All Articles For Vol 83 Issue 10 2/15/2007

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Seminary Activities  If you are a parent with children in school, we do not have to remind you of just how quickly a school year can fly by. It is difficult to believe that by now the school year is more than half over. We thought the same thing recently regarding our seminary. How is it possible that their school year is now more than half over? Where has that time gone? By the time you read this, our seminary will be well into its second semester....

January 10, 2007 Hudsonville PRC Classis East met in regular session on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at the Hudsonville PRC. All churches were represented by two delegates. Rev. M. DeVries was the chairman for this session. The church history students from Covenant Christian High School were also in attendance for part of the morning session. Classis heard the report of the church visitors at this session. The church visitors report peace and unity at the present time in our congregations. Classis also heard the report of its special committee, which included the church visitors, appointed in October to assist the...

Son of Secession—Douwe J. VanderWerp, by Janet Sjaarda Sheeres (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2006). Pp. xxii+209 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.] The biography of Douwe VanderWerp by Janet Sheeres is a gem. It is difficult, having begun to read it, to lay it down unfinished. It is one of those books that keeps a man up at night. The book is No. 52 in “The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, in cooperation with Origins Studies in Dutch-American History.” Some excellent books have been published in this series, this one not an exception. The book...

Rev. Brummel is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. * This is the abbreviated text of a speech given on September 29, 2006 for the Peace PRC Fall Lecture. A tremendous challenge faces us as parents in this day and age. We are called by God to train up our children to seek the things of God’s kingdom. This is a tremendous challenge primarily because we are so sinful ourselves. We are selfish, greedy, and covetous. We live for the things of this earth. It is only by God’s grace that we can be His friend-servants,...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. There are the Reformed and there are the Baptists, and then there are those who call themselves Reformed Baptists. This latter group professes to hold to the truths of the Reformed faith, with the exception of the teaching that infant children of believers are to be baptized. They argue that they can reject the practice of infant baptism and still be Reformed. This, however, is not true. Since baptism is a sign of the covenant, a wrong view on baptism will be rooted in a wrong view of...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan. The apostle Paul was the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He begins almost all of his letters reminding his readers of this important truth. Christ is the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Lord. He now rules over all the nations of the world. This sovereign and glorious Lord called Paul to be a preacher. The man who was once an enemy of God and a persecutor of the church was saved by the power of the Word of Christ and made His lowly and obedient slave. At the...

Prof. Cammenga is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: September 1, 2006, p. 468. Although not specifically mentioned in the Church Order, Reformed churches from the beginning of their history exercised discipline over members by baptism. Also members of the church who had not yet made confession of faith were subject to the oversight of the consistory. And if such non-communicant members walked impenitently in sin, they were admonished and eventually excluded from the fellowship of the church. Various Church Order authorities refer to the practice of the erasure of...

Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. We believe that the same God, after He had created all things, did not forsake them, or give them up to fortune or chance, but that He rules and governs them according to His holy will, so that nothing happens in this world without His appointment” (Belgic Confession, Art. 13). Everything in the creation ought to draw our attention to the almighty power of the sovereign Creator and His absolute control over all things. Yet, the world attempts to explain...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: January 15, 2007, p. 177. Covenant and Election in the Canons Contrary to the accepted wisdom in the Reformed churches, the Canons of Dordt do not leave it an open question whether election governs the covenant. It is not an open question, therefore, about which Reformed theologians and churches may debate until the world ends, whether God graciously establishes His covenant with all the children of believers alike, conditionally, or whether He establishes the covenant of graceunconditionally with the elect children. Although they...

The doctrine of God’s everlasting covenant of grace is a uniquely Reformed truth. That uniqueness is not due to discovery, as if the Reformed church was the first to discuss it. That is obviously not the case. The church of God has long recognized the importance of the covenant. The church labeled the two parts of Holy Scripture the Old Testament (or covenant), and the New Testament (or covenant). Theologians have been writing and preaching about the covenant from of old. Yet it is uniquely Reformed in that this doctrine received its due, and was developed, after the great sixteenth-century...