Curt Daniel on the Common Grace Controversy

11. The Debate over Common Grace.

A. Most Hyper-Calvinists admit that there is a small remnant of mercy for the non-elect, called Common Grace. This pertains to them as creatures, not as elect or non-elect. Some say it postpones their judgment. Most say it has to do with the bounties of Providence. This is in agreement with the best of truly Reformed theology.

B. However, they greatly de-emphasize it. It sounds too Arminian. Herman Hoeksema and the Protestant Reformed Church completely reject all notions of Common Grace. Hoeksema’s logic is an extreme based on a distorted kind of Supralapsarianism. He argues that because of the double-decree of election and reprobation before the decree of the Fall, God has only love for the elect and only hatred for the reprobate.

C. This necessitates two corollaries, argues Hoeksema. First, the elect have never been under the wrath of God, for that means hatred. Second, the non-elect have never been under the love of God. Never the twain meet.

D. Mainstream Calvinists have great difficulty with this. First, Eph. 2:3 explicitly says that believers were once under the wrath of God “even as the rest.” Second, Scripture often speaks of God’s general love to all men as creatures (Psa. 145:9, Matt. 5:43-48, etc.). God commands us to love all men; does He command us to do what He Himself does not do? Mind you, this does not mean that Common Grace is saving - saving grace is special and particular.

E. Hoeksema had great difficulty with Calvin’s formula. Calvin said that it is not true that God had only love for some and only hatred for others. Rather, God had love and hatred for all men, but in differing ways. God hated all men because of sin, but had Common Grace on all because they were His creatures. Yet God had a special love for His elect, leaving the reprobate in the hatred their sins deserved. The real mystery, said Calvin, is that God could both love and hate the elect. But He did.

Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Sprinfield, Ill: Good Books, 2003), 91.