This is the fourth book reviewed in Equip for Ministry to place on your “must read” list. It is a compilation of the 2000 Stob Lecture Series, five lectures given at Calvin College by Richard Mouw. (Henry Stob, a Calvinist author, wrote many books that have been beneficial to us.) In past issues of Equip, we have reviewed several of Mouw’s books in which he seeks to apply his Calvinist perspective and commitment to today’s world. This book is no exception.

There are several reasons to read this profoundly important book. As I read through these pages, I was reminded of the importance of understanding church history, not as an end in itself, but as a means to understand our Christian lives. Earlier Christians have already worked through some of the same struggles and tensions that we face. Their conclusions and applications will not always be the same as ours, but without their historical perspective, we may spend unnecessary time re-inventing the wheel and miss some important lessons.

Each of us struggles, or should struggle, with our relation to the world. This is necessary to serve God’s purpose and present His truth in an incarnational way to this generation. How can we be in the world when we are not to be of the world? What does that mean for us? Do we have anything in common with unbelievers that could help us establish relationships and share the Gospel with them? Should we follow the path of isolationists who withdraw from the world? Conversely, how can we relate to the world that God says we are to love and not love? Can an unbeliever do anything good, and if so how? These are the relevant questions that we should be asking.

Over the years, the topic of common grace has caused controversy between the Calvinists and the Anabaptists, and also within Calvinistic circles. I must confess to you as a reviewer, this topic is so clear to me that it is hard to understand its opposition. Obviously, we have a point of contact with all people because we are all made in the image of God. There are those who are saved and those who are not. While we have a special relationship with those who are saved, we also have a relationship with those who are not. Unbelievers accomplish things that have good overtones and results. Can they do that on their own, from a sinful and fallen state, or has God in His goodness enabled them to do so? Can a Christian benefit from anything that an unbeliever does? Yes, but only when we attribute those accomplishments to God, not man.

In 1924, a debate over common grace in the Christian Reformed Church ended with a schism. The synod concluded that there was “indeed a kind of non-salvific attitude of divine favor toward all human beings, manifest in three areas: (1) the bestowal of natural gifts, such as rain and sunshine, upon creatures in general, (2) the restraining of sin in human affairs… (3) the ability of unbelievers to perform acts of civic good.”

The title for this book comes from the hymn, This Is My Father’s World. Christians rightly live in tension with this world. This is God’s world. Though it is under the evil influence of Satan, the evil one, God will finally restore this world to His original design. Even though Christians experience, understand, and emphasize total depravity, we need to realize that “there is a wideness in God’s mercy” rather than simply focusing on the “small number of the elect motif.”

Some fear that common grace will take us too far into the world’s philosophies. They should remember that along with common grace, we are fully aware of the opposition between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The Anabaptists’ dispute with Calvin, among other things, was the he allowed too much involvement with the world. Their notion of church and state separation not only depicted a flaw in their understanding of the church and the kingdom, it isolated them from other areas of life.

Calvinists can and do say positive things about the accomplishments of unregenerate people, yet we live with the antithesis, a tension between sin and grace. While there is saving grace that applies only to the elect for whom Christ died, there is also a common non-salvific grace that God bestows even on the unregenerate. This means that we give God the glory for what He does in both the salvific and non-salvific areas of life. Christians must work for the common good in the larger society. Because we are growing in grace, we should be a Godly example to the broader world around us regarding kingdom living.

I challenge you to read this book and discuss it with other Christians. I believe it will help you understand some of our present tensions. One final note: Chapter 4 on “intra” and “supra” lapsarian views, was not original to the lecture series and could almost serve as an addendum to the book. Chapters 1-3 convey Mouw’s points most clearly.

- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator