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On October 14, 2019 By In Books, Politics, Theology

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and Politics

This is the third part of a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

In this lecture, Kuyper shows how Calvinism has impacted politics over the last several centuries. Calvinism has had this impact not because of a particular soteriology, like justification by faith, but rather because Calvinism has given special focus to God’s sovereignty. This teaching impacts all areas of authority in the world: State, Society, and Church. Each of these authorities must submit to the highest authority: the sovereign God. In this lecture, Kuyper focuses on God’s Sovereignty over the State.  

The Nature of the State

Kuyper first begins by explaining the nature of the state, its origin and position in the world. He explains, “For, indeed without sin there would have been neither magistrate nor state-order; but political life, in its entirety, would have evolved itself, after a patriarchal fashion, from the life of the family” (p 80). He also describes the State as a crutch for a lame leg. In a perfect world, this crutch would not be needed, but in a fallen world, the State is a gift of God set up and established under His authority. 

Kuyper then draws out two key lessons. First, that we should gratefully receive the state from the hand of God and also recognize, “…that, by virtue of our natural impulse, we must ever watch against the danger which lurks, for our personal liberty, in the power of the State” (p 81). Kuyper saw correctly that the State is a necessary authority but it also must be restrained. 

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On October 13, 2019 By In Theology, Wisdom

Growing In Authority

When Jesus called his Twelve men in Luke 6, he named them apostles. They would be his official representatives, sent out with his authority. Their initial calling looked toward maturity. Eventually, they would be ready for Jesus to grant them more authority and send them out. But there must be time between their calling and when Jesus sends them out with his authority to deliver people from demons and disease in Luke 9. This is where Jesus was taking them, but before he could entrust them with this authority, they had to be with Jesus for a while to learn from him by word and example what it means to have and use authority in his kingdom. The disciples stay in the “school of Jesus” for a while. Then, when Jesus deems them ready, we see Jesus granting them the authority he always intended to give them.

While our calling might not seem so dramatic as theirs, our calling has the same fundamental trajectory: maturity that will be able to handle greater authority. At our baptism, Jesus calls us into a special relationship with himself. We belong to him and he to us. Like the disciples, we are called to be with him to learn from him. Also, like the disciples, we are vested with a certain amount of authority in our calling. When Jesus grants his authority to his disciples, he is “clothing” or “vesting” them in his own authority. When we are baptized, Paul says that we “put on Christ” (Gal 3.27). We are vested with Christ’s name, and with that name, a certain amount of authority. While our authority and responsibility grow throughout the years, every Christian has this basic authority. Each Christian bears the name of Christ and has the responsibility to use that authority as he did: to serve others.

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On October 11, 2019 By In Books, Politics, Theology, Worship

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism and Religion

This is the second part of a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

Religion is For God

In this second lecture, Kuyper argues that Calvinism has a religious energy that other theological camps do not. This energy is found in how Calvinism places God and God’s glory at the center of all religious life. This energy restores the true nature of religion and this restoration in turn sets out the full task of man before God.

What is this religious energy in Calvinism? It is that all of the Christian religion must be for God. Kuyper says, “The starting point of every motive in religion is God and not Man” (p 46). God should be our primary and ultimate goal. We must love and worship God for His own sake, not because we are trying to get a reward out of Him. Kuyper says this is our goal: “…to covet no other existence than for the sake of God, to long for nothing but the will of God, and to be wholly absorbed in the glory of the name of the Lord, such is the pith and kernel of all true religion” (p 46). The true demand of the Christian life is that we must spend all our energy following God’s will. 

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On October 10, 2019 By In Books, Politics, Theology

Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism: Calvinism a Life-System

This is the first in a six part article series on Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. He gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary over a series of days in October 1898. Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

In his first lecture, Abraham Kuyper sets out his reason for lecturing on Calvinism. He sees that Modernism is on the rise and so we need a solid theological foundation that can combat this rising threat. He says that Calvinism is this true foundation because it is a life-system. It covers every aspect of man’s condition: Man’s relation before God, his relation with his fellow-man, and his relation to creation. Kuyper also argues that Calvinism is not tied to any one country or people group and so Calvinism is a truly catholic force that brings good to the whole world. 

