The Man of Sorrows

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He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3a).

And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch (Mark 14:33–34).

Jesus went to the garden to pray and to suffer. As the prophecy foretold, He would know suffering intimately. He would be a “Man of sorrows” and “acquainted with grief.” And that is what happened. The Messiah would be tormented in the body and the mind!

Jesus’s mental suffering was mysterious. While fully man, He was fully God, but God cannot suffer. And yet the one who suffered there in the garden was God! It was very real. His real human mind experi-enced real human agony. He was terrified by a sight of the cross. Major blows send you reeling. You are dizzy, you are faint-hearted—you are losing your presence of mind. That was Jesus in the garden.

Jesus’s mental suffering was private but He wanted company. He appealed to His three closest disciples to remain near, to watch and pray. He needed support, but they fell asleep! And He knew that soon He would have no human support at all. In the great plan of salvation, He could have no helper. He must do it alone.

His mental suffering was intense. Again and again, He begged. One witness tells us that He prayed so

fervently that He began to sweat “as it were great drops of blood.” This intense suffering was unique because it was flawless. Our mental turmoil is often the result of sin or foolish patterns of thinking and living. Not so with Jesus. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and sep-arate from sinners.” His was unmixed with unmanly cowardice or selfish fixations; His pain was not trig-gered by exaggerated or misplaced fears. He had perfect trust in God, His precious Father. Real and agonizing, but wonderful suffering it was indeed! His turmoil was that of a spotless lamb.

This leads us to observe that, above all, Jesus’s suf-fering of the mind was redemptive. The perfect sufferer was the spotless Lamb so that “his soul” might be a fit “offering for sin” (Isa. 53:10). He came to save our poor souls from sorrow and its source—our sin.

This Supreme Sufferer is the one we are privileged to proclaim as preachers and students called to the min-istry. What an honor! He is the antidote for a crying world of miserable sinners. We need to return to Geth-semane ourselves as well. When we maintain a constant sight on our suffering Savior, we will personally be changed from glory to glory—and it will show in our ministries. It will suffuse our preaching and pastoring with Jesus’s own tenderness for the troubled. That is the only way we can be qualified “to speak a word in season to him that is weary.”

—REV. MICHAEL IVESPresbyterian Reformed Church of Rhode Island.

VOL. 13 | NO. 3

PURITANREFORMEDT H E O L O G I C A L S E M I N A R Y

UPDATE

NEW FACES at PRTS

DR. ADRIAAN NEELE (PhD, University of Utrecht) is Director of the Doctoral Program and Professor of Historical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He is an ordained pastor in the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk, South Africa. Prior to arriving at PRTS in 2016, he lectured in Post-Reformation studies at Farel Reformed Theological Seminary, the University of Pretoria, and the African Institute for Missiology. He was Professor of Histori-cal Theology and Director at the Jonathan Edwards Centre at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Since 2007, he has served as Research Scholar and Digital Editor at the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, and as a board member of various businesses and academic boards. In addition, he is co-editor of the Jonathan Edwards Online journal, co-editor of the Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia, and co-editor of the global Edwards sermon edition project. His

research interests concern seventeenth-century Europe as well as early American (eighteenth-century New England) theol-ogy and philosophy. As co-founder of a foundation for internet-based and global theological education, he has a continuing interest in the intersection of primary sources, digitization, and web-based education. He is the author of two books: The Art of Living to God (Pretoria University Press, 2005) and Petrus van Mastricht (1630–1706) Reformed Orthodoxy: Method and Piety (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009). A third book is forthcoming entitled Jonathan Edwards: Sources of New England Theology (Oxford University Press). He has authored a variety of articles related to Reformation and Post-Reformation theology. Dr. Neele and his wife, Kornelia, have been blessed with six children: Ruth, Matthew, Hadassah, Deborah, Joël, and Salóme.

MR. GREG SALAZAR (PhD candidate, University of Cambridge) is originally from Asheville, NC. Greg’s passion for the Lord and theological study began in college at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). Following college, he worked for two years at the Falls Church (Falls Church, VA), first in youth ministry and then as a research assistant to the church’s senior pastor. In 2009, Greg began his MDiv studies at Reformed Theo-logical Seminary (Orlando, FL); during this time he served as teaching assistant for several professors, including the seminary’s president.

In 2013, Mr. Salazar began doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge. His doc-toral studies on Puritanism and Calvinism in seventeenth-century England have fostered a strong desire to teach and form doctoral students at PRTS. His research interest is focused on how Dutch and continental Reformed scholastic divines shaped the theological and historical landscape of English Puritanism.

