.
Dear Forum members,
.
Before I get into the material that I plan to send you in this letter, I need to answer a question that came from one of our forum members.
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The question is concerning my remark in my last letter that common grace modifies at least four of the five points of Calvinism and, perhaps, also the fifth, namely perseverance of the saints. The reader’s claim was that one ought not really be hesitant about saying that common grace also affects perseverance of the saints, and that thus all five points need to be modified if common grace is introduced into the body of doctrine known as the doctrines of grace. His reason for asserting this was that the five points of Calvinism are a whole, and to modify one is to modify all. The five hang together. They stand or fall together.
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The reason for the objection of the correspondent is, of course, true. One cannot believe in a universal atonement without denying eternal predestination, including both election and reprobation. And so it is with all five.
. My “perhaps” however, had a slightly different emphasis than the reader gave it. My point was and is that the error of common grace directly modifies four of the five points. A universal love of God for men is in flat contradiction to sovereign election and reprobation. A universal atonement is in direct contradiction to sovereign predestination and limited atonement. A work of the Spirit in the hearts of all men enabling them to do good is directly contrary to total depravity. But no teaching of common grace directly opposes the preservation of the saints.
.
Even the Arminians did not think that their view had a direct bearing on what we now call the fifth point of Calvinism, for in the original Five Article of the Remonstrance, in which document the Arminians set down their position, the Arminians would not flatly say that they denied the preservation of the saints. They merely expressed doubt about the question. Further, the defenders of common grace readily admit that their views modify the first four points of Calvinism, and I am not aware of a modification of the preservation of the saints by those who defend common grace – a denial as blatant as their denial of unconditional predestination, total depravity, particular redemption, and irresistible grace.
.
Nevertheless, the correspondent is correct in his insistence that it is impossible to deny one of the five points without, in the end, denying them all. And so also the doctrine of the preservation of the saints has come under attack in “Reformed” circles.
.
* * *
In the last installment I made a few general remarks about common grace, particularly noting that, although common grace is to be defined as God’s attitude of favor or grace towards all His creatures, including all men, nevertheless, this attitude is not only objective but also includes the subjective infusion of grace in the hearts of all men by which they know that God is favorably inclined to them, and also by which they are changed for the better, though the change does not result in salvation.
.
* * * *
Dear Forum members,
.
Before I get into the material that I plan to send you in this letter, I need to answer a question that came from one of our forum members.
.
The question is concerning my remark in my last letter that common grace modifies at least four of the five points of Calvinism and, perhaps, also the fifth, namely perseverance of the saints. The reader’s claim was that one ought not really be hesitant about saying that common grace also affects perseverance of the saints, and that thus all five points need to be modified if common grace is introduced into the body of doctrine known as the doctrines of grace. His reason for asserting this was that the five points of Calvinism are a whole, and to modify one is to modify all. The five hang together. They stand or fall together.
.
The reason for the objection of the correspondent is, of course, true. One cannot believe in a universal atonement without denying eternal predestination, including both election and reprobation. And so it is with all five.
. My “perhaps” however, had a slightly different emphasis than the reader gave it. My point was and is that the error of common grace directly modifies four of the five points. A universal love of God for men is in flat contradiction to sovereign election and reprobation. A universal atonement is in direct contradiction to sovereign predestination and limited atonement. A work of the Spirit in the hearts of all men enabling them to do good is directly contrary to total depravity. But no teaching of common grace directly opposes the preservation of the saints.
.
Even the Arminians did not think that their view had a direct bearing on what we now call the fifth point of Calvinism, for in the original Five Article of the Remonstrance, in which document the Arminians set down their position, the Arminians would not flatly say that they denied the preservation of the saints. They merely expressed doubt about the question. Further, the defenders of common grace readily admit that their views modify the first four points of Calvinism, and I am not aware of a modification of the preservation of the saints by those who defend common grace – a denial as blatant as their denial of unconditional predestination, total depravity, particular redemption, and irresistible grace.
.
Nevertheless, the correspondent is correct in his insistence that it is impossible to deny one of the five points without, in the end, denying them all. And so also the doctrine of the preservation of the saints has come under attack in “Reformed” circles.
.
* * *
In the last installment I made a few general remarks about common grace, particularly noting that, although common grace is to be defined as God’s attitude of favor or grace towards all His creatures, including all men, nevertheless, this attitude is not only objective but also includes the subjective infusion of grace in the hearts of all men by which they know that God is favorably inclined to them, and also by which they are changed for the better, though the change does not result in salvation.
