Vol 85 Issue 20

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan. Congregation Activities The installation of Rev. Rodney Kleyn, the first pastor of the newly instituted Covenant of Grace PRC in Spokane, WA, took place at the morning worship service of July 19, with Rev. Tom Miersma officiating. Rev. Miersma preached on “Desiring the Sincere Milk of the Word,” from I Peter 2:2. In the evening Rev. Kleyn preached his first sermon as Covenant’s pastor on, “Love the Church,” from Psalm 137:5, 6. The Kleyn family had arrived in Spokane and moved into their new home just two days before...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cracks in the Crescent, by Hussein Hajji Wario. Self-published, 2009. ISBN: 978057800155. Paper, 252 pp. ($15.99). Excerpts and purchasing information at http://www.cracksinthecrescent.com. Reviewed by Mark H. Hoeksema. The ingenious title of this book is descriptive of its content. By “crescent,” the author obviously refers to the symbol of Islam. And his purpose is clearly to expose the ‘cracks’ or defects in this widely practiced and growing religion. This he does with admirable success by means of autobiography, which comprises most of this book. Carefully using the vehicle of...

Rev. Brummel is a home missionary of the Protestant Reformed Churches, stationed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. One of the most prolific writers and proponents of missions through the first half of the 1900s was Dr. Samuel Zwemer. Zwemer authored over fifty books and countless articles promoting mission labors primarily among the Muslims. In addition, through his influence with the Student Volunteer Movement and as professor at Princeton, Dr. Zwemer influenced countless numbers of young men and women to go into missionary service. J. Christy Wilson, Jr. states that Zwemer probably influenced more young people to consider missionary service than...

Rev. Lanning is pastor of Faith Protestant Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan. Previous article in this series: November 15, 2008, p. 92. One Sunday morning in 1925, two ministers had a race to the pulpit to see who would lead the worship service. Rev. Henry Danhof won. He was not about to lose—not after what he had just been through. He had been branded an Anabaptist. He had been reprimanded by synod. He had been badgered by classis. Repeatedly, he had tried to resign from the office of minister of the gospel. Repeatedly, his consistory had refused his resignation. He...

Rev. Stewart is pastor of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland. Previous article in this series: May 1, 2009, p. 352. Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (1965) Given the Roman Church’s false ecumenism with the Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Protestants, it is no surprise that it is engaged in syncretism with pagan religions.1 After all, Jehoshaphat’s false ecumenism with the apostate Northern Kingdom (II Chron. 18; 20:31-37) led him into syncretism with pagan Edom (II Kings 3). Rome has always been syncretistic to some degree. Witness its compromises in the conversion of the...

Mr. DeVries is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Threatened Those of us who live in America are ruled by a government the seeds of which came from the ungodly enlightenment thinkers. These thinkers proposed that all authority came from the people and not from God. They proposed a violent revolution to overthrow what they perceived as an oppressive regime. Our country’s founders thought this was an acceptable means to an end, freedom. We as Reformed Christians obviously disagree with that view of the government, revolution, and freedom....

Mr. Minderhoud is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. *The Psalter. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1927, #14, stanza 6—Versification of Psalm 8. By the grace of God, King Solomon “gave his heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven” (Eccl. 1:13a). Of all the things Solomon searched out and contemplated he wisely took time to examine the things of the creation around him. He was not ignorant of the vast and intricate creation in which God placed him but,...

What a beautiful thing to belong to the body of Christ. What a beautiful thing to belong to a church that strives to be faithful to the Scriptures. What a beautiful thing to see how that church is made up of many members, strong or weak, quick or slow learner. What a beautiful thing to be part of a church that has a yearning to teach all of the next generation the most comforting truth of God’s sovereign grace and do so in common. What a beautiful thing that our church teaches not only the obligation but also the privilege...

I trust the alternatives spelled out in the title of this editorial do not need to be spelled out in most Reformed churches. But let us take nothing for granted, and be reminded of the significance of our responsibility in catechizing our children. Very soon, again, elders will be calling parents to send their children to catechism. From mid-September through the end of April usually, Protestant Reformed Churches conduct the crucially important and formal exercise of catechizing the covenant youth. First in Bible history, then in Reformed doctrine, the ministers indoctrinate (that’s not a dirty word) the children and young...

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. Matthew 22:29 The Sadducees were a religious sect in Israel that believed that there is no life after death and therefore no resurrection of the dead. They sought to discredit Jesus with a question about the resurrection. They posed a situation in which a woman was widowed seven times by seven brothers. Their question was, “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” With this question they sought to...