Herman Hoeksema - Reformed Dogmatics (Volume 2)

2005 Reformed Free Publishing Association

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First edition 1966 Reformed Free Publishing Association

Second printing of first edition, January 1973

Third printing of first edition, January 1976

Fourth printing of first edition, December 1985

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Contents

Footnote Abbreviations

ANF	The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. 10 vols. American reprint of the Edinburgh edition. Revised and arranged by A. Cleveland Coxe. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. Reprinted, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 19861989.
NPNF	A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Edited by Philip Schaff. 1 st series. 14 vols. American reprint of the Edinburgh edition. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. Reprinted, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 19791989.
NPNF	A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. 2 nd series. 14 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986.
CC	The Creeds of Christendom with History and Critical Notes. Edited by Philip Schaff. Revised by David S. Schaff. 3 vols. 6 th edition. New York: Harper and Row, 1931. Reprinted, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983.
RCSC	Reformed Confessions of the Sixteenth Century. Edited by Arthur C. Cochrane. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.

THE FOURTH LOCUS

Soteriology

Chapter 23

Introduction: Approaches to Soteriology

Soteriology is the locus of dogmatics that treats the work of God through Christ whereby he realizes his covenant in the hearts of the elect by making them partakers of all the benefits of that covenant as Jesus Christ our Lord has merited them. It is necessary to emphasize from the outset that soteriology is theology and must be theologically conceived. It is necessary to emphasize this over against all forms of Pelagianism, semi-Pelagianism, synergism, and Arminianism.

Pelagianism

Pelagianism really has no room for any doctrine of grace and salvation. It denies the necessity of grace and of the Holy Spirit as the author of salvation. It holds that the will of man is free, the essence of this freedom being his capability of choosing either for the good or for the evil. The guilt of Adam cannot be and is not imputed to the human race, nor is the human nature corrupted by the sin of our first father. There is no original guilt and original corruption or pollution. Man is still capable by nature of obeying the law and of entering into eternal life by so doing. Grace is not necessary unto life eternal. As far as Pelagius speaks of grace, it is merely to facilitate mans obeying the law. It is evident that in this system there is no room at all for soteriology.

Semi-Pelagianism

Especially Augustine emphasized predestination and the total depravity of the natural man and, therefore, the complete dependence of the sinner on sovereign grace. But these truths of absolute and unconditional predestination and of the total depravity of the natural man and of his inability to work anything towards his own salvation soon met with opposition. Although many still adhered to the Augustinian view, semi-Pelagianism arose within the churchwitness the opposition to and the condemnation of Gottschalk in the ninth century. Most of the scholastics, such as Thomas Aquinas and Anselm, maintained the Augustinian conception of predestination. Thomas Aquinas emphasized that predestination is not conditioned by anything in man:

It is impossible that the total effect of predestination should in any degree be caused from our side; because whatever is in man disposing him to salvation is altogether comprehended under the effect of predestination, including even the preparation itself for grace.

Others departed from the Augustianian conception of predestination.

Alexander of Hales evidently was disposed to deny the unconditional character of predestination:

Predestination expresses not alone the will of God, but the will together with the foreknowledge that they [the elect] will make a good use of his gift. He occupies the same attitude toward all, but not all occupy the same attitude toward him; and accordingly predestination is not of all, because predestination is conditioned upon the foreknowledge that he [who is its object] will make a good use through free will of divine gifts.

The same may be said of Bonaventura and Duns Scotus. In fact, after the death of Duns Scotus there was a widespread defection from the Augustinian doctrine, according to the English theologian Bradwardine, who said, Almost the whole world had fallen into the errors of Pelagianism.

Romanism

The Romish Church, although apparently condemning semi-Pelagianism, in reality fundamentally agrees with it. First, it places the church between the sinner and God, as the author of salvation, and teaches that regeneration takes place through baptism. Further, in regard to those who are not baptized in infancy, Rome teaches a gratia sufficiens ( sufficient grace ), which consists in the illumination of the mind and a strengthening of the will by the Holy Spirit. Man is able either to reject or to accept this grace. Should man reject this grace, he receives gratia adjuvans or cooperans ( assisting or cooperating grace ) and thus cooperates to prepare himself for the gratia infusa ( infused grace ), which in the Roman Catholic mind is the same as the grace of justification:

The Synod furthermore declares, that, in adults, the beginning of the said Justification is to be derived from the prevenient grace of God [ praeveniente gratia summendum esse], through Jesus Christ, that is to say, from his vocation, whereby, without any merits existing on their parts, they are called; that so they, who by sins were alienated from God, may be disposed through his quickening and assisting grace, to convert themselves to their own justification, by freely assenting to and co-operating with that said grace [ eidem gratiae libere assentiendo et cooperando ]: in such sort that, while God touches the heart of man by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is man himself utterly inactive while he receives that inspiration, forasmuch as he is also able to reject it.

Lutheranism

The Lutherans generally are synergistic. Luther at first adhered to the truth of absolute predestination and personally never repudiated it completely, although he weakened in his later life because he was afraid of the abuse that might be made of this doctrine. But Melanchthon, under whose influence Luther stood, and who had a strong effect upon the development of Lutheranism, would have nothing of this truth. He believed in the possibility of salvation for all and taught that the will of man cooperates with the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation.

It is true that in the Formula of Concord a certain form of predestination is taught; but that this predestination is absolutely sovereign and unconditional is certainly not maintained:

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