We Need a Life System

First, Kuyper sets out the need for a life-system. In 1898, Kuyper saw correctly the threat of Modernism coming and he understood the dangerous nature of it to Christianity. Kuyper observes, “Two life systems are wrestling with one another, in mortal combat” (p 11). There is no neutral ground between these two life systems. He says that this is the struggle in Europe and in America. He describes the two sides this way: “Modernism is bound to build a world of its own from the data of the natural man, and to construct man himself from the data of nature; while on the other hand, all those who reverently bend the knee to Christ and worship Him as the Son of the living God, and God himself, are bent upon saving the “Christian Heritage” (p 11). Kuyer rightly saw that the worldview of naturalism and supernaturalism could not stand together. One must win in the end. 

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On October 1, 2019 By In Art, Culture, Politics, Theology

International Abraham Kuyper Month

Happy International Abraham Kuyper Month!

October is the month to celebrate all things Kuyperian. If you are not familiar with Kuyper, let me suggest that you get familiar with this important man. As a place to start, here is a quick introduction to his life and work. If you are familiar with Kuyper, then this is a great month to go deeper and learn more from him. 

A brief biography

Abraham Kuyper was born on October 29, 1837 in the Netherlands. He grew up in the Dutch Reformed church and his father was a minister in that denomination. His father educated him when he was young and then Abraham went on to study philosophy, theology, and literature at the university level, graduating summa cum laude.

He became a minister in the Dutch Reformed church but he saw growing corruption there and led a reforming movement and encouraged the separation of the church from the power of the state.

He was elected to parliament in 1874 and began a successful career in politics. He was Prime Minister of Netherlands from 1901 to 1905.

In his work, Kuyper encouraged a strong antithesis between Christianity and other worldly philosophies, especially Modernism and Liberal theology. He also promoted Calvinism and helped develop a deeper understanding of sphere sovereignty for the church, state, and family.

In 1898, Abraham Kuyper was invited by B.B. Warfield to give a series of lectures at Princeton Theological seminary, called the Stone Lectures. In October of that year, Kuyper gave six lectures on Calvinism as a life-system.

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On September 29, 2019 By In Theology

Healing & Holy Garments

As Jesus was pressing through the crowd to get to Jairus’s house to heal his daughter who was at the point of death, a desperate, nameless lady who had a flow of blood for twelve years made her way through the crowd seeking to touch Jesus’ garment. She believed that if she could but touch his garment, she would be cleansed and made whole. She believed the message of the good news of the kingdom Jesus had been proclaiming throughout that region. She had heard about how he had been touching the unclean and they were becoming clean. This was very different from everything she knew about the whole system of clean and unclean up to this point in history. Up to this time, only uncleanness spread. Holiness did not. If she were to touch someone, that person would become unclean. That’s what the Law said in Leviticus 15. The other person’s cleanness would not be contracted by her. That’s just the way things were up to this point in history.

Obviously, something was changing. This wasn’t happening with Jesus. The unclean were contracting cleanness from Jesus. She believed God was spreading life through Jesus, so she took her chances and sought to touch his garment.

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On September 23, 2019 By In Family and Children, Theology

Baptism: Overwhelmed by the Waters

Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. (Ps. 69:1-3)

Prayer: Almighty God, who formed the earth out of water and through water by your word, who saved Noah and his family through water while destroying the wicked, who delivered your people Israel through the Sea while defeating Pharaoh and his armies, all of which are types of baptism into Christ Jesus, we pray that you will look mercifully upon Elaine, saving her with your people while destroying sin and death. May she, throughout her life, relying upon the grace you give to her this day, continue to mortify sin so that at the last day she may participate in the resurrection of the just and reign with Christ Jesus eternally. Amen

Since the earliest days of our existence after our fall into sin, water has been a threat to the creation in general and the people of God in particular. The world, as Peter clearly says, was created out of water and through water by the word of God (2Pt 3.5). Land emerged on the third day of creation from the formless mass of water hanging in space. When the wickedness of the world increased to the point that God chose to destroy it, God brought the primal waters back over the earth. The waters of the Red Sea threatened the children of Israel as the Egyptians pressed them from behind. The Psalmist, as we heard, describes being overwhelmed by enemies as being in deep waters and flood sweeping over him.