.
* * * *
Left--Prof. Louis Berkhof
.
The first point of common grace as adopted by the Christian Reformed Church in 1924 is confusing and ambiguous on the question: To whom does God show His favor? The language of the first point speaks of God’s favor “towards His creatures in general” (Hoeksema and Hanko, Ready to Give an Answer, 63), but also speaks of an attitude of favor “towards humanity in general, and not only towards the elect” (Ibid). One could conclude from this that the first point intends to make a distinction between an attitude of favor towards the brute creation and God’s attitude of favor towards all men. But this is evidently not the way in which the first point of common grace is interpreted by its supporters. Both Louis Berkhof, the primary author of the three points (Louis Berkhof, De Drie Punten in Alle Deelen Gereformeerd [The Three Points Reformed in Every Part] [Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1925] 11), and H. J. Kuiper, for many years the editor of the church paper, The Banner
(H. J. Kuyper, The Three Points of Common Grace [Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1925] 11-13) assert that the meaning of the first point is that God’s attitude of favor is shown to people, not the brute creation.
. Right: Rev. H. J. Kuiper and Dr. John H. Kromminga
.
To add to the confusion of the first point and seemingly to contradict what Berkhof and Kuiper say, one Scriptural passage referred to as proof of the doctrine of the first point is Psalm 145:9: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” This text obviously refers to the brute creation and God’s works of providence in it, which reveal God’s goodness. The fact that this passage is quoted as proof would seem to indicate that the first point does actually teach that God has an attitude of favor towards the creation itself. If this interpretation is not what the Synod meant, but refers only to men, then Psalm 145:9 must be interpreted to read: “The Lord is good to all men, and his tender mercies are over all people.” This is an interpretation of the text that seems to me to be forced, unnatural and incapable of being sustained. Why, therefore, Psalm 145 :9 is quoted as proof of God’s attitude of favor towards all men remains a mystery.
.
But be all that as it may, we assert from the outset that it is correct and in agreement with the Scriptures to say that God is favorably inclined toward His creation – as Psalm 145:9 asserts. He loves His creation, is merciful towards it and views it with great favor.
Psalm 145:9 is a clear example of Hebrew parallelism, a poetic device in which two or more sentences are so related to each other that the one explains and sheds further light on the other. In this verse, for example, the expression in the second part of the verse, “his tender mercies”, explains “the Lord is good” in the first part of the verse. And the words “all his works” is a further explanation of the word “all” in the first sentence. Thus the verse teaches that God’s mercies are towards all his works and those tender mercies towards all His works show His goodness.
.
Further, if the first point of common grace wanted to interpret the sentence “The Lord is good to all” as meaning that the Lord is good to all men, this interpretation stands in flat contradiction with verse 20 where the same Psalm reads: “The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy,” where the reference is to those whom God loves is obviously to God’s elect.
.
The question of whether God loves His creation is important for another reason. I have met and spoken with men, especially, from a Presbyterian background, who say they believe in common grace. But when they explain their position, it becomes evident that these men identify common grace with providence and simply mean that God’s providence gives evidence of God’s goodness towards His creation. With this idea I have no dispute, although whether the idea ought to be called “common grace” is another question. To call it such is at least confusing when the term is universally used for different ideas.
.
There can be no question about it that God is favorably inclined towards His own creation, for He created it and it remains His possession. The devil, after his fall and banishment from heaven, attempted to seize the earthly creation from God and make it his own domain. He persuaded Adam and Eve to join him in that endeavor, because neither he nor his demons had any direct access to the creation. They were angels and not material creatures, as this creation is. He had to enlist Adam and Eve, for they had been placed by God as the heads of creation. Satan was eminently successful, and so it seems as if the creation today belongs to wicked man. Wicked man uncovers the powers of creation, penetrates its secrets, and from it makes products that make his life in the creation easier and more pleasant. Looking around us and observing what goes on in the world today, we could not only be easily persuaded that man has complete control over the creation, but that he uses it in countless ways to sin. He is a servant of Satan and has obediently followed Satan’s grand scheme to make this creation a kingdom of darkness where God is banished from His own world.
.
