How should Christians respond to the example of the believing marriage counselor who helps a nonbelieving married couple recover from the husband's adulterous affair? If this counselor rejoices in saving the marriage, even though he has tried but can't save the couple's souls, has he somehow betrayed his prior allegiance to Christ and the gospel by fulfilling his professional duties? These are the sorts of questions that Richard J. Mouw addresses in this highly readable, wise, and short treatment of the doctrine of common grace, first presented as the 2000 Stob Lectures at Calvin College and Seminary. This particular doctrine is one that was debated by Calvinists extensively throughout the twentieth century, even to the point of prompting the breach in 1925 within the Christian Reformed Church that led to the founding of the Protestant Reformed Church. But as much as this has been an intramural struggle among Reformed Christians-and Mouw does justice to the parochial (in the good sense) nature of the discussion by linking this doctrine to the supra-infralapsarian debates in Calvinist theology-he shows well how common grace is of interest to all Christians.
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Issue: "This is My Father's World" Sept./Oct. 2002 Vol. 11 No. 5 Page number(s): 50-51
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