To be overwhelmed by water is to be destroyed; it is to be de-created, to go down into death. Every baptism, whether in the Old Covenant or now in the New, is not only to be threatened by water, but to welcome it and to be overcome by it. The waters of baptism destroy the old creation that is in Adam.

Today, Elaine Marsh is dying. The water will be poured over her head and destroy her. Death is what we deserve. Death is our destiny. To welcome this water would be sadistic and terrifying if it weren’t for the fact that she, like all of us, enter into the flood with Christ Jesus. We are buried with Christ in baptism into death. Those waters that overwhelm us and drag our old creation bodies down to destruction have first overwhelmed Christ Jesus himself. Because he has been overwhelmed by the waters and risen victorious, we welcome the waters of death so that dying with him we may also be raised with him to new life. Jesus has made the place of destruction and death the place of hope and joy, for today we rejoice in the baptism of Elaine, celebrating the destruction of the old world in Adam and being raised to the new creation in Christ.

Rob and Tara along with their other children have already passed through these waters. God has destroyed their entire family so that it might be raised to new life. This death and resurrection, this re-creation of your family, Rob and Tara, is a privilege that entails a calling. Your calling is to not let sin reign in your baptized mortal bodies and to train your children so that they will do the same. You are to yield your bodily members as instruments of righteousness to God and not to sin and to teach your children to do the same. The grace of God given to us in baptism enables us to walk in this new creation life.

Rob and Tara, continue to walk faithfully and train your children to do the same. Continue to put to death the sinful deeds of the body and yield your bodies to righteousness. Your baptism into Christ calls you to this.

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On September 22, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

From Death-to-Death to Glory-to-Glory

The demoniac that Jesus met after crossing the sea was in a state of perpetual, growing death. Luke represents this for us in several ways in his descriptions. This man abides among the tombs with the dead. He is possessed by an unclean spirit; the breath of Satan animates him. He is naked, stripped of all glory. He is separated from home and community, being driven in the desert. He is a walking dead man.

This death, as mentioned, is not static. It is growing. In the beginning, when God created the man in his image, the intention was that man would progress in a fruitful life. Life would move from one stage of glory to another. But when death came into the world through sin, that process was reversed. Instead of growing in life, man initially dies and then continually dies unless God moves him from death to life through resurrection. This demoniac was dead and was growing in death. Satan and his minions were destroying him day by day as he roamed and cried among the tombs. This is Satan’s glorious plan for man’s life under his control: to move you from death to death.

What this man needed at this time was not a little helping hand. He needed resurrection. He needed to be cleansed and delivered or, in short, given new life. So it is with all of us who are sons of Adam, born into this world dead in our trespasses and sins. Our need goes far beyond just a little help. We need resurrection. Jesus came to provide for this need through taking on our death and subsequently being raised from the dead. In him we are cleansed. In him we are given life instantly and that life grows and grows until it comes to full flower in the resurrection of our bodies on the last day.

This is glorious news, but it is news that is difficult to accept for some and out-right rejected by others. Each of us knows that he is guilty. But instead of turning and submitting to the one who forgives and, through that forgiveness, gives life, we would rather find other ways to justify ourselves; that is, we want to find ways to deal with our guilt and the guilty feelings that are the consequence of that actual guilt. People will bury their guilt through abuse of substances or even resorting to self-mutilation in one form or another. We must deal with our incessant uncleanness.

This attempt at self-cleansing also dresses up in more respectable ways. We can bury ourselves in work, lose ourselves in material possessions, or even dedicate our lives to causes that make us feel good about ourselves. We long to be clean.

Many times, however, we love our death. It is familiar. It is a friend. It is destroying my life and eventually carrying me on dragon wings to hell, but it is what I like; it is what I know. Besides all of that, I hate God. Submitting to him is the last thing I want to do. So, we continue to try to justify ourselves, and, like this demoniac, we continue on the road of death.

