All Articles For Editor's Notes

The special issue on sexual abuse (May 1, 2022) was read by many. So much that the RFPA made a special run of 750 additional copies to supply those who requested them. Churches and individuals, both of our regular readership and those who do not subscribe to the magazine, asked for copies. There is a limited supply still available. Please write the editorial office (gritters@ prca.org) or the RFPA (alexkalsbeek@rfpa.org). The articles hit home, in a most literal sense. Sexual abuse victims exist in our homes, the homes of Protestant Reformed readers and our friends. Many of their oppressors have...

At the beginning of this new volume year for the Standard Bearer, we have many things to report. We start with the most significant.   New editors! At a special and significant Staff meeting on August 31, the Standard Bearer Staff appointed two new editors. Rev. Joshua Engelsma and Prof. Brian Huizinga become editors to join the undersigned and to replace Prof. Russell Dykstra and Rev. Kenneth Koole. The Staff is very pleased and encouraged to have these brothers on board. Readers are aware of Prof. Dykstra’s resignation this summer on account of his taking the call to be Byron...

Unprecedented, as far as I am aware. Prof. Russell Dykstra was but one year from finishing the five-year transition period into his retirement as faculty in the PRC seminary when on May 30 he accepted a call to become pastor of Byron Center, MI PRC. First, the pastorate (Doon and Hope GR); then twenty-five-years as professor at seminary; now back to the pastorate. At age 67. Sixty-seven these days is not what 67 was 50 years ago, but it still does not carry the strength of youth. It was very understandable then that only two days later, at the Standard...

In October 2021 the faculty of the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary presented a conference on the doctrine of preaching. That the conference treated the doctrine of preaching means that it did not touch on matters of style and delivery, but rather on the nature and content of the preaching, as set forth in Scripture and the Reformed confessions. The four main articles in this issue of the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal contain the written version of those speeches. The first article underscores that the preaching of the gospel, by one who is properly called to that work, is the voice...

The ‘editorial’ in this issue is not what had been planned. Unexpected circumstances sometimes require change of plans. A schism in the church is such a circumstance. In place of editorial is lament. We are familiar with the book of Lamentations. Many psalms are laments also. These expressions of grief are models for the people of God, proper expressions of sorrow in times of trouble. Laments often follow a pattern. Study the Psalms of lament to see that pattern. Readers will also recognize the biblical and confessional language used to form this lament. The church has her vocabulary and expressions,...

What comes to mind when you hear (or read) of “the French Reformation”? Most, I suspect, have little knowledge of this aspect of the sixteenth-century Reformation that began in Wittenberg (Luther), and spread through many countries in Europe. The great majority of our readers come from a European context (ethnically and theologically) other than France. Many are tied to the Reformation in the Netherlands by blood lines. Theologically, we connect with Martin Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Geneva. A very small group has ties to French Huguenots (the term used to identify Reformed believers in France). Consequently, France...

With heartfelt gratitude to God, we begin the ninety-seventh year of the Standard Bearer. It should be obvious that in order for the SB to find its way into your mailbox twenty-one times in the next year, many people put in significant effort. That starts with some forty men and women who have committed to write anywhere from three to twenty articles in the next year.1 Behind the scenes, managing editor Charles Terpstra sets the schedule for the writers (and reminds them when theirs are due), edits every contribution submitted, and along with the editors, proofreads every issue. Then there...

Once again our Standard Bearer appears in a special garb. This time it is upon the request of the P.R.Y.P.F. that just recently held its second annual convention in Grand Rapids. We assure our young people that we are both proud and happy to serve them through the Standard Bearer in this way. The convention we just mentioned was a wonderful success. Our hearts were warmed and gladdened when we saw the zeal and activity of our young men and young women, their interest in the things of the kingdom of God. They certainly manifested a Christian spirit throughout, not...

Below you will find some unusual items related to God’s ‘frowning providence’ of sending the coronavirus worldwide. In order to fit these special items, we delay printing of other articles that were planned for this issue. We trust the reader understands the appropriateness of addressing the current issues in the church and world. We did not ask anyone to produce special articles. Rather, we noticed what pastors and consistories were doing to care for their flocks in these unusual times, and then asked for permission to print what they had produced: A special sermon, “Coronavirus and the King,” edited for...

Death. The last enemy. When it comes, death tears apart body and soul, leaving behind sorrow, loss, and pain. In God’s sovereign providence, death is very much on the minds of people all around the world as new counts of deaths caused by the coronavirus are reported daily in the news. When this issue was planned, we knew nothing of the scourge that was coming. Death itself is painful. It is not natural, for it is God’s punishment for man’s sin. The child of God does not have a terror of death, for our Lord went through death that He...