Magazine

                      Special
             Reformation
                          issue
                   Abraham Kuyper
                                             and the
         Reformation of 1886

Meditation  - Abraham  Kuype?
       When What Is Mortal Is Swallowed Up by Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Editorially Speaking ._..._....__.._........................................  _ . . . . . . . _ . . . . . .._.... 28

Editorial  - Prof. David J.  Engelsma
        "Father" Abraham or
        The Indebtedness of the PRC to Abraham Kuyper . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Abraham Kuyper:
        A Short Biography  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Doleantie - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...=.. _. 33

Abraham Kuyper
        and the Union of  1892  - Prof. Russell J. Dykstra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The Son of God Eternally our Mediator  - Mr. Marvin Kamps... 39

A. Kuyper, Developer and Promoter
        of Common Grace  - Rev. Char/es J. Terpstra  __..._............... 42

Do We Hold to Kuyper's View of
        Presupposed Regeneration? - Rev. James Laning . . . . . . . . . . . 45                                          Abraham Kuyper
Dr. A. Kuyper, Politician-a Critique  - Rev. Kenneth  Koole . . . . 47

Book Reviews . . .._.................................................................................  53


Vol.  75,  NO.  21
October 15, 1998


                                                                                                                           Fe
      or
F our special Reformation Day issue this year we have chosen the life                                               Standard
      and work of the Dutch Reformed theologian, Abraham Kuyper. The
choice may surprise some. The  Standard Bearer  has been sharply critical                                               Bearer
of the Abraham Kuyper of common grace.
      But there is  more--lyuck more-to Kuyper than common grace. That
"more" explains the reformation of the church in the Netherlands in the                         The Standard Bearer  (ISSN 0362-4692) is a semi-monthly,
                                                                                                except monthly during June, July, and August, published by the
late  lgth century, a reformation of which many in the Reformed churches                        Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc., 4949  Ivanrest
in all the world are heirs.                                                                     Ave., Grandville, MI 49418.
                                                                                                Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
      This  Kuyper's sun is in eclipse today. In the Reformed churches, it is                   P.O. Box 603, Grandville, Ml 49468-0603.
almost completely in the shadow of the same Kuyper's common grace or,                           EDITORIAL OFFICE           CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
worse, the shadow of Arminianism and its daughter, universalism.                                Prof. David J. Engelsma    Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                4949  Ivanrest             6597 40th Ave.
      While remaining critical of certain aspects of Kuyper's theology, the                     Grandville, Ml 49418       Hudsonville, Ml 49426
SB  intends to let the light of Abraham Kuyper shine once again.                                (e-mail:                   (e-mail:  benjwig@juno.com)
                                                                                                engelsma@prca.org)
      Two pieces are Kuyper's own contribution to the special issue. One                        BUSINESS OFFICE            NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
is a selection from his important work on particular grace,  Dat de Genade                      The Standard Bearer        The Standard Bearer
Particulier is  (That Grace is Particular).  This book is being translated into                 Don Doezema                c/o 6. VanHerk
                                                                                                P.O. BOX 603               66 Fraser St.
English for the first time by Marvin Kamps. The second contribution by                          Grandville, Ml             Wainulomata,  New Zealand
                                                                                                  49468.0603
Kuyper is a moving meditation on death on the occasion of the death of                          PH: (616)  531-1490        UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
Kuyper's wife of 36 years. For permission to publish this latter piece, we                            (616) 538-1778       c/o  Mr. Sean Courtney
                                                                                                FAX:  i616) 531-3033       78 millfield, Grove Rd.
are indebted to the William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. It ran                                                         Ballymena, Co. Antrim
                                                                                                                           BT42 3NR Northern Ireland
originally in Eerdmans' fine book,  Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader,
which will be reviewed in the next issue of the  SB.  (Cover art: courtesy
of the Historical Documentation Center for Dutch Protestantism, Free
University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.)  Cl                                     -DJE



                         When What Is Mortal Is
                                Swallowed Up by Life

                                   For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do
                                   not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
                                   so that wkat is mortal may be swallowed up by life. II Corinthians  5:4
     /Given what lies before your someone dies who has not been ill Nothing was of any use. When that
            eyes at the time of death,                   before with the fear of death hang-    last bit of breath expired it was as
            y o u   c a n   o n l y   s a y   t h a t    ing in the sickroom. But those ear-    if~Death  mocked-you with all your
Death, the fearful enemy of God                          lier assaults had been turned away.    unheard prayers and pointless anxi-
and man, finally succeeds in swal-                       After a night of weeping that made     eties. It whispered derisively: "I
lowing up a life so precious to you.                     our hearts weak, joy came in the       won; your morning of joy will never
      This was not the first assault.                    morning. Having reached its apex,      come."
At least it is exceptional when                          the illness subsided again. What              And there you stood with bro-
                                                         an inexpressible luxury, to get a      ken heart by the deathbed. There
*     A meditation published by Kuyper                   loved one back from the brink of       lay your deceased, lifeless, inani-
in De Hera& (a weekly religious peri-                    death.                                 mate, for all the world as if she had
odical) the week after the death of his                     But this time things turned out     been  swallowed up  by death. Swal-
wife on August 25,1899.                                  very differently. Nothing helped.      l o w e d   u p - a   h a r d   w o r d .   De-

26/Standard  Bearer/October  15,1998


voured, as if by a beast of prey.              But now comes God's Word                              of mortality. That act of breaking
All at once, gone: the look of the        which, without in any way dis-                             away from what is mortal so as
eye, the sweet words, the warm            counting the harshness of that re-                         now to unfold in glory is something
handclasp, the facial expression.         ality, turns it around for you. To-                        your deceased could not accom-
Everything clean gone: cold, with-        tally.                                                     plish, nor is it something  YOU can
ered, somber. Life swallowed up                To your bodily eye death is                           do when some day you yourself
by death.                                 what it is and nothing else. But                           die. It is something your Jesus, the
   Those without a choice see it          you also have an eye in your soul-                         prince of life, accomplished-at
that way. Those who know only             an eye that remains stone-blind and                        least  if  there is life in you and you
this world cannot see it any other        sees nothing, not a ray of light, un-                      have been incorporated in Him and
way. And let's be honest: in that         til God turns you around and gives                         His life.
first hard moment when a shock            you spiritual eyesight. Then, to                               So your deceased does not die
passes through the heart, the child       your soul's eye a totally opposite re-                     here with Jesus standing afar off;
of God sees it that way too. It is a      ality unfolds, a reality which shows                       your deceased does not now go  to
dreadfully gloomy thing to stare          you  that- death does not swallow                          Jesus. No, He was present in the
into the dark emptiness of the val-       up life but that in death what is                          dying; in fact, He accomplished it.
ley of the shadow of death as we          mortal is szvallozued up by rife.                          And when death taunted you as
watch a dearly loved one enter                 How can that be? No one can                           though it had won, in that moment
there. Death is there, hauling away       unravel that mystery for you. But                          your Savior smiled at you and
its prey before our eyes; and we          it can be  sol and is so  in Jesus.  He,                   showed you a crown, the palm of
are there, compelled to watch it          the Marvelous One, took hold of                            victory.
happen, overcome by pain and              death, forced it to let Him pass into                          The person alien to this is in a
helplessness.                             glory, and kept open the road be-                          bad way. He who does not believe
    But that is reality-the bitter re-    hind Him so that death would also                          perishes when he dies. Death
ality of death in the visible world.      let all His children pass into glory,                      keeps him in custody. Those who
To deceive yourself by hiding that        unhindered and undisturbed.                                see death thus can speak of conso-
hard reality behind funeral wreaths             Life, true authentic life, is too                    lation and hope only with floral
and flowers, to imagine that you          powerful to remain enclosed within                         wreaths and empty phrases of  self-
can comfort the bereaved with gen-        this earthly tent. In that enclosure                       deception.       The recklessness of
eralities about God's providential        it cannot unfurl its wings. There-                         those who stop their ears to the
love is cowardice. You're not seri-       fore life must finally slough off that                     voice of Jesus, who even try to
ous, you lack courage, if you use a       which is earthly and mortal to push                        break down the principle of faith
blindfold to hide the harshness of        on to the higher reaches of its po-                        in others is thus appalling. Their
death from yourself and others.           tential. It has to break free from                         awakening on the other side will
    You prayed, but God did not           that mortal body. And while it is                          be lethally dreadful.
hear your prayer. Despite your            awful to watch that process of de-                             Thus, on ordinary days God's
prayer, death won. But is not God         tachment, in this way life gets to                         children have no idea whatsoever
almighty? Where is that providen-         where it has to be. Then it unfolds                        how great a grace has come to
tial love when He lets death have         into the fullness of its majesty.                          them. They may  believe.  They may
its way-worse, sends it to you and        Then you realize that, to this end,                        know that the loved ones they see
abandons your suffering one to it?        life first had to swallow up that                          die have been incorporated into
    No. Say rather that death came        which is mortal.                                           Jesus.       Granted, that knowledge
on account of sin and by sin. Let               Accordingly, to the eye that                         does not remove the anxiety of be-
your conscience be touched, and           peers from your soul into eternity,                        ing ill, the harshness of death, the
acknowledge that God's fearful            the dead body does not lie in its                          coldness of the grave. All that re-
wrath was at work in that process         coffin as a sign that death has fi-                        mains. The sense of loss and aban-
of dying. That way at least you           nally triumphed but as a sign of                           donment will certainly follow, and
can tremble before God's holiness.        life's victory. It is the broken                           the heart's wound will inevitably
But to babble about providential          shell-more precisely, it is the bro-                       bleed.
love when God lets bitter death rob       kenness of the shell-which shows                               But over and above life in the
you of the dearest thing you had          that life has now become free and                          visible world, with its pain and
on earth, when you see a precious         breathes in a higher atmosphere.                           deep sorrows, stands that other re-
life wither, disappear, swallowed               The brokenness of the body,                          ality which is even more certain
up before your eyes-that's lying          which is otherwise hard and cruel,                         than the things that make you
to yourself. That you cannot do           is now the sign of liberation, tan-                        weep here. From that reality shine
with any sincerity. That is playing       g i b l e   e v i d e n c e   t h a t   l i f e   h a s    out to you a holy joy and a heav-
with words right up to the grave.         wrenched itself free from the bonds                        enly peace.       This perception can

                                                                                                           Ucfober   15,  `/998/Standard  Bearer/27


be so powerful that you may expe-        selves to exist only for God and for                     comes except at the moment, and
rience the very thing that prompted      his holy name, both in life and in                       never otherwise than under those
Paul to write: " . . .we would rather    death, here and in the world to                          circumstances, which He deemed
be away from the body and at             come. Surely, He is our Father and                       best for the full realization of His
home with the Lord" (II Cor.  5:8).      we are His children; He is our Mas-                      counsel and for the praise of His
    Don't say there's something          ter, and we are His servants.                            name. Then freely say that the
sickly about this language of faith,         For life is good only so long as                     weeping of the evening and the joy
that a person so minded becomes          we do  His work  here and labor at                       of the morning  [Ps.  30:5] dwell in
unfit for his vocation here below.       the task  He assigned  US. But then                      the same heart.
Yes, this charge is on the mark if       that is also our imperative calling.                         The inner life of those who
you merely worship your God and          Then we are born to serve Him,                           want to live solely for their God is
your Jesus as holy beings who ex-        and born again with no other ob-                         very mixed indeed. There is weep-
ist to help you, to save you, to lead    ject but to  gIorify Him in the Son                      ing over the acute pain felt by their
you into eternal life-that is, if you    of His love. He gave us faith not                        wounded heart.             But from that
want to be at the center of things       to beatify us but to make Himself                        same heart also rises the sound of
and construe God's holy ordi-            great in our salvation. Then our                         rejoicing and praise for what God
nances solely in your own interest.      life is the Lord's, whether we re-                       prepared for the loved one who
But the charge is  not  true if you,     main here or whether we enter                            went away and for what He left in
along with your dead and those re-       eternity.                                                this life by way of consolation,
maining with you, know your-                 And then  our  death and the                         love, and holy calling.  0
                                         death of our loved ones never



                              66Father99 Abraham
                                                               or
                   The Indebtedness of the PRC to Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper is no tural influence and dominion. Abraham Kuyper as a Reformed
          longer held in high esteem         The Reformed world acknowl-                          theologian. His theology, although
          in the Reformed churches.      edge Abraham Kuyper, if they ac-                         imperfect, was solid, sound, bibli-
In his day-some 100 years  ago-          knowledge him at all, as the phi-                        cal, and  creedal Reformed doctrine.
he  bestrode the Netherlands like a      losopher of common grace. About                          By this theology and on behalf of
colossus. He cast a long shadow          Kuyper the Reformed theologian                           this theology, Kuyper reformed the
across much of the Reformed              they are silent. For them Kuyper                         church of Christ in the Netherlands
world. That shadow lingered for          is the man of only two books:  Lec-                      at the end of the  19'h century. In
many years. But today Kuyper the         flares on Calvinism  and  De  Gemeetie                   its fundamentals it was the gospel.
Reformed theologian is rejected, if      Grafie (Common Grace).                                       T h e   P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d
not despised.                                This is a perennial perversity                       Churches  (PRC) are indebted to
    There are still theologians and      in the church. Luther noted it in                        Kuyper the theologian. We might
churches that honor Kuyper the           his controversy with Erasmus.                            speak of him as "father" Abraham
theoretician of a Christian culture,     Men are eager to collect all the                         in acknowledgment of the use that
the man of social action, and the        dung that they can find in the fa-                       Jesus Christ made of him in giving
successful politician. But no one        thers, while carefully overlooking                       existence and life to these churches.
speaks out in appreciation of            the gold. Luther was commenting                              The indebtedness of the PRC to
Kuyper the Reformed theologian.          on Erasmus' examination of the                           Kuyper is a fact of history. The
When his name comes up (as it            church fathers to gather many quo-                       founding members of the PRC were
does this year of the  100th anniver-    tations favoring the free will of the                    men and women who were put out
sary of his lectures on Calvinism        sinner, while ignoring their state-                      of the Christian Reformed Church
at Princeton Seminary), it is to         ments on the enslaved will.                              (CRC). Many members of the CRC
honor him as a champion of  cul-             W i t h   t h i s   a r t i c l e   I   h o n o r    were Dutch immigrants who had

