August 4, 2025 Show with Douglas J. Kuiper on “The History of the Protestant Reformed Churches In America”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.

The Program Opens and the Host Introduces the Guest

It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnson.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth, who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this fourth day of August 2025, and we have a returning guest on the program today.

This will be his third time on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Professor Douglas J. Kuyper, who is on the faculty at Protestant Reform Seminary in Wyoming, Michigan, where he serves as professor of church history and New Testament studies, is going to address the history of the Protestant Reform Churches in America Reflections as they celebrate their 100th anniversary.

It's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Professor Douglas J. Kuyper.

Thank you, Chris. I'm glad to be here today.

Well, this is going to be a subject that is likely only going to be familiar to a tiny minority in our audience due to the fact that the Protestant Reform Churches are not widespread here in the United States in every single state.

There are a select number of states where your congregations are represented. Perhaps you could even tell us about where our listeners can find a local Protestant Reformed Church congregation.

Good. And it's true, of course, that I hope to introduce the PRCA. It is our centennial year, but there's a lot of history that your audience is not interested in and I won't give mere historical tidbits.

I do hope after introducing the PRCA a bit, maybe to give more of a doctrinal history of the churches. You are wondering, though, about where our churches are found. Well, primarily, at least a heavy concentration in West Michigan, and as much as we're part of the Dutch Reformed family of churches.

Then if you think of other places where the Dutch Reformed have gone, you may well find a PRCA there. We have three of them in the Illinois-Indiana area, southeast of Chicago. We have one in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Yes, I've had the privilege of having dinner with the pastor there during a trip to Pittsburgh.

Good. Reverend Mattani currently, Reverend Brinesmith formerly. We have five churches in a radius in southwest Minnesota, northwest Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The church in Loveland, Colorado, an hour north of Denver.

Rutlands, California, an hour from LA. Linden, Washington, and two of them in Alberta, and we've got one in Ontario as well. So, we're scattered throughout North America, and especially in the U .S.

Yeah, and by the way, if anybody wants to look up after this live show is over, of course, the two previous interviews that I've had with Professor Douglas Kuyper, I go to iantrepandzyneradio .com and in the search engine type K-U-I-P as in Peter, E-R, and you will see Douglas Kuyper come up twice.

We had a fascinating conversation on April 3rd of 2019 on the doctrine of the covenant and the canons of Dort. He was also followed by David J. Engelsma in that same program who was on the second hour talking about the Great War, what led to the Synod of Dort.

And then on May 10th, 2019, Douglas Kuyper was on the program to speak on the history of the Synod of Dort. So, you will have a lot of listening edification to look forward to after this program is over with Douglas Kuyper.

The Origins of the Protestant Reformed Churches and the Common Grace Controversy

Well, since this is the centennial year of your denomination, let's hear about what gave birth to this denomination in 1925. I understand it was a split over theological differences, either with the Christian Reformed Church or with the Dutch Reformed Church, I can't remember which.

Well, both in a certain sense, specifically the Christian Reformed Church, but I'll spell that out a bit. In 1924, the Christian Reformed Church in North America adopted a doctrinal position on common grace.

And briefly, there were three heads or points to that position. One was that God shows a general favor or grace to every man, all men, as is evident from the fact that the gospel is preached not only to his people, not only in one specific place, but the gospel is to be preached promiscuously to everyone, everywhere, as much as possible.

The second point was that the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of the non-elect and non-regenerated, so in the hearts of the unbeliever, restraining them from sin. A little later, I'll maybe say where the PRC differs.

Right now, I'm just giving the CRC position. And the third point was that the unregenerate man can do civil good, that is, do kind things and good for society and for other humans, and that God calls that also good.

Now, that was the Christian Reformed Church. You said you weren't sure, was it the CRC or the Dutch Reformed generally? The CRC did not come up with these ideas out of the blue. And the first of those three points of common grace really traces itself back to the Dutch Reformed churches in the Netherlands in the 1800s.

And the second and third points trace themselves back to Abraham Kuyper in the Netherlands in the late 1800s. Without spelling out that history all in detail, there are three men in the Christian Reformed Church, three ministers, that is, and their consistories, who did not agree with the three points of common grace.

Actually, if you read the 1924 Christian Reformed Acts of Synod, there are certainly more than three men. There were, I think, seven delegates who protested immediately, some of them more procedural, others of them more doctrinal.

But after the synod was over, three men and their consistories refused, let me back up, and made known that they would continue to speak against the doctrine and demonstrate that it was not biblical or confessional.

