Vol 98 Issue 08

Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 Burdens—we all know what they are. We all have them and struggle to bear them to one extent or another. They are the temptations and sins with which we struggle, the anxious cares, the sufferings, and the sorrows that weigh heavily upon us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Yes, Scripture exhorts us to “cast thy burden upon the Lord” (Ps. 55:22a), but it is not always as simple as that. We need help. In this chapter the apostle Paul is applying the truth that living in the...

Let’s go up to 35,000 feet to see the lay of the land. There are really two issues in the dispute over repentance. One: what is repentance? Two: how does it relate to remission? Is it permissible to teach that repentance precedes remission or does that put man before God, so that the pardoning God must wait upon the penitent sinner? The second issue is the main issue of dispute. Protests to synod said: repentance cannot be prior to remission, because repentance is a good work and good works always come after blessings of salvation. Synod rejected the protests because...

Introduction The subject of this “All Around Us” article is sexual abuse in the realm of the church, a topic about which it is difficult to write and to read. However, it is necessary to do so because, in the first place, we must have a certain level of knowledge that the terrible evil of sexual abuse is present in the church. For a member of the church of Christ to think that sexual abuse only occurs in the world is wrong. Not only does such a mentality cause the church not to take the necessary protective measures to prevent...

Previous article in this series: December 1, 2021, p. 107. We have seen that the Council of Chalcedon was necessary for two reasons: first, to combat the wrong teachings of Eutyches, and second, to formulate a confessional statement regarding the relationship of the divine and human natures in the person of the Son of God. We also noted that Emperor Theodosius might have promoted the Eutychian error, but that he died suddenly and his successor, Emperor Marcian, favored the orthodox view. God’s directing hand prepared all things for the meeting of the Fourth Ecumenical Council. Delegates, date, and location An...

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah 4:1-4...

Errors are used to get us to think. We consider them not only that we might be on guard against them, but also that we might grow in our own understanding of the truth. God uses them to prod us to look more deeply into what the Scriptures say. This is just one of the many ways in which our Lord turns an evil to our profit. In this article we consider the teaching that there is submission within the Trinity. The current form of this teaching has become known as “Eternal Functional Subordination,” abbreviated as EFS. Those holding to...

Tucked into the middle of Psalm 36 is this article’s title, which is arguably one of the most profound phrases in all of Scripture. Expressed as a sort of paradox, this phrase conveys a wealth of truth about God, His Word, and our Lord Jesus Christ.1 To grasp its richness, it will be helpful to understand a few things about the nature of light as a creation of God and then to see how light is used as a metaphor for deep theological meaning throughout Scripture. My intentions for the next few articles in this rubric are to explain a...

Previous article in this series: September 1, 2021, p. 474. A second example of the PRCA commitment to the three-self formula in foreign missions is the PRCA work in Singapore. After several years of developing contact with the Gospel Literature and Tracts Society (GLTS) of Singapore, in 1979 synod approved the calling of a missionary to serve in Singapore. It was clear to the synod that the GLTS needed, as they earnestly requested, a missionary to preach the gospel to them and to instruct them in the Reformed faith and practice for the goal of the establishment of an indigenous...

Previous article in this series: October 15, 2021, p. 38. In the previous article on the subject of communication, we began laying out some of the key principles that govern our speech. We started with the first and most important principle: We must speak the truth, not the lie. Although speaking the truth is the most fundamental principle of communication, it is not the only one. You and I would be foolish if we concluded, “As long as I speak the truth, it doesn’t matter what I say and how I say it! The ends justify the means, so that,...

Special note: We are looking for information on and pictures of your church library! Please send them to me at cjterpstra@sbcglobal.net. Thanks! PRC news (denominational) Classis East met in regular session January 12 at Providence PRC in Hudsonville, MI. Look for the report on that meeting in an upcoming SB.  Minister calls: On December 19, 2021 Rev. C. Spronk declined the calls from Doon PRC (IA) and Hudsonville PRC (MI). On December 19, 2021 Rev. J. Langerak accepted the call to Covenant of Grace PRC (Spokane, WA). Rev. J. Marcus continues to keep busy preaching and teaching throughout the PRC....