Vol 86 Issue 15

Congregation Activities We often read with interest the creativity of our vacant churches in providing the “lively preaching of the Word” for their congregations. With the number of vacancies in our churches, it is often a challenge to find supply for Sunday worship services, or the special services that come along throughout the year. Such was the case at the Loveland, COPRC in March. They delayed their annual Prayer Day service two weeks to March 24, which allowed their newly installed pastor, Rev. S. Key, to provide the faithful Word of God. The Hull, IA PRC, the church that Rev....

How blessed in God’s sight is the family! We joyfully sing the paraphrase of the very familiar Psalm 128, where the psalmist celebrates its joys and privileges. God intended that, in most cases, royal children should grow and develop in covenant family life. He said inGenesis 2:18, “It is not good that the man should be alone…,” and in Proverbs 18:22, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord.” He created us to need others with whom we can live in an intimate communion of life. Growing up in a believing family is a blessed privilege,...

What dispensationalists are especially known for is their bizarre teaching that the church on this earth is going to be raptured into heaven right before the tribulation. At any moment, they say, this could happen. There are no signs that must be seen first. It might be tomorrow. It might be today. A multitude of people are mysteriously going to vanish from this earth. Vehicles on the road will suddenly be unmanned. There will be widespread chaos. And then the period known as the Great Tribulation is going to begin. Where did they come up with such an idea? How...

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2010, p. 276. The Postmillennial Interpretation of Revelation 20 (cont.) In the past, the majority of postmillennialists explainedRevelation 20:7-9 as teaching that the millennium will be followed by a final apostasy from the gospel and law of Christ and by a worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ. Towards the very end of history, Satan will be loosed to deceive the nations and marshal them against the church. Among those who taught this final apostasy were the Presbyterian J. Marcellus Kik and the Christian Reconstructionist Gary North.¹ Kik’s interpretation of the passage is representative: “For the...

As pilgrims and strangers on this earth, we need food. The food we need is a special food, for it must nourish our souls. The food that the world has to offer is of absolutely no use to us. No matter what the citizens of this earth might present as good for us, it can never provide the nourishment and good health our souls need. In fact, it is poison. It will kill us. The food we need is spiritual. It is the food mentioned in I Peter 2:2, “the sincere milk of the word.” Without it we cannot and will...

There is a raging controversy today in most Reformed and Presbyterian churches over the heresy of the federal vision, except in the Canadian Reformed Churches (CanRC). According to two of their professors, in these churches “federal vision is not a raging controversy,” but they sympathize with some federal vision emphases. This came out in the recent interview of two CanRC professors by a classis of the United Reformed Churches of North America (URCNA), as reported in the March 10, 2010 issue ofChristian Renewal. The magazine reported that Classis Southwest of the URCNA put sixteen questions, eight of which are recorded...

I am writing concerning the article “Just Words?” in the March 15th Standard Bearer. Thank you so much for a perfect sermon about cursing and profanity. It is very moving and convicting. It is a sin of which I have been guilty many times. I have now, after reading this, made a new commitment to conquer this misuse of my own lips. God bless you for the effort you put into it, and for the reminder at the end that only Christ Himself has the power to conquer this sin and that He is the only hope of our forgiveness. Pray...

Previous article in this series: April 15, 2010, p. 316. As stated in last issue, we intend to reflect on an analysis Robert P. Swierenga gave of the apostasy that took hold of the CRC the last half of the twentieth century, an apostasy that has resulted in members leaving by the tens of thousands and the denomination itself moving in the direction of cutting herself loose from the moorings of the great creeds of the Reformed and Christian faith entirely. What is presently afoot in the CRC, a move to free its officebearers from the Formula of Subscription by...

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. I John 3:14-15 One of the themes of John’s epistle is that we love one another as brothers in the church. This is especially emphasized in the preceding verses. In verse 11 John reminds the church of the message that they had heard from the beginning—that they should love one another. This was the message both of...