But God does not relinquish His claim upon His own world. In fact, it is impossible for God to do this, not only because of God’s own purpose in creating all things, but also because God is the Author of providence. Creation means that God gave all the universe its existence by the Word of His mouth. Providence means that God, by the same Word of His mouth, continues to give the creation its existence. Further, all that happens in it is done by His sovereign control. That is the doctrine of providence. He not only spoke the word “star”, but the star formed by the Word of His power is upheld by that same Word. That is, only when God continues to speak the Word “star” does that star continue to exist. If God should cease saying that word, the star would disappear and be no more.
.
There is a certain irony involved in this. The very creature God upholds by the Word of His power man uses to sin against God. If God did not uphold that creature, man would not be able to use it to deny God. And the same is true of man himself. He too is given his existence every moment by the Word of God’s power. From God’s point of view, the same is true. He upholds every creature to give it to man, knowing full well what man will do with it. It is like a murderer who uses his victim’s gun to shoot him. But there is one thing man cannot do: he cannot take God’s creation away from God.
.
God will not permit that to happen in any case, because God has His own purpose with this creation. To that purpose even all Satan does is subordinate; he too is under the sovereign rule of God. What that purpose is, God determined from eternity. It is to glorify Himself through the redemption of the creation by the suffering and death of Christ.
.
When Adam chose to assist the devil in his wicked purposes, Adam fell into depravity and corruption. The words of God were fulfilled: “The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” That death was not only physical, but also spiritual, for sin is death. Adam came under the curse, a curse that drove Adam out of Paradise, but also out of fellowship with God. To live apart from God is death.
.
But Adam fell into sin as the head of God’s creation. Created to be representative of God Himself in God’s world, he became Satan’s representative when he agreed to do Satan’s will. As Satan’s representative, the whole creation came under the curse. Death pervades this earthly creation. Evolutionism may claim that death in the creation is only a weakness inherited from lower forms of life and an animal ancestry and soon to be overcome as the creation continues to produce higher forms of life, but this is part of the devil’s lie to draw man away from God the Creator. The curse of death is God’s just anger and fury as He punishes the creation as well as Adam its head.
.
Christ died for the creation as well as for His people in order that the creation might be redeemed. The Biblical proof of that is solid. When God established His covenant with Noah after the flood, God established His covenant with every living creature (Gen. 9:9-17). The Psalms speak of God’s love for His creation in many places. It is striking, however, that the Psalms, in extolling the glories of the creation, speak prophetically of Christ, revealed in the creation (Psalm 19:1-6, where the figure of the sun as a bridegroom coming forth from its chamber speaks of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness that arises with healing in His wings, Malachi 4:2). It is striking that the law of God is also mentioned in vss. 7-14 as the gospel that converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, and gives rewards to those who keep it. The connection between the first part of the Psalm and the second part is surely that the law of God is present in both the creation and man, and has the same power in both creation and man. Psalm 33:6-11 speaks of the power of the Word of God that creates and upholds all the creation. This same truth is mentioned in John 1:1, 2, where that same creative Word of God is said to have become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ (verse 14).
.
Many names given in Scripture for Christ are taken directly from the creation: Lion of Judah’s Bright and Morning Star, Lily of the Valley, Rose of Sharon, etc. All these indicate that Christ’s redemption extends to the entire creation.
.
Romans 8:19-22 speaks of the hope of the creation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan without ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
.
Paul speaks of the same truth in Colossians 1:20: “And [God] having made peace through the blood of his [Christ’s] cross, by him [Christ] to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” The apostle is very specific and emphatic about the fact that in Christ’s cross all the creation, the earthly and the heavenly, is reconciled to God. All shall therefore, be saved. God snatches His own creation out of the dirty hands of the wicked and not only restores it to its original pristine purity and beauty, but raises it to a much higher level of glory in the new heavens and the new earth, when heaven and earth shall become one creation.
.
Hence, to speak of God’s grace towards the creation is a perfectly Biblical thought and no one can make objection to it. Surely the quotation of Psalm 145:9, used as a proof text for the first point of common grace, is, on the contrary, a powerful text to prove God’s love towards His own creation: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” How true!
.
Gradually the righteous are, for the present, squeezed out of God’s world till they are all but destroyed. Then, at that moment when the devil congratulates himself in the accomplishment of his nefarious purpose, Christ comes in power and glory, and the whole creation is snatched out of the hands of the wicked led by Satan. And, irony of all ironies, that same creation, now glorified, is given to the people of God as their everlasting inheritance, for the meek shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), while the wicked are banished forever in hell.
