"Common Grace Considered": Final Remarks and Final Article (59)

Professor Herman Hanko:

Referring to the Protestant Reformed Churches as a denomination that denies the free offer, the author describes their position as somewhere between hyper-Calvinism and orthodox Calvinism. This is stated as a fact without any proof, and the assumption is, of course, that those who hold to a gracious gospel offer are the true Calvinists.

What is worse, the author in claiming that a gracious gospel offer is Calvinistic implies that Calvin himself taught this doctrine. We have examined this question before and will not repeat what was said; but the fact remains that such as make this claim ought, for the sake of honesty, to explain Calvin’s position as outlined in his “Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God,” published in the book, Calvin’s Calvinism. In this book, Calvin specifically repudiates everything those who hold to a gracious gospel offer teach.   "Common Grace Considered": Final Remarks and Final Article (59)

Although I have a few disagreements with the Protestant Reformed Churches, I agree fully with their rejection of the doctrines of common grace and the free offer.  While the neo-Calvinists and the Van Tilians love to use dirty words like "rationalists" and "fundamentalists" and derogatory remarks like "prying into God's secret being," they themselves seem to know other things that "pry" into God's secret being.  They seem to "know," for example, what God "desires" in His secret being.  I wonder how?  The fact is, the only way we know anything about God is by the propositional truth claims made in Holy Scripture and this necessitates careful exegesis, not reading modern sentiments against God's sovereignty back into the text.  That is the "rationalistic" approach of the Arminians and semi-pelagians, not the approach of Luther or Calvin.

Charlie