28/Standard  Bearer/October 15, 1998


left the apostate national church in         Early in his ministry Hoeksema           While thus embracing the Re-
the reformation of 1886, the             readily acknowledged this influ-             formed doctrine he revives the
"Doleanfie." Kuyper was the lead-        ence. In the foreword of  Van  Zonde         same in its most strict type. To
ing reformer. Many members of            en Genade (Concerning Sin and                him the line marked by the names
the PRC today are direct descen-         Grace),  co-authored with H. Danhof          of Calvin, Voetius, Comrie repre-
dants of men and women who                                                            sents Reformed theology in its
                                         in the heat of the common grace              most correct development. For it
were delivered from the darkness         controversy, Hoeksema wrote:                 is characteristic of the Reformed
of Arminianism and modernism             "The great Netherlands leader                doctrine, that it deduces all things
into the light of the Reformed faith     (Abraham Kuyper) has written                 from God and makes all things re-
by means of Abraham Kuyper.              much with which we heartily                  turn to God. Hence Dr. Kuyper is
    Some years ago I myself stood        agree. When we read his  Daf de              not satisfied until every dogma
before a small, red-brick church         Genade Parficulier is (That Grace is         has been traced to its deepest roots
building in Joure, Friesland. The        Particular)  r we feel ourselves thor-       and set forth in its inner connec-
church belongs to the denomina-          oughly one with him" (p. 9; this           tion with the divine decree.... The
                                                                                      various Reformed doctrines are to
tion founded by Kuyper. In this          and all other quotations from                him . . . one world of ideas, one
church my paternal grandfather           Dutch titles in the editorial are my         strictly coherent system (cited in
was baptized and then reared un-         translation).                                L. Praamsma, Let Christ be King:
til as a young man he emigrated to           In 1930, in an article in the            Reflections on the Fife and Times of
the United States where he joined        Sfandard Bearer  on "Dr. Abraham             Abraham Kuyper, Paideia,  1985, pp.
the Hope CRC of Grandville in            Kuyper and Common Grace,"                    114,115).
Western Michigan.  1. thanked God        Hoeksema spoke highly of Kuyper
for "father" Abraham on behalf of        and his theology:                              Second, at its heart this theol-
myself and my own family.                                                           ogy is the confession that the grace
    The debt that the PRC owe to           Although we refuse to worship            of God in Jesus Christ is sovereign
Kuyper as a servant of Christ is           him or to make him the court of          and particular. The theology of
doctrinal. Because doctrine is the         last appeal in Reformed theology,        Kuyper (in distinction from his phi-
main thing for the church, the debt        as is often done . . . and although      losophy) is found in his  Dat de
of the PRC to Kuyper is great.             it is our conviction that he de-         Genade  ParticuZier  is;  his commen-
    The members of the PRC them-           parted from the line of Reformed
                                           thinking in his development of the       tary on the Heidelberg Catechism
selves may not be aware of their           theory of Common Grace; yet, it          (E Vofo Dordraceno); De Leer der
doctrinal indebtedness to Kuyper.          must not be forgotten that he was        Verbonden (The Doctrine  of  the Cov-
Usually Kuyper's name comes up             instrumental to a great extent in        enants);  and the  Dictafen Dogmatiek
among us as a father of common             the restoration of Reformed theol-       (Kuyper's dogmatics lectures at the
grace, which teaching we repudi-           ogy (SB 6, no. 13 [April 1, 19301:       Free University).
ate as erroneous.       In addition,       304).                                        Daf de Genade Particulier is
Herman Hoeksema seldom indi-                                                        (Kruyt, 1884) is a grand, moving
cated his own dependency on the              What, in briefest summary, is          defense of particular, sovereign
theology of Kuyper. He almost            the theology of Kuyper that has            grace against the heresy of a uni-
never quoted Kuyper with ap-             come to the PRC by way of Herman           versal, ineffectual grace of God in
proval. The many references to           Hoeksema?                                  Jesus Christ and His gospel.
Kuyper are critical.                         First, there is the heartfelt con-     Kuyper  began  by explaining the
    This is unfortunate and mis-         viction (on which everything is            three main texts that open and se-
leading. Although Hoeksema cor-          staked) that sound doctrine is nec-        cret Arminians always raise against
rected, developed, and put his own       essary and primary for the church;         particular grace: I John  2:2; I Timo-
stamp on the theology of Kuyper,         that this doctrine is the historic,        thy  2:4; and II Peter  3:9. All have
the theology of Hoeksema is essen-       confessional Reformed truth; that          the elect, and the elect only, in
tially that of Kuyper. As Kuyper         this doctrine is God-centered; and         view. Mentioning that his own col-
faithfully confessed and developed       that this doctrine is a system.            leagues in the national church
the theology of Calvin and the Re-       Herman           Bavinck    described      cursed him from the pulpit for
formed tradition, on the basis of        Kuyper's theology this way:                teaching it, Kuyper insisted that
the confessions, so Hoeksema re-                                                    Christ died only for the elect. He
ceived and worked with the tradi-          Avoiding all Apologetics, Dr.            also taught that God's grace in the
tion as it came to him in large part       Kuyper proceeded in a thetical           gospel is intended for and directed
through Kuyper.                            manner. He chose his standpoint
                                           not on the outside but within faith,     to the elect alone. God desires the
    Herman      Hoeksema          was      planted himself squarely on the          salvation of the elect only.
heavily influenced by the theology         basis of  the~~infallible  Scriptures        Kuyper taught eternal, uncon-
of Abraham Kuyper.                         and the Reformed Confession....          ditional election accompanied by

                                                                                          October  15,1998/Standard   Bearer/29


eternal, unconditional reprobation.                Jesus Christ is head of the covenant                         To say that in Baptism, according
In his De Leer deu Verbonden, he as-               of grace, as Adam was head of the                            to the Form of Baptism, the prom-
serted that one who refuses to con-                covenant of creation in Paradise.                            ises of eternal salvation are given,
fess reprobation thereby refuses to                Christ, Kuyper stated, is "Head of                           personally and essentially, to ev-
confess biblical election: "Election               the covenant of grace"  (p. 197).                            ery baptized child, head for head,
                                                                                                                is  nothing other than a destruc-
is always accompanied by its dark                        Christ's  headship  of the cov-                        tion (verniefigen),   by Arminian poi-
shadow. Without confessing rep-                    enant implies that the covenant of                           son, of the rich life that fragrantly
robation, you also do not confess                  grace is established only with the                           wafts to you from this formula
election.     To suppose that you                  elect. This follows also from the                            (pp.  320-326).
could be able to have the one with-                close relationship between election
out the other is playing with                      and the covenant. Election and                                 This is familiar language to ev-
words" (in  Uit  het  Woord,  vol. 2,              covenant are not "two (opposite)                           ery Protestant Reformed Christian,
Kruyt, 1885, p. 320).                              poles that exclude each other.                             though he or she may never have
    For Kuyper the order of the                    Rather the covenant of grace is the                        read a word of Kuyper.
eternal decrees is supralapsarian.                 glorious bed through which the                                 In 1924, the CRC officially com-
This order, he thought, was more                   water of life flows to us from the                         mitted itself to the  phibsophy   of
biblical, as well as more glorifying               depths of election."                                       Abraham Kuyper: the  culture-
to God.                                                  Kuyper vehemently rejected                           forming, world-conforming theory
    The actual saving of the elect                 the notion that the covenant dif-                          of common grace. In the person of
sinner is the sovereign work of God                fers from election by including the                        Herman Hoeksema, it banished the
alone apart from any cooperating                   reprobate: The covenant of grace                           fheology  of Kuyper. This theology
activity on the part of the sinner.                "aims only and exclusively at the                          now finds a home in the PRC. And
This was Kuyper's doctrine of im-                  elect. No one is a member in that                          hardly anywhere else.
mediate regeneration. Only the                     covenant other than the one who                                Space would fail me to tell of
teaching that the Spirit regenerates               receives or has been appointed to                          Kuyper's defense of the antithesis
without the means of the preached                  grace. The rich, glorious promises                         and of his recovery of the au-
Word explains the  regeneration-                   that God the Lord has included in                          tonomy of the local congregation.
and salvation-of elect infant chil-                His covenant of grace are abso-                                What a theology!
dren of believing parents. But this                lutely not offered upon an uncer-                              This is our debt!
teaching also safeguards the gra-                  tain chance, but are applied to the                            T h a n k   G o d   f o r   A b r a h a m
ciousness of regeneration: the new                 elect children of the inheritance in                       Kuyper the theologian and re-
birth is not at all the work of the                the light."                                                former of the church!  Ll            ~=
sinner himself, is not at all a change                                                                                                            -DJE
dependent on the sinner's faith.
    For his confession of God's sov-
ereignty in salvation, Kuyper was                                    Abraham Kuyper:
"accused . . . of hyper-Calvinism"
(Praamsma,  Let Christ be King, p.
91). Within the Reformed commu-                                    A Short Biography
nity, this charge is final confirma-
tion that one is, in fact, teaching                                                                                    Prof. Herman Hanko
the gospel of grace (see Rom.  9:19,
20). As is always the case, the slan-
der came, not from avowed en-                                                                                 all the important posts in the
emies of the Reformed faith but                    Childhood and Youth                                        schools. Kuyper's own father was
from Reformed ministers.                                                                                      somewhere between liberal mod-
    A third vital area of biblical                 Abraham Kuyper was born
                                                               on October  29,1837 to Rev.                    ernism and mildly Reformed.
truth in which the PRC have been                               and Mrs. J. F. Kuyper, in                          Two reform movements had
significantly         i n f l u e n c e d   b y    t h e   s m a l l   f i s h i n g   v i l l a g e   o f    swept the Netherlands-one a mere
Abraham Kuyper is the doctrine of                  Maassluis, the Netherlands. It was                         gesture towards reformation, the
the covenant. In the book, De  Leer                a time of great apostasy in the Re-                        other a genuine reform of the
der  Verborzden,  Kuyper traced the                formed Church, and Modernists                              church. The first, called the  Reveil
covenant of grace to the triune be-                occupied thousands of pulpits and                          (Renewal), had spread throughout
ing of God, thus suggesting that the                                                                          Protestant Europe, was more hu-
covenant is a relationship of love                 Prof. Hanko is professor  of  Church   His-                manistic than ecclesiastical, and
and life. On the basis of Romans                   fory and  Ne&  Tesfamenf  in the  Profes-                  hoped to bring reformation into the
5:12ff., Kuyper established that                   fanf Refortned Seminary.                                   church from within. The second,

BO/Standard  Bearer/October  75,  1998


called De  Afscheiding  (The Separa-         comuarison between Calvin's and              His first congregation was the
tion), was led by Hendrik  DeCock,           a  L&sco's  views of the church,         small church of Beesd, from which
and was composed of thousands of             Kupper could find none of  a             he moved to Utrecht, a church of
godly and pious people who were              Lasco's  works,- though he searched      35,000 members and eleven minis-
among the lower classes, whom                throughout the libraries of Europe.      ters. Here he had his first confron-
Kuyper himself was later to call de          An old minister, the father of one       tation with the ecclesiastical hier-
kleine  Ztlyden  (the little folk). These    of his liberal professors, had a com-    archy, which was to lead in the fu-
had separated from the false state           plete set, perhaps the only one in       ture to a split. After three years
church to re-establish the church of         Europe. Kuyper considered this al-       he moved to Amsterdam, the most
Christ. Kuyper was not touched               most miraculous and a special evi-       influential, the largest, and the
by either movement.                          dence of God's providential direc-       most prestigious church in the
    Bram (as he was called) was              tion of his life.                        Netherlands. It had 140,000 mem-
home-schooled and early learned                  The second experience was            bers, 136 officebearers, 28 minis-
French and German. He  ~was  a               brought about by a complete ner-         ters, 10 sanctuaries, and 4 chapels.
promising student from the outset            vous collapse due to overwork,               Kuyper was not only a superb
and not only showed an aptitude              during which time Kuyper could           preacher, but he was also an effec-
for languages, but quickly mas-              do nothing but build a model ship        tive liturgist. His prayers were elo-
tered whatever was put in his way.           and read light fiction. In reading       quent and brought God's people to
He studied in Middleburg and                 Charlotte M. Yonge's book, The           the throne of grace. His reading
Leiden when his family moved to              Heir of  Redcliffe,  he was so moved     of Scripture was so powerful that
these cities to prepare himself for          by how God had humbled the ar-           his colleague once said that hear-
university work. He graduated                rogant main character of the book        ing Kuyper merely read Psalm 148
from "gymnasium" in 1855 and de-             that he later wrote: "What I lived       was clearer exposition than most
livered the valedictory address in           through in my soul in that moment        sermons on it and brought him to  -
German on the subject: "Ulfilas, the         I fully understood only later, yet       tears.
Bishop of the Visigoths, and His             from that hour, after that moment,           How effective he would have
Gothic Translation of the Bible."  ~~~       I scorned what I formerly es-            been if he had remained a preacher
    His post-graduate studies were           teemed, I sought what I once dared       is impossible to say, but it was a
in the University of Leiden, a  280-         to despise."                             loss greater than can be described
year-old school with an enrollment               The third experience took place      that Kuyper resigned from the min-
of about 500 students. All the in-           in his first congregation where          istry in 1874 in the interests of en-
struction he received was thor-              were a few genuine Christians.           tering politics. That marked the
oughly modernistic. He graduated             One, a peasant girl of thirty,           beginning of the decline of his ef-
in 1858  summa cum laude  and en-            Pietronella Baltus, refused to shake     fectiveness as a Reformed man.
tered the Divinity School in Leiden          his hand and explained her actions
to prepare for the ministry. No              by telling him that he was uncon-        The Journalist and Writer
wonder that when Kuyper gradu-               verted and not fit to be a minister.         Kuyper's works fill a large
ated from Divinity School in 1861            Kuyper was stunned by this, but          shelf and are on such a variety of
and earned his doctorate in 1863             had the humility to inquire further      subjects that one marvels at his vast
he was a thorough-going Modern-              from these humble folk, who sent         learning and extensive knowledge
ist of no use to God or man.                 him back to Calvin and the Re-           of almost any subject to which he
                                             formed fathers to learn the Re-          applied himself. Already while in
Conversion and Early Ministry                formed faith.                            Utrecht he became editor of  De
    But God had other plans for                                                       Hera&  (The Herald), a weekly, and
this young man; he was destined              The Preacher                             remained in this post till the end
to become one of the greatest and                After his conversion, Kuyper         of his life. In 1872 he became edi-
most influential Reformed preach-            became a powerful and effective          tor of  De  Standaavd  (The Standard),
ers that either this century or the          preacher of the Reformed faith,          a Christian daily newspaper, and
last has seen. To fashion him in             who was used by God to bring a           he held that post for almost 50
the proper mold required his con-            revival of the Reformed faith to the     years, until he was 82 years old.
version. Kuyper tells us that three          Dutch church. He was an extraor-         He published a Dogmatics, a three-
elements played a part in humbling           dinary exegete, a forceful orator,       volume exposition of the Heidel-
him and bringing him to God.                 and a fearless critic of Modernism.      berg Catechism, a three-volume
    The first experience took place          He moved many to love the Re-            work on "Encyclopedia," a three-
in his university days and did not           formed faith and he moved many           volume work on common grace,
bear its fruit till later. While work-       enemies of the gospel to hate him        and hundreds of meditations pub-
ing on an essay which dealt with a           passionately.                            lished in various books. These  lat-

