Category Archives: Abraham Kuyper

Kuyper, Common Grace 1.10

09 Monday Dec 2019

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The prior post in this series may be found here.

In Chapter 10, Kuyper considers the issue of governmental legitimacy. The question of legitimacy is of great importance in the matter of government. If a government is legitimate, then the population willing submits to the government and the government rightfully enacts and enforces law.

Most people never consider the basis for legitimacy; rather, we all just know that a government is legitimate or not. For example, in a monarchy, everyone knows that the child of the sovereign is the next sovereign. In a democracy, everyone knows that the winner of a popularity contest may enact law. In both cases, everyone knows that some random crank who declares himself sovereign – even with an elaborate ceremony – is just a crank and not a king.

Conversely, if everyone in a nation were to suddenly know that the leadership was illegitimate, the government would then be nothing other than bandits and tyrants.

How then does legitimacy come to be?

Kuyper considers and rejects three theories of legitimacy. First there the right of a conqueror. At the beginning, a conqueror’s power maintains as long as he is able to maintain sufficient military might to quell any opposition. However, after some time, the duration of rule itself becomes the legitimatizing basis of rule. The trouble here is moral: we don’t forgive a murderer because he murdered to rob and then was able to hold off anyone who attempted to prosecute him for his murder and robbery. Indeed, such a man would be considered peculiarly evil.

A second theory is the “social contract” model: whereby initially free people contract to form a government which has legitimate power based upon the concession of others. A primary trouble here is that such a claim is based upon a fiction: no such universal contractual decision has ever been undertaken by previously unruled individuals.

A third theory looks to spontaneous ordering: such spontaneous development theories appear more factual than the other theories: but this theory too appears as morally questionable. Kuyper raises two objections: (1) The theory cannot distinguish between a morally good and a morally bad order: cruelty and deceit or heroism and virtue could each lead to an actual government of some sort.

(2) Kuyper explains that such a theory is pantheistic: Rather than government be a determined act of God; authority would be something inherent in all that is. Thus, might would be right, because it is.

Having rejected these alternatives, Kuyper explains that what government does itself must be the result of a gracious act of God: not a peculiar saving grace, such as shown to the elect; but, a “common grace” to order the world in such a manner as to limit the effective scope of sin.

Thus, there is the effectuation of a government and the providential placement of a leader in position. Kuyper then explains the basis of legitimacy: if the leader and the populace both accede that God has created the structure, the structure is and all “are accountable to God for the things they know they have done for or against that authority.” Abraham Kuyper, Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World: The Historical Section, ed. Jordan J. Ballor, Melvin Flikkema, and Stephen J. Grabill, trans. Nelson D. Kloosterman and Ed M. van der Maas, vol. 1, Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press; Acton Institute, 2015), 95–96.

How then is this authority known? It can only come from God, because humans by nature have authority over nothing. The authority granted in Genesis 1 is granted by God: it is not inherent in the creature. God had the authority to grant or forbid the Adam to eat of trees in the Garden – and the authority over all other actions of Adam.

Not having even the least of authority, we certain have no authority by nature over one-another. Kuyper concedes that some sort of pre-Flood governmental authority must have arisen; but such authority would have existed without divine sanction.

Kuyper, Common Grace, 1.9

26 Tuesday Nov 2019

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The prior post may be found here.

In this chapter, Kuyper considers the issue of whether Genesis 9:6 provides the basis for imposition of civil government:

Genesis 9:6 (AV)

6Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

The argument is essentially this: The primary (and ultimate) act of the civil government is the enforcement of law, by the (ultimate) act of capital punishment. See, Romans 13:1, et seq.

It is the Reformed position that the right of capital punishment conveys the power of civil government. However, there are those who hold that this verse is not a command but rather a promise of punishment by God on the last day, or perhaps God in providence will provide for an untimely death of the miscreant. And while the Reformed position would agree that God will punish on the Last Day, and that providence may provide for the untimely death of the murderer, the quotation is in the form of an imperative: Thou shalt punish the murderer.

