Vol 99 Issue 15

What comes to mind when you think about sand? After a long, cold winter perhaps you feel a certain eagerness for some time at the lakeshore or seaside with the warm sun overhead and soft sand underfoot. Children may be excited to go to the beach again, or even the sandbox in the backyard, to build something out of sand. Sandis so ordinary that we do not think about it much. It is dirt we walk on. It can be a nuisance. We shake it out of our shoes, broom it out of our homes, and vacuum it out of...

Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant…. Song of Solomon 1:15, 16 Do you hear the warm and tender affection of Christ for His beloved wife? He does not look with longing eyes or speak with intimate affection like that to anyone else, for He has vowed to be a faithful Husband to this one woman forever. O what high esteem Christ has for His beloved! What gentleness toward His precious bride! Though she is sinful and unworthy of Him, He sees her clothed in...

Every spring and summer a vital activity occurs in farm fields, greenhouses, and gardens around the globe. Pollen, produced by flowering plants, will be transported from the stamen (male part of a flower) to the pistil (female part of a flower), fertilizing the plant for the production of seed for the future propagation of the plant. This seemingly insignificant, and perhaps bothersome (for allergy sufferers) process plays a vital role within the creation. One particular purpose of this pollination process is that it is the orderly manner in which God sovereignly governs creation so that future generations of plants will...

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20 This month we commemorate Ascension Day. The significance of Christ’s ascension is unfolded from many perspectives in Holy Scripture, including in Philippians 3:20. Because our Lord has been received into heaven, “our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Christ, according to Scripture, is our Head, the Head of the church, and we are in Him; therefore, our life is in heaven. The meaning The word conversation in Scripture refers not...

In my previous editorial (April 15, 2023) I stated that one of the issues underlying many of the troubles in the church at present is the matter of authority. I asserted that one aspect of this crisis of authority is a critical approach to the idea of authority that essentially wants to destroy structures of authority in the church altogether. I explained some of the basics of “critical theory” as that is found in the world at large, and warned against that mentality shaping our view of authority in the church. But that is not the only danger that the...

With this article I plan to follow a bit of a different approach. There have been discussions recently about the need for something like a curriculum that could be used with those who come to our churches from the outside. With that need in mind, I plan to go through the doctrines at a more rapid pace. I will begin with the study of the church, and do so for a couple of reasons. First, I have written some articles in the past on subjects treated in the first three sections of dogmatics (theology, anthropology and Christology), and Rev. M....

God blesses His people with four beautiful seasons throughout each year, each beautiful in its own way. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the season of spring has now sprung. The birds chirp. The flowers bloom. The trees begin anew to yield their fruit. And farmers plant their fields with the hope of a plentiful harvest. How true then, as we sing in Psalter #169, “new life is all abroad.” As the world around us comes out of its winter hibernation and awakens with new life, I believe there is visual and lifelike instruction that we as godly...

As a child who grew up in Hudsonville PRC, I have several memories of our old church building on School Street, now torn down and an empty lot. One of those memories, is watching old Mr. George Kamps, who was Grandpa Kamps to many of my classmates and friends. Sunday after Sunday, with the help of two close family members, Mr. Kamps was helped down the aisle and into a pew, Nellie following slowly behind. As we continue Remembering the days of old…the days and years leading up to and during the startup of the Protestant Reformed Churches…may God be...

Our Lord Truly Suffered.  We believe, moreover, that our Lord Jesus Christ truly suffered and died for us in the flesh, as Peter says (I Peter 4:1). We abhor the most impious madness of the Jacobites and all the Turks who execrate the suffering of the Lord. At the same time we do not deny that the Lord of glory was crucified for us, according to Paul’s words (I Corinthians 2:8). In this eleventh chapter of the Second Helvetic Confession, Heinrich Bullinger is dealing with the heart of the gospel. For that reason, this is also the heart of the...