Because of an interest shown in Protestant Reformed history and theology by members of my own family, I felt the need to do the same. From my reading experience, I have arrived at some observations. The first is that there are seemingly few books at the layman’s level that deal specifically with the concept of common grace. Too, though of less consequence, is that ministers whom I asked to give suggestions on books that defend common grace were at loss to do so.
However, the more I reflect on this idea of common grace, the more I see that saving grace is an interior activity of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the elect only, whereas common grace is God’s goodness to all mankind alike in the realm of the five senses. It is a preservative activity that makes culture and civilization possible. When the Lord withdraws this benevolence—this striving of His Holy Spirit—then mankind will be like the wicked in the days of Noah. Only God’s judgment can follow.
Because of the Lord’s goodness in the realm of culture and civilization, the Christian does share many good things with the unbeliever. In the past our forefathers either ignored or openly rejected much in the fie ld of cultural expression because they saw the blight present in the field. They wanted to be unstained from the world. Their total rejection of all cultural expression tended towards legalistic Christianity: “Touch not; taste not.”
Today, however, with our full embrace of the concept of common grace, we are drifting in a more perilous direction, for we seem to be reaching even into the world’s cultural garbage bins. What do I mean? This:
In our Christian high schools we have allowed the dance and rock music to be used in the very facilities which were dedicated to the name of Christ.
In our advance spheres of learning we have those who defend questionable books which many in the public school sector vehemently reject. Those who defend such a work as Catcher in the Rye justify their stance on the basis of their greater learning and sophistication. This book has more profanity and obscenity between its covers than all the profanity and obscenity I was forced to hear in the several factories in which I worked.
Too, it troubles me that those who have turned their backs on the Christian world-and-life view and have rejected the Reformed training of their youth (such as DeVries and Feikema) are welcomed as heroes when they return to their former circles only because they have gained worldly renown in the field of literature.
It is troubling to hear that a few of our own ministers wish our denomination to join the World Council of Churches, an organization committed to the social gospel, a social gospel that has too much of a red tinge.
Because of the extreme affluence in some of our Christian homes, many feel free to take a three or four months annual leave of absence from their local congregations. None of them would think of doing the same in their place of work or business. What then happens to the organic nature of the church when members take so light a view of their local congregation? In a church of 180 families only 69 person were present at an evening service.
Our involvement as Christians in the world, be it socially, culturally, or economically seems to have become so intense that we hear little or nothing about the second corning of our Lord from our Reformed pulpits. The silence about the end time and the Lord’s return is almost deafening? Why?
I believe in common grace but always with a keen sense of the antithesis to regulate and control our involvement in the sphere of common grace.
John H. Sietsema, 2016 Rosewood Avenue. Grand Rapids, MI 49506.