Dutch neoc Calvinism as pioneered by Kyper contests so this is what is it all about contests that the dominating principle of Calvinism is not so theological justification by faith but in the widest sense cosmological the dominating principle being the sovereignty of the Triune God over the whole Cosmos in all its spheres and kingdoms visible and invisible hey guys Joe here back to the word today with a fun video and NE NE Calvinism what is neoc Calvinism we're going to be going over some stuff sharing it with all of you this is a part of a series of videos I'm doing on Herman his reformed dogmatics and his theology neoc Calvinism wanted to share with all of you what I've been learning uh in this video which the content is all timestamp below so feel free to jump ahead to the section that most interests you I'm going to cover a man in tension caught between two worlds so how Herman bobin became a premier Theologian of Dutch neoc Calvinism along with Abraham Kyper I'm going to cover in two different ways Christians relate to culture uh notes most notably from a TGC article by uh Su and Brock um we're going to cover in that section that I pulled mainly from that article neoc Calvinism a short summary three neoc calvinist instincts and what is neoc Calvinism 16 thesis and then I'm going to end with a Tim Keller quote so that's the content for this video this is back to the word my channel exists to equip and encourage you to read the Bible good books and have conversations that truly matter if you're along for that Journey like subscribe hit that notification Bell so you don't miss a new video and so others see this video recommended to them so with that let's go ahead and get into just this video video content this video is a part of a series and different videos I've done after I recently bought bobin's reformed dogmatics with sent me into some questions about why should I read this why do other people recommend it and read it um I did a video on that I did a video on who is Herman his theology his notable works and in this video and Neo Calvinism specifically diving into this relationship between Orthodox Christianity the reformed faith and being a modern person living in the modern world and modernity and so we're going to be looking at neoc Calvinism specifically in this video just laying out there anytime I talk about a certain theological discipline just want you to know my background I'm a staff member at a Southern Baptist Church um not necessarily reformed in the confessional sense but definitely calvinistic leaning in my soteriology I've done a video on my channel channel are you reformed cue the card in the top also link it in the description below if you want to know more about where I stand on things and what the different categories are and so let's go ahead and get into the content for this specific video right now so first up content for this video my notes will be going along the side feel free to pause as I kind of read some of them and summarize some of them as well if you want to read more in depth anything that I mentioned will be linked Below in the description for this video so a man in tension caught between two worlds how Herman bobing became a premier Theologian of Dutch neoc Calvinism uh also U Premier Theologian would be Abraham Kyper so these are notes that I took from John Bolt's introduction at the beginning of the reformed dogmatics by Baker academic and so we're hopping into the section that talks about bank's theological education and schooling so Bank SP spent one year studying at campen Theological Seminary that was the Seminary tied to the denomination that his dad was a part of that 20 or so years even before bobin's birth had succeeded from the Dutch reformed um National Church for the Netherlands so he spent one year of training there and before sharing his desire and then moving his study to the University of Leiden a school for it known for its aggressive modernist and scientific approach to theology he did change schools and his desire was to be acquainted with the modern theology firsthand even though they didn't weren't part of his denomination he wanted to be exposed to those modern ideas in the classroom he completed his doctoral work from Leiden in 1880 um this Leiden experience having this front row seat to mity and this time of Enlightenment and liberal theology moving into the church in different respects and all these advancements in Psychology in science um really gave rise to in bank's life attention uh between one his commitment to Orthodox Theology and spirituality and two his desire to understand and appreciate what he could about the modern world its worldview and culture he really was a man Between Two Worlds trying to find the synthesis as we would say between Christ in culture is something we might say in our day this Christianity being Orthodox confessional reformed but then also being a modern person exposed to all this modern modernity and modern ideas and all the while as this was going on he was being justly critical of both extremes that he saw in his day so what were those extremes they're right there on the screen for you the Christian who desires most of all to contemplate God and as a result severs all ties with the world there were those in the Netherlands who tried to get out and we even have churches in the United States because they moved to places around the Great Lakes like Michigan and Chicago and Indiana and Illinois and there's those who got out and just left and then the other extreme he saw is there were Christians who tried to issue in the kingdom of God with moral good that degenerated slowly into unfeeling moralism becoming more like the world and they would just lose their spirituality all together and so he was trying to avoid