Vol 98 Issue 09

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake…. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I John 2:12, 13c. The inspired apostle John would remind us here that at the heart of living the Christian life stands the knowledge of who we are. We must know who we are and to whom we belong—as children, as fathers, and as young men. The text calls our attention to a wonderful distinction in Christ’s church—that of the various age groups in which God performs His wonder work of grace,...

Repentance and remission: The issue Having thoroughly explained repentance and God’s sovereign grace in bringing us to repentance, we come to the heart of the issue in the disputed matter that came to the PRC synods. Is there a God-worked activity of the believer that precedes a certain, specific manifestation of God’s mercy? In this case, the God-worked activity of the believer is repentance. The certain, specific manifestation of God’s mercy is remission. Is it permissible to teach that repentance precedes remission? Or, would that necessarily be false doctrine, some kind of conditional theology? The issue is order, mere order....

The passage of C-4 Canada has just banned conversion therapy with the passage of Bill C-4, which was approved unanimously by Canada’s House of Commons and Senate, and then received Royal Assent on December 8, 2021. Royal Assent means that Canada’s Governor General, Mary Simon, a representative of the Crown, Queen Elizabeth II, signed it into law. The new law took effect on January 7, 2022. Conversion therapy is defined in C-4 as follows: a practice, treatment or service designed to (a) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; (b) change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; (c) change a...

Lord’s Day 47 Question 122. Which is the first petition? Answer. “Hallowed be thy name”; that is, grant us, first, rightly to know Thee, and to sanctify, glorify, and praise Thee in all Thy works, in which Thy power, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy, and truth, are clearly displayed; and further also, that we may so order and direct our whole lives, our thoughts, words, and actions, that Thy name may never be blasphemed, but rather honored and praised on our account. The “Lord’s Prayer” is Jesus’ answer to the request of His disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray.” It can...

Previous articles in this series: June 2021, p. 403 The spiritual nurture of our children from the time of infancy is vital to the confidence, security, and strength they will exhibit in their future lives. Though the topic “Nurturing Preschool Children” may seem blasé and undeserving of our attention, this could not be further from the truth. The years from birth to the time our children enter school are the most formative years of their lives. Neither do we concern ourselves in these articles with the care given our little children from an earthly, material point of view, though this...

Previous article in this series: October 1, 2021, p. 14. Overseeing the congregation’s members The work of the elders has three main components to it: oversight, instruction, and shepherding. Focusing on the first of those components, previous articles have set forth that the elders must oversee the congregation’s worship in general and the preaching and administration of the sacraments in particular, must oversee the work of the officebearers, and must oversee the conduct of the officebearers. When the elders take seriously that aspect of their work of oversight, they will be ready also to take seriously the oversight of the...

In the previous article of this series (January 15, 2022), we began a discussion of Psalm 36:9b, which contains the phrase that serves as the title for this series. This profound and enigmatic phrase points us to the first of God’s creatures—light. The prior article explained a few aspects of light from a scientific perspective, which reveals God as the Creator of energy in all of its various forms. This time we turn from the science to the theology of light. The wide variety of scriptural uses for the word “light,” which occurs over 250 times in the King James...

Previous article in this series: January 15, 2022, p. 185. A third example of the PRCA’s commitment to the three-self formula in foreign missions is her work in Ghana, West Africa. After many years of contact with individuals in Accra, Kumasi, and some other places in Ghana and according to the reports of several emissaries that visited these contacts in Ghana in the early 1990s, in June 1996 synod approved opening Ghana as a PRCA foreign mission field and the sending of foreign missionaries to Accra, Ghana. Synod appointed Hull (Iowa) PRC as the calling church. Hull PRC called and...

You will recall that Rev. Vernon Ibe, in the January 1 issue of the Standard Bearer, provided an informative and helpful update regarding the Protestant Reformed Churches in the Philippines. As a follow up, we include here some recent pictures of the two congregations in the PRCP, namely the Berean PRC (30 families—top photo), and Provident PRC (15 families—bottom photo). The photos were taken at the time of Rev. Dan and Leah Holstege’s farewell in November 2021. Unfortunately, not all the members of the congregations were available when the pictures were taken, but we trust the pictures will nevertheless give...