Trivia question How many cups of coffee does a Young People’s Convention chaperone, steering committee member, or activities committee member drink in one week? Answer later in this column. Young People’s convention recap I am writing this recap in the evening of August 17. I returned home from the PR Young People’s Convention only hours ago, having served as a convention chaperone for the first time ever. My son and my granddaughter were conventioneers. I can honestly say I have never experienced a week like this one in my life. And it was all good. I find no negative. I...
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Previous article in this series: September 1 2018, p. 467. “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel…. In Isaac shall thy seed be called…. The children of the promise are counted for the seed…that the purpose of God according to election might stand…Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Romans 9:6-13 Introduction Dispensational premillennialism, which is false doctrine concerning the truth of the last things, or eschatology, is also heresy. One element of its heresy is its denial of Jesus Christ, as the preceding article in this series demonstrated. The other element, which is no...
Having considered God’s act of creating all things, we move on to the subject of providence. We are comforted knowing that the God who created all things has not forsaken His creatures, but continues to care for all that He has made. The Almighty King, who is also our faithful Father, continues to govern His creatures according to His will, directing all things to His glory and for our good. This ongoing activity of our God is what we refer to as His providence. The English term “providence” is used in more than one sense. The term has the literal...
Previous article in this series: May 1, 2018, p. 346. “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.” Jeremiah 27:12-13 Hardly a popular course of action was that being advocated by the prophet Jeremiah. To submit meekly to foreign domination would strike the people as being so un-Jewish, so unpatriotic. There were, in fact, immediate attempts to discredit the message of God’s prophet. Of one of these attempts we read in chapter 28. Hananiah came to the people with what he claimed also to be the word of the...
Humans and chimps On a Thursday afternoon at the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan something rather unexpected happened while observing the chimpanzees. It is not unexpected to find the promotion of evolutionary ideas that contradict Scripture at a zoo. Christians are used to being confronted with the reality that in public places they will find the assumption that the world is billions of years old and that human beings evolved from animals. So, to read plaques at a zoo that make such claims is unsurprising. But on this Thursday afternoon, while observing the chimpanzees, my family encountered a...
The Protestant Reformed Churches have been my ecclesiastical home from my birth. These churches have nurtured, fed, guided, and instructed me, and subsequently, my children and grandchildren. I love these churches and pray for them continually. It is out of love for these churches that I take up the pen and address a growing concern in my soul, namely, a spirit of radicalism in these churches. Radicalism is difficult to define. It does not identify itself, nor even admit to being radical when so accused. Radicalism is not heresy as such, for it maintains the truth of Scripture and the...
Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. Psalm 119:17 The outstanding self-designation of the psalmist throughout Psalm 119 is the title “thy servant.” Thirteen times in this prayer to God he calls himself “thy servant.” That is the way we must ever see ourselves: as friend- servants of our covenant God. As His servants, our great desire is not to escape God’s law. Our great desire, like that of the psalmist, is to live and keep His Word. So, our prayer to God is, “Deal bountifully with thy servant.” We want God to deal...
