Vol 89 Issue 12

Congregation Activities Reflecting on the words of Psalm 84:2, “My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord,” we call your attention to the anniversaries of the Hull, IA PRC, organized on March 16, 1925; the Doon, IA PRC, organized on March 17, 1926; the Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL, organized on March 29, 1989; and the Covenant of Grace PRC in Spokane, WA, organized on March 31, 2009. A recent bulletin from the Wing­ham, Ontario PRC reminded their congregation of an organized church skate on Saturday, February 16. The first hour was scheduled to be a...

Michael G. Brown and Zach Keele, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored (Grandville, MI: Re­formed Fellowship, 2012). Pp. 165. $12.00 (paper). [Reviewed by David J. Engelsma.] The purpose of this book is commendable: an overview of the biblical doctrine of the covenant that will introduce this essential truth to Reformed and Presbyterian believers. Sacred Bond gives brief explanations of all the important aspects of the covenant, from the source of the covenant in the “covenant of redemption” to the new covenant, including also the covenant with Adam in Paradise, the covenant with Noah, the Abrahamic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, and the...

Previous article in this series: May 1, 2012, p. 356. Money plays a significant role in missions. In fact, we could not do mission work without it. We need money in order to investigate fields. We need money to prepare men to be missionar­ies, and to support those men and their families as they do the work on our behalf. We need money for mission field expenses, such as travel, literature, conferences, ministerial training, etc. Few would disagree that the work of preaching the gospel in all the world with a view to establishing Reformed congregations cannot be accomplished without...

Previous article in this series: March 1, 2013, p. 153. God used the great Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century to restore the office of elder to its rightful place in the church of Christ—particularly in Reformed and Presbyterian churches. Having treated this restoration in our last article, we now conclude our treatment of the history of the office of elder by noting some highlights of this history after the time of the Reformation, and making a concluding analysis of this history. Creedal Expressions It belongs to the history of the office to note that the Reformed and Presbyterian confessions...

Convocation exercises of the Protestant Reformed Theo­logical Seminary were held on September 5, 2012 at South­west Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville. The text of Prof. Cammenga’s address on that occasion continues here. First installment of the address can be found in the February 1, 2013 issue, p. 203. The “Good Christian Schools” Church Order, Article 21 calls Protestant Reformed officebearers, and by implication the Protestant Re­formed Seminary, to promote “good Christian schools in which the parents have their children instructed according to the demands of the covenant.” Thus far we have noticed that the calling is to promote good Christian...

Reprinted from When Thou Sittest in Thine House, by Abraham Kuyper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1929. Used by permission of Eerdmans Publishing Co.   Love of Money The well-known “Woe unto you’s!” of the prophet Isaiah are six in number, with the “Woe unto you!” against the service of Mammon, i.e., against the love of money, the mania to have and to save, as starting point of national self-weakening. Of loose capital there was almost none in Isaiah’s days. There was no other great possession thinkable than in fixed goods, i.e., in houses and in lands. This...

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26:3, 4 Peace is one of the most precious gifts that God has given to you. This peace is a wonderful peace. Its wonder is that God gives it to you, who are by nature only at war with Him. Your charac­ter by nature is no different from that of the ungodly nations who strive in their unholy rebellion against God and His Christ. But God...

Previous article in this series: March 1, 2013, p. 244.   We are dealing with an article in the Mid-American Journal of Theology entitled “Not Subtle Enough: An Assessment of Mod­ern Scholarship on Herman Bav­inck’s Reformulation of the Pactum Salutis Contra ‘Scholastic Subtlety’” (MJT 22, 2011), written by Dr. L. R. O’Donnell III. As stated in the last issue, O’Donnell does his best to put as much distance as possible between Bavinck’s covenantal views and those of certain twentieth century theologians charged with “extreme formulations” of this doctrine, Hoeksema being one so labeled. The charge brought against Hoek­sema and these...

Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Mark 15:31-32 At 9:00 a.m. on the day of the Passover, Jesus was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem with two malefactors. There had been many events that had led up to this. Jesus had been arrested the night before by a band of the temple guard. He had endured a mock trial before the ruling body of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, which condemned...