Vol 98 Issue 06

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 The details of Jesus’ birth in Luke’s gospel are scanty. In response to the decree of Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, Mary and Joseph made their way to Bethlehem. The Jewish custom was to pay these taxes in the city from which one’s family originated. Since Joseph and Mary were of the house of David, they went to Bethlehem, the city of David. Finding no room in the inn of Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary found...

A definition I am not aware of any carefully and comprehensively constructed exposition of the biblical concept of repentance produced in the history of the PRC. From one point of view, the absence of such a work is not entirely surprising because repentance is one of the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, the renewed instruction in which the writer to the Hebrews deems unnecessary (Heb. 6:1). Yet sometimes we must revisit and sharpen, and perhaps even correct, our understanding of the elementary principles. Surely one of the good and praiseworthy purposes of our faithful God in laying His...

If this recent reference to God’s Ten Commandments were in the print news, you would not find it on the front page, nor in the religion section. It would have been the smallest of articles, buried in the back of the politics section. I would have missed it.1 The reference was published in the massive machine of self-publication we know as Twitter—just a few tweets. The author is worthy of note; her name is Dana Nessel, the Attorney General of the State of Michigan. The background Unlike Nessel’s tweets, the occasion for them was frontpage news. It begins with the...

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. Jonah 3:10   Jonah 3:10 is one of many verses that speaks of God repenting. Others are Genesis 6:6, 7; Exodus 32:14; Deuteronomy 32:36; Judges 2:18; I Samuel 15:11, 35; II Samuel 24:16; I Chronicles 21:15; Psalm 90:13; 106:45; 135:14; Jeremiah 18:8, 10, 13; 26:3, 19; 42:10; Joel 2:13, 14; and Amos 7:3, 6. What do these verses mean? Does Jonah 3:10, with the other verses, mean...

Lord’s Day 46 Question 120. Why hath Christ commanded us to address God thus: “Our Father”? Answer. That immediately, in the very beginning of our prayer, He might excite in us a childlike reverence for, and confidence in God, which are the foundation of our prayer, namely, that God is become our Father in Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in true faith than our parents will refuse us earthly things. Question 121. Why is it here added, “Which art in heaven”? Answer. Lest we should form any earthly conceptions of God’s heavenly majesty,...

The scene was Wittenberg, Germany; the date was December 10, 1520. Toward a fire burning in a courtyard, a procession of students made its way. There were dozens of students, led by Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, with arms full of books that taught the heresies of Rome. On the fire went the books, their words and pages reduced to nothing. Along with them, Luther burned one other document: the bull Exsurge Domine, in which Pope Leo X threatened Luther with excommunication. By this act, Luther responded to the pope’s authority in general, and to the pope’s threat of excommunication...

Previous article in this series: October 1, 2021 In our previous article we noted that the most prominent precursory sign of the return of Christ is the worldwide preaching of the gospel. It is the sign of all the signs. It shows us more than any other precursory sign how soon Christ will appear to bring all things to an end. __________________________ As we ponder this sign and look for its fulfilment, we discover that the gospel of Christ’s kingdom has already, for the most part, been proclaimed in all the earth. The Word of God has gone out into...

What is authority? We spent the last article in this series answering that foundational question. Authority is the right to rule. We explained that God has all authority, has conferred authority upon Jesus Christ according to His human nature, and through Christ has bestowed upon certain people the right to rule. Those people on earth to whom God has given authority include parents in the home, and the husband as head of his wife; teachers who stand in the place of parents; officebearers in the church; government officials on the national, state, and local level; employers in the workplace; and...

Beyond Authority and Submission: Women and Men in Marriage, Church and Society by Rachel Green Miller. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2019. 273 pages, paperback. $17.99 [Reviewed by Brenda Hoekstra, wife and mother in Hudsonville (Michigan) PRC ]. Rachel Green Miller has done her research! A phenomenon surfaced around 1980 known then in more fundamentalist Christian groups as “Christian Patriarchy,” “Quiverfull Movement,” and “submissive lifestyle.” As it moved into more mainstream conservative churches, it acquired the more palatable name of “complementarianism,” which also varies by degrees as to how it is executed in daily life. These teachings were, after all, an...