“GEERHARDUS VOS (1862–1949): A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH” by Ransom Lewis Webster pp 304–317 in The Westminster Theological Journal, Spring, 1978.

THE BOOK OF BOOKS, Essays on the Scriptures in Honor of Johannes G. Vos, edited by John H. White, 150 pp. +37 page list of the published writings of J. G. Vos, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co. 1978, $7.50.

BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE, A Quarterly Publication devoted to Expounding, Defending, and Applying the System of Doctrine set forth in the Word of God and Summarized in the Standards of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church, J. G. Vos, Editor and Manager, 3408 7th Ave., Beaver Falls, PA 15010, Subscription $3.00 per year postpaid anywhere.

A CHRISTIAN INTRODUCTION TO RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, by Johannes G. Vos. Baker Book House, 1965, sixth printing 1977, 79 pp., paper, $1.95.

A Name That Should Be Better Known

The name Vos has had much less recognition among the Reformed on this continent than its significance for their cause would warrant. In the careers and writings of the Voses, father and son, there has been a blending of Reformed and Presbyterian traditions of a kind that has been and may continue to be very helpful to those who share the common Biblical Reformed faith in this part of the world. Both Reformed and Presbyterians might profit greatly by getting acquainted with their writings, especially in dealing with today’s problems, notably those that surround their understanding of God’s Word, the Bible.

Geerhardus Vos 1862–1949

The Westminster Theological Journal a year ago in an article told of the life and labors of the senior Vos. He was born in the Netherlands, the son of a pastor in the church of the 1834 secession, the Christian Reformed Church, of French Huguenot ancestry (The name was originally Vosse). He grew up in the times of the Kuyper conflict with Liberalism, a fitting preparation for his role in the same kind of conflict in his later career. When he was 19 his father became pastor of a Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he began studying for the ministry in the fledgling theological school of that denomination. In his second year there he served as a student instructor (assisting the one professor). On completing his theological course that year he went on to Princeton Theological Seminary. After completing his Princeton course in 1885 he continued study for three years in Germany, where he received the Ph.D. degree in Strassburg in 1888 at the age of 26. Thereupon he taught Systematic and Exegetical Theology for 5 years at his old school in Grand Rapids. In 1893 he began his 39 years of teaching at Princeton in the new chair of Biblical Theology (established, it appeared, to counteract the liberal influence of the notorious Professor C. A. Briggs of Union Seminary).

Pioneer in Orthodox Biblical Theology

There has been a tendency within our orthodox Reformed (as well as in o~her evangelical) circles, with our high regard for the Divine inspiration of the whole Bible, to give relatively little attention to the differences between the various parts of the Scriptures and the development (or progressive revelation) of doctrine within them. Liberal scholars, with their revolutionary and humanistic prejudices, have focused attention on such differences and indications of development in effort to discredit the whole and to deny any unified or final revelation. They are still doing that among us today.

In this situation, as Webster says, “Vos’ greatest contribution to the world of biblical scholarship was his formulation and presentation of a comprehensive, orthodox and distinctly Reformed biblical-theological approach to the Holy Scriptures. Up until his time Reformed theology had devoted very little attention to a method of biblical understanding that focused attention on the history of special revelation.” “Biblical theology was developed in liberal circles, and held to an evolutionary view of biblical religion. Nevertheless, conservative scholarship recognized the necessity of pursuing this discipline, but within a framework giving due honor to the Bible as the revealed Word of God and not as the product of man’s religious nature. Vos through his great work, Biblical Theology, Old and New Testaments, added a new chapter to the study of biblical theology from a conservative and from a Reformed perspective.” “. . . Vos saw that God, the active agent, revealed Himself in biblical events and in the interpretation of those events. God’s redeeming acts in history constitute the core of revelation. Revelation is given as ‘an organically unfolding process’. Vos denied the concept that the Bible is merely a depository of abstract doctrinal statements, and also that historical development implied that former revelations had become obsolete with the giving of later ones.” “. . . Vos held to a unity of biblical revelation” (pp. 312, 313). Although others have studied in this field , Reformed theology has nothing else that approaches the comprehensiveness of Vos’ work on the history of special revelation.

The reader who is interested in pursuing this matter further may find the article of Professor Richard B. Gaffin of Westminster Seminary on “Geerhardus Vos and the Interpretation of Paul” in the 1971 Presbyterian And Reformed Publishing Company’s book, Jerusalem and Athens (pp. pp. 228–237) and the introduction to Professor Gaffin’s 1978 book on The Centrality of the Resurrection (Baker) very interesting. In the article Professor Gaffin points out how Dr. Vos’s emphasis corrected the mistaken tendency of Dr. Abraham Kuyper and those who followed him to separate theology from the Scriptures, a mistake that in many ways continues to handicap our Reformed Churches up to the present.

Other major works of the senior Vos include his very important The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom and the Church, dealing with a subject on which there is still much confusion, The Self Disclosure of Jesus and The Pauline Eschatology.

It is a curious fact that this great Christian scholar and defender of the Reformed Faith, whom C. Van Til once characterized as the most “many-sided man” he ever knew, “has been largely a forgot ten man” whose “works have not received the continued attention they deserve.” At his funeral in 1949 Dr. Van Til, the preacher, observed that there was neither any official representative of Princeton Theological Seminary nor any clergyman from the Christian Reformed Church, in which he had so significantly labored.