                                                                                                October 15,  1998/Standard  Bearer/31


ter are some of his finest writings      these people came together with De      the orphanage in Amsterdam to
and are still worthwhile reading to-     Afscheiding  of 1834 to form what is    spend time with and speak to the
day.                                     now the  Gereforrneerde Kerken in       children there.
    Kuyper made use of countless         Nederland  (GKN)-which,  though               But, although he fought long
illustrations, some of which he          once Reformed, has now become as        and hard to make Christian educa-
used to prove his point rather than      apostate as the state church in         tion available to all the common
illustrate it. But Kuyper's writings     Kuyper's day had ever been.             folk whose financial burdens were
have been largely responsible for                                                too great to bear, his greatest
his influence in Reformed circles to     The Politician                          achievement was the establishment
the present.                                 While to some Kuyper's great-       of    t h e   F r e e    U n i v e r s i t y   i n
                                         est glory came as a politician, it      Amsterdam.          This university re-
Church Reformer                          nevertheless remains a fact that        mains to the present, although it
    After his conversion Kuyper          Kuyper's involvement in politics        has become a hotbed of liberal and
became an implacable foe of Mod-         did great harm to the cause of the      socialistic thought.
ernism, which had captured the           Reformed faith.                               It was as an educator that he
universities and divinity schools            Early in his ministry Kuyper        was invited to Princeton University
and which had sapped the church          had begun involvement in the Anti-      where he delivered his "Stone Lec-
of its spiritual life. His Reformed      revolutionary Party founded by          tures." This year marks the 100th
preaching and writing had been           Groen  VanPrinsterer.  After resign-    anniversary of those lectures in
blessed by God to turn a signifi-        ing from the ministry and stand-        which his common grace was
cant part of the church back to the      ing for election to the Second          popularized.
faith of their fathers. This brought     Chamber of Parliament, he, after
him into conflict with the church.       twice being defeated, was elected       The Christian Man
    The first confrontation took         in 1874.                                      Kuyper was a godly man who
place in Utrecht when Kuyper's               He was re-elected a year later,     loved and cared for his family.
consistory refused to answer a           suffered a nervous collapse a sec-      While in Beesd he married Johanna
questionnaire sent out in the place      ond time, which removed him from        Hendrika Schaay, a girl from
of classical visitation. This refusal    action for 15 months, returned with     Rotterdam. With her he had five
aroused the fury of the authorities      renewed energy to re-organize and       sons and two daughters. The life
and was finally to become an issue       re-vitalize the party, and finally      of his covenant family was dear to
in the split.                            came to the point where he saw the      him; family devotions were held
    As is so often the case in the       possibility of becoming prime min-      regularly, to which the servants
church, confessional integrity was       ister.                                  were invited; Scripture was ex-
also an issue. The church was no             To become prime minister,           plained and prayers were made;
longer requiring subscription to the     however, was possible only by           mealtimes were times of discus-
creeds in many instances, but was        forming a coalition with the Roman      sion, argumentation, fellowship,
satisfied with a vague promise "to       Catholics.    The justification for     and laughter. The old year never
promote the interest of the king-        forming such a coalition was in         passed away and the new year
dom of God in general and espe-          large part the motivation of            never arrived except Kuyper could
cially those of the State Church."       Kuyper's development of a thor-         be found with his family reading
Kuyper and the consistory of             oughly unbiblical and wholly            Scripture and in prayer. The cus-
Amsterdam would have none of             philosophical theory of common          tom was preserved till the end of
this.                                    grace.                                  his life.
    Young people who showed in               Kuyper's tenure as prime min-             Kuyper was a man of vast
doctrine and walk that they were         ister was short, but Kuyper the         learning who knew and spoke
unbelievers were admitted to mem-        politician and proponent of com-        many of Europe's languages, who
bership in the church and the            mon grace is the Kuyper remem-          wrote on countless subjects, who
Lord's table. In Kuyper's thinking       bered and adored.                       lectured and wrote in Latin; but
this was intolerable.                                                            who also was deeply mystical,
    The hierarchy acted against          Kuyper the Educator                     though in the Reformed sense of
Kuyper and deposed officebearers             Kuyper was always interested        the word. No one can read with-
in the congregation. The result was      in education, Christian education       out being moved Kuyper's book:
that about 200 congregations total-      in general, and Reformed higher         N&j God te Zijn,  translated under
ing 100,000 people left to form a        education &particular. His love         the title, "Nearness To God."
new denomination called  De              for children was great: he cared              He was a man of God with
Doleantie  (The Aggrieved Ones). In      tenderly for his own children, and      many flaws-as we all are. He was
time, also with Kuyper's support,        he took every opportunity to visit      often intolerant even of friends

32ptandard  Bearer/October  15, 1998


who might disagree. He became             the Kuyper of sovereign and par-            Lord. Yet it has never  ruled  as
increasingly crusty and belligerent       ticular grace goes unremembered.            now, never achieved the central
with the passing of the years.               He died on November  8,192O.             importance it has today. Only in
                                                                                      our age could it become what it
When he was gently eased aside            The  funeral,attended  by thou-             really is. Today it stands at the
because the infirmities of old age        sands, was simple and without               zenith of its power. ("Modernism:
made his work less effective, he be-      flowers. The climax was the thun-           A  Fata Morgana  in the Christian
came bitter. But God does not use         derous singing of Kuyper's favor-           Domain," in Centennial Reader, p.
perfect men in His church, and the        ite Psalm,  89:7, 8. On his tomb-           98.)
Reformed faith owes more to               stone were engraved the words:
Kuyper than it realizes. It is with       "Dr. A. Kuyper  / Born October 29,             Much like the modernists of
sadness that Reformed men see the         1837 / And fallen asleep in his Sav-      o u r   d a y , t h e   m o d e r n i s t s   o f
Kuyper of common grace extolled           iour November  8,192O." Cl                Kuyper's day denied every major
by today's apostate church, while                                                   doctrine of Holy Scripture. The
                                                                                    Trinity was impugned. The deity
                                                                                    of Christ was set aside. Jesus' lit-
                The Doleantie                                                       eral, bodily resurrection from the
                                                                                    dead the third day was scoffed at.
                                                                                    The infallibility and reliability of
                                                                                    the Bible was ridiculed. In the area
                                                  Rev. Ron Cammenga of salvation, predestination, limited
                                                                                    atonement, and man's natural de-
                                                                                    pravity were denied by the crassest
                                                                                    universalism. Contrasting modern-
                                          training at the University of
Cracks in the Dike
B                                                                                   ism and the Reformed faith,
                                          Leiden, he wrote:
       y mid-nineteenth century                                                     Kuyper wrote:
       there were gaping cracks in          Orthodox books I neither had nor
       the dike of Dutch Reformed                                                      In matters of faith Modernism
                                            knew. So  it was in those days
orthodoxy. The  Hervormde  Kerk,                                                       chooses human authority as its
                                            among the theological students at
the state Reformed church of                                                           starting point, the very thing
                                  the       Leiden. The orthodox faith was             against which Protestantism
Netherlands, bore few similarities          presented to us in such a ludi-            raised its mighty protest. It for-
to the church of the Synod of Dordt         crous, caricatured way that it             feits the right to adorn itself with
that had stood so firmly against the        seemed a luxury and waste of               the honor of the Reformation if for
Arminian heresy at the beginning            money for students of modest               no other reason than that it never
of the seventeenth century. Not             means to spend anything on such            knew the desperation,  broken-
only had Dordt been undone, but             misbegotten writings. ("Confiden-          heartedness, and mental anxiety
                                            tially," in Abraham Kuyper: A Cen-
the Arminianism of the early 1600s                                                     from which Luther cried out to his
                                            fennial  Reader, ed. James D. Bratt,
had given way to full-blown mod-                                                       God. The Reformation sought 
                                            p. 56).                                                                            re-
ernism by the mid-1800s. This was                                                      dempfion  for the troubled heart,
                                                                                       Modernism only the  solution  to an
cause for great grief among those             Kuyper was at first a disciple           ingenious problem. This is why
still committed to the truths of          of liberalism, but God in His grace          Modernism only knows the real-
Holy Scripture and the Reformed           led Kuyper, through various cir-             ity of visible things and misses the
confessions.     The loudest of the       cumstances, out of the wasteland             reality of the other kind, which is
voices raised against the depar-          of modernism to the Eden of God's            much higher and much more
tures of the church was that of           truth. This conversion took place            firmly established, which speaks
Abraham Kuyper-minister, pro-             especially during the time of                to us of the `immovable' kingdom
fessor, statesman, journalist, pam-                                                    of God even in the fact of sin.
                                          Kuyper's first pastorate in Beesd.
phleteer, and church reformer.                                                         ("Modernism: A Fata Morgana  in
                                          From that time forward Kuyper set            the Christian Domain," in Centen-
    Kuyper himself had received a         himself to oppose with all his               nial Reader, p. 103.)
thoroughly modernistic education          might the modernism that he was
and early in his ministry promoted        convinced had a stranglehold on           In another place Kuyper sketched
the tenets of modernism. Recall-          the church of his day.                    the main tenets of modernism.
ing the days of his theological
                                            Modernism is not even new. All             Tell me, with what else but un-
                                            through the centuries it has               proven premises and therefore
Rev. Cammenga is pastor  of  Southwest      brought about sorrow in the                (from their own viewpoint) cheap
Protestant      Reformed    Church in       church of Jesus and it will con-           dogmas does Modernism start in
Grandville, Michigan.                       tinue to ferment till the Day of the

                                                                                              October  75,1998/Standard   Bearer/33


  all its preaching? Its confession                          fessional subscription among both                  insisted that the church must re-
  can be broadly sketched as fol-                            prospective ministers of the gospel                turn to Dordt.
  lows: `I, a modernist, believe in a                        and church members. Agreement,
  God who is the Father of all hu-                           they said, must be expressed with
  mankind, and in Jesus, not the                                                                                  F o r   m a n y   y e a r s   d i d   n o t   t h e
  C h r i s t ,   b u t   t h e   r a b b i   f r o m        the Reformed confessions. On this                    Arminian have the upper hand so
  Nazareth. I believe in a human-                            basis the consistory refused to ac-                  that the confessor of the free sov-
  ity which is by nature good but                            cept the confessions of faith of and                 ereignty of the Lord was almost
  needs to strive after improvement.                         admit to the Lord's Supper a num-                    completely marginalized? Did not
  I believe that sin is only relative                        ber of young people.                                 the Arminian glory in the fact that
  and hence that forgiveness is                                                                                   the old fable of Dordt had been
                                                                      Voices of protest were raised.
  merely something of human in-                                                                                   done to death by the speech of
                                                             The classical board intervened.
  vention. I believe in the hope of a                                                                             some and the silence of the rest?
                                                             When pastor and consistory re-
  better life and, without judgment,                                                                              Were not their voices crying
                                                             mained adamant in their position
  t h e   s a l v a t i o n   o f   e v e r y   s o u l .                                                         throughout the land: "Though the
  ("Modernism: A  Fata  Morgana  in                          the board took action against them.                  Lord is powerful, I am the master
  the Christian Domain," in Centen-                          Kuyper and approximately eighty                      of my own soul!" ("It Shall Not
  nial Reader, p. 116.)                                      m e m b e r s   o f   t h e   A m s t e r d a m      Be So Among  You,"  in  Centennial
                                                             consistory were suspended from                       Reader,  p. 134.)
This is what it had come to in the                           office. This took place in Decem-                  The old confession must be re-
Reformed churches in the Nether-                             ber of 1885. Kuyper and his fol-                   vived: "God the Lord is almighty
lands in Kuyper's day.                                       lowers appealed to the provincial                  dso in the work of grace."
     Coupled with the doctrinal er-                          board of the Dutch Reformed
rors rampant in the state church                             Church. On July 1, 1886 the pro-                       And the oppressive yoke of the
                                                                                                                ecclesiastical hierarchy must be
was the grievous yoke of a hierar-                           vincial board issued its decision.
chical church government. The re-                            The suspension of Kuyper and the                   thrown off. The church must be
                                                                                                                free, free under Christ to govern
form movement under Kuyper, as                               other elders of the Amsterdam
is so often the case with church ref-                        consistory was upheld. They were                   itself without the interference of
                                                                                                                the state.
ormation, would not only call the                            stripped of their offices in the
church back to the doctrine of the                           Hervormde Kerk.                                      Brother and sisters, every one of
Scriptures, but also restore biblical                             Kuyper refused to recognize                     us is jointly responsible for the
church government.                                           the validity of his deposition. On                   emergence of alien `lordships' and
     The  Hervormde Kerk  was firmly                         Sunday, July 11, 1886 , the first                    `powers' in the church of God. If
under the control of the state. This                         Sunday after his ouster from the                     the people of the Lord in this city
was the result of the reorganiza-                            state church, he preached to the                     had consistently held high the
tion of the Dutch church in 1816                             faithful in his congregation in the                  power of the Lord, had honored
under King William I. The Church                             Frascati auditorium in Amsterdam.                    all power and government only
Order of Dordt had been set aside.                           The theme of his sermon was "It                      for the Lord's sake, had strictly
The autonomy of the local church                             Shall Not Be So Among You,"                          maintained the power entrusted to
                                                                                                                  them and not arrogated power
had been replaced with  synodical                            based on Matthew  20:25,26.  In the                  that did not belong to them, there
hierarchy, the broader assemblies                            sermon he lamented the departures                    would everywhere have been a
with church boards. The domina-                              in the state church.                                 clear sense of the difference be-
tion of the church by the state made                                                                              tween a false invasive power and
the reform of the church from                                  The good are not supported so                      the powers instituted by God. ("It
within well nigh impossible. The                               that evildoers may tremble, but                    Shall Not Be So Among You," in
liberals occupied the seats of au-                             the deniers of the deity of the Lord               Cenfennial Reader, p. 137.)
thority and controlled the univer-                             occupy the seats of honor. Drunk-
                                                               ards and fornicators go Scot-free,
sities, and an entrenched hierarchy                                                                                 The saints who left the state
                                                               while the faithful witnesses of the
shielded them from church cen-                                                                                  Hervorwzde Kerk  under Abraham
                                                               Lord are being threatened with
sure.                                                          ecclesiastical death. Thus the                   Kuyper called themselves the
                                                               deeply sinful, unspiritual, worldly              Doleantie.  The Dutch word means
The Dike Bursts                                                striving runs its course to its own              "lament" or "grief." The word is
    Matters came to a head for                                 shame. And what is most appall-                  expressive of the deep sorrow of
Kuyper and the consistory of the                               ing of all, the unholy business                  these saints over the apostasy in
church in Amsterdam in which he                                wraps itself in the robes of piety.              the church of their forefathers.
served towards the end of 1885 and                             ("It Shall Not Be So Among You,"                 With heavy hearts they found it
                                                               in 
the beginning of 1886. Kuyper and                                     Cenfennial Reader, p. 130.)               necessary to leave that institute and
his consistory insisted on strict  con-                                                                         through separation reform the
                                                             In rejection of modernism, Kuyper                  church.

