Vol 91 Issue 20

Sister Church Activities Rev. Angus Stewart, pastor of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland, and his wife Mary spent nearly a month in the USA from early July through early August. Rev. Stewart preached in five PR churches while in the States and also gave presentations about the work in Northern Ireland. During this time Rev. Carl Haak, pastor of Georgetown PRC, Hudsonville, MI, and his wife traveled to Ballymena, Northern Ireland from July 18-August 4 to provide pulpit supply in Rev. Stewart’s absence. Denominational Activities Classis East plans to meet in regular session September 9, 2015 at...

It was a good Sunday. All Sundays are good. This particular Sunday was especially memorable. The children of the congregation had been asking their parents when this day would come. The adults anxiously awaited it too. The particular Sunday was July 5, 2015. It was the first worship service in Providence PRC’s own church building! Earlier this spring, no one imagined that God’s plan would mean we would be worshiping in our own church building so soon. Ever since our organization in the summer of 2008, worship services were held in the music room of Heritage Christian School in Hudsonville,...

Lord’s Day 28 Question 75. How art thou admonished and assured in the Lord’s Supper that thou art a partaker of that one sacrifice of Christ, accomplished on the cross, and of all His benefits? Answer. Thus: That Christ has commanded me and all believers, to eat of this broken bread, and to drink of this cup in remembrance of Him, adding these promises: first, that His body was offered and broken on the cross for me, and His blood shed for me, as certainly as I see with my eyes, the bread of the Lord broken for me and...

We sons of God possess a glorious liberty (Rom. 8:21). Glorious because it is true liberty. All other liberties are mere pictures or illusions. If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36). Such liberty cannot be taken by revolution, earned by merit, infringed upon, or ever revoked, but is an everlasting gift of God’s grace (Rom. 3:24). It is a freedom not possessed by everyone, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there alone is liberty (II Cor. 3:17). This true, glorious liberty is exclusively Christian liberty. Christian liberty is not freedom from authority or...

We are reminded, according to I John 2:18 that we live in the last time. That we are living at the very end of time is becoming more evident according to the God-ordained signs of the second coming of Christ. This certain and imminent return of our Lord has a significant relation to and an important effect upon faithful mission work in our day and age. That there is an important relation between the second coming of Christ and missions was revealed by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24:14, where He says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached...

Previous article in this series: February 15, 2015, p. 230.   In both the Old and New Testaments, God warns us about adding to or subtracting from the Scriptures: What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it (Deut. 12:32). For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book...

Prof. Cammenga is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. This is the first installment of the address that was given on the occasion of the graduation of Candidate Mr. Ryan Barnhill from the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary on June 11, 2015. Introduction Dear graduate, colleagues of the faculty, members of the Theological School Committee, fathers of synod, family and friends of the graduate, and brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, we rejoice together tonight in the goodness of God. We rejoice in the goodness of God in giving to the Protestant Reformed Churches another man...

I wanted to write briefly to support Prof. R. Dystra’s call for the PRCA to start prayerfully planning for the future deployment of her ministers. He is, of course, correct in saying that sending pairs of missionaries is biblical, that is clear from Paul’s work. Something else exemplified by Paul and which he writes about in Romans 15:20 is his ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named. As someone interested in world missions for many years, I can tell you such places still exist, but to target them will take a huge effort in preparatory planning....

Missions is one of the essential works to which Jesus Christ has called His church. Christ’s church is the body of believers. Thus, believers, missions is your work. No, that does not mean that all believers are called to be missionaries. On the contrary, ordained ministers are called to be missionaries in order to do this official mission work of the church. But even then, “how shall they preach except they be sent?” (Rom. 10:15). The church sends them out, as Paul and Barnabas were sent out, the Holy Spirit commanding the church in Antioch, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul...

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. Deuteronomy 32:7 Just before Moses ascended Mount Nebo to see the promised land and then die, he sang a lengthy song to Israel. In this song Moses set forth the faithfulness of God. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (v. 4). But then in contrast, Moses spoke of the unfaithfulness of Israel, unfaithfulness that...