both of those extremes and he said how do we synthesize in this moment confessional Christianity but also what's going on in our world right now how do I be reformed with the Theology of John Calvin in Geneva and the reformers right now where I am without going to either one of these extremes thus Bank sought a trinitarian synthesis of Christianity and culture a Christian worldview that Incorporated what was best and true in both pism and modernism so thinking about those things both piety living the way of Jesus spirituality walking with him but then also being exposed to being real modern person while above all honoring the theological and confessional richness of the reformed tradition dating all the way back to Calvin and that's from reformed dogmatics volume 1 page 15 the vehicle Calvin found for this is the topic for this video was Dutch neoc Calvinism and along with its Visionary Pioneer Abraham Kyper bavin became one of its most respected spokespersons and Premier theologians so there's a short overview of how he got there and what he was looking for continues here it says Dutch neoc Calvinism as pioneered by Kyper contests so this is what is it all about contest that the dominating principle of Calvinism is not so theological justification by faith but in the widest sense cosmological the dominating principle being the sovereignty of the Triune God over the whole Cosmos in all its spheres and kingdoms visible and invisible what a quote right there break it down don't have time to do all of it but really what it's getting after is that the doctrines of Grace uh Calvinism as a sociological system to show how people get saved and God's saving Sinners uh by his grace um looks behind that and says God is Sovereign over all things it's often said that behind the Five Points of Calvinism is really one point that God is Sovereign over everything and so neoc Calvinism is pointing a light on that exact thing even when it comes to our interactions with culture and the world and so the dominating principle is the sovereignty of the triun god over the whole of creation all of it spheres and kingdoms visible and invisible really just a statement there all truth is God's truth and all of it leads back to him when properly applied um for Abraham Kyper this fundamental principle of divine sovereignty led to four derivator or and related doctrines or principles so getting away from um bank here for a little bit but exploring uh when he embraced this what Abraham Kyper who is the Premier and first one to talk about this and come up with this uh came down with so these four deriva and related to doctrines and principles one the doctrine of common Grace is the conviction that apart from divine grace there is a common Grace that in some ways restrains and affects the effects of sins and bestows general gifts on all people this is something we see talked about a lot in neoc Calvinism this concept of common Grace towards all people and how God relates to all people also sphere sovereignty the various spheres of human activity so we're talking about family education business science art Etc derive their most important purpose according to neoc Calvinists uh not from the Redemption or the church but from the law of God the Creator and so thus they are autonomous even from the state and are directly responsible to God they don't tie things in the way of some understand this and I might get some of these things wrong I'm just trying to tell what I've learned and help me in the comments if I'm misunderstanding things but God has sphere sovereignty over everything and every sphere of life is responsible to him is what they're getting after there also distinction between the church as Institute and the church as organism is something that's talked a lot about by neoc calvinist the church as Institute or institution is the church gathered around the world gathered around the word of God sorry the word of God and the sacraments the church as organism is the church diversely spread out in the visible vocations of life so the way of talking about the church as an institution and as an organism is used in these words in these terms and ways in neoc Calvinism and finally the spiritual antithesis the regenerating work work of the Holy Spirit breaks Humanity in two and creates two kinds of Consciousness this is really important for neoc Calvinists um and according to Kyper that of the regenerate and the unregenerate so there's two kinds of people so these two cannot be identical and these two kinds of people will develop two kinds of science so therefore it says a conflict in the scientific Enterprise between both kinds of people is not a conflict between science and Faith but between two scientific systems each having its own faith uh we'll get more into this here in a little bit but as I understand this um is really that the Holy Spirit and his regenerative work really makes Christians and non-christians were divided in half and so when both go after an Endeavor like science um they're going to go about science in a different way the Christian in a certain way with um presuppositions that are different from the person who is a non-Christian who is an unbeliever who is unregenerate and he's saying when we have a conflict between the science of those two individ uals it's not pitting Faith Christianity versus science it's really two Advan two sciences that are going against each other and have faith in different presuppositions or rooted truths as I understand it it says with neoc Calvinism bringing some Unity to his thought that being of the thought of uh is the fundamental theme that shapes is this the fundamental theme that shapes bink's the theology the fundamental theme that shapes bink's entire theology is the trinitarian idea that Grace