But is this the correct understanding? Are those who refuse the imperative more accurate?

Kuyper begins by assessing the structure of the proposition: He notes that the final clause is explanatory: “for in the image of God made he man.”

What conclusion should we draw from this: Does the taking of the murder’s life rest upon the dignity of the victim? Or does the right to impose capital punishment rest upon the dignity of man to be a judge of such things (in accord with God’s direction)?

We must realize that all created things belong to God, and human beings have no independent position to exercise any dominion over any creature – except as God ordains. This is inherent in the Genesis 1 creation account of human beings: to be created in God’s image & to exercise dominion over creation were two distinct propositions:

Genesis 1:26–28 (AV)

[First] 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

[Second] 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Thus, no one human being has the right to take another human being’s life without express direction from God.

When we consider this proposition it helps to decide between the two possible readings of the concluding clause of Genesis 9: being in the image of God could not give a human being the right to kill another human. But, killing a human being would give us a rationale for God’s ordinance of capital punishment: it is correct because a human being has been killed.

The ordinance rests ultimately upon God’s sovereignty. God alone has the right and power to impose such a rule. Anyone who kills without God’s mandate, makes himself liable to being executed by other men. The judicial motive of the act is the honor and sovereignty of God. This then makes sense of the whole.

Exodus 21:12 (AV)

He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

Kuyper makes an interesting observation about the sound of the first clause of Genesis 9:6. The sound “dam” means blood in Hebrew. The sound a-dam means human being, man. Thus, the clause sounds like this: dam ha’adam ba’adam damo. There is a fourfold repetition of the sound for blood.

He ends with an interesting observation about authority. Prior to this institution, there was authority within the family – but this included no authority to take a life. Here we have something new, and with that the post-flood world included the institution of a civil government.

 

 

 

 

 

Kuyper, Common Grace 1.7

19 Thursday Sep 2019

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In the seventh chapter of Common Grace, Kuyper comes to:

5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning:

from every beast I will require it

and from man.

From his fellow man I will require a reckoning

for the life of man.

Genesis 9:5 (ESV)

First, the verse concerns God’s “reckoning”; not human reckoning (that comes in verse 6).

Second, God will judge the killing of a human being.

This judgment is apart from capital punishment and human government, which dealt with in verse 6.

He lists three ways in which God will deal with the human murderer: (1) conscience; (2) providential punishment (the way in which the murderer’s life will play out will provide a punishment); (3) eternal punishment.

A temporal punishment, such as conscience and providence which leads to repentance would be a grace. To not be lead to repentance but rather suffer eternal punishment is a far greater act of justice and retribution than any temporal response.

Third, God will require a reckoning from both predatory animals and from human beings.

Fourth, he notes a distinction made between the acts of animals and humans. In the first sentence, God notes especially the shedding of blood. This applies to both animals and humans. But in the parallel verse, which pertains only to human beings, God speaks of taking the “life”, the nephesh, which also means the soul of a human being.

The reason for this distinction lies in the fact that a human being does not kill for “blood” (eating) in the way an animal does. A human kills to take a life. God will require blood from the animal, but a life from the human.

Fifth, on question as to the extent of the flood, he offers this explanation. The “whole world” is used in various senses and must be read in context. Thus, “The whole world has gone after him” (John 12:19) does not mean every human being in the world, but only those who have come into contact with him.

 

The contextual use of the phrase “the whole world” in the Flood Narrative is difficult to determine. It unquestionably means a flood sufficient to kill all human beings: that is apparent from the direct purpose of the narrative. Whether the narrative demands that portions of the earth uninhabited by human beings was also flooded is more difficult to establish. It could mean that the entire globe was awash. But there is room for debate on the interpretation.

Kuyper on Common Grace 1.6

04 Wednesday Sep 2019

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The previous post in this series may be found here. 