Johannes G. Vos

That the great work of the senior Vos is still available to us at all is owing largely to the labors of his oldest son, Johannes G. Vos, who rewrote and edited three of his father’s works. The Book of Books a volume of essays in his honor edited by one of his colleagues, calls attention to the distinguished career of the junior vos. After his early education in Princeton he studied for a year at Calvin College where he began to feel called to the gospel ministry and was influenced by the preaching of the well-known R. B. Kuiper and Herman Hoeksema. After that year he attended Princeton University, majoring in History and graduating in 1925 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He learned to further hold and defend the Reformed faith in three following years at Princeton Seminary where his father and his colleagues led in the conflict against Liberalism. He studied for another year at the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, becoming a pastor in the Covenanter denomination. In 1930 (at the age of 27) he began eleven years of missionary service in Manchuria during the difficult times of the Japanese occupation. In 1931 he was joined by missionary Wilda Marian Milligan who became Mrs. Vos. In 1937 he completed a Th. M. degree at Westminster Seminary and became professor in a Bible School in Manchuria where he also served as principal until1941. From 1942 to 1954 he was pastor of a Reformed Presbyterian Church near Clay Center, Kansas and then began the last quarter century of teaching at Geneva College at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Professor White’s biographical sketch calls attention to the way in which “Dr. Vos has . . . been very instrumental in Geneva College’s definition, reaffirmation, and commitment to a more thorough Christian education,” a commitment expressed especially in his important little pamphlet, “What is Christian Education?” As a Reformed Presbyterian from conviction since his days in Princeton Seminary he “sought to develop in the membership of the denomination an understanding and appreciation of her creeds,” arguing his “not always . . . majority or popular views” “with patience as well as with clarity and sincerity.” Both of the biographical sketches cited in this article make a point of the wit and the kindheartedness of both father and son. The Journal article recalls an anecdote of Van Til. When a student’s dog followed him into the classroom Geerhardus suggested, “Please close the door; we must draw the line somewhere.” Professor White mentions the way in which a question brought to J. G. would often be answered with a bundle of relevant material given the next day. When some time ago I was asked to teach a course in World Religions at the RBC on rather short notice and was seeking good text–book material I became aware of Professor Vos’ rich experience in this field and I called him, asking for suggestions. Imagine my surprise when the call was rewarded with just such a large bundle of books and notes which proved invaluable throughout the course. And some of the very best material I could find was J. G. Vos’ own little book, A Christian Introduction to Religions of the World. In 80 pages this $1.95 Baker Book House paperback gives a brief yet very comprehensive, superb introduction to world religions. It can be highly recommended to both students and ordinary readers interested in the subject.

J. D. Vos’ Writings

The Book of Books includes two excellent essays of J. G. Vos, “Bible Breaking, Bible Bending and Bible Believing” and “The Separated Life and the Sufficiency of Scripture.” Other essays deal with Bible study, the “whole counsel of God,” the covenant, the “battle for the Bible,” the Westminster Assembly’s interpretation, and the second coming, and are written by John White (the editor), Richard Gaffin, E. C. Copeland, Paul Woolley, Wayne Spear, and James Dennison, respectively. Joseph Hill writes on the Benedictus, Duncan Lowe on the Psalms in worship, C. Van Til on Christian Ethics, Bruce Stewart on Biblical counseling and W. G. McMillan on Bible teaching. The list gives an idea of the variety of good material, too extensive to be reviewed in detail to be found in this volume.

The final chapter in the book is a 37-page list of J. G. Vos’ published writings compiled by Charles McBurney. Looking over this remarkable list of the writings produced during a busy life as pastor and teacher, one observes that a large part of them are found in the Blue Banner Faith and Life a quarterly journal which he began in 1942 at Clay Center, Kansas, and has been editing and largely writing up to the present. (19 pages of the list are titles of descriptive and critical book reviews) Professor Vos’ practical, pastoral concern for students and church members comes to effective expression in his writings which combine thorough scholarship, and staunch commitment to the Biblical Reformed faith with a clear, pointed and often brief style of writing. His book reviews are marvels of condensation! Note his letter about pictures of Christ, scheduled to appear in this OUTLOOK. A letter from him also appeared in the October Banner of Truth urging the need of defending the objective truth of the Gospel as well as of stressing its subjective, personal application. The jacket of the Book of Books does not exaggerate when it calls J. G. Vos “a giant in the Reformed Community.” I wish that the biographical sketch of his life in the volume in his honor had been more detailed. There must be much that could have been included about his missionary career in Manchuria as well as his years of pastoral and teaching labors. We are told “Vos jokes could fill these pages,” but we are not told even one of them! The occasional examples of his writings which I have seen usually when one’s interest and inspire respect. They prompt the suggestion that a selection of his writings collected in a book might prove to be extremely valuable, for the godly, dedicated, scholarly Christian counsel he has given over many years on a variety of subjects seems to become increasingly rare in our day of great confusion and often ill-guided action. In reading the occasional samples of Professor Vos’ writing, I am reminded of a prospector who finds a random outcropping of unusually rich ore. What comes to one’s passing attention suggests that the body of material mostly buried in over three decades of files of the Blue Banner might prove to be a mine of enormously valuable material to Christians of our time and the future if someone would undertake to dig it out and put it into print as a book. At present the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America Board of Education and Publication (800 Wood Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15221) offers the following writings of Professor Vos in its catalog.