All Articles For Vol 86 Issue 20 9/1/2010

Sister-Church Activities What a summer for our sister church in Northern Ireland, the Covenant PRC in Ballymena! We can only imagine the range of emotions they have experienced, and are still experiencing, for all our heavenly Father has done for and through them. First, Mr. Martyn McGeown, one of their members, graduated this past June from our Theological School and accepted Covenant’s call to serve as their missionary pastor. Mr. McGeown was ordained into the office of minister of the Word and Sacraments on July 30. Rev. McGeown will be working as missionary, with his labors centering in Limerick, Republic...

Mr. VanOverloop is a member of Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan. On behalf of the Board, I warmly welcome you Society members and new members to this 2010 Society meeting. We thank you for your support and prayers over this past year and covet your continued support and prayers in the year to come. We above all thank our heavenly Father, who is the giver of every perfect gift. Last year we budgeted, as a Society, to raise $104,000.00 in our Drive. This year we have had to conduct a secondary Drive to reach our goal. We are...

Jesus Christ, the exalted head of His church, has sent forth another pastor-teacher to labor in His harvest and to fight in the service of the kingdom of heaven! That laborer and spiritual warrior is well known to many SBreaders: Martyn McGeown, who spent four happy years in Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church, brought a word of edification in many PR congregations, served a six-month internship in Southwest PR Church, graduated from the PR Seminary, and sustained an exam before the PR Synod in June. Now he has begun his life’s calling as an ordained minister of the Word and sacraments! May...

The fundamental reason why God’s people are aware of the end of all things is that they are pilgrims and strangers on this earth. If this earth were our permanent and only home, we would not think about its end. We would not want that end to come, would not notice that it is coming, and would not be ready for it. However, as pilgrims our focus is on our eternal, heavenly home. We realize we are just passing through. We are conscious of the reality of the end of all things. The Scriptures admonish us to be conscious of...

Previous article in this series: May 15, 2006, p. 376. All good things, this side of the grave and the renewed creation, must come to an end. So must this in-depth treatment of the office of deacon. I expect this to be my last article on the subject. God willing, we will turn our attention next to the office of elder—although perhaps not treating that subject as thoroughly as we have this one. A brief review Over the past twelve years we have examined a number of subjects pertaining to the office of deacon—its history, basis, and nature; the qualifications...

I challenge you to think about some radical questions. What does the world say today about the teenage life? Is what the world says about this life right? Have you and your parents bought into this lie in some areas of your lives? How does God call you to live in your teenage years? Maybe when you read these questions you do not want to face them because this does not sound like much fun. These are some serious questions that require you to do some soul searching. I am writing about this, not to make your life more miserable,...

Previous article in this series: July 2010, p. 422. “Churches whose usages differ from ours merely in nonessentials shall not be rejected.” Church Order, Article 85. Introduction Article 85 of the Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches arises out of the marvelous truth of the catholicity of the church. This article was included in the Church Order because the Dutch Reformed churches desired to acknowledge the Reformed churches found in other lands. With the church of all ages, they confessed “an holy, catholic church.” This “holy church,” according to Article 27 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, “is not...

I am grateful to the Standard Bearer and to Rev. Kenneth Koole for the editorial “Apostasy Revisited— Reflections on an Analysis of the Apostasy of the CRC in the Last Half-Century” (Vol. 86, p. 316). You have validated concerns I have developed over the last few years. I came to prison 25 years ago as a “backslidden” (i.e., unconverted) Pentecostal. Through God’s grace, I met brothers along the way who taught me the great Reformed doctrines of grace. Since then, most of my contact, fellowship, and instruction have come from the CRC. I completed Crossroads Bible Institute’s 3-Tier program, and college classes...

Previous article in this series: August 2010, p. 436. In our previous editorial (Aug. 1) we began a brief critique of the Manhattan Declaration and the subsequent controversy it has stirred up in evangelical circles. Its authors drew it up to be a clarion call for ‘Christian solidarity’ on three basic social, ethical issues, namely, the sanctity of life (vs. the legalization of abortion and euthanasia), marriage and sexuality (vs. the homosexual movement and gay-rights), and religious liberty (vs. laws curtailing religious freedoms, in particular the right of Christians to express their faith and evaluations in the marketplace without restrictions). The document...

The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem: And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman. Ruth 4:11-12We are all familiar with the story of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabitish woman who married into the family of Elimelech during the period of the Judges. Elimelech and his wife Naomi had moved from Bethlehem...