Vol 92 Issue 09

Mission Activities On December 27, 2015 the calling church for the mission field to the Republic of the Philippines published their latest trio consisting of Rev. Cory Griess (Calvary PRC, Hull, IA), along with Rev. Brian Huizinga (Hope PRC, Redlands, CA), and Rev. Jonathan Mahtani, pastor in Cornerstone PRC, Dyer, IN. The congregation in the PRC of Doon, Iowa extended a call to Rev. Mahtani on January 3. We pray that God may clearly reveal His will to Rev. Mahtani regarding this call as He says to one “Come” and he comes, and to another “Go” and he goes. May...

Previous article in this series: December 1, 2015, p. 140. In the last article, we examined the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which found that homosexuals are guaranteed a right to marry by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. We examined the way in which the Court reached this conclusion. In this and a future installment, we will look at the implications of that ruling for believers, as well as some measures that religious organizations such as churches and schools can implement to protect themselves. As mentioned previously, the Court in Obergefell did not create a...

Previous article in this series: September 1, 2015, p. 469. In the previous article, we began a consideration of the relationship between missions and the final appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. We explored the thought that faithful missions serves the final appearing of Christ by its authoritative proclamation of the second coming of Christ. In this article, we explore another aspect of how missions serves the second coming of Christ. Missions serves the coming of Christ as a power that is actually guided by the Lord to prepare the church and the world for His final appearing. The preaching...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2015, p. 135. Having considered in the last article the miracles performed by some of God’s prophets, we proceed to consider the lying wonders performed by some false prophets. But before doing so, we consider a few more points about miracles. The word “miracle” is commonly used today in a different way than the Bible uses it. When an extremely rare recovery from a serious illness takes place, people often say “it was a miracle.” But the Bible does not use the word miracle to refer to such events. The Bible uses the...

Lord’s Day 30 Question 80. What difference is there between the Lord’s Supper and the popish mass? Answer. The Lord’s Supper testifies to us that we have a full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself has once accomplished on the cross; and, that we by the Holy Ghost are ingrafted into Christ, who according to His human nature is now not on earth, but in heaven at the right hand of God His Father, and will there be worshiped by us—but the mass teaches, that the living and dead have not the...

Previous article in this series: January 15, 2016, p. 179. David, we said, was foreseeing in Psalm 40 and Psalm 51 the Gospel age, when not even the lowest place would be left for any of the rites that were strictly required under the Law. Not only, therefore, was he embracing the Antitype, but he was also dismissing the types. All of them. And that, as we pointed out, was no little thing. Whether we view it from the perspective of what went before, or of what came after, we see David standing as it were on a mountaintop in...

Two Kingdoms Conference On the cover of the November 18 issue of Christian Renewal was a photo of Dr. David VanDrunen and Dr. Cornelis Venema and the words “Two Kingdoms, Two Views.” VanDrunen is professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Westminster Seminary in California and a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Venema is President of Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Indiana. The debate took place last October at Preakness Valley URC in New Jersey prior to the meeting of Classis Eastern U.S. of the URC. VanDrunen defended his view, known as “Two Kingdoms (2K) Theology.” Venema gave his...

In your “All Around Us” column in the Standard Bearer, 15th September issue, you had a report on the Irish vote for “Same Sex Marriage.” As horrible and repulsive [as] we find this decision, the report missed one very vital aspect: Ireland does not have compulsory voting. It had been reported here in Australia that the vote was passed by 60% of the votes, but what was conveniently left out of the report was that only 37% of those eligible voters actually cast a vote. That means a whopping 63% either didn’t see it as relevant or couldn’t care less....

Though we may be a month into 2016, we deem it is not too late to do some reflecting on what is coming, in light of events of 2015. For believers reading the signs of Christ’s promised return, 2015 was not an insignificant year. Back in the early 1990s the late Dr. James Boice made an insightful observation, likening Christianity and professing Christians to an endangered species. Back then already there was a long and growing list of endangered species: the great blue whale, various kinds of fish and fowl, such as the snail darter (trigger a memory?), the California...

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3 Isaiah 26 is a song of great comfort and praise, composed while the inspired prophet reflected on the great day of salvation. What a day that will be! Freedom from sin and all its effects! Full and final deliverance, along with the consummation of God’s covenant in heaven with glorified soul and body! It was a most important, needful song because of the troubles that the Old Testament church and believer in Isaiah’s time would yet have to face. For...