This is seen all around us every day in the world. But this problem is not exclusive to those outside the church. There is something that remains in all of us while we are progressing in life that nags at us that we aren’t clean and that we must find a way to pay for our sins ourselves. There is enough uncleanness left in us that, at times, we still want to do this for ourselves.

As always and with everybody, these attempts fail. The only answer is what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. The answer to your guilt and the guilty feelings that follow is to hear the declaration of God in Christ over you: “You are forgiven and righteous before me.” The only way to quiet the tumultuous mind that tortures you in condemnation is to believe what your God has declared about you. You are cleansed in Christ. Having been justified by faith, you are at peace with God. Believe that and be free. Believe that and live.

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On September 15, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

The Courage of Faith

Most (if not all) of us can identify with the disciples in the boat with Jesus during that big storm recorded in Luke 8. We would love to identify more with Jesus: resting so confidently in his Father’s protection that he can sleep through the middle of a hurricane. But we don’t. At least not normally. We identify with the disciples and their fear. We know that Jesus plans to take us to the other side of the sea, but it looks like somewhere along the way he may have changed his plans. So we, logically (at least in our minds) begin to worry. We’re afraid like they are.

Because we think we are being sensible, the waking words of Jesus to the disciples—to us!– sting a bit when we hear them: “Where is your faith?” That hurts. I’m just being rational and looking at the very real situation that is around me at this time, analyzing the situation in my great wisdom, and coming to a very logical, well-reasoned conclusion. A little boat in the midst of a hurricane-like storm doesn’t stand a chance. “Jesus, if you were a fisherman and fished this sea as much as us, you’d understand that. You need to know that it is time to be afraid.” Sounds perfectly logical, yet Jesus, knowing what normally happens to boats in storms on the sea, still questions the faith of his closest companions and the ones who will be the foundation of the church.

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On September 5, 2019 By In Theology

Kuyperian Sabbatarianism

A man is walking home on Friday night near midnight. He lives on the fourth floor of a large apartment complex. As he arrives at his apartment complex, he realizes that it’s midnight; it’s the Sabbath. He needs to get in an elevator to take him to the fourth floor, but he pauses and realizes he can’t use the elevator because it would require him to push the #4 button, which is considered work. And this simple work would violate the Sabbath. This man is a practicing Jew and using the elevator broke one of the 39 Shabbat Laws.

When we think about the Sabbath, it’s possible that these kinds of laws come to mind. In fact, conversations about the fourth commandment are rare in evangelical environments. Any talk about the Sabbath is quickly greeted with the retort that we don’t live in the Old Testament. The more astute will mention that in Mark 2 Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for adding hundreds of regulations to the Sabbath that “robbed the day of its joy.”a Or some will reply with Jesus’ statement that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). But what precisely did Jesus mean with that statement? It seems clear that he did not mean that we can do whatever we want on the Sabbath, or that the Sabbath is somehow abrogated (see Matt. 5:17), but it does mean that the Sabbath is a gift and blessing to man.

Therefore, making a list of dos and don’ts would be unwise, because the Sabbath is to be commemorated as a blessing and without burdensome hindrances. That much is clear. Jesus comes into the scene and dusts off the fourth commandment to “its original beauty and luster.”b.

Sabbath Controversy

There is no more controversial topic than the application of the Fourth Commandment in the life of the Church. More pages have been written discussing this commandment than probably all the other commandments combined (perhaps with the exception of the second). The reason it’s so controversial is that the Bible does talk about the Sabbath and it speaks of it in positive ways in the Old Covenant. It’s a day of refreshment in Exodus 23; it’s to be treated as a day of delight in Isaiah 58; and there is even a song dedicated to the Sabbath, called “A Song for the Sabbath Day,” which is Psalm 92.

The reality is that everything modern Christians have thought about the Sabbath is probably wrong in the Old Testament. The Jews didn’t look at the Sabbath and say, “Oh no, here it comes again; the day of boredom and silence.” No, in fact, our forefathers treasured the Sabbath which is why our God declares it a Holy Day.

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  1. Douma 113  (back)
  2. Ibid. 114  (back)

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