Vol 89 Issue 13

We begin this issue of the “News” with an apology to the Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI. In the March 1 issue we mistak­enly wrote that the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI was celebrating their anniversary as an organized congregation on March 7, 1944. We should have said Southeast PRC not Southwest. The information given us was correct. We erred in our report­ing of it. Congregation Activities Reflecting on the Word of God found in Psalm 84:4, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house,” we call your attention to the anniversary of the Edgerton, MNPRC, organized on April...

Classis West met in regular session on March 6, 2013. The congregation in Lynden, WA hosted this meeting, as well as the officebearers’ conference the previous day—a commemoration of the 450th an­niversary of the Heidelberg Catechism. God reminds us that we must make all our plans subject to His will. One minister busied himself on Tuesday preparing a funeral speech; another minister and an elder had to return home early because of the death of the elder’s father; and another elder never ar­rived, his flight being cancelled due to winter weather. Rev. Spronk presided over the meeting. Classis ap­proved the...

Nadzieja: The Story of a Girl Named Hope, Na­dzieja Jadwiga McMillan. (Crown & Covenant Pub­lications: Pittsburgh, PA, 2012). 413 pages. ISBN: 1884527345. [Reviewed by Elizabeth Ensink.] Imagine how you would react if your mother left you at an orphanage full of strangers without say­ing good-bye. Imagine what it would be like to go to America but leave all your friends and family behind in poverty. Imagine uprooting your family and mov­ing across the country countless times for the sake of the church. Finally, imagine an elderly woman named Nadzieja sitting in her small apartment room writing down these amazing events...

The Intolerance of Tolerance, D.A. Carson. (Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, MI, 2012.) 196 pp. ISBN: 0802831702. [Reviewed by Matt Kortus.] Throughout Western culture, more and more emphasis is being placed on the importance of tolerance. However, as society has elevated the posi­tion of tolerance in recent history, it has simultaneously changed the idea of tolerance to mean something subtly different from the formal definition. This shift in the meaning of tolerance has produced an ideology that is largely intolerant of true Christianity, and thus relevant to the Reformed believer. Donald Carson, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,...

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. Second installment of the address can be found in the March 15, 2013 issue, p. 276. Promotion of the “Good Christian Schools” Practically Besides grounding seminary students in the basis for the “good Christian schools,” the seminary also commends to the students all of the ways in which of­ficebearers, and especially ministers, ought to promote these schools practically. Practical promotion of the good Christian schools includes the wise promotion of...

The White House’s Aggressively “Evolving” Homosexual Marriage Agenda The first line of Michael Martinez’s article for CNN.com reads, “He has been declared America’s first gay president [on the cover of Newsweek May 21, 2012—CWS].” After listing some of President Obama’s statements early in his political career against homosexual marriage, Martinez lists President Obama’s more recent actions that signal the “evolution” of his position from hesitant support to an aggressive agenda to seek the legalization of homosexual mar­riage. 2009: Obama signs a memorandum granting some benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. February 2011: The Obama administration in­structs the U.S. Justice...

Previous article in this series: January 15, 2013, p. 182. The Adult Bible Study Society in Southwest Church is studying the book of Genesis. A few weeks ago we came to chapter 4, Cain and Abel. An interesting question was raised by one of the members. He prefaced the question by giving a brief statement of the distinction between Abel’s of­fering of a bloody sacrifice, unto which the Lord had “respect” (v. 4), and Cain’s offering of a bloodless sacri­fice, unto which the Lord had not “respect” (v. 5). “We understand this well,” he said. (That is, we who live...

Our misery is that the whole of creation is held captive by a destructive, pervasive, and inexorable power. This power is the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:21). Corruption is any degenerative process that mars, ruins, destroys, or renders something unfit or useless. And there are many kinds. The moth corrupts garments by eating (James 5:2). Rust corrupts riches by corro­sion (Matt. 6:19). A corrupt tree corrupts its fruit by rot (Matt. 7:17). Disease corrupts the body (Ps. 38:5). Pride corrupts wisdom (Ezek. 28:17). Evil companions corrupt good behavior (I Cor. 15:33). Evil words corrupt good conversation (Eph. 4:29). Evil doctrines corrupt...

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2013, p. 282. What is a self-supporting church? How is the goal of having such churches at­tained? Does this preclude all financial assistance? If not, how can we give money in such a way as to avoid dependence? Obviously a “self-supporting” church supports itself. The church supports its own ministers and ministerial training. The church supports and does its own benevolence work. The church supports its own building projects and mission work. In a nutshell, a self-supporting church does not depend upon financial support from others. To accomplish this, we need first of...

On February 15, a 130-foot wide asteroid, named DA14, raced through Earth’s at­mosphere at some 17,200 miles above its surface—a close shave in astronomical terms. Although first observed in 2012, the asteroid has been circling the sun with an orbit similar to that of Earth. Conse­quently, its orbital path at times will intersect very close to Earth’s orbital path around the sun—as it did earlier this year, resulting in the “close” encounter. Coincidentally, earlier that same day a meteor crashed through the atmosphere and exploded ap­proximately 12 miles above the Earth’s surface (about 40 miles away from Chelyabinsk, Russia). These...