Berkouwer
gave much serious thought to difficult theological concepts and
Biblical passages. Concerning the interpretation pf divine sovereignty,
he wrote, "one has to be on guard against isolating and abstracting
words, including the word 'sovereignty.' If we are not, we use words
that violate the heart of the church" (A Half Century of Theology,
p.90). He did not seek "to replace determinism with an indeterminism" (A
Half Century of Theology, p. 91). He sought to develop an
interpretation of election which points to the trustworthiness of God:
"the knowledge of divine sovereignty is possible only within knowledge
of the God in whom there is no arbitrariness" (A Half Century of
Theology, p. 91).
A response to a comment by G. R. Osborne on Berkouwer’s understanding of the doctrine of final perseverance
In his contribution to Clark Pinnock (editor), Grace Unlimited (1975), G. R. Osborne states that Berkouwer, in Faith and Perseverance, pp. 9-10, “speaks of the time less ness of the doctrine of final perseverance, founded on ‘the richness and abidingness of salvation” (p. 188, emphasis mine). This single-sentence comment on Berkouwer’s view hardly gives a fair indication of the type of thinking found in Chapter 1 of Berkouwer’s Faith and Perseverance - “Time li ness and Relevance” (pp. 9-14, emphasis mine). Berkouwer insists that “the living preaching of the Scriptures, which offer no metaphysical and theoretical views about … ‘permanency’ as an independent theme in itself, does nothing to encourage ‘a continuity which is … opposed in any way to the living nature of faith” (p. 13). Berkouwer stresses that “The perseverance of the saints is not primarily a theoretical problem but a confession of faith” (p. 14) and that “The perseverance of the saints is unbreakably connected wi...
Comments
Post a Comment