34fitandard  Bearer/October  15,1998


Rebuilding the Dike                             Kerken.  Among the churches par-                     mental in founding. If he is re-
    There were many throughout                  ticipating in the merger, ongoing                    membered, he is remembered as
the Netherlands who were sympa-                 tensions between the two groups                      the Kuyper of common grace and
thetic to Kuyper and the Amster-                resulted in the formation of "A"                     the Kuyper of politics.
dam consistory. As is always the                churches and "B" churches, often                          But there is another Kuyper.
case in church reformation, many                worshiping side by side in the                       The Kuyper who championed sov-
disappointed. A number of minis-                same city. The "A" churches were                     ereign grace against modernism.
ters and theological professors who             those of  Afscheiding  extraction, the               The. Kuyper who refused to
supported Kuyper, when the break                "B" churches from the Doleuntie.                     knuckle under to ecclesiastical hi-
finally came, failed to join the                     The bold stand for the truth                    erarchy. The Kuyper who was
Doleanfie   and remained in the                 taken by Kuyper and the  Doleantie                   willing to jeopardize prestige and
Hervormde Kerk. Kuyper's friend                 serve as a model for Reformed                        position for the sake of truth. The
and colleague at the Free Univer-               Christians today.                                    reformer  -Kuyper.  God grant that
sity, P.J. Hoedemaker, would not                     Sad to say, Kuyper's legacy is                  the legacy of that Kuyper may en-
support Kuyper in leaving the                   not much appreciated by many in                      rich the Reformed church world
mother church.          Undoubtedly             the Reformed churches, even in                       until the Christ of Kuyper returns.
many were motivated by the secu-                those churches that he was instru-
rity of earthly positions and the re-
luctance to share in the lot of the
despised  Doleerende.   Nevertheless
the movement grew rapidly. The                  Abraham Kuyper and
result was the organization of
Doleantie  churches throughout the
Netherlands. These congregations                       the Union of 1892
established a new church federa-
tion known as the  Nederduitsche                                                                              Prof. Russell Dykstra
Gereformerde Kerken.  By 1889 the
new denomination included some
two hundred congregations, over                                                                      churches fused into one new de-
180,000 members, and approxi-                                                                        nomination, the 
mately eighty ministers.                          Brothers, if the Lord Jesus were                                               Gereformeerde
    From the beginning, Kuyper                    in our midst, we would not dare                    Kerken in  Nederland   (GKN).
                                                  to stay where we are. Let us con-                       The union of the  CGK  and the
and the  Doleantie  sought contact                vene this day as if the Lord Jesus
with     the    c h u r c h e s   o f                                                                Doleantie  is striking because the
                                         the      really were among us. Thank you,                   churches at large, not to mention
Afscheiding,  the Secession of 1834               brothers, that you have come here                  the Reformed church world, are
that had taken place under the                    from your cities and villages. You                 more accustomed to church schism
leadership of men like De Cock,                   did not say, "Leave those
Scholte, and Van Raalte. That was                 `Doleantie churches' to rule their                 and splits than to proper unions.
                                                                                                     This union is even more striking
natural. They had so much in com-                 own affairs." You did not act that                 in light of the diversity that existed
mon. Many of the same doctrinal                   way, but you came.'                                b e t w e e n   t h e   t w o   g r o u p s   o f
and church political issues that pre-                                                                churches. How did this union
cipitated the  Doleanfie  had been at                                                                come about? A study of the his-
the heart of the  A f s c h e i d i n g .       These are the words of Dr.
                                                        Abraham Kuyper addressed
                                                                                                     tory indicates that Dr. Abraham
Kuyper worked tirelessly to bring                       to a delegation of men from
                                                                                                     Kuyper was a driving force behind
about union. His efforts met with               the  Chrisfelijke Gereformeerde Kerken
                                                                                                     the movement toward unity.
success. In 1892, only six years af-            (CGK)  in 1888. He spoke at a joint
ter the expulsion of Kuyper and his             conference of theologians from the                        A s   n o t e d   a b o v e ,   t h e   t w o
                                                                                                     groups were, in many respects,
followers from the state church,                CGK and the Doleanfie. The purpose
                                                                                                     very different. They were differ-
union was effected. The new de-                 of the conference was to work to-
nomination                                                                                           ent first of all in their relative ages.
                  t o o k   t h e   n a m e     ward unity, even a union, between
                                                                                                     By the time of the union, the  CGK
Gereformeerde Kerken in  NederZand.             t h e   C G K   a n d   t h e   D o l e a n t i e
    It took time for the union to be-           churches. By 1892, the union was a                   were 58 years old as churches, hav-
come more than merely formal and                reality, and the two groups of                       ing been organized out of the Se-
                                                                                                     cession 
institutional. Some of the                                                                                       (Afscheiding)  of 1834. The
                                   Afschei-
ding  churches refused to go along              Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church His-            1 Quoted in Louis Praamsma.  Let  Christ
with the joining. They continued                tory and New Testament in the  Profes-               Be King. (Jordan Station, Ontario: Paideia
as the  Christelijke  Gereformeerde             tanf Reformed Seminary.                              Press, 1985)  p. 64.

                                                                                                            October  15,1998@+ndard   Bearer/35


Doleantie came out of the state           Kuyper and other leaders had es-                     that this union of the  Doleantie  and
church in 1886 and thus were only         tablished the Free University in                     the CGK was Kuyper's great desire.
six years old at the time of the          1880 exactly for the training of min-                At the same conference referred to
union.                                    isters in an institution not governed                above, he said, "Of the grand wish
    The two groups were different         directly by the church. They con-                    that we might come to dwell to-
in their origins. The  CGK  was the       sidered this necessary in order that                 gether in one tent, something has
result of a secession. Led by such        theology maintain its high position                  now been fulfilled. I had not dared
men as Hendrick de Cock, Hendrik          of scholarship among the other sci-                  think it: I did not even expect to
Scholte, Simon van Velzen, and            ences.                                               see'it by the time I became an old
Albertus  van Raalte, thousands                There were also serious differ-                 man. To be on the road to unity
pulled out of the state church            ences in doctrine in the two                         already-never, never had I dared
(Nederlandse  Hervormde Kerk,  NHK).      churches. These differences in-                      predict this. The Lord is amazing.`12
The Secession repudiated the state        cluded such significant doctrines as                      Thus he had worked for this
church and labeled it the false           the church, baptism, the covenant,                   union from the beginning of the
church. They viewed the Secession         and eternal justification.                           Doleantie.  He promoted it in  De
as a work of reformation, where the            These real and distinct differ-                 Heraut  (The Herald).  In typical
true church of Christ was re-             ences had been the cause of con-                     Kuyperian style, he not only advo-
formed, that is, formed again. On         flict in the past. While the mem-                    cated the union, he set forth
the other hand, the  Doleantie            bers of the  DoZeantie  were still in                straightforwardly what problems
viewed itself as the continuing           the state church, they had defi-                     he saw in the CGK which, he main-
Hervormde  Kerk  in the Netherlands.      nitely looked down  upo~n  the Se-                   tained, would keep the two parties
They insisted that all the members        cession. They despised these                         separate until they were resolved.
of the  NHK  were members legally         churches and refused to join with                    The  synodical convention held in
under the consistories of the             them.                                                1887 faced the question of what
Doleantie.  They hesitated calling the         Nonetheless, when the  Dolean-                  should be the relationship between
NHK  a false church. They desired         tie  formed, everyone recognized                     the  DoZeantie   and other churches
to continue reforming the local           that the two groups also had much                    that left the  NHK.  It adopted the
churches.                                 in common. In general they had a                     following advice of the committee
    The two groups had their own          common heritage in the Reformed                      of which Abraham Kuyper was the
distinct characteristics. Generally       faith. They represented the cause                    reporter:
speaking, the Secession drew its          of the reformation in the Nether-
membership from the poorer mem-           lands. They both maintained the                        Our starting point ought to be the
bers of society, those who were less      same creeds-the Three Forms of                         undiminished and resolute confes-
well educated. In addition to this,       Unity. They maintained the same                        sion that all those who are com-
the Secession churches were se-           Church Order, that of the Synod of                     mitted to the same confession of
verely persecuted for their stance        Dordt. They used the same liturgi-                     the truth and who follow the same
over against the state church. They       cal forms.                                             church  order when it comes to
                                                                                                 church government, may not, in
also tended to be less precise doc-            Specifically they shared this                     the long run, remain separate
trinally, although they had a lead-       important element, namely, they                        ecclesiastically, and may not rest
ing theologian at the time of the         both came out of the state church.                     until all the sons of the same
union in Herman Bavinck. The              Both formed because of apostasy                        house are again united in a single
Doleantie,  on the other hand, ap-        in the NHK. Therefore, even though                     bond of ecclesiastical  fellowship.3
pealed to the higher classes of so-       they came into existence under
ciety. The members were often bet-        radically different circumstances                        In addition, this convention en-
ter educated. Their numbers               separated by some fifty years, the                   couraged individual consistories to
tended to be more doctrinally pre-        Secession and the  Doleantie  were                   "take up contact with the nearby
cise, especially under the leader-        both church reformations.                            consistory of their churches in or-
ship of Dr. Abraham Kuyper.                    In spite of the many differences                der to give expression to fraternal
    The two churches also had sig-        b e t w e e n   t h e   t w o   g r o u p s   o f    unity in all humility, . . . and also
nificantly different viewpoints on        churches, the union was realized,                    assure them of our hearty willing-
the matter of the training of minis-      and that within a mere six years                     ness to walk with them down paths
ters. The  CGK  had established its       after the Doleantie  churches formed.                of unity on the basis of the Three
own theological school at Kampen.              Our interest is in the question,                Forms of Unity and the Church Or-
They were convinced that the              What role did Abraham Kuyper                         d e r   a s   a c c e p t e d   b y   both."4
churches must have their own              play in this union? In a word, it                    Abraham Kuyper was asked to
school to train their own ministers.      was significant.                                     draw up a letter for the  con-
On the other hand, Abraham                     First of all, it should be noted                sistories' use.

