Vol 95 Issue 04

Trivia question How many years has our sister church, the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore, been an organized congregation? Answer later in this column. Mission activities In late September, the area where our missionaries labor in the Philippines dealt with Typhoon Ompong. But according to Rev. Daniel Kleyn, the affect they experienced was minimal. They did have high winds and about five inches of rain in a 24-hour period so that catechism was canceled in Provident Christian Church of Marikina. But so far as we know there were no injuries due to the storm, for which we thank the...

This November Peace PRC will celebrate her 30th year as an organized church. Peace is the elder of two daughters of South Holland PRC (now Crete PRC) and was organized November 11, 1988. We began worship services in the local Christian high school in Lansing, Illinois. We worshiped in the chapel of Illiana for seven-plus years. In 1995 the Lord blessed us with our own brand-new building in Lansing. Even then, we anticipated needing expansion later as we grew, possibly adding a sanctuary to the west. The Lord did bless us with growth, along with three pastors, many young families,...

“My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:1-5 Each of God’s children, desiring to know and serve our heavenly Father, receives His Word and commandments. Yet it does not stop there; our ears are inclined to...

During the first half of the decade of the 1940s, the Protestant Reformed Churches began the work of organizing its synodical committees under constitutions. In 1940 the Emeritus Committee presented its Constitution to the synod for approval. The Synod of 1941 adopted the Constitution of the Theological School Committee. The Synodical Committee’s Constitution was approved at the 1942 Synod. It was time for the Mission Committee to draw up and adopt its own constitution as well. This task was also brought to its completion by the Synod of 1942. For the interested reader, this original Constitution of the Mission Committee...

“But now [God] commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Acts 17:30 A good coach is one who goes back to the fundamentals. In any sport (basketball, for example), the trainer brings the players, as experienced as they are, back to the basics of passing, boxing out, defensive positioning, etc. Likewise, a good teacher never allows his or her pupils to stop practicing and executing the fundamentals. One of the foundational parts of the Christian life that we may never neglect to teach and regularly practice is real repentance. Everywhere in the Bible we find the calling to repent. Throughout the...

In our greatest trials we are comforted when we remember that our Father in heaven has all creatures in His hand. Indeed, without His will they cannot so much as move. Our Father has planned everything that happens to us in this life. Even when He sends evils upon us, we know that it is in His love for us. Believing this, we remain patient in trying times, looking to Him with confidence for all that we need. God’s providence refers to His everywhere-present power by which He upholds and governs all creatures, so that every event takes place precisely...

One pernicious lie often told is that Christ forbids us Christians to judge. This ‘whopper’ persists in part because it seems to be based on Scripture. Rightly, the godly mother may tell her disparaging child, “Judge not, that ye be not judged;” or the caring teacher ask the critical student, “Who are you that judges another?” (Matt. 7:1; James 4:12). Certainly not falsehoods. But neither are such Scriptures the final word of God about judging, discernment, condemnation, and critical thinking; nor do they imply, must less teach, that Christians may not judge. The truth is that Christ calls every Christian...

As a subscriber and reader of the Standard Bearer magazine, I have read with interest your various articles on the errors of premillennialism as opposed to the truth of amillennialism. In this regard I enclose a pamphlet published some years ago entitled “Amillennialism Examined” by David McAllister, at that time a Brethren missionary in Zambia. He is now editor of Assembly Testimony magazine, which is published by the Brethren denomination, they being staunch adherents of premillennialism, as doubtless you know. In this pamphlet he takes amillennialism to task, believing it to be contrary to the Bible. I thought you would...

It took courage to write your editorial on radicalism in the PRC (Editorial, Sept. 15, 2018, p. 485), and I thank you for it. There is no doubt that your writing arose out of your love for our churches and their future welfare. You rightly point out that these tendencies have been in our churches since their inception. I trace the origins to the existence of two very different worldviews that were imported by the Dutch (and a few German) immigrants who formed the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) and subsequently the PRC. The Afscheiding group were known to be pietistic...

(This editorial is an answer to the letter “Letter about “What Must I Do…?”) Brother N. Langerak: I find your letter with its allegations that my editorial of October 1, 2018 was an attempt somehow to resurrect charges of antinomianism against a protestant exonerated by recent synodical decisions more than a little baffling, to put it mildly. In your opening comments you note that my editorial of October 1 made reference to the “issues being discussed in our churches,” to which phrasing you take exception (“an affront”) because such, in your estimation, minimized the weight of the charges made and...