Supralapsarianism Preferable
Herman Hoeksema
We place ourselves without reservation on the standpoint of
supralapsarianism and maintain that it is the scriptural and the only
consistent presentation of the decree of God's predestination. But we
would like to modify this supralapsarian view in such a way that it is
in harmony with our organic conception of things. We must emphasize not
so much what is first or last in the decree of God, but rather place
ourselves before the questions: What in those decrees is conceived as
purpose and what as means? What is the main object in those decrees, and
what is subordinate and subservient to that main object?
In this way we escape the danger of leaving the impression that there
is a temporal order in the decrees of God. In addition, according to our
way of presenting the doctrine of predestination, we may open the way to
find an answer to the question, Why is there a reprobation? It is true
that supralapsarians give a partial answer to this question when they
assert that God also has willed the ungodly for his own name's sake and
for the manifestation of his righteousness, justice, power, and wrath.
But this is by no means the final answer that may be given to this question,
nor does it satisfy us, because in this way we still cannot escape the
impression that there is arbitrariness in God. The reprobate are
evidently not necessary to reveal God's power, wrath, and righteousness,
for these virtues certainly never came to a clearer, more definite
revelation than at the cross of Jesus Christ. He certainly satisfied the
justice and the righteousness of God and bore all his wrath.
Therefore, we would like to present the matter of God's counsel of
predestination as follows: God conceived and willed all things in his eternal
decree for his own name's sake, that is, to the glory of his name and
the reflection of his divine, infinite virtues and life. As the highest
in God is his own covenant life, he willed to establish and to reveal
his covenant in Christ, and all other things in the counsel of God are
related to that main purpose of God as means. Hence we obtain the
following order of the decrees:
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God wants to reveal his own eternal glory in the establishment of
his covenant.
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For the realization of this purpose, the Son becomes the Christ,
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,
that in him as the first begotten of the dead all the fullness of
God might dwell.
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For that Christ and the revelation of all his fullness, the church
is decreed, and all the elect. In the decree of God, Christ is not
designed for the church, but the church for Christ. The church is
his body and serves the purpose of revealing the fullness there is
in him.
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For the purpose of realizing this church of Christ and, therefore,
the glory of Christ, the reprobate are determined as vessels of
wrath. Reprobation serves the purpose of election as the chaff
serves the ripening of the wheat. This is in harmony with the
current thought of Scripture. We find it expressed literally in
Isaiah 43:3-4: "For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of
Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba
for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been
honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life."
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Finally, in the counsel of God, all other things in heaven and on
earth are designed as means to the realization of both election and
reprobation and, therefore, of the glory of Christ and his church.
Because in the decree of God all things are conceived in this
manner, all things must work together for good to them that love
God, to them that are the called according to his purpose. In this
light we can also understand Scripture when it teaches that
"all things are yours; Whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come;
all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (I
Cor. 3:21-23).
Source: Reformed Dogmatics (Grandville, MI: RFPA, 2004), vol.
1, pp. 236-237.
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