the Lord is the God of his salvation. He is confident that he represents the cause of God and of His righteousness in the...