Supralapsarianism infralapsarianism herman bavinck biography
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Herman Bavinck
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), a Dutch Reformedtheologian, was a contemporary of Abraham Kuyper and B. B. Warfield, both of whom he knew well. He graduated magna cum laude in 1880 from Leiden with a double major in Systematic Theology and Old Testament. His doctoral dissertation was on the concept of the State in Zwingli's theology. Bavinck taught at the Theological Seminary in Kampen, Holland - where he also pastored - before accepting the position of professor at the Free University of Amsterdam. He is best known for his magnum opus, Reformed Dogmatics (Gereformeerde Dogmatiek, in 4 volumes). Bavinck is one of the most balanced and solidly Reformed theologians Holland ever produced.
Bavinck introduced the notion of organic inspiration of the Scriptures and also developed a solution to the infra/supralapsarian conundrum. Although Bavinck passed away in 1921, he remains a powerful force in Reformed theology. Several important Reformed theologians owe large debts
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Infralapsarianism and Supralapsarianism
by Loraine Boettner
Among those who call themselves Calvinists there has been some difference of opinion as to the order of events in the Divine plan. The question here is, When the decrees of election and reprobation came into existence were men considered as fallen or as unfallen? Were the objects of these decrees contemplated as members of a sinful, corrupt mass, or were they contemplated merely as men whom God would create? According to the infralapsarian view the order of events was as follows:
God proposed (1) to create; (2) to permit the fall; (3) to elect to eternal life and blessedness a great multitude out of this mass of fallen men, and to leave the others, as He left the Devil and the fallen angels, to suffer the just punishment of their sins; (4) to give His Son, Jesus Christ, for the redemption of the elect; and (5) to send the Holy Spirit to apply to the elect the redemption which was purchased by Christ. According to the sup
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Bavinck on supra/infra-lapsarian predestination
, Godismyjudge , Leave a comment
I recently read Herman Bavinck on supralapsarian and infralapsarian predestination (link). Bavinck’s approach fryst vatten intriguing. He argues that both the supralapsarian and infralapsarian systems have their strengths and weaknesses, so he cherry-picks the strengths and discards the weaknesses as he presents his own unsystematized views on the subject of predestination. To be clear, he is not saying that he fryst vatten unable to systematize predestination, but rather that the topic cannot be systematized.
This approach has its drawbacks. Without a logical beställning, the topic can’t really be explained, nor can Bavinck be sure his system fryst vatten free from contradiction. Advocates of Bavinck’s approach claim greater freedom to interpret scripture, but if your interpretation of one övergång is in tension with another del, you can never be sure your interpretation fryst vatten correct. Systematic theology fryst vatten a lot of hard