All Articles For Contribution

Jehovah has been faithful to the Protestant Reformed Churches in the one hundred years of her existence. Through all the years, He has been so good and gracious to us, and we have not deserved it at all. We have much reason to celebrate His tender mercies through the generations. One such celebration took place at Calvin University this past June. What an event that was, full of gladness and joy as we looked back on one hundred years as a denomination! Many thanks to those who organized that edifying week. [For more on that, see the September 2025 issue.]...

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:39 Although Protestant Reformed people have a correct understanding of the covenant in many regards, I believe our lack of zeal and activity in missions and evangelism is due, at least in part, to an underdeveloped understanding of the covenant. Deficiency in outreach is likely due to a deficiency in understanding God’s covenant of grace. I plead for humble and honest self-examination regarding our view of the covenant especially as it relates...

In her book Say Among the Heathen the Lord Reigns, Mrs. Jean Kortering tells the conversion stories of several individuals in the continent of Asia. The first story is about a young girl in Singapore named Poh Li who was raised by a strict Buddhist mother and a father who was a gambler and drunkard. One day, a young woman named Karen of the Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church saw Poh Li in a store studying a picture of Jesus. Karen asked her if she knew who was in that picture, and Poh Li said no. So she started to tell...

“Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Rekindling Zeal for Evangelism and Missions” was the general title of the mission conference held on May 4 and 5, 2023 at Trinity PRC in Hudsonville, Michigan. Trinity PRC and Grandville PRC evangelism committees teamed up with the Domestic Mission Committee to host this conference. A copy of Rev. J. Kortering’s book Evangelism in the Established Church was distributed to the attendees to encourage them in their personal evangelism. Tables of books were presented in the narthex area of the church by the Reformed Free Publishing Association and the Reformed Book Outlet. The goal of...

This article was first written by the author for the PR Scholarship Committee when he was a seminary student and was published in the February 2003 Beacon Lights. With the permission of the magazine, we reprint this article, as relevant now as it was then. An intriguing question has been raised by the 2002 Protestant Reformed Scholarship Committee: “Why isn’t the position of minister desired by more young people?” This question supposes two things: 1) That the number of young people who desire this ‘position’ is inadequate; 2) That more young people would desire the ministry if something changed in...

Jeremy Hilt, Iowa police officer and member of Calvary PRC, Hull, Iowa Discerning the pandemonium I write this article as a follow-up contribution to the editorial “Reformed theology’s commentary on the pandemic of 2020 (2)” published in the July 2020 edition of the Standard Bearer. In the introduction the author made the statement “The police’s killing of George Floyd in the U.S. state of Minnesota….” While the author’s point and overall message were sound, this statement was not. The mainstream media often chooses not to portray law enforcement in a favorable way. The media and other groups regularly use law...

At the editors’ request, Mr. Mike Langeland, mem­ber of our Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI, and fifth-generation funeral director, wrote a few thoughts to us for the readers of the Standard Bearer. From the brother’s note to us: “Families suffering from loss must walk through the journey of a death, but they need not walk alone. Being supported and loved by God, family, and God’s people carries them through that journey….When I carry the body of my loved one to the grave, place a flower on their casket, engage my emotions while seeing the deceased body of my loved one,...

Tiny. Unseen. Hidden in darkness and safety. An intricate wonder. A display of the creative and glorious power of God. Precious. Loved—by family and even more by God. Each little baby in the womb of a godly mother is a life, with a soul, and a specially determined, God-given purpose. This purpose may be carried out in a long life with many years on the earth and many visible works accomplished. Or this purpose may be carried out entirely in the mother’s womb, ending after a few brief months, weeks, days, or even hours. The inscrutable wisdom of a loving...

God has ordained elders for their place in the church, and God has worked in them spiritually in their upbringing in their homes, in catechism and in the preaching, to prepare them for the work they will need to do in their office. But this training is not sufficient for all the help some saints need. This contribution is not to criticize the work of our minsters and elders, but to make everyone more aware of some of the great and difficult needs of hurting saints, which the ministers and elders alone are not able to meet. (Read Prof. B....

It has come as a surprise to me that the current controversy in our churches has been over the question of the place of good works in God’s work of salvation. Most of us were taught the truth of this question in our covenant homes, our catechism classes, the preaching we heard every Lord’s Day and it is, as far as I am concerned, what I was taught in the Seminary. It was part of our heritage with its glorious emphasis on sovereign grace. That we face controversy over the question is puzzling to me. Let me briefly spell out...