Is the Denial of the “Well-Meant Offer” Hypercalvinism?
Engelsma argues that denying the well-meant offer of the gospel is not necessarily hypercalvinism, defending the Reformed distinction between God's call to all who hear the gospel and His election of the few. Drawing on Matthew 22:1-14 and the 1924 common grace controversy in the CRC, he articulates how Reformed theology must navigate between the Scylla of hyper-Calvinism and the Charybdis of Arminianism in understanding the nature of the gospel call.
The doctrinal issue involved in the question, “Is denial of the ‘well-meant offer’ hyper-Calvinism?” is precisely addressed, and thoroughly explained, by our Lord’s teaching in the parable of the wedding of the king’s son in Matthew 22:1-14. God calls many men, both Jews and Gentiles, to the salvation that He has prepared in the death and resurrection of His Son. Many of those who are called by the preaching of the gospel refuse to come: “and they would not come” (v. 3). Some do come to the...