And therefore, at regional classes meetings, you have the broader synod, the denomination wide synod, you have geographic regions called classes. At two of the regional classes meetings, both of them in the West Michigan area, three men and their consistories were deposed in January of 1925, and those three consistories met together, and therein we find the beginning of the Protestant Reformed Churches of America.

Providence, Grace, and the Charge of Hyper-Calvinism

Now, as far as the differences you had with what has been commonly called the common grace of God, there are things obviously involved in that, that every Bible-believing Christian would agree with. God's reign falls upon the just and the unjust alike.

Obviously, that's a biblical concept. So where is it that your denomination was specifically disagreeing with that notion of common grace? If I'm not mistaken, I think some of it has to do with the very label or phrase or nickname, however you want to call it, where the Protestant Reformed Churches in America seem to only desire to use the word grace when it's connected with something salvific.

But if you could explain better than I can.

Well, you're in the direction, though. Our doctrine has to be based on exegesis of Scripture, based on teachings of Scripture. And when we observe the use of the word grace in the Bible, always it's an undeserved favor of God.

But it's not just a kindness. It's a favor that's, as you said, salvific. It's saving. It's a favor of God by which he takes the unworthy, undeserving sinner and restores him to fellowship with God and gives him saving blessings.

There happens to be another concept in the Bible, another term. And every Reformed confession states and develops this term. It's called providence. There's no question that God gives rain and sunshine to the godly and the ungodly alike.

We do not call that grace. You may call it God's goodness. I won't dispute goodness. But it's not saving grace. In fact, there's nothing inherent in rain or God's people that is grace. They are good earthly and material gifts.

So the key distinction is between providence and grace. And in essence, what Christian Reformed Church did, and that Kuyper probably did or was going in the direction of doing, is conflating providence with grace.

To develop it just one step further, consider that if rain and sunshine is grace to all, you now need to ask, well, at what point does grace become curse to all? Because sunshine is an inherent characteristic of drought.

Rain is an inherent characteristic of flood. And nobody looks at the flood in Texas. I shouldn't say nobody. I mean, our natural response is not to look at the floods in Texas and say that's grace. So if you're going to call them grace, you have to reckon with the fact that God uses them sometimes, both to bring about earthly death, and then secondly, that sometimes God gives a man so much plenty.

In Proverbs, Edgar prayed that he not do this. God gives a man so much plenty that the man denies there's a God. I'm just pointing out that grace is not inherent in an earthly gift. It is, however, a motivating factor.

That's not the best way to say it. It is the will of God to give his people salvation and all the gifts of salvation. That's grace. It is particular for God's people only.

So then correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems, though, it's the Protestant Reformed Church objection to the word grace and how it is used, because Reformed Christians and all Christians outside of that group don't particularly isolate the word grace only for salvific matters.

They will just say, well, grace means unmerited favor, and that would include the justification of sinners and so on. That would even include the regeneration of sinners.

Grace? You're right. Go ahead.

But they would say unmerited favor. Every single blessing that humans have and receive and enjoy, even our heartbeats and the breath that goes in and out of our lungs, is not deserved. It is unmerited that we are given these wonderful things.

And both the elect and the reprobate obviously have these things because both are living on this earth. So is it really just the word that you think is being misused?

Well, no. I think there's a wrong understanding of what grace is. But you're correct that even rain, sunshine, and earthly gifts no human deserves on account of being sinners. The question, though, is this is where I think the word is being misused.

Is the giving of an earthly gift a component of my salvation? You pointed out that salvation consists of justification, sanctification, regeneration, etc. Is there something about food and drink and rain and sunshine that are part and parcel of salvation?

We'll say no to that. And that's where I think, although grace is unmerited, it's more than that. It is the power, the favor and the power of God by which he delivers his people who are sinners from the power of sin and makes them his.

Gospel Proclamation, Missions, and the Rejection of Hyper-Calvinism

So what would be the area over which the Protestant Reformed Churches in America separated from the Christian Reformed Church that have led to the charge? And by the way, just to let you know, I believe it is an unwarranted charge.

I don't agree with the charge, but it has conjured up the charge of hyper Calvinism against the Protestant Reformed Churches in America. I was very encouraged to know that the late Dr. John Gerstner, who was one of my heroes of the faith, who was not in a formal sense, in any kind of an official sense, a member of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America.

And yet he had a high regard for your denomination and in particular, Professor David J. Engelsma. And I believe he even wrote the foreword to Professor Engelsma's book on hyper Calvinism. But if you could address what I was just speaking about.

