RESPONDS TO TRANSLATED ARTICLE OF DR. ARNTZEN

After having read the article “Calling and Reprobation” in the issue January ‘76, written by Dr. M. J. Arntzen and translated by Rev. Peter De Jong, I would like to make a few remarks. Although, I, further, heartily agree with the article itself, yet I would like to comment on the exegesis given of the texts, I Timothy 2:4 and 11 Peter 3:9.

I would like to refer here to Romans 9:11–13 which teaches us something quite different. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. See also Calvin‘s Institutes, Book 4, ch. XXII. Sec also Romans 9:22. All men in I Timothy 2:4 means, according to Calvin: all kinds of men, no kind of men is excluded from salvation. All nations–the promise to Abraham (Institutes, Book 4, same chapter).

This is plain also from the context in the Bible. Therefore we must pray for kings and all who arc in authOrity over us. They might repent. See at~o I Timothy 2;6. A ransom for all. means again, for all kinds of people, low and high, black and white, Jews and Gentiles both. For the ransom is the redeeming price. Losprijs in Dutch. Christ Himself is the ransom, and He gave Himself as the ransom for many (Mark 10:45, Matt. 20:28).

White in The Expositors Greek Testament points to Titus 2:11: For the grace of God hath appeared to all men, means to all nations. See also Psalm 67:2: That Thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. We must explain Scripture with Scripture. And now consider II Peter 3:9. Peter writes to all believers in Asia. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but in longsuffering to usward (K.J. Version). The Revised Version has: but is forbearing toward you. And the New American Standard has but is patient toward you, not willing that any of us or you should perish. That is the Church, or the elect. Most commentators take it this way. Also Prof. S. Greijdanus.

So God is longsuffering for His people, that the last elect shall be brought in, and therefore He bears all enmity and sin and mockery of the impenitent world, as He did before the great flood. I think this is also plain from the context.

Calvin is very plain on these texts in his Institutes. He does not see any indication in tho Bible that God wants all men, that is head for head, to be saved. This does not contradict the general preaching of the gospel to all men, for the promise is: who believes, shall be saved. For the generality of the promises, he says, does not take away the distinction of special grace. And how many millions of people were lost, because they never even heard the gospel?

Surely the author of this article would not say; there is also salvation for the reprobate, the unbelievers? But we do not know who the elect or the reprobate are. Neither is that our business to know. The gospel must be preached to all men generally, with the command to repent and believe (Canons of Dort, II, 5), that whosoever believes shall be saved.

Could I have this answered in THE OUTLOOK?

A subscriber.

Sincerely yours, E. WIERENGA Neerlandia, Alberta TOG IRD

REPLY

I welcome the observations of Mr. Wierenga. If I were writing the article I would probably have stated the point to which he objects somewhat differently, but a translator must try too express accurately what the writer said, not what he would say if he were the writer.

Despite a question or two one might raise about details, I was impressed with the evaluation Dr. Arntzen gave of the state of affairs in the Netherlands, and believed that what he wrote ought to he translated into English because it applies as well to our situation as to that on the other side of the Atlantic.

We too encounter people who fear that they are not elect and that therefore the gospel call and promise are not really intended for them. Such misunderstandings are not helped when some who are deeply concerned about maintaining the biblical doctrine of election, because of that concern, hesitate to say that God through His gospel sincerely calls all kinds of people (whether elect or not) to repent and turn to Him. Yet we find the Bible again and again extending such a call and commanding us to do the same. The Apostle Paul, for example, when speaking to the Athenian philosophers, some of whom tum away mocking, told them that God “commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent” (Acts 17:30).

Of the two passages to which Dr. Arntzen referred, Calvin, as Mr. Wierenga points out, interpreted the first (I Tim. 2:4) as referring to classes of people. But tile second (II Peter 3:9), which says that God “is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” Calvin explained differently in his Commentary: “So wonderful is his love towards mankind, that he would have them all to be saved, and is of his own sell prepared to bestow salvation on the lost . . . . But, it may be asked, if God wishes none to perish, why is it that so many do perish? To this my answer Is, that no mention is here made of the hidden purpose of God, according to which the reprobate are doomed to their own ruin, but only of his will as made known to us in the gospel. For God there stretches forth his hand without a difference to all, but lays hold only of those, to lead them to himself whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world.”

This interpretation of Calvin is cited and endorsed by Professors John MUlTay and Ned Stonehouse in their little book. let on The Free Offer of the Gospel. In that careful exegetical study they devote five pages to this text, observing that “The language in this part of the verse Is so absolute that it is highly unnatural to envisage Peter as meaning merely that God does not wish that any believer should perish, but he rather wishes that all believers who live laxly should repent of their sins. If they are believers, they have already come to repentance, the language of the clause, then, most naturally refers to mankind as a whole as men are faced with the issues of death or life before the day of judgment comes. It does not view men either as elect or as reprobate, and so allows that both elect and reprobate make up the totality in view.”

Of the many other Scripture passages that speak in this way, we may notice particularly Ezekiel 33:11, “As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked tum from his way and live. tum ye, tum, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” John Calvin‘s comments 0 11 the parallel passage in Ezekiel 18:23 are of special interest regarding the point under discussion. “We hold, then, that God wills not the death of a sinner, since he calls all equally to repentance, and promises himself prepared to receive them if they only seriously repent. If anyone would object—then there Is no election of God, by which he has predestinated a fixed number to salvation, the answer is at hand; the Prophet docs not here speak of God‘s secret counsel, but only recalls miserable men from despair, that they may apprehend the hope of pardon, and repent and embrace the offered salvation. If any one again objects—this is making God act with duplicity. the answer is ready, that God always wished the same thing, though by different ways and in a manner inscrutable to us . . . . Besides it is not surprising that our eyes should be blinded by intense light, so that we cannot certainly judge how God wishes all to be saved, and yet has devoted all the reprobate to eternal destruction and wishes them to perish (Italics are mine) . . . . As I have already said, the Prophet does not here dispute with sublety about his incomprehensible plans, but wishes to keep our attention close to God’s word . . . Now all are called to repentance, and the hope for salvation is promised them when they repent: this is true, since God rejects no returning sinner: he pardons all without exception; meanwhile, this will of God which he sets forth in his word does not prevent him from decreeing before the world was created what he would do with every individual.”

Notice that Calvin does not do what some Refonned people do with such texts, restrict or distort them into referring only to the elect. At the risk of being charged with inconsistency, he insists on saying what God’s Word says, no less and no more, and leaves the solution of the problem to God.

On the other hand, and much more common also among us, is the movement, following the direction being given by Dr. Berkouwer and other Dutch church leaders, to deny the biblical doctrine of a real, individual election (a double Predestination, including reprobation). In order, they think, to have a real gospel (good news) for all, those who follow this trend, like the larger liberal movement by which they are influenced, deny that God “worketh all things after the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). Not surprisingly, we see coming into our churches the same results Dr. Arntzen observed in the Netherlands, an inclination to minimize sin and guilt, regeneration and conversion, and a preoccupation with social matters, preferably those not too near home. The result is a church that shares the sickness of the world. The remedy as Dr. Arntzen suggests is a return to the gospel, “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”

PETER DE JONG