36jStandard  Bearer/October  15, 1998


   Within a month, Dr. Kuyper            unity. His speeches were powerful                      the practical working out of the
had sent out a draft copy to the         and encouraging, and were very                         union, was brought to the  Doleantie
consistories of the  Doleantie.  It      well received by the men of the                        third provisional synod (The
sounds this humble note.                 CGK.                                                   Hague) by appointed  CGK  depu-
                                             Kuyper was active in the writ-                     ties. Abraham Kuyper, as president
  So we have come out [of the NHKI       ing of documents in the process of                     of the synod and member of the
  as those who left later, and thus      unification. He and Dr. F. L.                          negotiating committee that studied
  as greater sinners. We now turn        Rutgers were appointed by the first                    the proposal and conferred with
  to you as our brothers to testify      provisional synod of the  Doleantie                    the  CGK  deputies, guided the de-
  that there is great joy in our                                                                liberations carefully and skillfully.
  hearts. We are joyful, because, af-    (1888) to draft a letter to the synod
  ter a period of sinful waiting that    of the CGK  calling for unity.                         Compromise was worked out to
  continued too long, our eyes have           When (in 1888) the respective                     the point that the  Doleantie  synod
  finally been opened so that we         synods of the two groups failed to                     adopted the proposed basis with
  could see that the path down           agree on the basis for union,                          amendments agreed upon by the
  which we were walking led  no-         Abraham Kuyper persevered. He                          CGK  deputies.
  where.5                                wrote up an Act of Union and pre-                            The final version was adopted
                                         sented it to the deputies of the CGK                   also by the  CGK  synod of Am-
    This letter also expressed "the      for discussion. From the viewpoint                     sterdam in June of 1992, and the
deep desire within us that cries out     of the  CGK  deputies, the Act of                      union was realized. The  GKN  was
for the day on which, through            Union seemed to require far too                        born.* Certain it is that this was
God's gracious favor, all the people     many concessions from them, and                        the desire of many members and
of His inheritance in this good land     too few from the  Dokantie.  The                       leaders in both the churches. Cer-
may be brought together under one        synod of the CGK at Kampen (1889)                      tain it is also, that Abraham
and the same administration of the       agreed. It adopted the Act of Union                    Kuyper, zealous for the unity of the
Word and the holy sacraments." In        only after significant amendments                      church, was an instrument of God
the letter Kuyper pleaded for "an        were made. On the other hand, the                      to bring about the union of 1892.
end to all that must grieve the Holy     Doleantie  provisional synod of                              Several observations must be
Spirit in terms of the relationship      Utrecht adopted the document                           made about this slice of history.
between us. Let us see to it that a      without change.                                        First, it is noteworthy and com-
divided life on the part of all the           Abraham Kuyper promoted the                       m e n d a b l e   t h a t   D r .   A b r a h a m
Reformed people in this country is       union in other ways. One of the                        Kuyper and the  DoIeantie  sought
recognized as sin before God." He        burning issues for the CGK  was the                    out the older  CGK.  This stems from
called on the  CGK  to join the          matter of the school for training                      a twofold realization. First, the
Doleantie  "in finding the spiritual     ministers. They resisted the pro-                      Doleantie  recognized that the Seces-
maturity of love and mercy, which        posal that their school in Kampen                      sion was a legitimate reformation
will in the end break down every         be closed or incorporated into the                     of the church in the Netherlands.
barrier and remove every stum-           Free University. When a position                       Since the  Doleantie  also considered
bling  block."`j                         in faculty of theology became avail-                   itself a true reformation, consis-
    As one of the deputies ap-           able in the Free University in 1889,                   tency demanded that the  DoZeantie
pointed by the  Doleantie  conven-       Kuyper thought he knew a way to
tion, Kuyper pressed for a meeting       take care of the problem. He                            2 Quoted in Hendrik Bouma.  Secessiorz,
between the deputies and the fac-        pressed for the appointment to go                      Doleuntie, and Union: 1834-1892  (Neer-
ulty of the Theological School in                                                               landia: Inheritance Publication, 1995)
                                         to Herman Bavinck, a professor in                      Translated by Theodore Plantinga. P. 64.
Kampen. When this became a real-         Kampen. Although Bavinck even-                          3 Quoted in Bouma,  Union.  p. 31.
ity, Kuyper wrote in  De  Hera&,         tually declined the position,                          4 Quoted in Bouma,  Union. p. 34.
"May the prayers of the churches         K u y p e r ' s   h o p e   w a s   t o   b r i n g     5 Quoted in Bouma,  Union.  p. 35.
now go up without ceasing to the                                                                 6 Quoted in Bouma,  Union.  pp. 35-36.
                                         Bavinck into the Free University,                       7 Quoted in Bouma, Union. p. 41.
Throne of grace as we plead for the      and thus over to the Doleantie  theo-                   8  Not all the churches of the CGK agreed
unity of Confessions."7 Kuyper fre-      logical school.                                        to join the new denomination. The "dis-
quently expressed this sentiment in           Eventually, the  CGK  synod of                    senters" held a synod in 1893 and main-
De  Hera&.   As editor, he used the                                                             t a i n e d   t h e   n a m e   o f   t h e   S e c e s s i o n
                                         Leeuwarden (1891) adopted a new                        churches-the  Chrisfelijke  Gereformeerde
paper as a means to promote the          proposed basis for union. It called                    Kerken.   These churches exist to the present
union as well as provide informa-        for union based on the Three Forms                     day. Eventually they established their own
tion on the progress.                    of Unity (the Reformed confes-                         seminary in Apeldoorn. They hold to a
    At these meetings between the        sions) and the Church Order of                         conditional covenant, but have some dif-
                                                                                                ferences with the "Liberated." Their sister
Dofeantie  men and the CGK men,          Dordt,  1618-`19.  This proposal,                      churches in North America are the Free Re-
Kuyper continued to promote              along with some specifications on                      formed Churches.

                                                                                                          October  15,1998/Standard   Bearer/37


churches explore the possibility of                    defined, becomes sharper, more in       if they are serious about true unity,
unity with the earlier movement.                       focus. To ignore that development       they must nail down which posi-
Secondly, this move stems from the                     and declare merely, "Our basis is       tion on a particular doctrine they
confession that the church is one,                     the Three Forms," is not realistic.     will consider to be within the
and must manifest the oneness in-                          Significant differences in doc-     boundaries of the confessions, and
stitutionally, as much as possible.                    trine have developed since the Re-      which not. Not to do so is to build
     A second noteworthy feature is                    formed confessions were written,        schism into the union.
that the union was based simply                        and conflicting views on certain            This was not totally overlooked
on the Three Forms of Unity and                        doctrines have been proposed            in this process of union in the
the Church Order of Dordt. Even                        within the Reformed camp, all of        Netherlands. A few men here and
though some significant differences                    which are defended on the basis of      there called for discussions on
in doctrine existed, these theologi-                   the confessions. It cannot be, obvi-    theological differences. Sadly, these
cal issues were not discussed and                      ously, that two opposite views are      voices were drowned out by the
resolved. Later, the GKN passed                        both correct. Only one can be. One      mighty chorus for unity, admit-
judgment on some of the issues in                      position stands within the bound-       tedly, a good and proper goal. But
the Conclusions of Utrecht (1905).                     aries of the confessions, the other     true unity is in Christ, who is the
Yet it was a compromise document                       does not. However, when two de-         Truth.  Ll
and it did not settle the doctrines.                   nominations are considering union,
     This stands connected to the fi-
nal observation. The sad fact is that
this union really did not work. Al-
though one denomination was                                       The Son of God
forged, the differences between the
DoZeanfie   a n d   t h e   S e c e s s i o n
churches remained. In cities                                                  Etern@ly
throughout the Netherlands were
f o u n d   ` A '   c h u r c h e s   a n d   ` B '                   our Mediator
churches, often existing within the
same city. Everyone knew that the
`A' churches were from the Seces-                                                                      Mr, Marvin Kamps
sion, and the `B' churches were
from the  Doleuntie.  No `A' minis-
ters would take a call to a `B' con-
gregation, or vice versa. They were                                                            ship, and, what was worse, his en-
different in doctrine, preaching,                      Dr.A. Kuyper was a master
                                                               theologian.    By means of      emies denied him the fellowship of
                                                               his writing, lectures, and      the Spirit and brought down on his
and worship. These differences re-                     preaching, the truth of sovereign,
mained until the time that Dr.                                                                 head the curse.
                                                       particular grace in Christ Jesus for
Klaas Schilder was deposed by the                                                                  One of the books published by
                                                       the elect of God was once again re-
GKN in 1943, and the  GKN "Liber-                                                              Dr. A. Kuyper is entitled That Grace
                                                       stored to the confession and
ated" was formed. Far and away                                                                 is Particular.  I have been busy for
                                                       preaching of many thousands in
the majority of the "Liberated"                                                                some time with the translation of
                                                       the Netherlands. His work was
were the `A' churches of the Seces-                                                            this work. The Reformed Free Pub-
                                                       above all a work of reformation of
sion.                                                                                          lishing Association has agreed to
                                                       the church. It was reformation be-
     The lesson is plain. True unity                                                           make this volume of Dr. Kuyper
                                                       cause it was a return to the Scrip-
is not established merely on the ba-                                                           available to the English reader.
                                                       tures as confessed by the Reformed
sis of "The Three Forms of Unity                                                                   In this work Dr. Kuyper ex-
                                                       church. But this was not without
and the Church Order of Dordt."                                                                poses the unbiblical character of
                                                       a great price that had to be paid
This is not to denigrate the un-                                                               the doctrine of  Christus  Pro Omni-
                                                       by Dr. Kuyper. He had many en-
speakable value of the Reformed                                                                bus,  Christ for all. This theology
                                                       emies. He was accounted a "pa-
creeds-also as "forms of unity."                                                               permeated the Reformed church of
                                                       riah." He was charged with her-
Rather the point is that in the                                                                his day. Kuyper tells us what is
providence of God the truth devel-                     esy and perversion of the truth,        meant by this Christ for all: "By
                                                       they cut him off from their  fellow-
ops in and through the history of                                                              `Christus pro omnibus' is meant,
the church. The truth develops                                                                 that Christ according to the pur-
                                               be-
yond the confessions  - not                                                                    pose and extent of His sacrifice,
                                          outside                                              had died for all men, head for
the boundaries,  understand, but be-                   Mr. Kamps is a member  of  Southwest
yond in the sense that it is better                                                            head, and soul for soul" (p. 3).
                                                       Protestant Reformed Church.

38/Standard Bearer/October  15,199s


".,.the Universalists, or zealots of       ers of the day that they just took               pleteiy Rev. H. Hoeksema's exege-
general grace, maintain: When              for granted that God's gospel of                 sis of these passages echoes that of
Jesus died on the cross, it was            grace in Christ, the cross, was for              Dr. Kuyper. When it came to the
God's will and Christ's intention,         e a c h   a n d   e v e r y   m a n ,that God    subject    o f   p a r t i c u l a r grace,
to bring about the kind of  atgne-         loved all men in Christ, and that                Hoeksema's instruction did not dif-
ment, which if need be was suffi-          God wanted to save  all men head                 fer with that of Dr. Kuyper. In ad-
cient for all men, and which, of-          for head. In order to stem the tide              dition, Kuyper rejects the  well-
fered now in Jesus' name to all            and to call the church back to the               meant-offer of salvation theory un-
men, would be a blessing to so             gospel of Scripture and the creeds               deniably involved in the general
many out of these all, as according        would require all the strength and               grace theory as an idea that denies
to Jesus' intention and expectation        determination and dedication a                   the total depravity of the fallen sin-
desired to accept this salvation;          man could muster. Kuyper says in                 ner: "If it is to be true, what `the
while it remains only  unused,~~by         regard to the church's lack of sen-              proponents of general grace' teach,
so many for whom it was ap-                sitivity to the truth and the unwar-             that, namely, grace is offered to all
pointed, of whom Jesus had in-             ranted criticism that he received for            men, head for head, on the ground
tended and expected, that they             his position that God's grace is par-            that actually and essentially the
would believe, but who had not             ticular: ". . . But how could this be            ransom is already paid for them,
done it" (p. 16).                          otherwise, with a defense of a por-              then by this it must certainly be
    When Kuyper refers to those            tion of the truth,  which now already            supposed, that the sinner, just like
who defend a "Christ for all" as           for fifty years  has not been heard              he was affected by sin, yet rightly
Universalists, he is not identifying       from the pulpits and under foreign               carries in his soul a power, a fac-
them as those who believe that all         influences has died out of the con-              ulty, and an ability in order also, if
will eventually be saved, but as           fession of the greater part of the               that salvation is offered to him, to
those who claim that Christ died           church?" (p. 46, emphasis mine,                  accept it"  (p. 40). And later he con-
for all. Over against this false doc-      MK). In other words, even good                   cludes: "Because in this situation
trine Dr. Kuyper maintained that           people of God lacked spiritual dis-              this is definitely true, that whoever
the Scriptures teach particular            cernment and were easy prey for                  teaches a general grace accepts and
grace: ". . .The Particularists, or ad-    unfaithful men.                                  supposes in the sinner the facul-
vocates of special grace, who main-             But Dr. Kuyper was motivated                ties by nature enabling him to
tain, and teach: By the church must        and inspired by one all encompass-               choose Jesus as his own; and it is
be preached to all creatures, that         ing responsibility: "the honor of                true, therefore, that we oppose this
atonement is accomplished through          God's holy name..." (p. 4). The                  doctrine of `general grace' on the
Christ's death for everyone who            false doctrine of a Christ for all,              very valid basis, as an idea which
believes, has believed or will be-         general grace, or Universalism, for              fails to appreciate what the Bible
lieve; that is, because all believers      Kuyper was a God dishonoring                     has revealed concerning the depth
are elect, only for the elect; not ac-     doctrine which robbed the church                 of the corruption of sin" (p. 41).
cording to the outcome, but accord-        of the essence of her calling, that                  I could call your attention to
ing to Christ's intention and God's        is, to  worship.  How can the believer           many different aspects of Dr.
counsel; and that as concerns ap-          worship, when the preaching pre-                 Kuyper's refutation of  Christzrs pro
plication not in regard to possibly        sents a God who cannot accomplish                omnibus,  Christ for all, but I want
but as yet unconverted persons; but        His will, whose Son is made a beg-               in some detail to present just two
on the contrary as concerns appli-         gar, and whose grace is made in                  aspects of his masterful defense of
cation in regard to persons, whom          most instances insufficient to save,             particular grace and refutation of
the Lord loves with an eternal love,       or when sinners are made to be-                  general grace. In the first place,
even before they were born, and            lieve that their salvation is depen-             Dr. Kuyper made the charge that
whom He `calls by name."'                  dent on their own efforts?                       "general  graceN ought to be re-
    Dr. Kuyper's task was formi-                In refuting the error of "Christ            jected because: "it is unrecon-
dable.    Humanly speaking we              for all," Dr. Kuyper felt obligated              cilable with what the Holy Scrip-
would say impossible. The Re-              first of all to demonstrate that the             tures reveal to us concerning  the
formed church had for many years           texts which the general grace men                being and the attributes  of  the living
not received solid preaching on the        always present as conclusive proof               God" (p. 53). After establishing
subject of particular grace. The           of their position do not teach what              that even the general grace men
state church of Holland had been           they claim. These texts are: I John              have to acknowledge that not all
made nearly completely oblivious           2:2; I Timothy  2:4; and II Peter  3:9.          men are in fact actually saved, but
to what was the truth of the gospel        When you someday are able to                     that many if not most perish in un-
in that regard. The common people          read this explanation of these texts             belief and that God knew this fact
had been so misled by the preach-          you will be impressed how  com-                  eternally, Kuyper writes:

                                                                                                  October 15,  1998,Wandard  Bearer/39


                                             divine being. This abolishes God's          more contradicts every conception
    Nevertheless, people imagine,            essence in the divine being (pp.            of righteousness, than that you
 write, and preach, that the very            55-57).                                     nevertheless refuse to let the slave
 same holy, glorious, the all per-                                                       go freely, for whom the ransom  is
 ceptive and insightful God, in con-              Dr. Kuyper also demonstrated           paid.
 nection with the devising of His          that the doctrine of general grace               And yet, if Jesus has, even as
 plan of salvation, had had the will,      is a denial of God's attribute of             men pretend, fully paid the debt,
 the purpose, the intention, to let        righteousness:                                the ransom, for every person, and
  His only begotten Son at Golgotha                                                      the proponents of  Universalism
 pay "the ransom" also for all them                                                      for all that acknowledge them-
  who would go into perdition.                    Yes, with nearly all God's at-         selves, that, yes, let us in deep sor-
    Teaching, therefore, that God            tributes, which by the Holy Scrip-           row acknowledge, that the major-
  the Lord had fully known: "They            tures are shown to be in the di-            ity  die in their sins, how would
  cannot be saved!" and that the             vine being, this doctrine of gen-           you then be able to maintain the
  very same God nevertheless had             eral grace collides. For example,            righteousness of a God, who first
  made a plan of salvation as if He          to mention only one, with his in-            allowed the ransom for the lost to
  could really save them; as if their        violable and unimpeachable  righ-           be paid, and then counts the sin
  salvation certainly was conceiv-           teousness.                                  against them nonetheless, as if this
  able; and as if He imposed it then,             Everyone will agree with this,          were not paid?  (p. 59).
  according to the intention of His          that in an obvious way nothing                                    (to be cont.)  Cl
  plan, for the salvation actually of
 all.Two representations which of
  course absolutely exclude one an-         A. Kuyper, Developer
  other and which cannot for a mo-
  ment co-exist, not even in the lu-
  cid mind of a man; not to men-
  tion then the being of God.                           and Promoter of
    In this way is set forth the pos-
  sibility in the being of God, that
  He, the Holy One, would have de-                         Common Grace
  vised something approximately in
  this manner: "They will certainly
  perish; but who knows, I want still                                                      Rev. Charles J. Terpstra
  with all my heart to save them all;
  let me act a moment as if I did
  not know that they will die in
  their sin, and set for a plan of sal-
  vation then, wherein I for a mo-                                                      tian Reformed Church (CRC) in
  ment set aside my divine thoughts                                                     1924 (the "Three Points of Common
  and forget what I still know and         The legacy left by Dr.
                                                    Abraham Kuyper to the Re-           Grace"). The PRC have always
  see."                                             formed faith and churches is        maintained that God has but one
    . . . The issue is God's essential     for the most part a great and ben-           kind of grace, viz., His saving grace
  attribute....                            eficial one. A significant exception         in Jesus Christ, and that this grace
    And because the doctrine of            to this is Kuyper's development              is particular, i.e., only for those
  general grace says to us: God cer-       and promotion of the doctrine of             whom God chose in Christ in His
  tainly knew from eternity, for ex-       common grace. As much as we ap-              eternal decree of election. It is our
  ample, that Judas would not be
  saved, and yet God had thought           preciate what Kuyper gave to the             position that God never has or
  in connection with the devising of       Reformed churches, including our             shows any grace to the reprobate
  His plan of salvation: who knows         own, in many areas, we must criti-           wicked, for they are outside of
  whether something will not come          cize, condemn, and cast away his             Christ and as such are the objects
  or happen whereby he is indeed           teaching on common grace.                    of the holy hatred of God and un-
  saved; and for that reason God has              It is no secret that the Protes-      der His just wrath. The good gifts
  had in His plan and Christ has           tant Reformed Churches  (PRC)                God bestows on the unbelieving
  had in His death the intention, for      have their origin in a rejection of          reprobate do indeed reveal the in-
  example, really and of a truth to        the doctrine of common grace as it
  pay the ransom price for Judas                                                        herent goodness of His being. But
  also.                                    was officially adopted by the Chris-         they are also expressions of His
    We very earnestly resist that no-                                                   sovereign displeasure with and dis-
  tion, and do so with all the             Rev. Terpstra is pastor of First Protes-     favor toward the ungodly, serving
  strength that is in us. This idea        tant Reformed  Church  of Holland, Michi-    to leave them without excuse as
  infringes upon the Godhead in the        gan                                          they despise and abuse God's gifts,

40/3tandard Bearer/October  15,199s


T


     and thus to increase their condem-           But Kuyper did believe and           him the support he needed, he be-
     nation.                                  teach that besides God's special         lieved. Still more, in connection
        What is of interest to us in this     grace for His elect He has a com-        with these two things, Kuyper had
     special issue devoted to Dr. A.          mon grace for all men.  Heused the       developed a growing aversion for
     Kuyper is the fact that the CRC in-      Dutch word  gratie  to distinguish it    w h a t   h e   b e l i e v e d   w a s   a n
     herited much of her doctrine of          from-saving grace, The doctrine of       "Anabaptist" spirit in the churches
     common grace from  Kuyper.  Not          this "grace" Kuyper developed in         of the Netherlands. There were Re-
     indeed all of it, for the CRC went       his three-volume work, De Gefneene       formed Christians who believed
     beyond Kuyper is some aspects of         Gratie (On  Common Grace),  pub-         that being true to the Reformed
     its teaching on common grace. But        lished in 1902-1904. (Excerpts from      faith meant living a godly life of
     much of her doctrine is rooted in        this work have recently been trans-      separation from the world. That
     Kuyper's development of common           lated into English and published in      meant no cooperation with the
     grace. That is of interest to us, we     the fine volume  Abraham  Kuyper, A      worid in any realm, whether it be
     say, because an understanding of         Centennial Reader, edited by James       labor, religion, or politics. Kuyper's
     Kuyper's doctrine will better en-        D. Bratt; Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998.)        common grace sought to reprove
     able us to understand the CRC's              Ironically, Kuyper developed         this narrow view of the Christian's
     doctrine. At the same time it will       his views on common grace in con-        life in this world and create a  full-
     lead us to see that a rejection of       nection with two solid Reformed          orbed world and life view.
     the doctrine of common grace as          doctrines, the absolute sovereignty           The doctrine of common grace
     adopted by the CRC means a  ore-         of God over all things and the to-       which Kuyper developed and pro-
     jection of its source in Kuyper.         tal depravity of mankind through         moted consists of two main ele-
                                              the fall of Adam in paradise. These,     ments, a negative element and a
     Kuyper's Development of                  he said, form the basis for God's        positive element. The negative is
     Common Grace                             general favor to all men. Because        God's favorable restraint of sin in
         As a Reformed church theolo-         God rules over all creation and all      the wicked. Kuyper taught that be-
     gian, Kuyper well knew and prop-         men, He gives them grace to live         cause of the Fall man is totally de-
     erly held to sovereign particular        in His world and carry out their         praved, given over to all wicked-
     grace. Standing on the Scriptures        calling. And because man is radi-        ness in nature and in deed. If this
     and the Reformed confessions, he         cally and totally depraved, God          sinfulness is not held in check, man
     believed and taught that God's sav-      shows all men favor by holding           will quickly destroy himself and
     ing grace in Jesus Christ was only       their sin in check so that they are      there will be no human race. But
     for the elect. He referred to this as    able to Iive together in society and     this would make the development
     God's "special" grace. He even re-       so that His church can live and          of creation mankind, and the
     served a special word in the Dutch       grow in the world.                       church impossible. For this reason
     for it  -  genade.  He was adamant           But Kuyper's motivation for          God bestows on all men a certain
     that this saving grace is in no sense    developing the doctrine of common        grace which restrains their wick-
     common or general, i.e., for all         grace was not solely theological; it     edness, preventing them from be-
     men. It is limited to the elect by       was also very practical. For one         ing as wicked as they could be and
     God's sovereign decree and by            thing, he sought to answer the           from walking in all the vile sins
     Christ's atoning death. And this         growing effects of modernism in          they would. This restraint of sin in
     grace is limited in the preaching of     the church-world. He noted that          man  IS not just external but also
     the gospel. The preaching is an ex-      modernism had a broad vision of          internal. God by His Holy Spirit
     pression of God's favor only to the      the world and for the world, but         works in the wicked, even in their
     elect, and, in fact, through the         that this vision was grounded in         hearts, holding them back from sin.
     preaching God gives grace only to
                          -~~      -~         humanistic rationalism. He wanted        Because of this "grace," the wicked
     them. In this respect Kuyper's           the Reformed faith to have the           can live together in society, cre-
     teaching on common grace is mark-        same broad vision, but to be             ation is prevented from being ru-
     edly different from that which the       grounded in the sovereign work of        ined  ~by mankind, and the church
     CRC adopted in 1924. She went be-        God. Common grace gave him the           can live and grow in the world
     yond Kuyper in her first point of        answer, he thought. Further,             among evil men.
     common grace, teaching that even         Kuyper had become involved in a               But Kuyper did not stop with
     God's saving (special) grace is com-     political career in the Netherlands      this merely negative element. He
     mon in that in the preaching of the      and needed some justification for        went on to teach that there is a
     gospel God shows His favor (grace)       his programs and for his coopera-        positive element in God's common
     to all who hear, elect and repro-        tion with other religious and secu-      grace to all men. By means of com-
     bate, believing and unbelieving.         lar groups in these programs.            mon grace the natural man can also
     This Kuyper rejected.                    Again, common grace provided             do good and positive things in this

                                                                                              October 15,1998/Standard  Bearer/&


world. He becomes creative and            known and widely accepted. It has         CRC has steadily departed from
can develop the powers in God's           spread throughout the world,              the historic Reformed faith and
creation for good and useful pur-         wherever       Dutch      Reformed        practice. Due to her belief in God's
poses. He uses his God-given abili-       churches have been established and        general favor toward and good
ties and God's creation gifts for the     have done mission work, and               work in the world she has imported
benefit of mankind. He is able to         wherever those in the Kuyperian           the "blessings" of higher criticism
fulfill the original "cultural man-       tradition have established Christian      of the Bible, evolutionism, femi-
date" of Genesis  1:26-28. He can         schools. Perhaps especially in            nism, unbiblical divorce and re-
develop a culture that is good be-        North America (the U.S. and               marriage, rock music, and movies.
fore God, approved by Him and             Canada) Kuyperian common grace                But the influence of Kuyper's
pleasing to Him. This is, to be sure,     has had a major impact. Many of           common grace was made in North
not saving good but only civil            those who immigrated to North             America also through a personal
good. Nevertheless, it is real good,      America from the Netherlands dur-         visit he made to the U.S. in 1898.
because it is the fruit of God's gen-     ing this century came with a firm         That year he was invited to present
eral grace working in him. It is an-      belief of common grace as defined         the Reformed worldview in a  se-
other irony in Kuyper's teaching          and developed by Kuyper. These            riesof lectures at Princeton Theo-
that he believed that man's ability       immigrants further disseminated           logical Seminary in Princeton, New
to develop himself and his world          his views when they arrived in            Jersey. He gave six lectures, known
under God's common grace would            these new lands. Ministers pro-           as the "Stone Lectures on Calvin-
nevertheless ultimately result in         moted it via the pulpit and cat-          ism." In these lectures Kuyper de-
the development of the  anti-             echism room. Church members ad-           fended a Calvinistic worldview
Christian kingdom. The fruit of           vanced it via discussions and the         based on his doctrine of common
God's general grace to men is the         spread of his writings. And Chris-        grace. Not only were these lectures
greatest kingdom of evil in the his-      tian school teachers taught it and        influential when he gave them, but
tory of the world!                        applied it to the children in the         they have continued to be so due
    An important implication of           classroom.                                to their publication and wide dis-
this common grace teaching of                 This is how the common grace          tribution in this country and be-
Kuyper is that the Christian who          of Kuyper found its way into the          yond. This year, on the occasion of
is saved by God's special grace can       CRC. In her three points of com-          the 100th anniversary of these lec-
and ought to cooperate with the           mon grace adopted in 1924 the             tures, Kuyper's worldview of com-
wicked who is benefited by God's          CRC reflected the influence of            mon grace was celebrated and
common grace, There is a close re-        Kuyper. Particularly in her second        praised by many in the Reformed
lation between these two graces ac-       and third points is this revealed.        camp (see Prof. D. Engelsma's re-
cording to Kuyper. Not only does          In her second point the CRC stated        cent editorials in the  Standard
common grace make it possible for         her belief that there is a "restraint     Bearer).
believers to live among the wicked,       of sin in the life of the individual          Because of this wide acceptance
but it also makes it possible, even       man and in the community.... God          and appreciation of Kuyper's doc-
obligatory, for them to- join with the    by the general operations of His          trine of common grace, it has be-
wicked and work together for the          Spirit, without renewing the heart        come the prevailing view in most
development of a creation culture         of man, restrains the unimpeded           Reformed and Presbyterian circles.
that glorifies God. This was in fact      breaking out of sin, by which hu-         This is the doctrine that accounts
the vision that Kuyper had for the        man life in society remains pos-          for the efforts to redeem all of cul-
Netherlands in his political career.      sible." This is Kuyperian common          ture for Christ, including the most
And it was the vision he had for          grace pure and simple. Thus also          pagan parts of it. This is the teach-
the whole world,  as- God's common        in her third point the CRC ex-            ing that accounts for the efforts to
grace worked universally in every         pressed her belief that "the unre-        bring the kingdom of Christ here
nation among all peoples.                 generate, though incapable of do-         on earth and make this world a bet-
                                          ing any saving good, can do civil         ter place for all. This is the doc-
Kuyper's Influence on the                 good." This too is nothing but            trine that accounts for the efforts
Reformed Churches                         Kuyper's doctrine. And the CRC            to cooperate with the world of un-
    Kuyper's teaching on common           has continued to develop and pro-         belief to achieve these goals. This
grace has had a powerful and wide         mote this teaching throughout her         is the doctrine that prompts Chris-
influence on the Reformed  church-        history. It is the doctrine that domi-    tian college graduates to teach in
world. This influence is not re-          nates her theology and practice.          public schools to help unbelievers
stricted to the Reformed churches         And, sad to say, it has borne an          be good citizens, to infiltrate Hol-
in the Netherlands, where Kuyper's        evil fruit in her midst. Because of       lywood to make better movies, and
work and writings were obviously          her adoption of common grace the          to enter politics to work for the im-

