Vol 98 Issue 1

Previous article in this series: February 1, 2021, p. 205. In our last article we noted that the elders must oversee the election and installation of officebearers, and the work of officebearers. Doing that, they oversee the various offices in the church. Now we see that their oversight is even more specific: it extends to the doctrine and life of every officebearer personally.   Overseeing their doctrine and life The elders are to oversee both the doctrine and the life of the church’s officebearers—that is, they oversee each officebearer personally. The Form of Ordination of Elders and Deacons requires this...

Authority. We begin a series of articles unpacking that word, with this article spelling out the ABCs of the topic. Why a series on this subject? First, this matter of authority is foundational. Q&A 93 of the Heidelberg Catechism says that the Ten Commandments are divided into two tables: “…the first of which teaches us how we must behave towards God; the second, what duties we owe to our neighbor.” Within that second table of the law, the fifth commandment is first. And that fifth commandment concerns authority. The order of the commandments is not arbitrary. In God’s wisdom, it...

“Come and get it, Jay.” Those words, recalled Rev. Jason L. Kortering some fifty years later, were the exact words spoken—at his graduation from seminary in 1960. We’ll return to them in a moment. Suffice it to say, now, that informality seems to have been the order of the day. Have you been at the seminary on Ivanrest recently? If so, you were greeted by a full-time receptionist. Just to your right, you would have seen an office for the registrar, one of whose duties is the calculating of cumulative grade-point averages and of the regular reporting of them to...

Trivia Question: (Yes, we do plan to continue our predecessor’s tradition!) With Josiah Tan’s graduation this spring, what graduate number was he in the PRC Seminary’s history?   PRC News (Denominational) Classis Meetings: Classis East met on September 8 in Grandville MI PRC. Classis West met in Crete IL PRC on September 29. Look for reports of these meetings in the SB. Officebearers’ Conference: In connection with Crete PRC hosting Classis West on September 29, the Council decided to host an Officebearers’ Conference the day before on September 28 at the church. The theme of the conference is “Sanctification—the Blessed...