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Monday, October 22, 2012

Common Grace and Theodicy

"Calvin also formulated a doctrine of grace at work in the world at large, and distinguished between the grace of Christ, by which one became and remained a Christian, and a 'general' or 'common' grace to which may be attributed the restraint of gross sin. ... Later Arminian theologians rejected the distinction between common grace and the grace in salvation, seeing only a single divine grace held out to every person. They were, however, unable to dispose of the NT references to predestination and election." (Kearsley, 'Grace', New Dictionary of Theology, 280)

Observations and questions:
  1. Can we come up with better nomenclature for "common and special grace"?
  2. "Common grace" = God's gracious patience with sin and evil in general and magnifies his loving nature.
  3. "Special Grace" still makes we wonder about the place of evil in the lives of those who are elect?