.
With warmest regards,
Prof. Hanko
.
The first point of common grace as adopted by the Christian Reformed Church in 1924 is confusing and ambiguous on the question: To whom does God show His favor? The language of the first point speaks of God’s favor “towards His creatures in general” (Hoeksema and Hanko, Ready to Give an Answer, 63), but also speaks of an attitude of favor “towards humanity in general, and not only towards the elect” (Ibid). One could conclude from this that the first point intends to make a distinction between an attitude of favor towards the brute creation and God’s attitude of favor towards all men. But this is evidently not the way in which the first point of common grace is interpreted by its supporters. Both Louis Berkhof, the primary author of the three points (Louis Berkhof, De Drie Punten in Alle Deelen Gereformeerd [The Three Points Reformed in Every Part] [Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1925] 11), and H. J. Kuiper, for many years the editor of the church paper, The Banner
(H. J. Kuyper, The Three Points of Common Grace [Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1925] 11-13) assert that the meaning of the first point is that God’s attitude of favor is shown to people, not the brute creation.. Right: Rev. H. J. Kuiper and Dr. John H. Kromminga
.
To add to the confusion of the first point and seemingly to contradict what Berkhof and Kuiper say, one Scriptural passage referred to as proof of the doctrine of the first point is Psalm 145:9: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” This text obviously refers to the brute creation and God’s works of providence in it, which reveal God’s goodness. The fact that this passage is quoted as proof would seem to indicate that the first point does actually teach that God has an attitude of favor towards the creation itself. If this interpretation is not what the Synod meant, but refers only to men, then Psalm 145:9 must be interpreted to read: “The Lord is good to all men, and his tender mercies are over all people.” This is an interpretation of the text that seems to me to be forced, unnatural and incapable of being sustained. Why, therefore, Psalm 145 :9 is quoted as proof of God’s attitude of favor towards all men remains a mystery.
.
But be all that as it may, we assert from the outset that it is correct and in agreement with the Scriptures to say that God is favorably inclined toward His creation – as Psalm 145:9 asserts. He loves His creation, is merciful towards it and views it with great favor.
Psalm 145:9 is a clear example of Hebrew parallelism, a poetic device in which two or more sentences are so related to each other that the one explains and sheds further light on the other. In this verse, for example, the expression in the second part of the verse, “his tender mercies”, explains “the Lord is good” in the first part of the verse. And the words “all his works” is a further explanation of the word “all” in the first sentence. Thus the verse teaches that God’s mercies are towards all his works and those tender mercies towards all His works show His goodness.
.
Further, if the first point of common grace wanted to interpret the sentence “The Lord is good to all” as meaning that the Lord is good to all men, this interpretation stands in flat contradiction with verse 20 where the same Psalm reads: “The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy,” where the reference is to those whom God loves is obviously to God’s elect.
.
The question of whether God loves His creation is important for another reason. I have met and spoken with men, especially, from a Presbyterian background, who say they believe in common grace. But when they explain their position, it becomes evident that these men identify common grace with providence and simply mean that God’s providence gives evidence of God’s goodness towards His creation. With this idea I have no dispute, although whether the idea ought to be called “common grace” is another question. To call it such is at least confusing when the term is universally used for different ideas.
.
There can be no question about it that God is favorably inclined towards His own creation, for He created it and it remains His possession. The devil, after his fall and banishment from heaven, attempted to seize the earthly creation from God and make it his own domain. He persuaded Adam and Eve to join him in that endeavor, because neither he nor his demons had any direct access to the creation. They were angels and not material creatures, as this creation is. He had to enlist Adam and Eve, for they had been placed by God as the heads of creation. Satan was eminently successful, and so it seems as if the creation today belongs to wicked man. Wicked man uncovers the powers of creation, penetrates its secrets, and from it makes products that make his life in the creation easier and more pleasant. Looking around us and observing what goes on in the world today, we could not only be easily persuaded that man has complete control over the creation, but that he uses it in countless ways to sin. He is a servant of Satan and has obediently followed Satan’s grand scheme to make this creation a kingdom of darkness where God is banished from His own world.
.
But God does not relinquish His claim upon His own world. In fact, it is impossible for God to do this, not only because of God’s own purpose in creating all things, but also because God is the Author of providence. Creation means that God gave all the universe its existence by the Word of His mouth. Providence means that God, by the same Word of His mouth, continues to give the creation its existence. Further, all that happens in it is done by His sovereign control. That is the doctrine of providence. He not only spoke the word “star”, but the star formed by the Word of His power is upheld by that same Word. That is, only when God continues to speak the Word “star” does that star continue to exist. If God should cease saying that word, the star would disappear and be no more.