42fitandard   Bearer/October 15, 1998


provement of society. This is the        ally richer because of Kuyper's                  Which is also why the PRC re-
doctrine that accounts for the           views, but profoundly poorer.               ject Kuyperian common grace. It is
church's attempt to make herself         There has been no solid develop-            a serious error which has produced
more relevant to the world by im-        ment of Reformed doctrine due to            corrupt fruits. Instead of being
porting drama and dancing and            the doctrine of common grace.               praised and promoted by Reformed
contemporary music into the wor-         There has been no real growth in            Christians, the doctrine of common
ship of God.                             spiritual godliness because of the          grace needs to be rebuked and
   Indeed, Kuyper's doctrine of          teaching of common grace. Quite             rooted out of the Reformed faith
common grace has had a tremen-           the opposite. There has been de-            and practice. Who will stand with
dous impact on Reformed faith and        parture from the most fundamen-             us in domg this as we strive to be
practice. But not for good, we are       tal of Reformed doctrines. There            faithful to the God of sovereign,
convinced.                               has been a growing worldliness              particular grace?  0
                                         and ungodliness in Christian liv-
Our Rejection  of  Kuyperian             ing.
Common Grace
    Subjecting Kuyper's doctrine of
common grace to the test of Scrip-          Do We Hold to Kwyper's
ture and the Reformed confessions,
we believe that it fails miserably
and must be rejected. We cannot                    View of Presupposed
in this article demonstrate this con-
tention, but the PRC have repeat-
edly pointed this out in her writ-                          Regeneration?
ings. (If our readers are interested
in reading more on this, we will be                                                             Rev. James Laning
happy to send materials on re-
quest).
    It is our firm conviction that                                                   are to presuppose that all infant
this doctrine of common grace            Many times we in the Prot-
                                                  estant Reformed Churches           children of believers are actually
usurps a position above the truth        have been accused of holding to             in the covenant.                  Secondly, he
of sovereign particular grace, bury-     Kuyper's false doctrine of presup-          taught that this presupposition is
ing it and destroying it in those        posed regeneration. Many say that           the basis upon which we baptize
churches that hold to it. We believe     since we tell all our children that         them.
that Kuyper's doctrine carries with      God loves them and that Christ
it a blatant denial of the truth of      died for them, we are presuppos-            How We Are to View
the antithesis between the church        ing that all our children head for          Our Children
and the world and leads inevita-         head have been chosen by God and                  What did Kuyper mean when
bly to full-blown worldliness in         are actually in the covenant of             he said that we are to presuppose
practical living. It creates a dual-     grace. Although some who accuse             that all children of believers are ac-
ism in the work of God, teaching         us of this are simply taking a de-          tually in the covenant?                      He did
that God really has two great            light in falsely representing us,           not mean that Scripture teaches that
works going on in the history of         there are others who do not really          all children of believers are actu-
the world: the work of the redemp-       understand what Kuyper's view               ally saved. Repeatedly he made
tion of the church by special grace      actually was, and how our view is           clear that he was not saying that
and the work of the redemption of        to be distinguished from his. This          God saves all children born to be-
society by common grace.                 is what we intend to set forth in           lieving parents. Godly parents, he
    The weight of history also sup-      this article.                               said, cannot know with certainty
ports this criticism. The one hun-                                                   that all their young children are ac-
dred plus years of Kuyperian in-                   Kuyper's View of                  tually regenerated. But, he went
fluence by means of this doctrine                                                    on to say, they do "presuppose the
have not resulted in the strength-        Presupposed Regeneration                   possibility"' that all their children
ening of the Reformed faith and                  Kuyper's view consisted of two      are saved. And, presupposing this,
practice but in its severe weaken-       parts. First, he maintained that we         they view and speak to all their
ing and demise. The Reformed
churches are not better because of       Rev.  Laning  is pastor of Hope  Protes-     1   T h e   D u t c h   h e r e   i s   de  mogelijkheid
Kuyper's teaching, but worse. Re-        tanf Reformed Church in Walker,             ondersfelf.  The translations of the Dutch in
formed Christians are not spiritu-       Michigrrn.                                  this article are my own.

                                                                                              October  15,1998/Standard   Bearer/43


children as though they have been               sacrament. Since this faith must             ways reprobate in the sphere of the
chosen by God and  regenerated.2                be present in the infant before the          covenant. Viewing the members of
They tell them that God loves them,             s a c r a m e n t   o f    baptism    can    the church individually, we regard
and that they belong to His cov-                strengthen it, the church can bap-           each of them as a child of God,
enant people.                                   tize infants only on the ground of           whether he be an infant or an aged
       Kuyper illustrates his position          the presupposition that God has al-          saint, unless he clearly manifests
as follows. A gold miner treats ev-             ready worked this faith in the               himself not to be. But, viewing the
erything that might  contain gold as            child's heart and has regenerated            congregation as a whole, we do not
though it  zuus  gold, even though he           him.                                         presuppose that all in the instituted
knows that later only a fraction will                                                        church, head for head, are regen-
be found actually to be gold. Simi-                 Our View Over Against                    erated children of God.
larly, says Kuyper, we are to treat                        That of Kuyper                        But what, then, are we called
all our children as though they                      Kuyper was striving to counter          to  believe  with certainty with regard
were actually children of God, even             the error of many in the church of           to our children? What are we
though we know that later we will               his day who were presupposing                called to hold to be certainly true?
find out that many were not.                    that their children were unregen-            We are called to believe that all our
       To prove his position he cites           erate until they grew up and it was          real  children, the children of the
Article 17 of the First Head of the             clearly manifested that God had              promise, are elect of God, and that
Canons of Dordt,  which states that             performed a work of grace in them.           God regenerates them normally
godly parents ought not to doubt                Although we agree with Kuyper                when they are very young, in their
of the election and salvation of                that this is a serious error, we dis-        infancy or even in the womb.
their children whom God calls out               agree with his doctrine of presup-           These are the children we are
of this life in their infancy.           The    posed regeneration which he set              speaking about when we read the
church, he argues, confesses that               forth over against this error.               Baptism Form, which says that all
many of these children are saved,                                                            the sins of our children have been
but not that all of these head for              How We Are to View                           forgiven, and that they are "sanc-
head are saved. But even though                 Our Children                                 tified in Christ." We are speaking
we do not know for certain that a                    We are not to presuppose that           of our real children when we say
particular child is saved, we are to            all our children head for head have          this, the children that have been
suppose that he is saved, and are               actually been regenerated. As Rev.           born again by the power of God's
to think and speak of him this way.             Herman Hoeksema was wont to                  unconditional promise.
                                                say, we cannot presuppose to be                  Some may question our refer-
The Basis for Infant Baptism                    true that which we know from                 ring to our elect children as our
       Secondly, Kuyper maintained              Scripture is not true. Scripture             real children. But we find this
that this presupposition of regen-              makes clear that not all of our              truth taught, among other places,
eration is the basis upon which we              physical children are children of            in Genesis  22:2.     There God re-
are to baptize our children. His                the promise, but rather that there           ferred to Isaac as Abraham's  on2y
argument goes like this. The sac-               are Esaus born into the sphere of            son, even though he also had
rament of baptism, for the infant               the covenant  (Ram. 9:6-8).                  Ishmael as a son. We find this
of believers as well as for the adult                Some may argue that Kuyper              same truth taught in Galatians 3:16,
believer, is a seal of the righteous-           merely meant that we are to view             29, which says that Abraham's seed
ness of faith. Since this seal serves           all our young children as regener-           was only Christ, and those who are
to strengthen the faith of the in-              ated, until they show themselves             in Christ. Applying this to us, we
fant being baptized, it must be the             to be otherwise. Insofar as Kuyper           can say that our real seed consists
case that faith is already present in           meant this, we do indeed agree               only of those who are in Christ.
the infant before the sacrament is              with him. We regard our young
administered. When an adult be-                                                              The Basis for Infant Baptism
                                                children to be children of God, un-
liever is baptized, his conscious faith                                                         We do not baptize our children
                                                less they grow LIP and clearly mani-
is strengthened. Although the in-                                                            on the basis of our own words, but
                                                fest themselves not to be. In other
fant does not have conscious faith,                                                          on the basis of the Word of God.
                                                words, we view them just as we
he does have the power of faith, and                                                         If we presuppose something, that
                                                view everyone else in the congre-
it is this power of faith that is                                                            presupposition is our own words,
                                                gation. We regard all members in
strengthened in the infant by the                                                            not the Word of God.        But if we
                                                a true church to be children of God.         are to do anything good, it must
                                                We think of them as such and treat
2  E Voto Dordraceno  (Kuyper's commen-                                                      proceed from faith, from a faith
tary on the Heidelberg Catechism), III,  p.     them as such. We do this even                that is firmly based solely on God's
21.                                             though we know that there are al-            Word.

44/Standard  Bearer/October 15,  1998


    According to the  91sf Answer                    Since this promise of God is     earlier than one might think. At
of our Heidelberg Catechism, for             not only for us, but also for our        the age of 33 (1871) he "stood" for
the baptizing of our children to be          children, we are commanded to            office (while minister in  Utrecht)
a good work, it must proceed from            baptize them in the name of the          and at the age of 36 was elected to
faith, must be done according to             triune  GodrTl%ismeans  our activ-       the lower chamber of the Dutch
the law of God, and to His glory.            ity of baptizing our infant children     Parliament.     Already in the late
Infant baptism, just like any other          proceeds from faith in God's prom-       1860s he was corresponding with
good work, must proceed from a               ise and is done according to God's       Groen  vanl'rinsterer, his political
certain faith, a faith which is firmly       law.                                     mentor and founder of what was
based, not on man's presupposi-                  We must not baptize our chil-        known as the "Antirevolutionary
tion, but solely on God's infallible         dren, or do anything else, on the        Party" (originally the least signifi-
Word. The specific Word of God               basis of an uncertain presupposi-        cant of the four main parties in the
upon which baptism is based is the           tion in our mind. We must bap-           land). The party was so named in
unconditional promise of God to              tize our children on the basis of the    reaction to the anti-religious and
establish His covenant with us and           promise of God, according to the         revolutionary spirit that just de-
our  real  seed (Gen.  17:7; Acts  2:39).    law of God. Only then will the           cades earlier had spawned the an-
Our activity of baptizing our in-            baptizing of our infant children be      archy of the French Revolution,
fants proceeds from a faith in this          done also for the glory of God, and      and which, Groen was convinced,
unchanging promise of our cov-               the edification of His covenant          now threatened the Netherlands.
enant God.                                   people.  Cl                                  Tn our assessment of Kuyper's
                                                                                      involvement in politics we lay
                                                                                      aside the question of how justified
               Dr. A. Kuyper,                                                         a minister of the gospel is in re-
                                                                                      signing from the active ministry in
                                                                                      order to serve in political office.
                    Politician -                                                      Due to Dutch law, Kuyper had to
                                                                                      do precisely that. Dutch law for-
                       a Critique                                                     bade ministers active in the office
                                                                                      from holding political office at the
                                                                                      same time, so Kuyper resigned
                                                                                      from the active ministry, sought
                                                            Rev. Kenneth Koole emeritation, and was counted  as
                                                                                      such from that point on.
                                                                                          Nor do we criticize Kuyper
                                                                                      simply because he was active in
D                                            ogy (Calvinistic) had tremendous         politics and sought office in gov-
         r. Abraham Kuyper was a             impact on his political perspective;     ernment. In the Christian life cer-
         theologian, a theologian of         but the question and concern is, to      tainly there is room for more po-
         the "first water" as they           what extent did his political in-        litical involvement than simply be-
say; but he was also a politician,           volvement and commitment affect          ing registered to vote, going to the
and in his day in the Netherlands            at last even his theology? In the        voting booth, and voting against
it could be argued he was the fore-          end, we are convinced, far too           the candidate one thinks poses the
most politician in the land. In fact         much.                                    greatest threat to life, liberty, and
a case could be made that, in terms                  Kuyper did nothing by halves.    the pursuit of godliness. The in-
of time and energy, not theology             When he threw himself into poli-         disputable fact is that in both the
but politics became the primary fo-          tics he did so with greatest energy,     old and new dispensations many a
cus of Kuyper's life. Not, you un-           as is evidenced not only by his be-      god-fearing man involved himself
derstand, politics rather than Chris-        coming editor-in-chief of  D e           in government, functioning in vari-
tianity (there is no question con-           Standaard,  but his turning this         ous offices in the land, whether as
cerning Kuyper's sincere and Re-             weekly Christian into a daily news-      prince under Pharaoh, as adviser
formed Christianity), but politics           paper. This required no small com-       to Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, or
more than theology. Nor can there            mitment on Kuyper's part, consid-        as a judge and a prince in refor-
be a question that Kuyper's  theol-          ering that he continued as  editor-      mation  Europe, or even as duly
                                             in-chief of the weekly religious pe-     elected member of the parliaments
                                             riodical  De Hergut at the same time.    and congresses of the later west-
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant             The     Reverend    Abraham      ern world. Kuyper counted him-
Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan.        Kuyper entered the political arena       self as one in the line of such  illus-