Good, it's a bit of a shift from common grace, except that in this regard, the first point of common grace that God shows a general favor to all was supported or evidenced by the assertion that in the preaching of the gospel that goes to all, there is a favor of God, a genuine desire that everyone who hears will believe and be saved.

So, the PRC rejects that specifically. Do we reject? Well, let me begin positively. We have a very high view of the preaching of the gospel as the work and the means by which God's Spirit works faith, strengthens faith and godliness in his people, brings to saving faith those who aren't.

We have a high view of the preaching. Secondly, we have a high view of the work of missions and the understanding that the gospel must go to all men head for head as our canons of Dort says promiscuously.

I know the charge of hyper Calvinism is a charge that we can really only preach the gospel to the elect. And that charge comes on the part of some because of our saying that the preaching of the gospel is not, in fact, grace to all who hear.

I don't think the charge is warranted that way. The fact is, no man can figure out who's elect and who isn't. If it's a matter of preaching the gospel to the elect, I better stop preaching, period, because I don't know who you are.

So there is a charge of hyper Calvinism, I think, unwarranted. Furthermore, if you would study hyper Calvinism in its Scottish British origins, I don't think the PRCs view accords with what hyper Calvinism has historically been.

I'm not sure if I'm answering your question well enough. So follow up at this point.

Well, you are, and I just wanted to clarify for our listeners, because it's a very important aspect of what you are describing. You do believe as a denomination in the promiscuous evangelism of the lost, meaning that you are not reserving evangelism for those who already show fruits of repentance and some kind of godly demeanor or curiosity.

You believe that we should preach the gospel to every single human being, which would include not only the most pious of preachers, but the most perverse of prostitutes, the serial killers on death row, etc.

All humans must be evangelized. Am I right?

Absolutely. Therein is the only hope of their coming to see how heinous their sin is and coming to put their trust and faith in Christ.

So can you—and I know that that comes as a surprise to people that I've had private conversations with who are convinced that the Protestant Reformed churches are hyper Calvinists, and they assume that you do not believe in the promiscuous evangelism of all men.

Well, one thing I was going to do if I had a moment, and I could do this piecemeal, to introduce a little more about the PRC, I can run down that we've done missions. Where have we done missions? We have done missions in a number of places in the United States, some of which did bear the fruit of organizing a PR church and some of which did not.

We've also done missions in Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Singapore, the Philippines, Ghana. Now, by referring to some of those foreign countries, a point I'm making is that we have brought the gospel where God at any given moment of time led us to bring it, and we had the opportunity and the means to bring it.

But when you go to a place like that, you don't—as part of inherent mission work, you don't assume all are saved, all are believers. We can apply the same point, though, to the preacher's view of his congregation.

We view the congregation as the Church of Jesus Christ, as a group of believers, but we do not assume that every member of that congregation is elect and regenerated and a genuine believer. So even in the preaching itself, there has to be a call to the unconverted to turn from sin.

This demonstrates very concretely that our actions are not hyper-Calvinistic.

Amen.

Well, we are going to our very first commercial break, and if you would like to join the conversation with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com. And as always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence, if you live outside of the USA.

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And don't forget, cvbbs .com is now shipping worldwide. We are now back with Professor Douglas J. Kuyper, and we are discussing something that is probably a new topic for a lot of our listeners, and that is the history of the Protestant Reformed churches in America.

They are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year, and I think that Professor Douglas J. Kuyper is just the right man to handle our conversation today. He's a professor of church history and New Testament studies at Protestant Reformed Seminary in Wyoming, Michigan.

Once again, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. Before I go to any listener questions, I want to make sure that you already have stated some of the primary things that have not only set the Protestant Reformed churches in America apart as a unique group, but also the things that tie them together with all heirs of the Reformation.

Confessions, Church Government, and Dutch Reformed Heritage

Good.

Well, number one is our confessions. Number two, let me spell them out and then I can elaborate. Number one is our confessions. Number two is our liturgy. And number three is our church government. We subscribe to the three forms of unity, the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgian Confession, Canons of Dort, implicit in that is a subscription to all of the ecumenical Christian creeds.

We are, I would say, a strict subscriptionist church when it comes to our creeds. Our people, when making confession of faith, express agreement with what's taught in the creeds. And our office bearers, when being installed into office, have to express agreement.