Over his years as a student, Mr. Salazar has immersed himself in the life of the local church through preaching, teaching in adult education, and serving in other capacities. Mr. Salazar has a particular passion that students would love Reformed experiential theology—believing that the truths contained in Scripture should, by the power of the

Spirit, experientially penetrate our hearts and progressively enable our minds, hearts, and character to be transformed and submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ. He is humbled and thrilled at the opportunity to serve the Lord as a faculty member at PRTS. He is married to Christie and they have two children: Catie-Claire and John.

REV. DR. STEPHEN MYERS (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is a native of Concord, North Carolina. He was reared in a Christian family and was mercifully brought to faith at a young age. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA), Reformed The-ological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi (MDiv), and the University of Edinburgh (PhD). For the past seven years, Dr. Myers has served as the pastor of Pressly Memorial Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Statesville, NC. Over that time, he also has served as a vis-iting professor of theology at RTS Charlotte and a professor at International Biblical Seminary in Kiev, Ukraine. Along with Scottish Federalism and Covenantalism in Transition: The Theology of Ebenezer Erskine, Dr. Myers is the author of several reviews, journal articles, and forthcoming

publications. In all of his work, Dr. Myers’s desire is to see biblical doctrine shape the lives and the witness of God’s people around the world. Dr. Myers and his wife, Lisa, have four children.

With great joy we introduce to you our three new teachers for our new non-matriculating PhD program in Historical Studies which began in August and our new video producer and editor which is helping us to communicate the vision and mission of the seminary:

DR. MICHAEL BARRETT | ItineraryOctober 9: Fenwick, Ontario: Fenwick Free Reformed ChurchOctober 15: Burgessville Ontario: HRC Office-bearers

ConferenceOctober 21–23: Signal Mountain, Tennessee: Reformation Heri-

tage ConferenceNovember 13: Canton, Michigan: Mt. Calvary Baptist ChurchProjectsGod’s Radical and Comprehensive Call to Holiness in collaboration

with Dr. BeekeMajor assessment report to ATSPreparations for ATS focus visit for the PhD program

DR. JOEL BEEKE | ItinerarySeptember 23–24: Jacksonville, Florida: Ortega Presbyterian

Church (conference)September 25: Hull, Iowa: installation of Rev. Bartel ElshoutSeptember 29–October 3: For His Word Conference in southern

MexicoOctober 10–17: Goyania, center-west Brazil: conference for Dr.

Augustus Nicodemus Lopes October 21–23: Signal Mountain, Tennessee: conference for Way-

side Presbyterian ChurchOctober 27–29: Asheville, North Carolina: National Conference

on the Fear of God for NCFICNovember 4–6: Rockford, Illinois: conference for Grace

Reformed Baptist ChurchNovember 11–12: Quakertown, Pennsylvania: Regional Con-

ference of PCRT (Philadelphia conference of Reformed Theology)

November 15–17: San Antonio, Texas: Evangelical Theological Society conference

November 17–21: Pensacola, Florida: conference for Mount Zion Bible Church (Rev. Jeff Pollard)

Recent Publications: Weersta de Boze! Zijn zwakheid, zijn strategie en zijn nederlaag (Dutch

translation of Fighting Satan). Heerenveen: Groen.Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries (with Sinclair

Ferguson and Michael Haykin). Grand Rapids: RHB.“The Lasting Power of Reformed Experiential Preaching.” Preach-

ing and Preachers (June 2016).The Beauty and Glory of God’s Word, ed. Grand Rapids: RHB.“The Loss of Assurance.” Tabletalk (July 2016).Pulpit Aflame: Essays in Honor of Steven J. Lawson, ed. with Dustin

W. Benge. Grand Rapids: RHB.

”Wilhelmus a Brakel’s Biblical Ethics of Spirituality” and “Images of Union and Communion with Christ,” with Paul Smalley. Puritan Reformed Journal 8, 2 (July 2016).