restores nature so that's reformed dogmatics volume 1 page 18 it says Christianity does not introduce a single foreign element into the creation according to bobing rather it restores what was corrupted by sin so Grace restores nature is a theme throughout neoc Calvinism you will hear used again and again and again all right moving on I want to take a timeout from and neoc Calvinism to just briefly cover in this video two different ways Christians relate to culture because it's really important and so we just saw that was struggling how do I synthesize being a Christian in the modern world and the modern culture and so here are the categories and ways Christians have thought about this for a long time so first the cultural definition this is pulled from Richard noor's work Christ and culture it is you should know about it his different categories um very important to Christian in life thought and advancements but he defines culture as the secondary environment which man superimposes on the natural very important there superimposes on what is naturally there on the natural it compromis compromises language habits ideas beliefs Customs social organizations inherited artifacts technical procedures and values so that's how we're defining culture as we talk about it as Christians or how Richard neighbor talks about it now moving along with that definition of culture how have Christians related to culture there's two camps two extremes so the first phrase is what hath Athens to do with Jerusalem and the second one is plundering or despoiling the Egyptians and both of them talk about Christian relationship or theology or Christianity's relationship to culture so briefly explaining them here what have Athens to do with Jerusalem this phrase first comes from from tertian and the idea here is what does Athens the seat and center point for philosophy um have to do with Jerusalem the center of theology SL religion and their relationship to one another and so tertian originally brought this up as a patristic uh age Christian father um he posed this question as a statement and so what was he making a statement about so he was conf concerned that Christians not become so enamored with Greek philosophy that they Scorn the Simplicity of the Hebrew scriptures and gospel texts to argue about them on the basis of pagan philosophers terminology he was worried that we would incorporate so much of the modern culture and world into Christianity that it would become more attractive than the gospel itself um this phrase what hath Athens to do with Jerusalem is also pretty popular and used pretty early because of Paul's interactions in Athens in Acts 171 16-34 that you can go read in the Bible and see how Paul shows that even what the Athenians were dealing with um what like how that relates to the gospel but how it breaks down and and he presents the gospel in that context but what hath Athens to do with Jerusalem they should stay separate and not come together uh the second phrase that people use around Christianity and culture On The Other Extreme so what have Athens to do with Jerusalem they should totally be separate to plundering or despoiling the Egyptians this comes from ireneus of lions and this is the idea that the church is to penetrate culture Christians are to penetrate culture take its best resources melt them down redefine them and utilize them for the benefit of church and the glory of God that we can use the best the culture comes up with because all truth is God's truth belongs to him and use it for the gospel and to glorify God and so he was the first to use this illustration um and it's based on Exodus 12: 35-36 and so he talks about in his illustration the Israelites symbolize the church and the gold silver and clothes of the Egyptians represent the culture and so we're despoiling or plundering the Egyptians for the best parts of their culture culture and Truth um this Con concept is applied to everything so that's just we're talking about from science to literature theater art and even holidays for if the perspective is for if God gave the knowledge and thought to all people Christians are then able to take them and use them because ultimately the truth that they speak to traces itself back to God um just a little bit more on the development of this plundering the Egyptians is a concept that was first formulated ated by arenus of Lions I already talked about that he used it to refute the marianites um who said that God commanded um the Israel to do wrong in spoiling the Egyptians and so he talks about spoiling them and uh um plundering them was not wrong for Israel to do then it later was promoted by origin of Alexandria in the context of Science and education it was then further Polished by St Gregory of nanen to defend the Christian practice of E and Christmas and then it finally found its solidified form by St Augustine of Hippo who took the work of all three and applied it to all Pagan literature Science Theater Logic philosophy and rhetoric so there's the development of those two camps that we still have conversations about today what have Athens to do with Jerusalem theology philosophy Theology and these cultural disciplines should stay separate and then plundering of the Egyptians we should take the best they have to offer and use it to glorify God because all of the truth they're coming up with as much as it is truth and it applies the god comes from him belongs to him and to us so those are two ways of doing that so just those relationships there I'm just saying neoc Calvinism in a certain way is trying to do the Middle Road it's trying to stay away from both of those extremes is trying to stay in the middle how do we function in the middle but probably actually moving more towards the culturist side of things