Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Tallach  We just have to be careful in how we express and explain these things. Plenty of orthodox Reformed divines have believed in Common Grace. |
Can you name these divines? Before or after Kuyper?
Engelsma, "I believe that the common grace doctrine that we’re talking about originated with Abraham Kuyper, and Herman Bavinck in the late eighteen hundreds and the early nineteen hundreds. And I am not afraid to claim virtually every reformed theologian prior to them, as, at the very least, not teaching and espousing that cultural common grace, which also then is supposed to take manifestation in a well-meant gospel offer on God’s part in the preaching of the gospel to everybody. And even, I wouldn’t hesitate to claim, every orthodox reformed theologian before Bavinck and Kuyper as repudiating that, if not explicitly, then by implication. When I say that, I readily acknowledge that it is common in the Reformed theologians going back to Calvin, and including Calvin, to refer to what I call, “bounties of providence,” whether Mozart’s musical ability, or Plato’s intellectual ability or whatever it may be, as a certain kind of grace. I recognize that. But that does not put those theologians in the camp of those who think that there is an operation of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of unregenerated people restraining sin, so that they’re partially good, and can even do works that are truly good, because they’re done by God’s grace, much less, launch this project of common grace to ‘Christianize’ society. That was Abraham Kuyper’s terminology, and Abraham Kuyper was after that: ‘Christianizing’ society by a common grace of God."