All Articles For Vol 91 Issue 16 5/15/2015

School Activities The Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School Foundation planned to host their third annual Sporting Clay fund-raiser at the Kent County Conservation League in Ada, MI on Saturday, May 9. More than 20 five-person teams were entered and competed in shooting sporting clays and trap targets. Prizes were to be awarded and lunch provided. We imagine the scatter guns were oiled and blazing and a good time was had by all. Those of us who lived too far away to compete felt a bit jealous, especially a couple left-handed shooters we know. Thursday evening, April 16, the bands of...

Everyone’s a Theologian: an Introduction to Systematic Theology, by R.C. Sproul. Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2014. Pp. 357. [Reviewed by Ryan Barnhill.] R.C. Sproul, popular speaker and author, has added yet another book to his long list of titles. Everyone’s a Theologian: an Introduction to Systematic Theology is a primer or introduction to systematic theology. Sproul organizes his material according to the six loci: Theology, Anthropology, Christology (and Pneumatology), Soteriology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology. The title hints at the approach Sproul takes in his book: everyone should be able to understand theology. Not that every person holds a theology degree...

The members of the Protestant Reformed Churches believe with their hearts and confess each week “an holy catholic church.” In order to put this firm faith into practice, their denomination through her synod has established a standing committee, the Contact Committee, and given that committee the responsibility to seek and develop unity in the truth with those who share the pure Reformed faith with them. This responsibility is stated in the preamble of the Constitution of the Committee for Contact with Other Churches (on p. 42 of The Church Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches, or on the PRC website—prca.org)....

Previous article in this series: February 15, 2014, p. 232. What a lovely world of beauty and perfect peace God made in the beginning! All creatures in the heavens above and earth beneath were fully consecrated to God’s glory. “Good,” declared God, beholding all He had made, “very good.” The divinely inspired narrative of literal history in Genesis says so. Then, without any warning, a talking, man-tempting, God-slandering serpent appears on the scene (Gen. 3:1). Evil. Very evil. It gets worse. The serpent tempts the woman Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve sins. Eve tempts her husband Adam. Adams...

Previous article in this series: April 1, 2015, p. 306. Psalm 50:3-4 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Psalm 50:7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. Psalm 50:14-15 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of...

PC-USA’s Tolerance of Homosexuality becomes Official The news media covered this story well, so many of our readers already know about it. But it is still worthwhile to take note of the Presbyterian Church-USA’s official redefinition of marriage that approves homosexual unions. Holly Yan of CNN reports:1 The country’s largest Presbyterian denomination has changed its definition of marriage to include gay couples—though not explicitly. Presbyterian Church (USA) approved an amendment to its constitution after most of its 171 presbyteries—or governing bodies—voted for it, PC (USA) said Tuesday. Before, the definition said marriage was between “a man and a woman.” The...

Previous article in this series: February 15, 2014, p. 226. In our last article we examined briefly the “veil,” as Calvin called it, that separated the Law from the Gospel such that the saints of old were not able to “see more closely the things that are now revealed to our eyes.” The object of their hope, we saw, was mystery—which by definition is something that is beyond the reach of the human mind, apart from revelation. Christ Himself demonstrated the truth of that when, after His resurrection, He breathed on His disciples, saying, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John...

Previous article in this series: May 1, 2015, p. 340. There is one more implication of Calvinism that deserves treatment on its own. Last time we saw that Calvinism’s doctrines of grace, genuinely embraced, will lead to humility—humble worship, humble assurance, and humble treatment of others. That is, proud worship, proud assurance, and haughty treatment of others may be traced back to a counterfeit Calvinism. We also saw that genuine Calvinism leads to those Christian graces of godly living, and not to what opponents of Calvinism charge. Being militant Calvinism is also militant. In fact, militancy is not so much an implication of Calvinism...

Often the editorial for the May 15 issue of the SB previews the agenda of the synod of the PRCA. This year, however, for the sake of continuity, we decided to print Prof. B.Gritters’ second editorial on the implications of Calvinism, in his series on “What It Means to Be Reformed.” Prof. Gritters will be laying down his pen for the summer in order to speak and preach for a month in Singapore, and we judge it best to include this editorial before the series is interrupted. Accordingly, the annual preview of the agenda for the PRCA’s Synod (to begin...

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Hebrews 2:9 Like the multitudes of Jesus’ day, many today want an earthly Jesus who will satisfy their carnal desires by creating an earthly kingdom of peace and prosperity. They minimize and ignore His ascension and its significance. But by grace we rejoice in the ascension and exaltation of Christ. We see how necessary it was for the salvation of the church. We understand...