DR. JERRY BILKES | ItineraryOctober 13–14: Ingersoll, Ontario: FRC Minister’s RetreatOctober 19–20: Brantford, Ontario: FRC Committee Meetings

DR. STEPHEN MEYER | ItineraryNovember 11–13: Princeton Seminary: “Scottish Philosophy and

Reformed Theology” conference.Projects:“The Theology of the Marrow Controversy—Boston, Hadow

and the Erskines.” In History of Scottish Theology. Vol. 2. Ed. Mark Elliott and David Fergusson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

DR. DAVID MURRAY | ItinerarySeptember 23–25: New Jersey: Men’s Conference (Trinity Baptist)November 11–13: Ontario: Niagara Bible Conference ProjectsPhD on Matthew Henry with Free University of AmsterdamThree books with Crossway

DR. ADRIAAN NEELE | ItinerarySeptember 19–26: The Netherlands: VU University Amsterdam,

Seminary Hersteld Hervormde Kerk; University of Gronin-gen, Academic Cooperation

October 4–5: New Haven, CT: Yale University, Advisory Board Meeting Digital Archive Religious Text

Books projectsBefore Edwards: Sources of New England Theology (Oxford Univ.

Press, forthcoming)A Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia (Yale University / Wm. Eerdmans,

forthcoming), co-editorJonathan Edwards and Spirituality, Western Spirituality Series

(Paulist Press, forthcoming), co-editor

DR. WILLIAM VANDOODEWAARD | ItinerarySeptember 22–23: Sydney, Nova Scotia: Canadian Presbytery

(ARP) MeetingsOctober 13: Belfast: Guest Lecture, School of History and

Anthropology, Queen’s UniversityWriting projects:1 & 2 Peter, Evangelical Press

DARRYL BRADFORD, JR. grew up in Detroit and its nearby suburbs as a professing Christian with a loving family. Despite being exposed to the gos-pel, only after graduating from college did he recognize his need for a Savior and place his faith in Jesus Christ. Darryl is a graduate from Michigan State University (B.A) in Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media with a concentration in Audio/Video Production. His hard work in develop-ing his craft and desire for storytelling has resulted in receiving three Emmy Awards for his documentary film work. His passion for God’s Word, people, and visual arts has now led him to join the PRTS staff as Video Producer/Editor and possibly to pursue future theological studies at the seminary. His

wife of eight years and their three young children are members of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and they look forward to this new adventure and the Lord’s leading in Grand Rapids.

FACULTY ITINERARIES & PUBLICATIONS

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Dr. Joel R. Beeke, President & Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics joel.beeke@prts.edu

Dr. Michael Barrett, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Academic Dean, and Professor of Old Testament michael.barrett@prts.edu

Dr. Gerald M. Bilkes, Professor of Old and New Testament jerry.bilkes@prts.edu

Dr. David P. Murray, Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology david.murray@prts.eduDr. William VanDoodewaard, Professor of Church History william.vandoodewaard@prts.edu

Rev. Mark Kelderman, Dean of Students and Spiritual Formation mark.kelderman@prts.edu

Henk Kleyn, Vice President of Operations henk.kleyn@prts.edu

Jonathon Beeke, Admissions Director and Registrar – jonathon.beeke@prts.edu

Chris Engelsma, Distance Learning Director chris.engelsma@prts.edu

Chris Hanna, Development & Marketing chris.hanna@prts.edu

Laura Ladwig, Librarian laura.ladwig@prts.edu

Kim Dykema, Library Assistant kim.dykema@prts.edu

Dr. Fred Sweet, Theological Librarian fred.sweet@prts.edu

Ann Dykema, Faculty Administrative Assistant ann.dykema@prts.edu

Esther Engelsma, Faculty Administrative Assistant – esther.engelsma@prts.eduCorney Les, Development Coordinator (CAN) cles@shaw.ca

PU R ITAN R E FO R M E D TH EO LO G I C AL SE M I NARY

FINANCIAL REPORTFor period 8/1/2015–7/31/2016

Year to Date Annual Percent of Income Actual Budget Variance Annual Budget HRC/FRC Church Support $ 381,042 466,500 (85,458) 82% Other Donations 1,726,877 1,011,500 715,377) 171% Tuition 383,030 350,000 33,030) 109% Scholarships 202,813 285,000 (82,187) 71% Other Income 150,548 185,000 (34,452) 81% Total Income $2,844,310 $ 2,298,000 $ 546,310) 124%

Expenses Instruction $ 1,052,086 1,007,454 44,632) 104% Scholarships 326,668 285,000 41,668) 115% Administrative 1,237,334 1,005,546 231,788) 123% Total Expenses $ 2,616,088 $ 2,298,000 $ 318,088) 114%

Net Income $ 228,222

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PURITAN REFORMED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY2965 Leonard Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525Tel: 616-977-0599 • Fax: 616-855-5740

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