Brief Notes by Erroll Hulse, James Dennison, John Armstrong, Joel Beeke and Mark Jones on Hyper-Calvinism

But [Herman] Hanko speaks for a minority, Dutch, hyper-Calvinistic school, a group hostile to the doctrine of common grace that God loves all men and desires that all be saved.

Erroll Hulse, "Global Revival: Should We Be Involved in Concerts of Prayer?," Reformation and Revival 2.4 (Fall 1993): 29.

Historically the term hyper-Calvinism has been reserved for the doctrine that the unregenerate are to hear only legal conviction and terrors of judgment from the pulpit, not the free offer of the gospel.

James T. Dennison, Jr., Review of The American Pietism of Cotton Mather: Origins of American Evangelicalism. By Richard F. Lovelace, JETS 25.1 (March 1982): 96.

A biblical study which demonstrates that the Father’s heart is one of love for all people, especially for His own. A good corrective to the emphasis of newer hyper-Calvinism.

John Armstrong, Review of The Love of God, by John MacArthur, Reformation and Revival 7.2 (Spring 1998): 146.

On the other hand, a growing number of Reformed conservatives today, moving beyond Calvin, are espousing the idea that God does not sincerely offer grace unconditionally to every hearer of the gospel. The result is that the gospel preaching is hampered and man's responsibility is often dismissed, if not denied. Happily, we are freed from such rationalistic, hyper-Calvinistic conclusions about the doctrines of grace when we read Puritan writings such as John Bunyan's (1628-1688) Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, John Howe's (1630-1705) The Redeemer's Tears Shed over Lost Souls, or William Greenhill's (1598-1671) sermon, "What Must and Can Persons Do toward Their Own Conversion."¹⁰
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10. John Bunyan, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (1681; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004); John Howe, The Redeemer's Tears Wept over Lost Souls (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978); William Greenhill, "What Must and Can Persons Do toward Their Own Conversion," in Puritan Sermons: 1659-1689: The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate (Wheaton, Ill.: Richard Owen Roberts, 1981), 1:38-50.

Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 963.