PRCA lesings vir Saterdag, 4 Junie 2016: Konferensie oor die Verbond

KONFERENSIE OOR DIE VERBOND

“Die Verbond is die wese van die ware godsdiens” – Herman Bavinck

U word elkeen hartlik uitgenooi na ons konferensie oor die Verbond:

Spreker: prof. Ron Cammenga

Prof. Cammenga het sy MTh gedoen oor die verbond.  Sien hier onder die inhoudsopgawe, die ‘abstract’ asook ‘n resensie artikel oor sy studie.

U is baie welkom om saam te kom luister, leer en vrae te vra oor hierdie baie belangrike onderwerp.

Program:

08h30-08h45: Opening en verwelkoming

08h45-09h30: ‘Let Us….’: A Covenant God in Himself

09h30-10h15: ‘Between Me and Thee’: Covenant and Election

10h15-10h45: Koffietyd

10h45-11h30: Thee and Thy Seed’: With Believers and their Children

11h30-12h15: Vrae, bespreking en afsluiting

Biography: “Professor Cammenga did his undergraduate work at Calvin College and graduated from the Protestant Reformed Seminary in 1979.  He served Protestant Reformed churches in Iowa, Colorado, and Michigan before accepting the appointment to teach in the Seminary in 2005.  He teaches Reformed Dogmatics and Old Testament studies.  He is married to his wife Rhonda, and together they have eleven children and thirty grandchildren.”

Adres van GK Bet-el

31ste Laan 415, Villieria, Pretoria

Aanwysings: https://gkbetel.wordpress.com/kontak/

GPS: http://bit.ly/1QZNWWl

Verdere navrae

– Slabbert Le Cornu: proregno@gmail.com of 082 770 2669

– Joseph Oosthuizen: jeoosthuizen@googlemail.com of 074 338 5002

God of Friendship:

Herman Hoeksema’s Unconditional Covenant Conception

Review article:

It is a timely thesis.

It is a thesis well done.

The thesis to which we refer is that of Prof. Ronald Cammenga, a thesis submitted to the faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary in 2013, and now revised and enlarged in 2014, to complete the requirements for his Master of Theology Degree. The thesis is entitled God of Friendship: Herman Hoeksema’s Unconditional Covenant Conception. Prof. Cammenga sat for the defense of his thesis in May of 2013, which oral defense was approved, and he was granted his Th. M.

Interestingly, Dr. John Bolt was one of the two faculty members who served to ‘interrogate’ Cammenga on his thesis and then signed his ‘parchment.’ The other was Dr. Richard Muller, Prof. Cammenga’s faculty supervisor.

In his introduction Prof. Cammenga informs us that he found their examination to be an enjoyable experience.

See the rest of the article here: A Welcome Master’s Thesis

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………………. vi

CHAPTER

1. THE COVENANT AS A BOND OF FRIENDSHIP ……………………. 1

1. Introduction: Covenant as the Structure of Revelation ……………… 1

1. The Contemporary Resurgence of Interest in Covenant ………….. 14
   1. Herman Hoeksema and Covenant Theology …………………………. 19
   2. The Covenant as Grounded in the Divine Being ……………………. 23
   3. God of Friendship …………………………………………………………… 27
   4. Biblical Words for “Covenant” and Word Roots …………………… 34
   5. The Superiority of the Divine Covenant of Grace ………………….. 39
   6. Covenant and Marriage…………………………………………………….. 48
   7. Man Created as God’s Covenant Friend ………………………………. 54

2. ELECTION APPLIED TO THE COVENANT …………………………. 60

1. Introduction: Who Belong to God’s Covenant? …………………….. 60
2. Election and the Covenant: Early Writings …………………………… 64
3. Election and the Covenant: From the Beginning of the PRCA …. 68
4. The Schilder Factor ………………………………………………………… 73
5. Election and the Covenant: In the Heat of Controversy …………… 76
6. The Declaration of Principles ……………………………………………. 80
7. Reaction and Analysis of Others ………………………………………… 91
8. In the Seminary Classroom ………………………………………………. 95
9. With Appeal to Romans 9-11 ……………………………………………. 97
10. Christ the Head of the Covenant ………………………………………. 101

3. WITHIN THE TRADITION ……………………………………………….. 106

1. Introduction: Placed Outside the Tradition ………………………… 106
2. Calvin and the “Substance of the Covenant”………………………. 112
3. Other Evidence from Calvin ………………………………………….. 122
4. Late Sixteenth- through Eighteenth-Century Reformed