of plundering the Egyptians uh next segment of the video notes from the TGC article The Gospel Coalition article by gray Su tento I'm sorry I'm pronouncing that wrong and Corey Brock so this is a helpful article they wrote part of the Keller uh Center for cultural apologetics tied to the gospel coalition and they've done this kind of as a summary out of their Lex and press book that came out in 202 2 on neoc Calvinism a theological introduction so I will reference and point you to their book if you want to know more but I just pulled highlights from this article together to share with you what neoc Calvinism is all about I hope to get that book in the future and we'll definitely do a review on this channel when I do so in the future but first neoc Calvinism short summary I think before we get into the Bare Bones and look at the three Cal neoc calvinist instincts and the 16 thesis of kind of what Neo Calvinism is all about a short summary is that neoc Calvinism was first developed by Abraham Kyper and it's a flavor of Calvinism it's not to be confused with new Calvinism neew um kind of this like young Restless reform the new wave of Calvinism that's come specifically in the west nor is it to be confused with um hyper Calvinism we're talking about Neo Neo Calvinism so it's a flavor of Calvinism that emphasizes is the sovereignty of God over every area of life and desires to understand what it means to be a reform or Reformation Protestant under the tutelage of the reformer of Geneva so John Calvin but in a different cultural landscape than Calvin ever knew and so that's what we're talking about in the main kind of short summary of what neoc Calvinism is moving on they have in their article this kind of statement that's going to set up these three Neo calvinist instincts and then 16 thesis that I'm going to talk about for the remainder of this video so due to the conflicting uh explanations of neoc Calvinism and even the way the term is used they say it's usually thrown around it's kind of a slang term sometimes as like a bash like your theology is too close to culture or your theology um moves the other direction it still gets used and thrown around as kind of a slang word or a slap against people who move one way or the other to much he says we might be led to ask as we think about the explanation of what neoc Calvin Calvinism is who is a neoc calvinist like who steps forward as a premier neoc calvinist he says but a better question might be they talk about in their article how does the Theology of the reformer of Geneva matter for today that's what neoc Calvinism is going after in a certain cultural sense the latter question frames the issue so the reformed Christian Community can um can all to a degree subscribe and think about how do we apply the reformed Faith to today and to answer this question we should explore they talk about three neoc calvinist instincts and 16 summarizing thesis to help us understand the impulse of the original movement and to serve as a guide for how we use the term and Implement neoc Calvinism today so first up three neoc calvinist instincts as we go through this I'm going to read it explain as much much as I understand I might not be perfect so I would reference their book if you want more information on these things so first up neoc Calvinism is ancient yet modern Kyper and Bank its two premier theologians worked hard to convey how Orthodoxy and modernity exist in a reciprocal relationship so they talk about the two extremes if you emphasize Orthodoxy at the cost of that which is modern that you live in the world today it will lead to a conservatism that forgets our work as Theologian depends on the very conditions that enable us to be here in the first place this is the idea that Systematic Theology as we call it today responds to questions that are culture that people today have about God his work his ways and so if we forget where we live and we just do in theology how does it profit anyone is kind of what that phrase is getting after on the other hand and an overemphasis on the modern world at the expense of our confessional scriptural and ancient Moorings forgets that our Modern Age continues to be indebted to the theological and ethnical culture it rejects if we just embrace the modern and throw off that which is old and that which comes behind uh we forget our indebtedness to that we forget our Roots we lose we throw the baby out with the bath water we throw out that which is true to embrace what just what we perceive CE as true now is kind of what that's getting after so neoc Calvinism is against both extremes neoc Calvinism rests on Revelation so this is a key thing for and his writing he is imminently deeply scriptural biblical in his writing God's revelation is the secret to understanding Our lives our lives now our lives in the future Our Lives 100 years 1500 years ago God's revelation is the secret to understanding our lives today it says theologians must understand that Phil philosophies around us not resting on the revelation of God will produce false binaries so that's false categories we pit this against this it says if scriptures not our base will come up with the wrong categories and reductionisms will come up with the wrong reductionisms will reduce things to its Essence and we'll reduce it wrongly because we don't base it on God's categories for the world he created moving on neoc Calvinism is committed to catholicity this is the third Instinct of neoc Calvinism neoc calvinism's theological commitments highlight the true universality of the Christian faith so Christianity is a pearl it's the gospel for all places and all times all cultures All Peoples and so Christianity is also a leavening power it can take root in and influence all places and times and in