                                                                                            October  15,  1998fltandard  Bearer/45


trious and conscientious men. And          would like, but better than noth-         when injury or sickness disabled
so he became involved in the hurly-        ing at all" mentality. Policy be-         him, and for that matter for the
burly of politics.                         comes entangled with "reality,"           plight of working children, many
    Kuyper's perspective was, it is        and legislation is the result of ne-      of whom worked 60-70 hours per
not enough simply to protest evil          gotiation with those who expect           week at the most minimum of
legislation and complain about bad         some considerations in return.            wages. A voice for the disfran-
laws and policy once they are in               This is what faced congressman        chised was necessary! Who can
place; rather we are to be actively        Kuyper, and later, from 1901 to           fault a man like Kuyper for raising
involved in government and poli-           1905, Prime-minister Kuyper. And          his powerful voice and sharpening
tics, and attempting to set the            this is what opened him to criti-         his eloquent pen for such. We do
agenda to begin with. There is             cism from within the Reformed             not!
some truth to that.                        camp in his day, and, we are con-                 But...! But what happens when
    Kuyper's pull towards political        vinced, legitimately so.                  for all your righteous, crusading
activism was understandable. His               We do not take issue with the         zeal you and your party do not
beloved Netherlands was at a               commitment Kuyper and the  Anti-          have the votes-when, though
crossroads of national policy. It          revolutionary party had to setting        there be much sound and fury, next
was a nation more and more faced           right various social wrongs (evils),      to nothing is accomplished? And
with a thorough-going modernism            but with how in the end they de-          then consider that just across the
and with the pernicious spirit of          termined to go about it. They had         aisle may sit men who in certain
"revolution" (a spirit that was in-        many legitimate concerns, chief           vital areas share common concerns,
trinsically anti-religious and anti-       amongst which were the  "school-          but are a world apart theologically
authoritarian). Detesting such a           issue" and the grievous abuse of          and have their own agenda in other
spirit Kuyper determined to be ac-         the common workingman (and of             social areas as well, yet whose sup-
tively involved in doing what he           "working children" in particular).        port would give you the majority
could to prevent this spirit with its          Dutch government was domi-            in parliament, yes, turn you into a
laws from dominating Dutch gov-            nated by the Liberal party. This          force to be reckoned with! Such
ernment and life. He would do              party enacted legislation which           was the case for Kuyper and his
what he could to set Calvinistic,          made it all but impossible to es-         party. The smaller Roman Catho-
biblically-based policy in its place.      tablish Christian schools, levying a      lic party offered just such a golden
A praiseworthy and honorable in-           tax on every home for the support         opportunity. They too, for in-
tention, to say the least.                 of the government-run (public)            stance, wanted their constituency
    The question arises, however,          schools, and providing no support         to be free from carrying a double
whether politics will allow such           for the non-public schools. While         financial burden when it came to
idealistic intentions to survive, that     such policy is not by any means           education and their own schools.
is, in any functionally useful way;        foreign to us in America, the simple      Surely, if legislation dear to one's
or, if you will, how long can one          fact is that the great majority of Re-    own heart had any hope of being
resist the temptation of political         formed households in the Nether-          enacted, a political union with such
"necessity," which invariably              lands were simply too dirt poor to        was the only way to accomplish it.
means compromise in the interests          support the government-controlled                 And so it happened. By 1887
of attaining one's cherished legis-        schools and finance their own as          the Antirevolutionary party had
lation and advance in power? The           well.    The economics of public          become large enough to convene a
ideal is one thing; the actual in-         policy forced many to educate their       national, pre-election convention.
volvement in politics to achieve           children in schools that were be-         Power, that golden apple of all but
"Christian," biblically consistent         coming more anti-biblical and  anti-      irresistible appeal, political power
legislation has proved to be quite         authority all the time. This injus-       to govern the nation, stood almost
another.                                   tice was the original issue behind        within their grasp. It was this gath-
    Politics, it has been said, is "the    the formation of the  Antirevolu-         ering that
art of the possible." How true. As         tionary party.
a Christian one might propose a                And because the Liberal party           received overtures from the
piece of legislation of the highest        derived support mainly from the             Catholics, which at one stroke
ideal, but what is really "possible"       middle to upper class, it was little        brought the two parties much
(garnering enough support and              interested in extending voting              nearer together. It was now dis-
votes to enact  it> is another thing       rights beyond that of property              tinctly possible for the leaders to
                                                                                       provide a basis for co-operation by
altogether. Political savvy bows to        owners. It was a party that had             perfecting a mutually acceptable
"reality" (what is "possible" in           little regard for the plight of the         agreement.
present circumstances), and satis-         common working man, for what                      Calvinist and Catholics? What
fies itself with this "less than we        happened to him and his family              a team! _...

46/Standard  Bearer/October  15,1998


   What was it, then, that pro-           antithesis, lost this emphasis in his       sion even amongst  these Christians.
 duced  rapprochement?  Simply this.      grasp for political influence. We           "And we (the world) should be-
 Neither party had, or could in the       rue the day. And for all Kuyper's           come one with these Christians
 foreseeable future expect to have,       energetic involvement in political          who obviously cannot even get
 a majority in the Second Chamber         reform and social action, is the            along with each other! And they
 of Parliament. If they were to           Netherlands today any better for            preach forgiveness and love!" The
 achieve any legislative success,                                                     testimony of the unity of the be-
 they must practice a policy of mu-       it? Is the Reformed church? What
 tual assistance. They must inexo-        enduring good remains of Kuyper             lievers in Jesus and biblical truth
 rably cooperate. The exigencies          the energetic, and in the end, com-         is seriously compromised.
 of the political situation drove         promising social-reformer? But the              Such divisions and disagree-
 them together and made joint ven-        consequences of his attempt to jus-         ments showed themselves in
 tures mandatory. Cooperate or            tify his course of action lives on          Kuyper's party again and again,
 fail! (F.  VandenBerg,   Abraham         with us to this day. It is a bitter         Kuyper himself often taking the
 Kuyper,  pp. 147-149.)                   fruit.                                      lead due to his forceful character,
                                              What happened to Kuyper is              and also because he had pen and
    This "unholy alliance" sent           not  without precedent in church            press so readily available. When
tremors through the Reformed              history.         One is reminded of         he was bypassed by his party as
camp. Kuyper certainly was not            Solomon and his expedient alli-             prime minister in 1908 (due to his
alone in promoting this union, but        ances, of Jehoshaphat joining forces        age and inflexibility), sorely hurt,
it fell to Kuyper almost alone to         with Ahab, and of Hezekiah and              in print Kuyper called into ques-
justify the coalition from a biblical     the Babylonians. Men of spiritual           tion the motives of Christian broth-
perspective; he had to justify it to      stature all, beneficial to the church,      ers, and subjected most of his own
his own conscience, which (I am           but apparent political exigencies           party's policies to sharp criticism.
convinced) vexed him, and to the          proving to be a fatal flaw. The             A sharp rejoinder highlighting all
Reformed community that was the           problem is not a matter of wanting          of Kuyper's perceived character
grass roots of his party's support.       to do the King's business in the            flaws and questionable tactics over
This he did, of course, in his theol-     realm of government, it is a matter         the years followed. A most unedi-
ogy of common grace. He devel-            of with whom you are willing to             fying (but deliciously savory) dis-
oped his justification in a series of     try to do it.                               play- of any "Christian" spirit (F.
articles in De  Hevatlt  that ran for          We mention one other "evil"            VandenBerg,   Abraham  Kziyper,  p.
some six years, from mid-1895 to          (danger) that faces Christians who          251). How the enemies of righ-
mid-1901. No less sympathetic bi-         become deeply embroiled in poli-            teousness lapped it up!               And
ographer than L. Praamsma, in his         tics in order to press their Chris-         Kuyper, the leading preacher and
book Let Christ Be King, heads his        tian agenda, which" evil" Kuyper's          spiritual figure in Christ's church
treatment of this stage in Kuyper's       involvement in politics served to           besides! To his credit, Kuyper later
life as "A Shift in Emphasis" (chap-      underscore.        Men who identify         with grief apologized in print. But
ter 13).    Politics had affected         with the same Reformed and Chris-           the damage was done. The  hurly-
Kuyper's theology, and in a pro-          tian faith will inevitably disagree         burly of politics is a most seduc-
found way.                                 on some political policies, legisla-       tive and dangerous mistress.
    I call common grace Kuyper's           tion, or strategy, and sometimes               If anything, the Reverend Dr.
"theology" because common grace            vigorously. There are fallings out.         A.  Kuyper's political career under-
becomes a primary revelation of           The public disagreement and criti-           scores the truth of the King's
the very character and virtues of          cism between "Christian brothers"           words, "Not by might, nor by (po-
God,  and of God as He especially          easily lends itself to becoming an          litical) power, but by my Spirit,
wants to be known by the unbe-             occasion for the world and the en-          saith the Lord."
lieving, rebellious, yet  not-so-revo-     emies of righteousness to glory in              Indeed, by any measure a gi-
Zufionary-as  Kuyper's-party-at-first-     the perceived disunion and divi-            ant, yet sadly flawed.  0
declared, human race. In short or-
der this theory was seized upon by
Reformed theologians dazzled  bJ
the scientific "discoveries" and cul
ture of the age, and this common           Creating a Christian Worldview:                 On the occasion of the 100th an-
grace, rather than antithetical, sav-      Abraham Kuyper's  Lectures  on  Cnlvin-     niversary of Abraham Kuyper's
ing grace, became the primary rev-         ism,  by Peter S.  Heslam. Grand Rap-       Stone Lectures on Calvinism at
elation of the being and virtues of        ids, MI/Cambridge, U.K.:  Eerdmansl         Princeton Seminary, Eerdmans has
God. Kuyper, who set out as theo-          Paternoster, 1998. x  f  30'0 pages.
                                           $28.00/618.99  (paper). [Reviewed by        published a superb, provocative,
logian, and even politician, of the        the editor]                                 ground-breaking analysis of these

                                                                                             October  75,  199EQStandard  Bearer/47


tiii;ndard
  Siearer                                                                                                                     PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                Grandville,
  Grandville, MI 49468-0603                                                                                                    Michigan


lectures. Standing outside the con-        reinterprets the whole of Calvinist                        ism.... The Continental States had
troversy over the doctrine of com-         theology. In the interests of com-                         sympathised with Spain. Not so
mon grace that has raged in the            mon grace, Kuyper was forced to                            the Dutch Calvinists. "We have
Dutch Reformed churches, British           downplay the doctrine of predesti-                         not forgotten our contest with
scholar Peter S.  Heslam  offers an        nation. Common grace left Kuyper                           Spanish tyranny; we fought it for
unbiased judgment on Kuyper's              wide open to theistic evolution as                         a hundred years.... Neither En-
                                                                                                      gland nor the United States would
lectures and the philosophy of a           the explanation of the origin of the                       have been free but for Dutch hero-
common grace worldview that they           universe (Howard Van Till's  The                           ism. Spain has in all countries and
propound.                                  Fourfh Day  is a sequel to the  Lec-                       in all ages been a curse to the
    The result must be highly dis-         tures on Calvinism).  Common grace                         world...." This was the tone of
concerting to the theologians, edu-        stands in irreconcilable conflict                          the whole speech. There was not
cators, scholars, and churches that        with the truth of the antithesis;                          a word of flattery to America.
have swallowed the philosophy of           common grace is a bridge from the                          One felt as if the seventeenth cen-
the  Lectures on Calvinism  hook, line,    church to the ungodly world (and                           tury  had visibly risen upon us to
bait, and sinker.                          from the ungodly world to the                              give the last curse to Spain (p. 65).
                                                                                                                                                    cl
    In the lectures, Kuyper in-            church): "Common grace . . . (pro-
tended to oppose modernism as it           vided) . . . the necessary bridge
took form in the French Revolution         across the gap created by the an-
and laid claim to all of human life.       tithesis between the world cor-
Over against modernism Kuyper              rupted by sin and Christ's work of                                      Justification By Faith
posited Calvinism, not as a theol-         re-creation" (p. 269).                                              Prof. David Engelsma, Speaker
ogy but as a philosophy of "com-                Although cautiously,  Heslam                                 Prof. of Dogmatics and O.T. Studies
mon grace." The lectures- were             concludes that Kuyper's worldview                                 in the Protestant Reformed Seminary
about "worldviews" (Kuyper used            of common grace has been  "SUC-                                          B.J. Haan Auditorium
the terms "life-system" and "life          cessful in its practical conse-                                            on Dordt Campus
and world view"). Kuyper pro-              quences"  (p.  270). Would he re-                                          Sioux Center, Iowa
posed Calvinism as a worldview             flect on the cultural condition of                                         November 6, 1998
inasmuch as Calvinism supposedly           the Netherlands and on the spiri-                                               7:30  P.M.
includes the doctrine of common            tual condition of Kuyper's Re-                                    Come hear this Reformation doctrine ex-
                                                                                                    pounded with special attention given to the
grace as a fundamental teaching.           formed Churches in the Nether-                           Roman Catholic-Evangelical Accord.
By common grace Kuyper meant a             lands and Free University?                                        We invite you to attend and bring a friend!
grace of God working in all men                  Heslam's  fresh, informative ac-                      Sponsored by the Protestant Reformed
to restrain sin in them and to en-         count of Kuyper's life includes a                        Churches of Hull and Doon,  IA and Edgerton,
able them successfully to carry out        hilarious description of Kuyper's                        MN.
the "cultural mandate" of Genesis          b e h a v i o r   o n   t h e   p l a t f o r m   a t
1. This grace empowers the un-             Princeton when he was receiving
godly to create good culture. It           an honorary degree. An English                                                  NOTICE!
also authorizes, indeed commands,          scholar, who was also receiving a                                 With thanksgiving to God the congrega-
                                                                                                    tion of the Loveland, Colorado Protestant Re-
believers to cooperate with the un-        degree, recorded his astonishment                        formed Church extends a cordial invitation to
godly world in establishing good           at Kuyper, who "looked like a                            the celebration of our 40" anniversary, to be
culture.                                   Dutchman of the seventeenth cen-                         held, the Lord willing, October 30, 1998, in
    Knowingly or  --unknowingly,           tury."                                                   conjunction with a Reformation Day lecture by
Heslam  passes a devastating judg-                                                                  one of our former pastors, Prof. D. Engelsma.
ment upon the lectures and their             He (Kuyper) told us he was a Cal-                      Along with time to reminisce, a dinner will be
common grace philosophy. Com-                 vinist; that he had been persecuted                   served, followed by a program of thanksgiving
mon grace is, at  the--most,  an inci-       by anti-Calvinists-this itself                         and praise and lecture, and including a time
dental element in the theology of            sounded like the language of an-                       of fellowship afterwards
                                                                                                             "0 taste and see that the Lord is good;
Calvin and the Reformed tradition.            other age.          A l l   t h e   g o o d   i n
                                                                                                    blessed is the man that trusteth in him" Psalm
Kuyper's common grace radically              America had its root in Calvin-                        3423.

/S/Standard Bearer/October  f5,1998


