May 2010 New Horizons

His Faithfulness Endures Forever

by Mark T. Bube

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. —Psalm 100:5 Another chapter in the story of God's people in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church drew to a close this past year. Almost from our very beginning, we have had missionaries laboring in Korea, except for brief periods of being excluded from the country during two wars. But our direct missionary involvement in Korea has now ended. Although there had been some contact with Christianity before then, Korea received her first Protestant missionary, the Rev. Robert J. Thomas, in 1865. Barely one year later, as he was traveling up the Daedong River (and tossing copies of the Scriptures in the Chinese language to some Koreans along the riverbank), he was captured by soldiers and beheaded. Little did anyone then foresee that the place where he died would one day become fertile ground for Presbyterian missionary work. Indeed, half a century later, some would refer to the Pyongyang area as the ... Read more

Haitian Journal

by Benjamin K. Hopp

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that ... we ... might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. (Heb. 6:17–19) Since the earthquake in Haiti, the truth of God's unchangeable character and his promise to his people have provided hope and encouragement. Although life in Haiti will never be the same, the goal and vision for our OP mission there remain the same: preach the word, bring a cup of cold water as it is needed, and pray for God to bring growth to the church. January 6, 2010 It is Wednesday morning, and I find myself in Tampa, Florida. I am here for a meeting with three other Presbyterian missionaries who work in Haiti and various other advisors. My dear friends, Charles Amicy (a PCA missionary to Haiti), Octavius Delfils (a missionary with the Presbyterian Mission to Haiti), Esaie Etienne ... Read more

Arthur S. Armour, 1908–1998

by John Kinnaird

(Editor's Note: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church will be celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary in June of 2011. In anticipation of that milestone, New Horizons will be running a yearlong series of historical remembrances.) Art Armour is remembered by many as one of the early fathers of the OPC (known as the Presbyterian Church of America from its founding on June 11, 1936, until 1939). Art was an elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church of Grove City, in western Pennsylvania, when it affiliated with the new denomination on October 20, 1936. When the Christian liberty controversy divided Westminster in 1937, he went to Faith PCA/OPC (which became Calvary OPC in 1966) in Harrisville, where he served on the session, while his father stayed with Westminster as it joined the Bible Presbyterian Church. This church changed its name to Covenant and later a portion of the congregation split off to become Wayside Church. When Wayside came into the OPC in 1949, Art had the unusual experience of serving on a ... Read more

Eleven Days in Uruguay

by David A. Crum

In December 2009, a short-term missions team from the Presbytery of Southern California traveled to Uruguay to assist in the ministry of OP missionaries Jonathan and Margaret Falk. The nine-member team included Jane Crum, Adrian Crum, Jana Crum, Emily Cunningham, Geoff Downey, Jake Schroeder, Ben Waggoner, and Kathleen Winslow, and was led by the Rev. David A. Crum, regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Southern California, who wrote the following report. —Mark Bube The nine participants of Team Uruguay enjoyed Christmas and New Year's during the middle of summer! That's right—we had the wonderful opportunity of working with our missionaries, Jonathan and Margaret Falk, deep in the Southern Hemisphere in Rivera, Uruguay. Rivera is a city of approximately 70,000 residents that sits right on the border of Brazil. It is mirrored on the Brazilian side by the larger city of Santana do Livramento, which has about 125,000 residents. It might be more accurate to say that Rivera makes up ... Read more

The Apostles' Creed, Part 3: I Believe in the Holy Spirit

by Sandy Finlayson

There has been a good deal of confusion about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Some see the Spirit as some sort of vague force that inspires people to certain heights of artistic expression or particular giftedness. Some in the church see the Spirit as the dispenser of spectacular gifts. The first thing that the Apostles' Creed affirms is that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. Cornelis Venema points out that any study of the Creed's teaching on the Holy Spirit must begin "by emphasizing that the Creed confesses the Holy Spirit to be one of the three Persons of the Trinity." [1] The structure of the Creed shows that the church is confessing the divinity of the Holy Spirit. As J. I. Packer points out, "From the creating work of the Father and the rescue work of the Son [the Creed] turns to the re-creating work of the Spirit." [2] The divinity of the Holy Spirit is evident from the divine attributes that he shares with the Father and the Son. First, the Holy Spirit is ... Read more