Genesis 9:3–5 (ESV)

3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

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Goya, Three Salmon Steaks

In chapter six, Kuyper considers the provisions of the Noahic covenant which pertain to the relationship between animals and human beings. He will conclude that the primary basis for this command is to erect a clear demarcation between human beings and animals.

First, human beings may animals as well as plants.

Second, human beings must be distinguished from animals, in that we will not eat living animals. In distinction from animals and in reverence to God, the animal must first be dead before it may be eaten.

Third, animals are not given the equivalent right to eat human beings.

Some further observations.

Three points of elaboration.

Kuyper notes the Noahic covenant has no foreshadowing of the New Covenant in the way the Mosaic Covenant points forward to the coming Messiah. He refers to the Mosaic Covenant as being a covenant of shadows – and that the foreshadowing did not start until the giving of circumcision and the coming of Israel.

As to killing animals, he contends rightly that this is a provision of the Noahic covenant – it is not based upon the creation order.  Kuyper notes how we naturally revolt against killing animals – it takes some to overcome that hesitancy.

Kuyper also infers a high degree of barbarism in the pre-flood world, such that limitations on tearing animals in the manner of beasts and restrictions on cannibalism were necessary as a common grace restraint.

He notes that by requiring the life to depart to God who gave it, we are giving deference to God in the taking of the animal. Calvin, who informs a great deal of Kuyper’s thought on this subject writes in his commentary:

This ought justly to be deemed by us of greater importance, that to eat the flesh of animals is granted to us by the kindness of God; that we do not seize upon what our appetite desires, as robbers do, nor yet tyrannically shed the innocent blood of cattle; but that we only take what is offered to us by the hand of the Lord. We have heard what Paul says, that we are at liberty to eat what we please, only we do it with the assurance of conscience, but that he who imagines anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean, (Romans 14:14.) And whence has this happened to man, that he should eat whatever food he pleased before God, with a tranquil mind, and not with unbridled license, except from his knowing, that it has been divinely delivered into his hand by the right of donation? Wherefore, (the same Paul being witness,) the word of God sanctifies the creatures, that we may purely and lawfully feed on them, (1 Timothy 4:5.) Let the adage be utterly rejected which says,‘that no one can feed and refresh his body with a morsel of bread, without, at the same time, defiling his soul.’Therefore it is not to be doubted, that the Lord designed to confirm our faith, when he expressly declares by Moses, that he gave to man the free use of flesh, so that we might not eat it with a doubtful and trembling conscience. At the same time, however, he invites us to thanksgiving. On this account also, Paul adds “prayer” to the “word”, in defining the method of sanctification in the passage recently cited.

John Calvin, Genesis, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries, 1998, Ge 9:3.

 

Kuyper, Common Grace 1.4

05 Monday Aug 2019

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In this chapter Kuyper underscores a few points: While God had displayed grace toward humanity immediately after the Fall (a point he will develop at length later in the book), that grace was limited. What God did do was permit human beings to live out the implications of their rebellion until the “earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11) [It strangely seems lost upon humanity that violence is evidence of God’s wrath against sin, because God is not restraining sin. Sin is its own punishment and carries within it, its own sorrow. No matter its original appearance, its trajectory is always the same.]

But at the point of Noah, God imposed a new order upon the world: the physical world would never again be such that a universal flood could occur; the animal world changed and the relationship to animals. Importantly, God also acted to restrain certain temporal aspects of sin. God acted to restrain sin: not fully; but he would to permit it to unleash itself upon the world in full furry until the time of the Son of Perdition.

The rainbow was marked as the sign of the covenant (the bow being a war bow, as in bow and arrow).

This points to the spiritual aspect of this covenant which on its face concerns only physical concerns. The covenant as in place to preserve humanity. The purpose of this covenant, lies “with the elect.”

There has been a failure to consider the significance of this covenant, even among theologians and preachers.

Kuyper Common Grace 1.3

31 Wednesday Jul 2019

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The prior post in this series is found here.

