Vol 82 Issue 07

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.   Minister Activities  Rev. R. Miersma accepted the call he received from the vacant Loveland, CO PRC. By accepting that call he also declined the call extended to him from the Edgerton, MN PRC to serve as their next pastor. Rev. W. Bruinsma accepted the call extended to him from the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI to serve as our denomination’s Eastern Home Missionary. Consequently, his acceptance of that call also led him to decline the call extended to him to serve as the next pastor of...

Reformed Dogmatics. Herman Hoeksema. Second Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association. Volume I, 2004. xxi + 621 pages. Volume II, 2005. xv + 719 pages. Each $55.00 (Cloth). [Reviewed by Russell J. Dykstra.]   In Reformed circles, Herman Hoeksema is well known as a clear, exegetical, Reformed theologian. His Reformed Dogmatics is the most concise expression of his theology. The original work was published in 1966, a year after Hoeksema died. The original preface, written by the author’s son Homer C. Hoeksema, points out that the Dogmatics is the fruit of more than thirty years of teaching and writing in the area...

Mr. VanEngen, a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa, is a practicing attorney. Although the issue of the separation of church and state has long been debated in American society, recent years have seen a noticeable increase in legal challenges to previously accepted practices. For instance, the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance has been under attack because of the inclusion of the phrase “under God,” although that phrase has been in the Pledge for over 50 years. Similarly, many public buildings and courthouses have displayed the Ten Commandments for decades, but in recent years groups such...

Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan. Previous article in this series: October 1, 2005, p. 14. Grace Life believer…you are a saint! This is true because God in heaven and in His Word, the Bible, says so. He says in the Bible that all believers are saints. In fact, God says it a lot there. I wonder why we seem loath to say it here, on earth? Here, as in, in the halls of Covenant Christian High School? As you gather for the Faith singles Bible Study? Or as we talk around a cup of tea in my...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We might be tempted to disparage them after the leafy mess they make each fall, but the tree is a wonder to behold. It is prominent in the history of salvation. They are among the first living things created (Gen. 1:11-12). Paradise the first featured two trees; eating from one sustained human life, and eating from the other took it (Gen. 2:9-17). The guilty in Eden tried to hide their shame with trees (Gen. 3:7-8). Christ redeemed mankind from a tree (I Pet. 2:24) and is...

Prof. Cammenga is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: December 15, 2002, p. 136. “Such as obstinately reject the admonition of the consistory, and likewise those who have committed a public or otherwise gross sin, shall be suspended from the Lord’s Supper. And if he, having been suspended, after repeated admonitions, shows no signs of repentance, the consistory shall at last proceed to the extreme remedy, namely, excommunication, agreeably to the form adopted for that purpose according to the Word of God. But no one shall be excommunicated except with...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: November 15, 2005, p. 85.   The Apostolic Blessing  Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:3 All of Paul’s letters begin with a blessing that he pronounces on the church or churches to which he writes. In fact, not only does every letter begin with a blessing, but in every letter the blessing is identical, even when Paul writes to an individual such as Timothy and Titus. However,...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan.  The e-world and our Teenagers  The e-world is all around us. Many of us do not know about it. Probably, some do not even know what the “e” in e-mail stands for (it means “electronic”). But its wires crisscross our lands, its ports of entry are found on every street, its wireless waves bounce around in airports, libraries, shopping malls, and in our homes, and unwittingly we come into contact with its secret tourists daily. It is in many ways a secret world—something like the underground movements of...

With steadfast hope, the Reformed believer confesses that the exalted Lord Jesus is coming, and is coming quickly. The Lord is coming, contrary to the claims of the preterists that Christ came in A.D. 70 in the destruction of Jerusalem. According to their interpretation, the prophecies of Christ’s return are fulfilled already. That, all by itself, indicates the preposterousness of their claims. For, were they correct, one could only conclude that the whole book of Revelation, most of I and II Thessalonians, Matthew 24, and Mark 13, not to mention all the instruction on the resurrection as in I Corinthians 15, have virtually...

Rev. Miersma is pastor of the Loveland Protestant Reformed Church in Loveland, CO. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.  Psalm 103:17 Once more we stand at the beginning of a new year. We are reminded of how quickly time passes by. It would seem that the older we get, the more quickly it goes. The psalmist thus pictures the life of man as a flower growing in the middle of an open field. It is exposed to the rough wind that blows regardless of...