Dr. Curt Daniel on the Free Offer, The Will of God, and Hyper-Calvinism

Hypers usually reject the idea of offers that are free, serious, sincere, or well-meant.

Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Springfield, Ill.: Good Books, 2003), 89.

Curt Daniel lists four "main Hyper-Calvinist arguments" against "free offers" along with the historic Calvinist reply. The fourth in the list says:

(4) “Free offers imply that God wishes all men to be saved. This contradicts the doctrine of election. It also implies that grace is universal.” But: The Reformed doctrine of the revealed will of God is that there is a sense in which God certainly does will the salvation of all who hear the Gospel, just as He wills all who hear the Law to obey. He has no pleasure in the death of the one who rejects either Law or Gospel. True Reformed theology keeps the balance between the secret will (election) and the revealed will (Gospel), but Hyperism over-emphasizes the secret will. Similarly, special grace reflects election and the secret will, but there is also common grace for all men as creatures in the revealed will.

Ibid., 90.

Curt Daniel also briefly discusses this in his doctoral dissertation.

See Curt Daniel, Hyper-Calvinism and John Gill (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1983), 426–429.

‘Free offer’ was the debated term in mainstream Hyper-Calvinism, but ‘well-meant offer’ has been the debated phrase within the Hoeksema school. In essence, however, they are one and the same. The first simply brings out the aspect that God wishes to give something without cost, while the second points to God’s willingness that it be accepted.

Curt Daniel, Hyper-Calvinism and John Gill (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1983), 410.

HYPER-CALVINISM

Hyper-Calvinism is a conservative form of traditional *Reformed theology that holds to the five points of Calvinism as formulated by the Synod of *Dort. In contrast with mainstream Calvinism, however, it denies the free offer of the gospel. Many Hyper-Calvinists also reject the historic Reformed doctrines of common *grace and duty faith (i.e. that it is the duty of all who hear the gospel to savingly believe in Christ). They contend that free offers, common grace and duty faith are *Arminian concepts and are incompatible with the Five Points. Their justification for their position is that God sincerely desires the salvation of only the elect, not all men. All Hyper-Calvinists have been supralapsarian, but not all supralapsarians have been Hyper-Calvinist (see *Predestination).

The movement is mainly associated with the Strict and Particular Baptists in England and the Protestant Reformed Church in America. It began in England around the year 1700. The first significant work was God’s Operations of Grace, But No Offers of Grace (1707) by Joseph Hussey. The leading theologian has been John *Gill, whose Body of Divinity, The Cause of God and Truth and other works continue to be reprinted. Other leaders include John Brine, William Huntington, William Gadsby, Joseph Charles Philpot,  B. A. [Benjamin Ashworth] Ramsbottom [who from 1971 to 2015 was the editor of the Gospel Standard] and George Ella. The English movement was much curtailed by Andrew *Fuller’s The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785) and the ministry of C. H. *Spurgeon. Herman Hoeksema (1886–1965) has been the leading American exponent, as in his Reformed Dogmatics (Grandville, 22004). Homer Hoeksema, David Engelsma and Herman Hanko have continued his tradition, which has been opposed by Cornelius *Van Til, John *Murray and others. The movement has always been a very small minority in the Reformed community.

Bibliography

C. D. Daniel, Hyper-Calvinism and John Gill (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1983); A. De Jong, The Well-Meant Gospel Offer (Franeker, 1953); D. Engelsma, Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of the Gospel (Grandville, 21994); M. A. G. Haykin (ed.), The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697–1771) (Leiden, 1997); I. H. Murray, Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism (Edinburgh, 1995); J. Murray, The Free Offer of the Gospel (Edinburgh, 2001); R. W. Oliver, History of the English Calvinistic Baptists, 1771–1892 (Edinburgh, 2001); P. Toon, The Emergence of Hyper- Calvinism in English Nonconformity, 1689–1765 (London, 1967).

C. D. Daniel

Curt D. Daniel, “HYPER-CALVINISM,” in New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic, ed. Martin Davie, Tim Grass, Stephen R. Holmes, John McDowell, and T. A. Noble, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016), 432–33.