It's not a insofar as they agree with the Word of God, so there's wiggle room. But it's a because the creeds agree with the Word of God. And if someone's convinced the creeds have an error, there's a procedure to follow, which is also reformed how to address that.

So we agree doctrinally. Number two, our church order is the Church Order of Dort, 1618 -1619, with amendations that indicate that we're living now in the United States of America in the 21st century.

But it is substantially the same as the Church Order of Dort. And the third are liturgical forms, and therefore our worship are those that the Reformed churches have used from the 1560s in the Netherlands on.

So we do stand in the Dutch Reformed tradition, and it's not just our history, it's our heritage.

And just so our audience may realize this, that they might not otherwise, sadly, two churches that have had a great heritage, closely associated with all things connected with the Dutch Reformation, the Dutch Reformed Church, which is more commonly, at least in the United States, known as the Reformed Church in America, RCA, and the Christian Reformed Church, the CRC, they have become very liberal today.

The Christian Reformed Church is far more liberal than the days 100 years ago when the Protestant Reformed Church departed from them. And you have to be very careful when you are looking for a church.

You might think that the Reformed word in the church sign is a green light to join such a congregation, but you have to do some investigation. And the RCA church is, I believe, even worse than the CRC.

There are hardly any theologically sound RCA churches left. I know that there are some remnants of men who still believe in biblical inerrancy and so on, who reject the false teachings of Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller, who are both in that denomination.

But is there anything else you care to say about those groups that have some kind of connection historically with the Protestant Reformed churches in America?

There is. First of all, what you expressed about the RCA and the CRC as denominations, I would agree with. I do know in both of the denominations of godly Reformed people who are very troubled what's happening in the denomination at large.

And I want to bear that in mind. I care about these people.

Yeah, Joel Nieder had remained in the CRC. I'm not even sure Joel is still with us, if he is in heaven with Christ yet. But he stuck it out there in the CRC, and he is, in my opinion, a fine man of God.

And I could name many others, men even in the ministry with whom I served. I sympathize with them and even agree with them on some of the issues they have to face within their denomination. But they are intending to be faithful.

Now, to add now, a number of churches have left, especially the RCA, for more conservative denominations, which is a testimony that there's a remnant, has been a remnant in the RCA, but it leaves the denomination as a whole all the more liberal.

The other thing I'll say about the Christian Reformed Church would be that the PRC not gloatingly observes the history of the CRC and says this is the outworking of your 1924 decision on common grace.

Already in the 1920s, after 1924, the CRC had to emphasize that though it holds to a common grace, it did not mean to undermine or destroy or ignore the antithesis. The antithesis, it isn't a man-made reality.

It is the reality that God, having saved a certain people in Jesus Christ, calls us to be spiritually different from others around us, and it has applications to how we live. The CRC had to emphasize that though it adopted a stand on common grace favorable, there are things almost inherently good in the ungodly unbeliever that did not destroy the antithesis.

Now, why did it have to feel that need? Because, in fact, it really was touching. Common grace undermines the antithesis. And the point I'm making is that if I look at the CRC as a denomination today, in its theological trends, even its moral trends, fortunately and with thanks to God, Synod of Late is taking a tougher stand on the matter of homosexuality.

That's a good sign. But if you look at these trends, the PRC sees that as the outworking of common grace. If God gives grace to all, a general grace, and secondly, to factor in the Kuyperian angle a bit more, if God works not so much in his church as in his kingdom, and the church is just sort of a vehicle to help him build up his kingdom, then you're going to lose your doctrinal distinctives, and you're going to find that churches are more and more being like the world.

Now, maybe that needs spelling out. To a degree, I'm not able to do it now. You asked, though, for a brief assessment, and that's it in a nutshell.

Covenant Theology, Particular Grace, and the Well-Meant Offer

Okay, before I go to any listener questions, is there anything else you care to say about things that make your denomination stand out, and also things that make your denomination harmonious with the Reformed church of the ages?

Good. So far, we've noted the origins and the common grace controversy. I want to point out a couple of their doctrines that are invented in the confessions that we believe we've developed. And by the way, development doesn't happen when a person sits down and says, boy, we're Reformed.

We should see what we can say better or more. Development happens when there's controversy. So to say we developed is to acknowledge that God has given us controversy. So another doctrine will be the doctrine of God's covenant.

Now, that's a precious heritage of Reformed believers. There's no specific article in the three forms of unity devoted to the covenant, but the idea of the doctrine of God's covenant undergirds and is woven throughout.