a diversity of ways so thus neoc Calvinism makes a firm distinction then between the philosophies and culturals cultures Christianity became providentially Tethered to in the past and Christianity itself Christianity's form may look different in each time and place but the substance and Revelation remain the same so this is saying that neoc Calvinism a key part of this is to look back on say like the time of the reformers and say well that's the form Christianity took in the time of the re formers or even looking back at Rome this is the the form Christianity took in the time of Rome but what's true of Christianity across all time across all peoples and its broad spectrum that is the True Heart of Christianity not just in its cultural contextualization so neoc Calvinism is acutely attuned to those differences moving into next segment what is neoc Calvinism 16 thesis here's what um sutanto and Brock say in their article they said below our 16 thesis We Believe provide a healthy understanding of the core of neoc calvinist theology if these are compelling you can find expansion explanation and application in Fuller form in our book and so I'll go through these I'm going to read them I'm going to um kind of just chat briefly debrief a couple of them but if you want more details about these and I hope that I don't get these wrong I'm going to explain them to the best of my ability but if you know what they true mean and want more check out their book that they recommended right there I'll link it in the description of this video I hope to get their book in the near future and read it as well so these are the thesis kind of the 16 thesis of neoc Calvinism and what it's all about first neoc Calvinism is a critical reception of reformed Orthodoxy contextualized to address the questions of modernity number two Christianity can challenge subvert and fulfill the cultures and philosoph opical systems of every age I think that's an important one for me to think about how does Christianity move into a culture expose that culture cultures beliefs about uh Redemption about peace about security about eschatology the end times and show that it falls on its face and then shows Christianity as a better way in a certain way and that it fulfills their longings in ways that they could not have even imagined so that's just something that interests me a lot neoc Calvinism rejects theological conservatism that would be a negative conservatism um and progressivism so that's the contrast we already talked about earlier in the video this total Retreat from not being engaged with the modern world and living in the modern world and its questions at all but then also the opposite being so engrossed in the modern world that you leave Christianity and throw it all behind as not worth following at all and throw out what is true um in different ways because of your progressivism instead it applies historic credal and confessional theology to the concerns of the Contemporary world so it's bringing the two together that relationship between the two again uh number four the trium God created the world and all creatures as a living unity and diversity with a definite purpose and goal number five organism and organic Unity are fitting terms to describe creation's many unities and diversities as analogically uh reflects the Triune God number six the image of God is the Pinnacle of creation's organic shape referring to humanity collectively male and female and the self as a Unity number seven the problem with the world is not ontological but ethical so ontological dealing with being ethical dealing with action uh sin has corrupted much in fact everything um so that's a key Focus for them and neoc Calvinism number eight out of the sinful mass of the organism of humanity under Adam God elects to regenerate individuals into a new Sanctified organic Humanity under Christ thus asserting a covenantal antithesis we've already talked about antithesis in this video two different groups of people the one the Holy Spirit regenerates and then the unregenerate but this covenantal antithesis between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent pulling on some covenantal theology type of things right there Number Nine by the spirit work spirit's work in common Grace God restrains sin and givs Fallen Humanity with moral epistemic and lifegiving goods to enjoy for the sake of redemption in Christ so this is common Grace for all people talked about in neoc Calvinism God has revealed himself to every person both objectively and subjectively this implanted affection and knowledge of God isn't a human determination as the product of reason or natural theology but God's General Revelation by the holy spirit so speaking specifically about how God discloses himself and general Revelation there number 11 the Bible is God's revelation of himself as the spirit inspires A diversity of human authors to write all that God intends to communicate the Bible serves as the ultimate norm and agent of unity though not the sole source for the fields of knowledge I would have to dig more into this to see exactly what it's saying but there's something key about knowledge and Fields of knowledge regarding neoc Calvinism and also God's revelation of himself being the scriptures the Triune God and His Revelation matter for the entire human life because every person always stands before the face of God 13 wisdom points us to a Christian worldview Christian theology should discipline the insights of both philosophy and the various Sciences Christians should conform their entire selves to the lordship of Christ this is really that neoc calvinist statement think uh the Abraham Kyper famous quote uh there is not one square inch across this whole world where Christ does not declare mind this