Untitled Sermon (2)

Thesis Statement: Abraham Kuyper’s Stone Lectures puts forth a formidable and comprehensive Reformed Christian worldview to oppose Secular Humanist Modernism.

The concept of building is central to the Christian faith. At the beginning of scripture, God commanded Adam and Eve to build (Genesis 1:28-31). Throughout the Old Testament God commanded building projects. He called Noah to build an Ark for His family to survive the flood. He calls Abraham to Canaan to build a family (Genesis 12). God built a nation out of Abraham’s descendants and afterward commanded them to build a tabernacle so He may have fellowship with His people (Exodus 25-40). Many generations later, God came to King David and though David wanted to build God a house, God instead promised to build David into a house, so to speak. It is David’s son, King Solomon, who is then permitted to build God a house, the temple. Though the Temple was standing and beautiful in Jesus’ day, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19). In the New Covenant era, the Apostle understands that Jesus destroyed the Temple, His body, and we in Him, are the new temple. In 1st Corinthians Paul told the church that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Paul teaches that each Christian is a stone by which the new temple is built, that is, those who are in Christ, the church. Quoting Psalm 118:22, the Apostle Peter says, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which become the cornerstone.” (Acts 4:11). Jesus told the Jews “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; that was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’”? (Matthew 21:42). Both Paul and Peter taught that the church is continuously built upon this cornerstone, one stone at a time.

In the 19th century, God chose a stone named Abraham Kuyper. Throughout church history, Christians recognize that God has specifically gifted and called stones in His church to do marvelous things for His kingdom. A sad reality is that oftentimes the most needed stones seem to be largely ignored, much like our Savior during His ministry. Abraham Kuyper is one such stone. What he delivered in his Stone Lectures (titled Lectures on Calvinism in book form) has been largely rejected in American Christianity. What this thesis will aim to discover is why and in what ways American Protestantism rejected Kuyper’s message.

Another goal of this thesis is to examine the Calvinistic life system that Kuyper presented in his lectures. Why is what he presented so important for the church? Why are her walls vulnerable if they do not include the stone of Kuyper’s lectures within them? Why are they the perfect defense against Secular Humanistic Modernism for the church? I believe it is providential that Kuyper’s lectures were given as the “Stone Lectures” at Princeton, which are still an annual event to this day. These Stone lectures were largely rejected, and the walls of the church suffer for it. This thesis will aim to show how Kuyper’s Calvinistic Life-System has been rejected and why that has left the broad evangelical church in America vulnerable to the assaults of Secular Humanistic Modernism upon the Church