Berkouwer
emphasizes that his reinterpretation of election "has nothing to do
with a devaluation of divine sovereignty. It is not motivated by respect
for the autonomy of the free man" (A Half Century of Theology, p. 95).
He sought to affirm divine election while avoiding the dangers of
determinism. Describing the process by which he reached this position,
he wrote, "in the Bible's radical and open character, I found a way of
speaking that is not defined by some darksome eternal background, but by
the way of history" (A Half Century of Theology, p. 100; Divine
Election, p. 71) - "I did not have to posit indeterminism over against
determinism" (A Half Century of Theology, p. 101).
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...
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