And we have developed, we believe, the doctrine of God's covenant consistent with our rejection of common grace. God's covenant is a covenant of particular grace. That is, it's his friendship with his people in Jesus Christ.

And in the 1950s, we had to discipline some ministers who were teaching that in that covenant, God calls people to believe, and it's inherent in the one who hears. The power is inherent in the one who hears to believe.

So that would be another point. There are some other distinctives, but I think I've hit the two main doctrinal areas in which we would have more to say or different things to say than other Dutch Reformed churches.

Okay, we have a question from Salvatore in Rockville Center, Long Island, New York. Salvatore says, isn't there something about the well-meant offer of the gospel that the Protestant Reformed churches typically take exception to?

And the answer is yes. Number one, were you saying, Lord?

I was just going to have you explain the well-meant offer so our listeners know.

Very good. I'll start with that. Very good. So the doctrine of the well-meant offer teaches that the gospel is to be proclaimed, which is not something the PRC takes issue with, is to be proclaimed as widely as possible, which is not something that the PRC takes issue with.

And then the doctrine of the well-meant offer, it might be not everybody who says, well, I believe in a well-meant offer will agree with what I say next, but it could be demonstrated that many who teach the well-meant offer mean what I say next.

That in the preaching of the gospel promiscuously, God says to everybody who hears, when the preacher promises salvation, I really mean it. This could be for you. All right. That is where the PRC will take exception.

It isn't that we preach only to the elect and not the reprobate, but did not the prophets always have to say two things? A promise of salvation to those who believe in Christ and also a promise of condemnation to those who refuse.

So as we preach the gospel, we have to bring both elements. The well-meant offer does not do justice to the second.

That's interesting. I am a Reformed Baptist, and we believe it's imperative to always give the bad news in addition to the good news, because the good news isn't that good or great or amazing without the bad news.

That is right.

Although many among us in the Reformed Baptist circles may use the term well-meant offer, but the way that you've differentiated the right and wrong proclamation of the gospel is something that I think most Reformed Baptists would agree with.

By the way, Salvatore, you have just won an amazing book. It's over 670 pages, a massive hardback that you could actually build up your biceps by curling a copy of this book in each hand. The Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ercinas on the Heidelberg Catechism, and this is compliments of our friends at Reform Free Publishing Association.

Is there anything that you care to say about this massive volume by the 16th century giant of the faith, Zacharias Ercinas?

That's a classic book that should be on any Reformed pastor's shelf, and it's not so theologically deep that it should be limited to pastors. When the Reformed reader says, I'm going to study the Heidelberg Catechism, and I wonder what it means, I wonder what this means, what that means, he can go to one of the authors of the catechism himself.

The primary author, correct?

Indeed. Now, from the viewpoint of historical scholarship, there are some who argue that Ercinas did not write the Commentary, but I'm going to avoid and not get into that right now, because I think that there's good evidence to say he did.

So that's number one. In addition, in the Commentary, Ercinas, I don't want to call them digressions, but he treats the doctrines, not just the words and phrases. So you're going to have a section in which he elaborates more on the image of God and man.

When he elaborates on the covenant, I said there's no chapter or section in any of the three forms of unity where there's a doctrine of the covenant. Ercinas has a section on the covenant. So a valuable resource, Scripture, full of Scripture references.

The author is demonstrating that the Reformed confession is biblical. A good resource and not difficult to read.

Great. I'm going to read briefly a commendation for this by someone who has been a guest on this program, Dr. Daniel R. Hyde, pastor of Oceanside United Reformed Church in Oceanside, California. The lectures of Ercinas are compiled and edited by his student, David Parias, are invaluable for understanding the Heidelberg Catechism.

This is especially true for preachers tasked with proclaiming its teaching. Yet preachers, and even those in the pew, may be turned off by its scholastic structure. Far from making the catechism more difficult, it was in the Christian use of Aristotle that Ercinas and others taught to analyze, break down, and simplify the teaching of the word for pastors who are tasked with preaching to people.

In other words, sophistication in the study leads to simplicity in the pulpit. Pastors, immerse yourself in the best of our tradition's pedagogy and watch your preaching improve and your people's minds and hearts be inflamed.

That's a really powerful commendation by Danny Hyde. I look forward to having him back on the program. It's been a long time. Well, we have time before the midway break to read one more question, and then we will take some more after the midway break.

We have Joseph in Gainesville, Georgia, and Joseph says, There is a common belief outside of the Protestant Reformed Church that your denomination believes that they are the only true Christians. Is this true, and are any of the pastors within your denomination guilty of this?