Common grace

Yeah, absolutely.

And so I think one of the kinda theological flashpoints, though, in this discussion kind of between the two schools of thought in, within biblical counseling that we're comparing in this series is the, the doctrine of common grace, right? And so, like, a clinically informed counselor would often argue that, well, you know, God can use common grace to provide, you know, supplemental counseling tools, right, through, you know, secular psychology or brain science or, or whatever it is.

So, you know, couldn't it be helpful to say, "Okay, I'm listening, and I think this person-" You know, does have some type of, you know, let's say clinical anxiety.

You know, they, they get this diagnosis and then I can say, "Okay, well then I'm gonna focus, uh, you know, my application of scripture, you know, based on, you know, this.

This is maybe a helpful tool." And then I can kinda provide different sessions to help them, you know, walk through, uh, scripture.

So it ...

Maybe from your perspective, what's the ha- maybe first how would you define, [laughs] you know, common grace? Is that helpful in-

Mm

First of all, you're not meant to buy the suya that you will eat and you want no more.

And as you buy it in moderation, you're meant to give thanks that, thank you Lord for the bounties of the common grace of suya.

Don't laugh too much.

It's funny but don't laugh too much because I don't want the message to be buried under the humour.

And it's God that gives it.

God gives a few people that privilege that will get to a point where The work that they did gives them so much money that they don't have to work for money to earn.

They now focus on working for adding to Common Grace and that is good.

But for the majority of us, God ties our income to our contribution to Common Grace.

You know,

All the things that God has committed into your hands, you are doing this while you are contributing to Common Grace, you are looking for a job, you are pursuing it in the right way, your idols are rising their cravings but you are fighting the cravings and letting the love of God overcome the cravings.

So, you are doing that thing but they are telling you your weaknesses and you are growing spiritually.

They are telling you, oh, you need to make a better place in this and you are growing spiritually, you are growing spiritually and all those things are happening inside of you.

But with the benefit of hindsight, I think we do see more of those common graces.

Now, biblically, a common grace is a gift of God that is available to all people.

There's specific grace, which is, you know, redemption and new life in Jesus Christ with repentance and salvation.

But then common grace is like rain, sunshine, air to breathe, you know, readily available food.

Hmm.

government that isn't terrible all the time decent economic system that at least keeps you fed most of the time that's a common grace and popular culture i view as a common grace the ability of human beings to make stories because whatever our deadness and sin we're still made in god's image and so we still have that innate talent and a lot of that is reflected in these 80 stories and the further we get from the time the more we are able to look back and go wait a minute that was actually pretty cool.

Like, you know, the silly fashions and big hair and wood paneling in the basement, a side of faux wood, like all of that was pretty cool.

Let's make some fake AI images that show how cool it was.

That's a good thing.

It's what the evangelicals sometimes call, borrowing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, common grace, as opposed to special grace that comes with salvation.

This is God's general grace that everyone who is blessed to breathe the air of this world get to experience.

God treats everyone equally.

Today's lecture comes from Cornelius Van Til, founding professor of apologetics at Westminster and one of the most influential Reformed apologists of the 20th century.

This recording comes from Van Til's course, The History and Nature of Apologetics, and in this lecture he turns his attention to the doctrine of common grace.

For Van Til, common grace isn't an isolated theological question.

It gets right to the heart of Christian apologetics.

It's really the linchpin of Van Til's apologetic approach.

So on a sort of principle level, Van Til insists that these two positions cannot be reconciled.

And yet, the unbeliever does not live consistently with that unbelief.

By God's common grace, sin is restrained, truth is known, culture is built.