is saying that the Christian worldview um should discipline the insights of every discipline philosophy as well as the various sciences and that Christians should always submit to the lordship of Christ in all they do this isn't a division of of secular and sacred everything you do because it's under God's sovereignty is sacred in a certain way is what they're kind of getting after here and I would have to flesh that out a little bit differently more but that's where I get from some of these thoughts that go through my head as I read this statement of what neoc Calvinists are trying to say there number 14 Recreation happens by Divine agency alone and brings creation to its original goal that God would make his dwelling place with humankind in the consummated and sanctified Cosmos so we're saying God is behind Divine agency brings the creation to its original goal right there number 15 Jesus Christ's Messianic Dominion as king of God's kingdom is the aim of God's work in history and the purpose of creaturely redemption so there's some comments there about why God's redeeming people for himself uh so Jesus can become king of God's creation and then number 16 the visible Church exists as an Institute and an organism as an Institute to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments and as an organism of individuals bound together by the spirit to witness New Creation we already talked about this once in this video a little bit higher up with Abraham Kyper but here we see it again this neoc calvinist kind of focus on the Institute being the church gathered to hear the word around the sacraments but then also as an organism out in the world living the Christian Life um witnessing to the new creation moving on the article continues to talk about these thesis are helpful to address pressing questions like the following so briefly here are three of these questions it says how might we continue to transmit and translate the older theologies of the past into the Contemporary philosophical idioms of the day how might we continue to accommodate the genuine findings of contemporary scientific scholarship without compromising the substance of our theological commitments and then how do we not merely tell but show that the Christian faith continues to be relevant for our age and for every age so these are questions that we have even right now in doing theology and in our contemporary world and so these 16 thesis by the neoc calvinist would kind of be guiding lights and helps to answering these questions from their specific theological persuasion and perspective so with that most of the content for this video is over I want to finish with a quote by Tim Keller who was influenced Mass massively but from his through his theology professor at one of the schools that he went to and reading Lewis burkoff whose Systematic Theology was written mostly based on Herman Bob's Theology and reformed dogmatics as uh and really influenced kellerer in his cultural apologetic and how he presented Christianity to um to people and how he did evangelism even the article I pulled most of this content from is for uh the gospel coalitions the Keller Cent for cultural apologetics and so we see even neoc Calvinism themes in Keller's Ministry like Grace restoring nature and various other things that he applied uh in his own context where he was doing Ministry but here's this Tim Keller quote I think is really kind of helpful to summarize the importance of neoc Calvinism or at least our Christianity um relationship with culture and how we share Christianity in our world today to be a little bit helpful so Tim tell here says when many Christians enter a vocational field either they seal off their faith and go to work like everyone else around them or they spout bible verses to their co-workers we do not know very well how to persuade people of Christianity's Answers by showing them the faith-based worldview roots of everyone's work he says we do not know how to equip our people to think out the implications of the gospel for art business government journalism entertainment and scholarship and so Keller found in neoc Calvinism a good way to counteract both of those things um to equip people to see gospel imp implications in their lives but also to persuade uh those who are unconverted those who are not Christian of the of Christianity and its validity to all of life so with that the video is over if you made it to the end of this video which I know it was a bit of a long one I would love to know that in the um comments below so comment I made it through the video and then I'd love to hear from you what is one thing you learned uh from my video stood out to you or what did I miss if you were going through and I missed something or I miss I I was not able to explain something properly I'd love to learn with all of you I don't share this as someone who H owns the market on truth and has everything right this is something I wanted to study and then helpful in me my study I wanted to share it with all of you and so I've hope that it's been helpful and encouraging check out some of my other videos on Bob in I have linked the playlist in the description for this video so you can see all of those as I read reformed dogmatics and talk about who he is and other things those videos will go in there and so you can check out those if you want to know more about him and his Theology and other things and with that so this is back to the word I would remind you as we finish the video if you haven't already like subscribe hit the notification Bell so you don't miss a video if you like content like this and so that you help others see this type of content and next until next time continue to read Treasure follow the word God bless and I'll see you guys [Music] soon