Common Grace
"Is the grace of Almighty God common to all men, or is it particular and for the elect alone?" This question was the main cause of the split that occurred in the Christian Reformed Church and started the Protestant Reformed Church. The issue was between common grace and particular grace. The controversy all started when Ralph Janssen, professor of Old Testament Studies in Calvin Seminary, was accused of higher criticism by Herman Hoeksema, Pastor of Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church. Rev. Herman Hoeksma was the founding father of the Protestant Reformed Churches. James Schaap, an English professor at Dordt College says the people in the Protestant Reformed Church "write history in a different way than subsequent CRC historians might" so therefore there are different ways that the history is told. Schaap goes on to say, "We are all influenced by our history and biases" (245). Some books say Hoeksema and other pastors left, and other books say they were kicked out. This issue of common and particular (or special) grace was discussed in the Synod of 1924 which split up the church and started the Protestant Reformed church. Then there was the aftermath of the Synod a
On January 25, 1925, the leaders of the three congregations came together to discuss joining their consistories. At their next meeting they discussed what they had in common: The third point of common grace teaches that any sinful man has the ability to do good works. Protestant do not say "that unbelievers cannot do anything useful, profitable, or outwardly correct" (8). The Protestant's problem with the third point is that they believe that unbelievers cannot do anything that pleases God. "All works of unbelievers are unrighteous" (8) because they are for their own benefit and not to please God. of God given to only His elect or chosen people. People who are Protestant Reformed believe that the doctrine of common grace has problems with it, and believe that God does not show grace to all men. Particular grace is the belief in predestination and that only those who were predestined are God's elect, and that God shows grace to these people and no others. In November of 1926, the congregations of the PCRC met to organize classes and also officially call their new denomination the Protestant Reformed Churches. With the growth of the PRC ministers were needed, so Rev. Hoeksema started a seminary; eight students came to be trained to be ministers in the PRC. The next few years had much expansion, growth, and discussion of many things. From there the PRC continued to grow and is still growing. Schaap reports that there are two classes, twenty-seven churches, and somewhere close to 6,500 families in the PRC today (251). nd the start of the new denomination. In this paper I would like to tell the story of the Protestant Reformed Church, with special emphasis on the doctrinal issue of common grace.
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Approximate Word count = 1972
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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