In this chapter, Kuyper takes upon the scope of the Noah covenant: was it with the “church” alone, or was it common to all? First, Kuyer relies heavily upon Calvin’s commentary on Genesis 9, wherein Calvin writes that it was a broad, common covenant with human beings and animals:

Moreover, there is no doubt that it was the design of God to provide for all his posterity. It was not therefore a private covenant confirmed with one family only, but one which is common to all people, and which shall flourish in all ages to the end of the world. And truly, since at the present time, impiety overflows not less than in the age of Noah, it is especially necessary that the waters should be restrained by this word of God, as by a thousand bolts and bars lest they should break forth to destroy us. Wherefore, relying on this promise, let us look forward to the last day, in which the consuming fire shall purify heaven and earth.

10. And with every living creature. Although the favor which the Lord promises extends also to animals, yet it is not in vain that he addresses himself only to men, who, by the sense of faith, are able to perceive this benefit. We enjoy the heaven and the air in common with the beasts, and draw the same vital breath; but it is no common privilege, that God directs his word to us; whence we may learn with what paternal love he pursues us. And here three distinct steps are to be traced. First, God, as in a matter of present concern, makes a covenant with Noah and his family, lest they should be afraid of a deluge for themselves. Secondly, he transmits his covenant to posterity, not only that, as by continual succession, the effect may reach to other ages; but that they who should afterwards be born might also apprehend this testimony by faith, and might conclude that the same thing which had been promised to the sons of Noah, was promised unto them. Thirdly, he declares that he will be propitious also to brute animals, so that the effect of the covenant towards them, might be the preservation of their lives only, without imparting to them sense and intelligence.

John Calvin, Genesis, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries, 1998, Ge 9:8–10. He then makes the observation that God would not again destroy the world by flood.

This raises the question: Why was the world destroyed by flood? Because human beings had become insufferably wicked and destructive that there would be no place for God’s redemptive work. Therefore, God rescues Noah and begins anew. But this time, rather than provide a “redemption” by flood, God will preserve a place for his redemptive work by means of restraint of sin:

that the restraining power proceeding from common grace against sin, has become increased from God’s side after the flood. The beast within man remains just as evil and wild, but the bars around its cage were fortified, so that it cannot again escape like it used to.

 Abraham Kuyper, Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World: The Historical Section, ed. Jordan J. Ballor, Melvin Flikkema, and Stephen J. Grabill, trans. Nelson D. Kloosterman and Ed M. van der Maas, vol. 1, Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press; Acton Institute, 2015), 26.

The basic structure and purpose of “common grace” is not and never was to redeem human beings from, but to restrain the outbursts of sin to preserve a humanity for God’s redemptive work. Common grace is a fence which limits the ravages of the curse and sin.

 

 

 

Kuyer Common Grace 1.2

23 Tuesday Jul 2019

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The previous post in this series is here.

In the second chapter of Common Grace, Kuyper makes an interesting move: he anchors common grace in the Noahic Covenant. He does not deny the existence of common grace prior to Noah (he explicitly states that it “began in paradise”); however, he posits the current structure and distribution of that grace in the covenant God made with Noah. Prior to Noah, “all of human life appears to have degenerated”. The picture of the world in Genesis 6 is quite terrifying:

Genesis 6:1–8(ESV)

6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lordsaid, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

5 The Lordsaw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lordsaid, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

And,

Genesis 6:11(ESV)

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

Of this circumstance, Kuyper writes:

You can see clearly that if the One who created us had not intervened and had not called into being a new order of things, that is, a new living situation, the church would have ceased to exist, and our entire race would have perished in its own pitiful ungodliness.

Abraham Kuyper, Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World: The Historical Section, ed. Jordan J. Ballor, Melvin Flikkema, and Stephen J. Grabill, trans. Nelson D. Kloosterman and Ed M. van der Maas, vol. 1, Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press; Acton Institute, 2015), 14.

The flood then sweeps away the old world:

2 Peter 3:5–6 (ESV)

5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

With the destruction of the Old World, God then set in order temporal world into its current configuration and upholds it in its current state in accordance with the Noahic Covenant.

