{"id":7738,"date":"2021-02-02T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/?p=7738"},"modified":"2021-01-29T14:24:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T21:24:01","slug":"common-grace-2-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2021\/02\/common-grace-2-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Grace, 2.22"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This post is part of a series walking through the second volume of Abraham Kuyper\u2019s\u00a0Common Grace<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have seen that God had prepared for Jesus by means of common grace:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A body;<\/li>\n
  2. An environment;<\/li>\n
  3. A culture\/society;<\/li>\n
  4. A system of justice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now we move on to<\/p>\n

    5. The preparation of the world to hear the Gospel post-ascension, so that it might \u201cmake room for the world church\u201d (189).<\/p>\n

    Christ comes only to ascend again, but He leaves behind \u201ca trail of light\u201d\u2013a mystical or spiritual body. He continues to govern \u201conly seeming to be interrupted\u201d through the Spirit and the Church. (189) We don\u2019t need to argue this too much, since Christ\u2019s ongoing governance of the world is found throughout the New Testament.<\/p>\n

    In one sense, this really started after Pentecost when the Gentiles (i.e. \u2018the world\u2019) were brought in. This is His work in\u00a0our<\/em> lives, and it is an ongoing work. We\u2019re not going to focus on that personal work here, however. Instead we need to see that\u00a0Jesus\u2019 work for the world involves a vertical particular grace and a horizontal common grace. To say this a different way, the flood of particular grace flowing from Christ flows into a field of common grace.<\/p>\n

    Even the church, which has been present since creation, was in the world until Abraham. Post-Abraham, while it is set apart, it is still tied to the whole of life. The church as a separate entity in any broad sense doesn\u2019t exist until the Ascension of Christ. So we have to be flexible with our terms here\u2013the church both did and did not exist pre-Pentecost.<\/p>\n

    Here (my comment, not Kuyper\u2019s), this confusion of terms should make some sense. Just what is \u2018the church\u2019 in the Old Testament is a tricky question, and something not easily answered. So flexibility is probably the best approach\u2026 Anyway, back to Kuyper!<\/p>\n

    Luke 2:1<\/a> shows us the preparation of the world for Jesus and the church. This cannot be explained outside of the faith. Mysticism gives us no help here\u2013Jesus must be as active now as He was then. Yet we see no similar results today. China and the East do not turn to the cross, nor does the Muslim world. This is explained when we see that there is a special preparation for the coming of Christ in that common grace moves times differently.<\/p>\n

    Specifically, we see three requirements for the early church\u2019s rapid spread:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u201cCommunity among the nations;\u201d Rome ended tribal isolation and created a widespread common language and culture;<\/li>\n
    2. historical ripeness; this was a time of peace rather than conflict, with \u2018history\u2019 resting in anticipation and without distraction.<\/li>\n
    3. receptivity of temperament; closed and satisfied systems feel no need for the Gospel (which is one reason it has made no headway, according to Kuyper, against Islam and Buddhism). But when false religions stagnate and discord spreads\u2026.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      These three requirements were planned and prepared in advance through the work of common grace. More on this in the next chapter.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the\u00a0City of Man Podcast<\/a>\u00a0and an Associate Profess<\/em>or of Political Science at\u00a0Southwest Baptist University<\/a>\u00a0in Bolivar, MO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Kuyper on the preparation of the world for the Gospel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1469,"featured_media":7410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,6,115],"tags":[942,1128],"class_list":["post-7738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-christian","category-classics","category-philosophy","tag-abraham-kuyper","tag-common-grace"],"yoast_head":"\nCommon Grace, 2.22<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kuyper on the preparation of the world for the Gospel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2021\/02\/common-grace-2-22\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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