I am married to my beautiful wife Priscilla and we have one awesome daughter Maple. I’m a Presbyterian minister and the founder of Sola – Appalachian Christian Retreat (www.discoversola.com), a ministry to hikers on the Appalachian Trail. I’m also the author of The Presbyterian Philosopher – The Authorized Biography of Gordon H. Clark (Wipf&Stock, 2017) and compiling editor of Clark and His Correspondents: Selected Letters of Gordon H. Clark (Trinity Foundation, 2017). I’m an alum of the University of Michigan, Wake Forest University, and Sangre de Cristo Seminary. I’m an avid hiker having completed a northbound thru-hike of the Appalachian trail in 2013 and the first 500 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016.
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Hi Doug. Thanks for letting me know of your impending journey. I look forward to hearing updates of your trek and your life and do want to keep track of your beard growth! God bless your next adventure! Mitch Young
Dear Doug,
Could I speak to you at your leisure and my cost, personally? It would require a phone number. You can contact me privately at issachar.institute@gmail.com. Alternatively, you could phone me at 905-728-4052. If I am not home, just leave a voice mail with your number, and I will asap return the call.
Dr. Gus Gianello
Hello Doug, I like to know when that biographical book on Gordon Clark is to be release. His life draws my attention.
Hey Ben, I’ve sent the manuscript to 4 publishers. So hopefully I’ll get it published soon.
Hey Mr. Douma – like many before me, I am curious if the deal for Dr. Clark’s books is still available. I would love to begin reading his work.
Thanks!
Yes, Ryle, they are available. I’ve just responded to you email.
Hi Doug,
Just a quick note for your possible 2nd edition of “The Presbyterian Philosopher.” On page 7 in two places there is the possessive proper noun ending in “s” and spelled Charles’s which I believe is incorrect and should be rendered Charles’. I caught this while reading again some of the delightful history of the Clark and Haddon family in your excellent biography.
Blessings,
Sent from my iPad
LJ
Dear Doug,
It was good to hear you on Caffinated Thoughts Radio last week with Brian Myers and Pastor Mike Ericson. I am really anxious now to read your book and I would love to take you up on your offer of a signed copy and buy it from you directly. Please let me know how to do that. Thanks.
I am sorry that we were not able to find any of the Clark correspondence with Dr. Young from Dr. Young’s papers in time for your publishing, but as you said in your interview your research continues and hopefully we can contribute something of value to it as you carry on.
Warm regards,
Vin Gebhart
Vin, good to hear from you. I will send you an email about purchasing a copy of the book.
Hello Doug, have you written a article about the ‘free offer of the gospel and common grace’ ?
See this discussion about it, would appreciate your thoughts: https://reformedforum.org/ctc547/
Thanks
I’ve written a few things about the “Free Offer of the Gospel” in “The Presbyterian Philosopher.” (see pp. 118-127)
See also:
https://douglasdouma.com/2015/10/20/it-only-took-90-years-john-bolts-essay-herman-hoeksema-was-right-an-important-corrector-of-false-doctrine/
https://douglasdouma.com/2017/10/10/on-distinctions-in-gods-one-will/
https://douglasdouma.com/2018/02/16/calvin-calvinists-and-the-hardening-of-pharaohs-heart/
David Engelsma is really the expert on the topic. His “Hyper-Calvinism and the Free Offer of the Gospel” is key.
I’m glad the The Reformed Forum got something correct when they wrote in the description, “The real point in dispute in connection with the free offer of the gospel is whether it can properly be said that God desires the salvation of all men.” But then Camden Bucey confuses this idea with the General Call of the Gospel when he says “The question is, if those who are saved must be elected by God can we offer the Gospel freely to those who are not elect?” (min 9) Fortunately the other presenter brings him back on track. In the end they all come to an agreement in falling back to “mystery” to justify their position.
One thing The Reformed Forum did not mention about the history is that there was a committee minority report (by William Young and Floyd Hamilton) in addition to the committee majority report (by John Murray, Ned Stonehouse, and Arthur Kuschke) on the Free Offer in the OPC in 1948.
Ultimately, I agree with John Gerstner who called the majority report position “not ‘mystery’ but bald contradiction.”
An important comment from Gordon Clark is as follows:
John Murray, late of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, impressed many people with his devoutness. He was also an assiduous scholar. And many people considered him very modest and humble. Now, in his booklet, “The Free Offer of the Gospel,” in which his colleague Ned B. Stonehouse cooperated to an undetermined degree, John Murray considered the paradox between the Free Offer of the Gospel and the doctrines of election and irresistible grace. His conclusion is, “We have found that God himself expresses an ardent desire for the fulfillment of certain things which he has not decreed in his inscrutable counsel to come to pass. This means that there is a will to the realization of what he has not decretively willed, a pleasure toward that which he has not been pleased to decree. This is indeed mysterious . . . ” Here I do not wish to emphasize what I believe is Murray’s incorrect notion of what the phrase “the Free Offer of the Gospel” means. What strikes me is that their author could not see any logical consistency between the Free Offer and the divine decree. His word inscrutable seems to suggest that nobody else can understand it either. Such a viewpoint, however, is not one of humility, but of arrogance. It means that if he cannot see the answer, the answer is just not in the Bible at all. But has he traced out all the possible implications of Scripture and shown by a complete induction that a solution is impossible? In view of the fact that Christ pointed out implications; implications no one had thought of before, and condemned his hearers for not having done so themselves, we, when our thoughts lead us to an assertion of contradictions, should be warned that our thinking has been fallacious. Then instead of appealing with pseudopiety to inscrutable mysteries, we can review our thinking and perhaps discover our mistakes. This would be a more modest procedure.
Thanks for the reply and references. I hope to read your book on Clark somewhere in the future.
Hi Dough, looking to pick up a copy of P.P. (the hardback) and was wondering if there was anywhere preferable to buy it from so that you actually get your slice of the pie … ?
I’ll email you back. Thanks.