Believers and Their Seed: Children in the Covenant

by Herman Hoeksema

Children, so precious to God, are often denied a place in God’s church. This is both fallacious and damaging to the body of Christ. In the light of sacred Scripture, Hoeksema points believers to the goodness and grace of God toward their children. He reminds Reformed Christians of their heritage, concisely demonstrating from the Bible and Reformed creeds that children are very much a part of the covenant and, hence, the church. The author warns the reader of the ever-present threat of Arminian individualism in Reformed churches that would make the salvation of their children dependent upon the alleged free will of the children. Included is an informative and lengthy preface by David J. Engelsma and an 11-page biography and photo of the author.

Genres: Theology

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965), a Dutch Reformed theologian, was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the USA in 1904. After studying at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he began his ministerial career in the Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids - at that time one of the largest reformed congregations in the United States.

Hoeksema was one of the principal founders of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). Founded as a separate denomination of Reformed churches in 1924, the PRC stand in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Their origin as a denomination was the doctrinal controversy over "common grace" within the Christian Reformed Church in the early 1920s, occasioned by that church's adoption of the doctrine of common grace as official church dogma. The result of the controversy was that several ministers with their congregations were put out of the Christian Reformed Church. These men then established the Protestant Reformed Churches.

The newly-formed PRC denomination established the Protestant Reformed Seminary where Hoeksema served as professor of theology for 40 years.

Reviews

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.

[Connor Longaphie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoeksema discusses and debunks the prevalent CRC perspective of his time as well as kuyperian presumptive regeneration. He follows this by presenting his own view, which reads the baptism formula as a sign and seal of definite and real things. The outcome of this is an optimistic reference of the covenant of grace, one where we speak as if all in the covenant are surely saved, and the normative rule that God regenerates people in young childhood but that they come to faith later in life. This splitting of regeneration and faith is not something I judge as wise. Another problem that I perceive with this is that if it were true that as a general rule that children were regenerated but did not believe then why be so convinced that we must speak of the covenant children as forgiven and saved and in Christ. The view espoused is that they have the inclination to faith, that they have the holy spirit but don't have faith. This is all very confusing. This perspective of hoeksema is unnecessarily confusing. But he does a great job debunking the perspective of the CRCs Dr. Heyns and the perspective of kuyper

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A primer on children in the covenant and several views. Ties into baptism. Finishes off with a solid examination of infant salvation. The conclusions are not the most comforting on the subject but for those who have lost children in infancy, there is a hopeful and encouraging conclusion.

[Ryan Jankowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

As expected, this book was much better the second time. It starts out slow with the author's interaction with various movements within the CRC which were of little interest to me. But as it progresses, he gets into some good topics. Hoeksema's definition of the covenant seems to conform best to my conception and one in which I think is most accurate (obviously). He dismisses the academic (and erroneous) conception as, "...a certain agreement between two parties according to which mutual stipulations and conditions must be met" (as if anyone would describe their marriage as such!) He illustrates it as, "...the essence of a covenant is to be sought in this living relationship of friendship whereby God the Lord is the sovereign friend of his people".
Hoeksema's understanding of the CoW with Adam exemplifies this understanding of covenant. He states, "But one certainly does not find promise that Adam could merit eternal life in the way of obedience." He makes an interesting case for this departure from mainstream thought on the subject. He doesn't interact with the Westminster standards in order to reconcile this view, but I suspect an argument could be made.
The chapter on apostates in relation to the covenant and an exegesis of Hebrews 6 was short and sweet. It will provide a lot of thought provoking conversation in the days to come.