Vol 85 Issue 01

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Byron Center Protestant Reformed Chruch in Byron Center, Michigan. “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.” II Peter 1:16-18 The apostle Peter...

September 3, 2008 Classis convened at 8:30 a.m on Wednesday, September 3, in the church building of the Peace PRC. Rev. Clayton Spronk led the delegates in opening devotions with the reading of I Samuel 12:16-25 and a brief meditation on the passage. The officers of the meeting were: Rev. Spronk as chairman, Rev. M. Vander Wal as vice-chairman, and Rev. D. Kuiper as clerk in the place of Rev. R. Smit who was absent due to the death of a member of the Immanuel PRC. Classis treated the regular reports of the stated clerk, of the Reading Sermon Library...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Previous article: April 15, 2008, p. 322. John Nevius suggested that an indigenous church ought to have three distinctive characteristics: self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. In this article we focus on the second characteristic, self-propagating. We will do this from the point of view of the missionary’s role in this effort. If a mission church is truly going to stand on its own and be able to free itself from dependency upon the sending church, it has to have the desire and ability to grow in numbers. Self-propagating refers to...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Randolph, Wisconsin. Previous article in this series: June 2008, p. 398. The calling to support her deacons comes to the congregation as a whole, excluding no individual member. Demonstrating this point from Scripture in our last article, we drew attention particularly to I Corinthians 16:1-2 and to II Corinthians 8 and II Corinthians 9. From the same passages of Scripture we take instruction regarding how the congregation must support her deacons. Of course, in one word, the congregation supports her deacons by giving. She gives her gifts of time, energy,...

Prof. Cammenga is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. “The ministers of the Word, elders, and deacons shall before the celebration of the Lord’s Supper exercise Christian censure among themselves, and in a friendly spirit admonish one another with regard to the discharge of their office.” Church Order, Article 81. Introduction Article 81 mandates the practice commonly known as censura morum. This is the practice of mutual censure among the officebearers within a church council, which practice is to be implemented at the council meeting immediately before the administration of the Lord’s Supper. Censura morum...

Rev. Kleyn is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. Every believer faces the unpleasant experience of being discouraged. There are times for every child of God when he feels disheartened and blue, and has very little or even no joy in life. This is something God’s people have always experienced. We read for example of Jacob, who, thinking Joseph is dead, having Simeon in prison in Egypt, and now facing the prospect of Benjamin being taken away to Egypt, said, “All these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36). We are told concerning the nation of Israel, as...

Previous article in this series: September 15, 2008, p. 484. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jeremiah 6:16 In the last two editorials I showed that the church’s practice of catechizing her youth is an old path. From the very beginning, the church taught her own youth the ways of God in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament the Levites had this special privilege. In...

Mr. Bos is a teacher at Hope Protestant Reformed School in Walker, MI. One who has attended a number of BRF conferences, as this writer has, might be inclined to say that the 2008 conference was the best one to date. Maybe that’s the result of a faulty memory, or maybe it’s just because people seem to relate to the most recent event in life. Whatever the case, this past conference, with its theme being “The Work of the Holy Spirit,” was at least one of the best, if not the best. It was held at a venue called The...

This volume year is the 85th year that Protestant Reformed men and women have produced our semi-monthly magazine, dedicated to the promotion and defense of the Reformed faith. Over the course of 85 years, much has changed, and yet much has remained the same. What has changed is not essential: a new generation of writers, more writers, a wider variety of subjects, and a more modern appearance. What remains unchanged is our commitment to the development and defense of Reformed doctrine, the fresh exposition of Scripture, and the clear application of truth to the life of the church and the...