Vol 90 Issue 05

Congregation Activities For this issue of the “News” there are no anniversaries of the organization of any of our congregations to celebrate. In fact, we have only one more to write about, and that will come in our next issue. Do you know which one of our churches has not been included yet? Sadly, there is no cash award if you know, only bragging rights. We celebrate with the Randolph, WI PRC upon the joyful occasion of God’s bringing to them, and to us as a denomination, a new pastor. Pastor-elect Guichelaar was ordained and installed as the 12th pastor...

Perhaps you have never thought of the question in the title before. In the July 2012 issue of the mis­sions magazine Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Professor Lee Beach, a professor of Christian missions at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, raises this question about Queen Esther of the Old Testament as an example for foreign missions. Is Queen Esther a model for foreign missions today? “Yes,” teaches Prof. Beach. Prof. Beach promotes this answer in light of the dif­ficulty in reaching limited-access nations and cultures. Limited-access nations and cultures are those who might allow people who may be Christians to...

Previous article in this series: September 15, 2013, p. 490. Our children need the discipline of their godly parents from the time they are given into our arms at birth until they are brought to maturity. The goal of this discipline is to raise them to become responsible adults as citizens of the kingdom of our Lord and as members of His church. Discipline is not only about chastening our children when they sin, it is also about teaching them to restrain their sinful nature, and establishing godly order in their young and still immature lives. They need to be...

This year is the tenth anniversary of the formation in the Netherlands of the Reformed denomination De Gereformeerde Kerken Hersteld (the Reformed Churches restored [RCr]). In 2003 these churches liberated themselves from the Gereformeerde Kerken Vrijgemaakt (the Reformed Churches liberated [RCN­lib]), the churches of Klaas Schilder and mother of the Canadian and American Reformed Churches (CanRC). The RCr now consist of twelve churches divided into two classes. Since their separation the RCr have maintained their Schilderian convictions about the covenant, a charge that will not disappoint them. For instance, they note in the introduction to their letter to the 2013...

Among the many wonderful virtues of the true, eternal, and living God is that He is exceeding. We might be inclined to think of the word “exceeding” merely as some ordinary adverb or adjective. But in Scripture, ‘exceeding’ is a perfection of God. God exceeds in every­thing (except sin and unrighteousness, of course). And although Scripture applies “exceeding” to many different things and activities, it also makes clear that ultimately only God is exceeding. Whatever or whoever else Scrip­ture may call exceeding is always exceeded by God Him­self. Whereas nothing can or does exceed Him. The word “exceeding” is akin...

Previous article in this series: August 2013, p. 444. A previous article (April 15, 2013, p. 320) spoke of how today many are redefining the term redemption. The redemption of which they speak is very different from the redemption spoken of in Scripture: –  They speak of a “redemption” for this world, rather than for the church. –  This redemption would involve not a deliverance from sin, but rather some external changes in society designed to improve merely the bodily life of human beings. –  Individuals of different religious faiths could join hands as “redeemers,” working together to bring this...

Previous article in this series: September 1, 2013, p. 464. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. Psalm 111:1 Introduction Last time we began to examine one of the main ele­ments of Reformed worship that contains our response to God in the service, the element of singing. We dis­covered that the regulative principle requires the singing of praise in public corporate worship. We noticed the unique form of communication that singing is, fitted for our worship of God from our whole hearts. Finally, we saw...

“Rare as a white crow” is Abraham Kuyper’s description of how scarce discipline was in the church of his day. It was as rare as a white crow. I have seen a lot of crows in my life. We used to hunt crows once in a while in the orange groves outside of town. Waves of crows—“murders” of them, as they say—flew out of the foothills in the evenings to scavenge in the landfills at night. Never saw a white crow. And that was Kuyper’s point. In the Netherlands of his day (1837-1920), Kuyper claimed, discipline was that rare. In...

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I John 3:2-3 In verse 1, John calls our attention to a most astonish­ing fact. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” To be called the sons of God means to receive...