All Articles For Editorial

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2019, p. 273. Evangelical Protestants who can see their way clear to return to Roman Catholicism have let go of Protestantism. Although they identify as Evangelicals—gospel churches—they embrace theology that distances itself from being gospel and come closer to Rome. The ‘protest’ in Protestant first diminished to a whimper, then shifted to an apology for leaving Rome in the first place. From the other side of the River Tiber (see the last editorial), Rome signals openness to unity talks. One hundred years ago Rome pulled up the drawbridge and closed the gates to...

One year ago, I reported that many Protestants are ready to “cross the Tiber” into Roman Catholicism. The expression “crossing the Tiber” refers to fording the river that runs alongside Rome, symbolic of the barrier between Rome and Protestants. With grief, I had to report that even leaders in our mother church are talking about making the crossing.1 Some church leaders are sending not-so-subtle messages to members: It is permissible, and probably time, to unite with the Catholic Church. One Calvin Seminary faculty member wrote that Protestants and Catholics are “pilgrims on the same journey, serving one Lord with one...

Tired ministers are not useful ministers. Weary, they will not do the good work we have asked them to do, Christ requires them to do, and they themselves want to do. Pastors become weary because of many factors, some they can control and others beyond their control. And often they do not get enough rest. Our churches, with consistories at the lead, may ex­amine how they give rest to their pastors. In Reformed churches like the PRCA and our sisters, pastors have colossal pressures put on them. Ministers have always been given substantial workloads, but these days, with generally larger...

Training of elders is necessary. The well-being of the PRCA and other true churches depends on a qualified, well trained eldership. The training is not, for the most part, formal and specialized training. It comes chiefly through the extended and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, who often uses a good Christian upbringing in a stable home, and who always works in answer to fervent prayer and by the regular means of grace. That was the subject of the first editorial on this topic in the January 15 issue. The February 1 editorial showed that faithful elders will want to...

By God’s grace, the Protestant Reformed Churches are determined to train our ministers well—our prophets and teachers. With equal determination we must train our elders well, for the watchmen on Zion’s walls must have the wherewithal to watch properly, her gatekeepers must be skilled in the use of the gate’s keys, and her overseers must have wisdom to make proper judgments about the faith and life of the members and about the instruction from the church’s prophet. I wrote last time that our churches do train our el­ders. It is not the same kind of specialized training that the churches...

Newly installed elders are just opening their eyes to the task the Lord gives them, and it is not an easy one. You who have never served before are likely more than a little awestruck by the responsibility. To rule Christ’s church?! It is beyond your abilities. Even you who sat in the elders’ bench before are awed, because experience taught you actually how weighty the work is—far beyond any natural abilities you have. Am I qualified for this work? That is the question that follows you to the elders’ pew to supervise the preaching, that goes with you on...

Hatred. War. Lamentation. Despair. Not words found on too many year-end Christmas greeting cards, are they? The words love, peace, joy, and hope? These dominate as the world looks towards a new year. But not their antonyms, that is for sure. But it’s hatred, war, lamentation, and despair that are loose in this world of sin and evil. These are what dominated AD 2018, and they will only intensify in the Year of Our Lord 2019. Sorry to put such a sour ice-cube in mankind’s New Year’s martini, but that is how it was and will continue to be. That...

Love. Peace. Joy. Hope. Four words that appear on almost every year-end Christmas or holiday greeting card sent and received. Wonderful words and appropriate. But also, very exclusive. But more on that later. What strikes me is that if the church of Christ was going to mark yearly God’s great redemptive event of the Advent (the promise and birth of the Messiah, the Christ), year’s end is the best time. Not the middle of July or sometime in August or such like, but year’s end, as the church and the believer are compelled to mark the passing of time. And...

This article was first published in the October 15, 1997 issue of the Standard Bearer (vol. 74, no. 2), part of a special Reformation issue on the Synod of Dordt, the 400th anniversary of which we commemorate this year and next. When the Enemy launched a full frontal assault against the doctrinal walls of the church, the church responded with a ‘Canons’ blast of confessional truth to ward off the assault, to show that there is plenty of life in the old city yet, and that those “set for the defense of the gospel” (Phil. 1:17) do not intend to...

(This editorial is an answer to the letter “Letter about “What Must I Do…?”) Brother N. Langerak: I find your letter with its allegations that my editorial of October 1, 2018 was an attempt somehow to resurrect charges of antinomianism against a protestant exonerated by recent synodical decisions more than a little baffling, to put it mildly. In your opening comments you note that my editorial of October 1 made reference to the “issues being discussed in our churches,” to which phrasing you take exception (“an affront”) because such, in your estimation, minimized the weight of the charges made and...