Kuyper, Common Grace 1.1

18 Thursday Jul 2019

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Prior to the English translation of Kuyper’s work on Common Grace, I saw several quotes from Kuyper — obviously without full context. These quotations were pressed into service for various agendas. Therefore, it was wonderful that Kuyper’s works have now been translated into English and are available through Lexham Press (logos).  I will try to summarize the basic thrust of the chapters

Kuyper Common Grace, Vol. 1, chapter 1

Following the creation of humanity there came the Fall. Having become estranged from God, humanity could not receive other than condemnation and punishment from God without God coming graciously to his creation. To this end God set forth a new covenant of grace toward humanity which manifested to individuals as salvation and to humanity as a whole in temporarily mitigating certain immediate effects of the Fall (which also refers to as “forbearance”) .

Thus, there are three basic aspects of God’s grace to humanity: particular grace to individuals into salvation, covenant grace to the people of God as a people, and common grace to humanity on the basis of their being human beings. He also seems a Trinitarian pattern here of the work of the Spirit (he merely asserts but does not argue the Trinitarian point at length).

The common grace was first raised at length by John Calvin in The Institutes and was based upon the observation that those who were outside of God’s saving grace still exhibited reason and beauty. How do we explain such a thing? Do we deny the various commendable things seen among those who reject God? Or, do we lessen the Fall, and turn the Fall into a stumble and limp? Calvin solved the problem by explaining that God gives a sort of grace to even unbelievers to permit the continuance of the world of men after the Fall.

Kuyper notes that the issue has been discussed by various Reformed theologians, but no one has considered the matter at length. Therefore, his work proposes to look at the matter at length.

Should we pray to the Holy Spirit?

09 Saturday Jul 2016

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In Daniel Block’s “For the Glory of God”, he asks the question as to whether we should address worship specifically and personally to the Spirit.  His analysis begins with three observations:

  1.  “No one addresses the Holy Spirit in prayer, or bows to the Holy Spirit, or serves him in a liturgical gesture. Put simply, in the Bible the Spirit is never the object of worship.”
  2. “The Spirit drives the worship of believers yet does not receive worship.”
  3. “In true worship, the person of the Trinity may not be interchanged without changing the significance of the work.”

He notes two historical developments in the church. First, is the development of the Doxology,

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise him all creatures here below;

Praise him above you heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

He noted that it derives from Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto, Glory to God the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. This was changed in response to the Arians, which sought to ontologically subordinate Jesus. To avoid that movement, the connections where changed to “and” from “through” and “in”.

The second development was the Charismatic movement to single out the Spirit for particular adoration in prayer and song.

Block is reticent to make the Spirit the unique object of worship

When we read Scripture, the focus will on God the Father or Jesus Christ the Son. However, it seems that the Holy Spirit is most honored when we accept his conviction of sin, his transforming and sanctifying work within us, and his guidance in life and ministry, and when in response to his leading we prostrate ourselves before Jesus.

This emphasis on the Spirit’s work in is matched by an interesting comment from Kuyper

It appears from Scripture, more than has been emphasized, that in the holy act of prayer there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit working both in us and with us.

Kuyper, Holy Spirit (1946), trans. de Vries, p. 618.

James Hastings has a discussion on prayer directed to the Spirit. The conclusion comes in his last paragraph:

Continue reading →

To hold fast by God

30 Saturday Aug 2014

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In public life all thought of God is ignored. In some places church-bells are no more rung. Few days of prayer are appointed. God’s name is no more spoken. No memento mori any more reminds us of death. Cemeteries are turned into parks. Sacred things are scorned. That which in private conversation and in the public press gives tone to theories is the delusion that heaven reaches no higher than the stars, that death ends all, that life without God is more apt to bring prosperity than life in the fear of the Lord. The habit of doing without God in public life puts itself as a stream between God and the God-fearing soul. To hold fast by God, against the current of this stream, takes strong faith.

To Be Near Unto God,
Abraham Kuyper