Dear PRTS Faculty, Staff, and Students,

I hope this update finds you all well!

The way we work, live, and learn keeps changing day-by-day as we continue to learn more about the spread of COVID-19 in our communities in Michigan, the USA, and around the world. Our desire is to join together and with others in seeking to make us as safe as possible as PRTS operates with a new Michigan order. We know that this is another adjustment that we need to make as a community even as we seek to stay connected.

As you may have heard or read by now, the Governor of the State of Michigan has issued a “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order (see excerpt below):

Executive Order 2020-21 prohibits all businesses and operations from requiring workers to leave their homes, unless those workers are necessary to sustain or protect life or to conduct minimum basic operations. See this link for the full communication.

Consistent with this Executive Order, the PRTS Executive Committee is requiring staff and faculty to stay and work at home, with the exception of those conducting “minimum basic operations,” who can come in as needed. Faculty will continue to teach their courses via Zoom from home (and only if necessary, teach from the empty Zoom Room), and staff are to work from home as much as possible. If staff have a question concerning their status related to “minimum basic operations,” please contact Henk Kleyn (address at bottom). Students are not able under any circumstance to study on campus or to use the library for study purposes; while the library has many electronic resources which still can be used, the physical library will not be open. However, students can contact the librarian at [email protected], for online research and reference service. Students are encouraged to collect any necessary items from their study carrels before the library closes tonight at 8:00pm.

We ask that you continue to adhere to the directives/guidelines in your context as you and your loved ones strive to stay safe. Please feel free to share prayer requests and needs with us as well. We will see how God is at work during this time through our stories and our being connected.

Send your prayer requests to: [email protected]

If you have questions, please send them to Henk Kleyn at [email protected]

Sincerely,

Dr. Barrett, Dr. Beeke, and Henk Kleyn

Executive Committee

Dear Friends of PRTS,

As we closely monitor the coronavirus (COVID-19) and seek to comply with the latest Executive Order (2020-21) issued by Governor Whitmer, the seminary will be closed Monday, March 23, through Monday, April 13, 2020.

For any questions, please contact Seth Huckstead between 8:00 am – 4:00 pm, at 616-432-3411.

May the Lord bless you and keep you in His care!

Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary
Executive Committee

Puritan Conference Early Bird Discount!

Have you booked your early-bird ticket for the Puritan Conference in Los Angeles, California yet? Join John MacArthur, Sinclair Ferguson, Steve Lawson, Ligon Duncan, Joel Beeke, and many others, for this unique conference. Do not miss it! June 3 to 5, 2020. http://bit.ly/3bQ9M21

Register for the Pre-conference Event!

Why not also join Voddie Baucham, Joel Beeke, and others, the evening before for the Puritan Pre-conference Event: An Evening With Voddie and Friends on the Puritan Household, June 2, 2020? http://bit.ly/2P7g0k8

Registration for the inaugural Puritan Conference is now open!

June 3–5, 2020
Grace Community Church
Los Angeles, California

If you are at the ATA meeting in Malaysia, stop by our regional partner’s booth, China Reformed Theological Seminary, and check out our joint M.Th. program

Last night was a great, unforgettable event at Puritan Reformed Seminary with a great turnout: the dedication of our Torah scroll (Genesis through Deuteronomy—127 feet long on calf skin) to God’s glory and the welfare of our seminary students. The Torah scroll will be very helpful for Old Testament classes—most particularly for Hebrew classes.

Dr. Scott Carroll (far left in first photo), a specialist in manuscripts, gave a lecture on the history behind the particular scroll gifted to our seminary by Ken and Barb Larsen. Our 19^th-century scroll took a team of people in Romania about a year to write. It was completed in Romania, and later carried to Israel by Russian Jews who migrated from Romania to Israel after Israel became a nation. The Larsens purchased it in Jerusalem from the world’s largest scroll-collector and chose to gift it, in God’s kind providence, to PRTS.

After Dr. Carroll’s moving address, about 200 of the attendees went upstairs where he and Dr. Barrett (PRTS OT professor) explained various fascinating particulars about the scroll. The overall impression was that it was a very moving evening for the attendees, particularly in reinforcing in our minds and hearts how carefully God has preserved His pure Word through the ages. Sola scriptura! Soli Deo gloria!