Orthodoxy   ……………………………………………………………… 141

1. A Glance at Presbyterians and Puritans …………………………….. 160
2. The Afscheiding and the Doctrine of the Covenant ……………… 187
3. Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck ……………………………. 194
4. The Christian Reformed Church and the Covenant:

The Early Years …………………………………………………………. 198

1. The Christian Reformed Church and the Covenant:

Special Attention to Geerhardus Vos …………………………..203

1. The Christian Reformed Church and the Covenant:

The Twentieth Century ……………………………………………….. 212

1. Surprising Omissions from Hoekema’s Survey …………………. 216

4. THE UNCONDITIONAL COVENANT……………………………….. 226

1. Introduction: A Historical Survey of Hoeksema’s

Covenant Debates …………………………………………………………. 226

1. Advocate of a Conditional Covenant: William Heyns …………… 232
2. Advocate of a Conditional Covenant: Klaas Schilder …………… 235
3. Advocates of a Conditional Covenant within the PRCA ……….. 248
4. Hoeksema’s Rejection of the Heynsian View of the Covenant .. 252
5. “As to Conditions”: Hoeksema’s Rejection of the Liberated

View of the Covenant ………………………………………………… 266

1. Use of “Condition” by Calvin and Others ………………………….. 270
2. “Condition” in Reference to “Our Part” in the Covenant ……….. 276
3. With Appeal to the Reformed Confessions and the Reformed

Fathers …………………………………………………………………….. 297

1. Conclusion: Always His View …………………………………………. 307

BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………. 318

Abstract

            This thesis is a study of the doctrine of the covenant of grace as developed by the Protestant Reformed theologian Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965).   In this thesis I will focus on Hoeksema’s unconditional covenant conception. I will demonstrate that already in the early 1920s, while yet a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, Hoeksema’s understanding of the covenant was framed by his convictions concerning election. As he developed his covenant conception, Hoeksema was influenced by others in the Reformed tradition, particularly the Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck, whose views he shared in important respects.   Throughout his lifetime he never wavered from his fundamental view of the covenant of grace in its relationship to God’s sovereign, gracious decree of election.

Hoeksema formulated his views already in the early years of his ministry in the Christian Reformed Church, especially in connection with his writing for the rubric “Our Doctrine” in the denominational magazine of the Christian Reformed Church, the Banner.   Hoeksema served as editor of this department and wrote regularly—nearly every week—for four years, from September 1918 through September 1922.   In these articles, in which he traced the historical development of the kingdom of God, kingdom and covenant often intersect. Soon after he was terminated as an editor of the Banner, Hoeksema became one of the founders of a new religious periodical, the Standard Bearer, of which he was editor-in-chief for some forty years.

In the book De Geloovigen en Hun Zaad, Hoeksema set forth his unconditional covenant view. The contents of this book first appeared as a series of articles in the Standard Bearer in 1927. Later this book was translated into English and published under the title Believers and their Seed: Children in the Covenant.

Hoeksema’s position that fellowship with God is the essence of the covenant, that membership in the covenant is limited to the elect, and that the covenant is established and maintained unconditionally, represented divergence from at least some of the instruction he had received in his seminary training, as well as the prevailing opinion among both Dutch and American Reformed theologians.   This is not to say that there is no support for Hoeksema’s unconditional covenant view within the tradition; there is, as I will indicate. In addition, and more importantly as far as Hoeksema was concerned, he was convinced that his position was supported by Scripture and the Reformed confessions.

Hoeksema faced a significant challenge to his position in the controversy over the covenant that raged—not too strong a word—in the Protestant Reformed Churches in the 1950s. This controversy was precipitated by those in the PRCA who wanted to receive into the denomination the post-World War II immigrants to the United States and Canada who had left the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated). These immigrants and their supporters agreed with Dr. Klaas Schilder, who taught that the covenant is conditional and includes all the natural children of believers, and thus, more than only the elect.

Throughout his ministry Hoeksema remained committed to the same doctrine of the covenant. Steadfastly he maintained that the essence of God’s covenant of grace is friendship, that membership in the covenant is limited to the elect, and that the covenant is unconditional. As I will demonstrate, although Hoeksema developed in his understanding of the covenant throughout his nearly fifty-year career as minister of the gospel, professor of theology, and editor of a leading Reformed periodical, he did not deviate from the main lines of the covenant conception that he articulated already in the early years of his ministry.