Vol 93 Issue 17

Trivia Question First, please add the great state of Indiana to the list of those as home to only one PRC. Cornerstone PRC is located in Dyer, IN. When did the Beacon Lights, the periodical of the Protestant Reformed Young People’s Federation, begin publication? Answer later in this column. Sister-Church Activities This summer Rev. Angus Stewart and his wife Mary plan to take their biennial holiday in North America, D. V. Rev. Stewart is to preach a total of eight times in these PRC congregations: Spokane, Edmonton, Lacombe, Lynden, Providence, and Hudsonville. The Stewarts look forward to worshiping with the...

May 10, 2017 Byron Center PRC Classis East met in regular session on Wednesday, May 10, 2017. Each church was each represented by two delegates. Rev. Wm. Langerak was the chairman for this session. Rev. K. Koole was appointed as the new moderator of Southwest PRC. He replaces Rev. A. denHartog who has been on the west coast assisting our Lynden Church during the illness of Rev. Ron Hanko. Holland PRC, Southwest PRC, and Zion PRC were granted Classical pulpit supply for evening services from June through September, should they be needed. Classis was informed that a brother intends to...

Previous article in this series: February 15, 2017, p. 232. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 The Flesh as our Enemy In our spiritual warfare we must know our enemies. Ignorance of the enemy is inexcusable folly. Knowledge of the enemy is one of...

In general, “dwell” refers to the close, rich, abiding love lived between husbands and wives, parents and children, and members of the church within a structure (tent, house, city, land) that promotes and preserves that communion in peace (I Pet. 3:7; Heb. 11:9; Ps. 133:1). The main significance is that the Spirit defines the covenant as “dwelling,” that is, more specifically, as the blessed, abiding, and intimate communion of love between God and His church in Christ and through the Spirit, wherein God dwells in them and they dwell in God forever. In both its old and new administrations, the...

Imagine kneeling before an altar holding a candle and answering affirmatively to these questions: Wilt thou renounce the errors and false doctrines of the Roman-Latin (or Armenian, or Lutheran, or Reformed) Confession? Dost thou renounce the false doctrine that, for the expression of the dogma touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost, the declaration of our Saviour Christ himself: “who proceedeth from the Father”: doth not suffice; and that the addition, of man’s invention: “and the Son”: is required? Dost thou renounce the false doctrine that the predestination of men to their salvation, or their rejection, is not in accordance...

For several reasons I’m glad for the letter from Dr. Kennedy printed above. I appreciate, first of all, the “query” itself, as it demonstrates interest in and careful attention to subject matter that has come to be dear to my heart. But, in addition, it gives me opportunity to address a related question. After the printing of the article to which Dr. Kennedy refers, I was asked twice by a couple of discerning readers if what I had meant to say in that article was that Simeon may well have been predicting the death of Jesus, bot was not foreseeing...

Don Doezema’s writings have always benefitted me, and his writings in the Standard Bearer continue to do so. However, I have a query regarding his last article “Robbing Christ of His Honour” (20) in SB April 15, 2017. Speaking about Simeon in Luke 2, Don gives an emphatic “no” to the idea Simeon was anticipating the cross when he told Mary, “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.” How come? Surely the mystery of the incarnation and death of the Son of God was known to him from the Old Testament Scriptures? He knew Isaiah 53 and Psalms...

In reaction to the article “The Error of Eternal Functional Subordination” of Rev. McGeown in the SB of 1 February 2017, page. 201, I think that the problem is not with “eternal” or “functional” or “ontological,” but with something different. From the Canons of Dordt is the clear fact of God’s sovereignty in predestination as well the fact that man remains responsible. In our human minds, these two facts are mutually exclusive. When we try to reason out how these two facts can stand together, we invariably will emphasize the human responsibility at the expense of the God’s sovereignty in...

In light of the continued defense of the revision of the Psalter I share the following observations with the reader. Any thoughts of changing the music of the Psalter weigh heavily on my heart. If I may, I would like to share some of the things that I have witnessed and observed during my membership in our denomination: After 60-plus years of instructing the Psalter in our elementary grade schools, we finally have generations who know and love the Psalter. We have been blessed with singing churches. Rewriting music in different key signatures than they are presently written will hamper...

Previous article in this series: April 15, 2017, p. 317. Asking the readers’ forbearance, we have decided to devote one more editorial to Kenneth Stewart’s book, Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011). We do this first of all because Stewart’s book has received good reviews in various Reformed Journals (a review by Alan Strange in the Mid-America Journal of Theology, vol. 22, 2011, pp. 223-28 is a case in point). This is troubling because, as we stated in our April 15 editorial, what is clear from Stewart’s book is...