Vol 95 Issue 07

Trivia question At which of our churches is a Pinewood Derby car race held each year as an activity of fellowship and fundraising? Answer later in this column. School activities The junior-high band and choir students from the Hull Protestant Reformed Christian School and the Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed School held their annual combined program on Monday, November 19, at 7:00 p.m. at Calvary Protestant Reformed Church. Refreshments and a time of fellowship followed the program. Heritage Christian School Foundation sponsored an “Evening of Praise” at Grandville High School’s auditorium on Saturday, November 24. Sponsorship and general admission tickets included...

A Survey of Church History, Part 4, W. Robert Godfrey, and The English Reformation and the Puritans, Michael Reeves. Sanford, FL: Ligionier Ministries, 2014, DVD format $43.20; CD $27.90; download $19.20. [Reviewed by Douglas J. Kuiper.] Are you interested in learning about church history, but not interested in reading? Or looking for something educational to listen to/watch in the car on a long trip? Then check out the “Teaching Series” of Ligonier Ministries (www.ligonier.org). Every set in the series comes as a DVD (video), a CD (audio), or a download to your device (video), and consists of 12 lectures of...

As was discussed in a recent issue of the Standard Bearer, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was incorrect in finding a baker violated the civil rights of a gay couple by refusing to bake them a cake celebrating their same-sex marriage.1 The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (UK) has now issued a ruling in a similar case, Lee v. Ashers Baking Company.2 Although the facts of the two cases are similar, the courts used very different approaches in reaching the same ultimate outcome. The reasoning used by the Court in the...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2018, p. 141. Translations A number of people ask about the translations that are on the Covenant PRC website (www.cprf.co.uk/languages.htm), so let me tell you first how this foreign language witness started. The translations began in large part as a response to criticism. It was said, scurrilously, that our congregation in Northern Ireland was merely Dutch or merely American, as if God’s truth were nationalistic and not heavenly! So we decided to demonstrate the catholicity of our apostolic faith and spread the Word further. A key person in this is Felipe Sabino, a...

Psalm 16 is called, “A Michtam of David.” “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage” (Ps. 16:5, 6). Michtam means contemplation, and these words are worth contemplating often. This is a happy, hopeful contemplation, is it not? What an inheritance God has promised! Surely, our cup runneth over. We and our believing children are adopted by God and heirs of a staggering, unheard of, massive inheritance. Nothing is greater than our portion—the presence and blessing of...

Previous article in this series: December 1, 2018, p. 110. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” I Peter 2:9 Introduction As the previous article in this series indicated, the founding fathers of dispensational premillennialism divided the people of God into two groups: national Israel of the Jews, and the largely Gentile church. Contemporary, self-styled “moderate” premillennialists exert themselves to leave the impression with covenant theologians that they—the premillennialists—now recognize a certain...

Lord’s Day 40 Q. 105. What doth God require in the sixth commandment? A. That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor, by myself or by another; but that I lay aside all desire of revenge; also, that I hurt not myself, nor willfully expose myself to any danger. Wherefore also the magistrate is armed with the sword, to prevent murder.   Q. 106. But this commandment seems only to speak of murder? A. In forbidding murder, God teaches us that He abhors the causes thereof, such as...

Previous article in this series: December 15, 2018, p. 135. “This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built” (Hag. 1:2). The Jews knew exactly what the prophet was referring to. This had been their argument. “The time is not come. Sometime in the future, maybe, we can build the house of God. But not now. There is the decree of the king, you know. And times are tough. There are economic issues that make it inadvisable to carry on with so ambitious a project as building the house of the Lord...

Hatred. War. Lamentation. Despair. Not words found on too many year-end Christmas greeting cards, are they? The words love, peace, joy, and hope? These dominate as the world looks towards a new year. But not their antonyms, that is for sure. But it’s hatred, war, lamentation, and despair that are loose in this world of sin and evil. These are what dominated AD 2018, and they will only intensify in the Year of Our Lord 2019. Sorry to put such a sour ice-cube in mankind’s New Year’s martini, but that is how it was and will continue to be. That...

“Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp… for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” Hebrews 13:13-14 One year comes to an end and another year begins. The ending of the year reminds us of the end of all things and the final judgment. And we are instructed to be ready for the day of the Lord. The beginning of the New Year also instructs us to look ahead. And it is well that we look beyond the final judgment all the way into eternity. In eternity we have a city that...