Vol 84 Issue 14

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Congregational Activities The congregation of the Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI met together the weekend of March 7 and 8 for their annual Church Conference. This year’s conference was held at the Prince Center on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. In addition to games and various activities over the two days, Georgetown enjoyed discussions on the subject of how to maintain a daily schedule and still have time for the Lord in your life, based on the video and book Margins, by Dr. Richard...

Rev. DeVries is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Wingham, Ontario, Canada. CRC Subscription Revision The Formula of Subscription serves a very vital purpose in Reformed Churches. At least it should. From the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Reformed churches had great concern to maintain unity and doctrinal purity. They often required ministers to sign the two existing creeds (the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession), indicating their wholehearted agreement with these creeds. The Synod of Dordtrecht (1618-19) drew up a formula of subscription and required (in the Church Order) that it be signed by...

Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. Springtime is here again. Another winter has come and gone. The changing of the seasons affords us great opportunity to examine some of the spiritual truths illustrated by the creation’s cycles. The cycles mentioned in Scripture demonstrate both the blessed life lived in communion with Christ and the cursed life lived apart from Him. On the one hand, we notice how the cycles demonstrate the glory of God, displaying His attributes and His loving care for His people. As we...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: March 15, 2008, p. 276. The seriousness of an error is manifested by the folly to which it leads. By considering where some dispensationalists are today, we begin to see more clearly how serious are the errors that underlie the movement. Therefore, before going through the dispensational system one aspect at a time, I thought it would be good to have one more overview article—this one looking specifically at the folly into which dispensationalists have been plunged by their erroneous views on the...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Previous article in this series: December 15, 2007, p. 131. According to John Nevius, an indigenous church includes the three self-helps he made famous: self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. In this article we will consider the first of these, self-governing. Admittedly, these three self-helps are integrated, and it is very difficult to isolate them from each other and treat them separately. Also, the subjects are comprehensive and basic to all mission work, yet we must be pointed and brief. With respect to self-governing we will try to relate Paul’s method...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Simply amazing, grace is. More glorious than the sun (Ps. 36:9), but few can see it (John 9:39). Exceedingly precious, but free (Eph. 2:7;Rom. 5:15). A gift; you cannot buy it (Rom. 5:15;Acts 8:20). More valuable than gold, but unwanted until received (Prov. 22:1; John 4:10). If you work for grace, you cannot have it; but without grace, you cannot work (Rom. 11:6; II Cor. 9:8). Most abundant, yet uncommon (II Cor. 4:15; Ex. 33:19). Gentle, yet irresistible (Acts. 4:33). It makes the dead alive, the weak strong, the blind...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: November 15, 2007, p. 83.   Lillback’s Logic  There are two other considerations that refute Presbyterian theologian Peter A. Lillback’s learned “liberation” of the covenant from election in the theology of John Calvin, in his book The Binding of God: Calvin’s Role in the Development of Covenant Theology (Baker, 2001). There is, first, the implication that Lillback himself draws from Calvin’s supposed doctrine of a covenant of universal, but conditional, grace. The implication is that Calvin, unlike Luther, taught justification by faith and...

Our world is awash in sexual filth. It covers our land like the oil from the Exxon Valdez covered the Alaskan coastline. It fills homes like sewage fills basements when the city drains back up in a flood. The world is covered with the muck of sexual sin. And it’s influencing God’s church. New York state’s governor resigned recently for gross sexual offences. The accompanying stories of prostitution and those who participate are staggering. Detroit’s mayor is being prosecuted for, among other things, lying about a sexual relationship with an aide. And the memory is fresh of the perversions of...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church in Byron Center, Michigan. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from...