Berkhoff:Common Grace:Saviour of All?

[blhowes]

I enjoyed last night's Berkhoff Bible study at church. Its interesting to think about God's common graces that are so often overlooked.

I raised a question at the study about one of the memory verses that Berkhoff included in the section "Unmerited blessings on all men". We had a brief discussion about it. I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts about it. The chapter about common grace can be found at http://www.mbrem.com/shorttakes/berk18.htm .

The verse that seemed out of place to me was 1 Timothy 4:10, the part where it says God is the Saviour of all men.

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Several ideas were suggested. One person suggested that it might be that the offer of the Saviour is made to all men, so in that sense it is a common grace to all. That's a possibility.

The pastor gave his interpretation of the verse - that the word all refers to the elect, to which I agreed and said that's why it seemed out of place in a discussion about common grace.

I wondered (brainstorming) if Berhkoff might have meant that God is the Saviour of all men, even though he doesn't save everybody. I'm thinking along the same lines as Jesus being Lord. A person "accepting Jesus as Lord" doesn't make Jesus Lord. Jesus is Lord over all, regardless of whether or not they yield to his Lordship. Perhaps its the same way with Jesus as Saviour.

...another possibility is that its a mistake and that verse wasn't meant to be included in that section. Does anybody have any idea what Berkhoff's thoughts are about that verse?

 

[RamistThomist]

I'm thinking "all types of men." Jew, Gentile, etc.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

I think what Berkhof is getting at in his excellent treatise on common grace, with respect to this admittedly challenging verse, is that God is good unto all men, and in a non-soteriological sense, is therefore the Savior of all men, but is especially (in a soteriological sense), the Savior of those who believe.

See this article for further elucidation: http://www.the-highway.com/1Tim4.10.html

 

[blhowes]

Originally posted by Finn McCool
I'm thinking "all types of men." Jew, Gentile, etc.

That makes sense, although it still seems a little unusual to use 1 Tim 4:10 with that interpretation in a chapter about common grace.

Originally posted by Andrew
I think what Berkhof is getting at in his excellent treatise on common grace, with respect to this admittedly challenging verse, is that God is good unto all men, and in a non-soteriological sense, is therefore the Savior of all men, but is especially (in a soteriological sense), the Savior of those who believe.

See this article for further elucidation: http://www.the-highway.com/1Tim4.10.html

That seems to make the most sense to me so far. I couldn't find it online, but I'll bet that Berkhof expounds upon it in the common grace chapter of his systematic theology.