.
There is a certain irony involved in this. The very creature God upholds by the Word of His power man uses to sin against God. If God did not uphold that creature, man would not be able to use it to deny God. And the same is true of man himself. He too is given his existence every moment by the Word of God’s power. From God’s point of view, the same is true. He upholds every creature to give it to man, knowing full well what man will do with it. It is like a murderer who uses his victim’s gun to shoot him. But there is one thing man cannot do: he cannot take God’s creation away from God.
.
God will not permit that to happen in any case, because God has His own purpose with this creation. To that purpose even all Satan does is subordinate; he too is under the sovereign rule of God. What that purpose is, God determined from eternity. It is to glorify Himself through the redemption of the creation by the suffering and death of Christ.
.
When Adam chose to assist the devil in his wicked purposes, Adam fell into depravity and corruption. The words of God were fulfilled: “The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” That death was not only physical, but also spiritual, for sin is death. Adam came under the curse, a curse that drove Adam out of Paradise, but also out of fellowship with God. To live apart from God is death.
.
But Adam fell into sin as the head of God’s creation. Created to be representative of God Himself in God’s world, he became Satan’s representative when he agreed to do Satan’s will. As Satan’s representative, the whole creation came under the curse. Death pervades this earthly creation. Evolutionism may claim that death in the creation is only a weakness inherited from lower forms of life and an animal ancestry and soon to be overcome as the creation continues to produce higher forms of life, but this is part of the devil’s lie to draw man away from God the Creator. The curse of death is God’s just anger and fury as He punishes the creation as well as Adam its head.
.
Christ died for the creation as well as for His people in order that the creation might be redeemed. The Biblical proof of that is solid. When God established His covenant with Noah after the flood, God established His covenant with every living creature (Gen. 9:9-17). The Psalms speak of God’s love for His creation in many places. It is striking, however, that the Psalms, in extolling the glories of the creation, speak prophetically of Christ, revealed in the creation (Psalm 19:1-6, where the figure of the sun as a bridegroom coming forth from its chamber speaks of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness that arises with healing in His wings, Malachi 4:2). It is striking that the law of God is also mentioned in vss. 7-14 as the gospel that converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, and gives rewards to those who keep it. The connection between the first part of the Psalm and the second part is surely that the law of God is present in both the creation and man, and has the same power in both creation and man. Psalm 33:6-11 speaks of the power of the Word of God that creates and upholds all the creation. This same truth is mentioned in John 1:1, 2, where that same creative Word of God is said to have become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ (verse 14).
.
Many names given in Scripture for Christ are taken directly from the creation: Lion of Judah’s Bright and Morning Star, Lily of the Valley, Rose of Sharon, etc. All these indicate that Christ’s redemption extends to the entire creation.
.
Romans 8:19-22 speaks of the hope of the creation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan without ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
.
Paul speaks of the same truth in Colossians 1:20: “And [God] having made peace through the blood of his [Christ’s] cross, by him [Christ] to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” The apostle is very specific and emphatic about the fact that in Christ’s cross all the creation, the earthly and the heavenly, is reconciled to God. All shall therefore, be saved. God snatches His own creation out of the dirty hands of the wicked and not only restores it to its original pristine purity and beauty, but raises it to a much higher level of glory in the new heavens and the new earth, when heaven and earth shall become one creation.
.
Hence, to speak of God’s grace towards the creation is a perfectly Biblical thought and no one can make objection to it. Surely the quotation of Psalm 145:9, used as a proof text for the first point of common grace, is, on the contrary, a powerful text to prove God’s love towards His own creation: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” How true!
.
Gradually the righteous are, for the present, squeezed out of God’s world till they are all but destroyed. Then, at that moment when the devil congratulates himself in the accomplishment of his nefarious purpose, Christ comes in power and glory, and the whole creation is snatched out of the hands of the wicked led by Satan. And, irony of all ironies, that same creation, now glorified, is given to the people of God as their everlasting inheritance, for the meek shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), while the wicked are banished forever in hell.
.
With warmest regards,
Prof. Hanko
Looks interesting! Please continue to update this blog. The issue of common grace is a serious one.
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