"Is the grace of Almighty God common to all men, or is it particular and for the elect alone?" This question was the main cause of the split that occurred in the Christian Reformed Church and started the Protestant Reformed Church. The issue was between common grace and particular grace. The controversy all started when Ralph Janssen, professor of Old Testament Studies in Calvin Seminary, was accused of higher criticism by Herman Hoeksema, Pastor of Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church. Rev. Herman Hoeksma was the founding father of the Protestant Reformed Churches.
             James Schaap, an English professor at Dordt College says the people in the Protestant Reformed Church "write history in a different way than subsequent CRC historians might" so therefore there are different ways that the history is told. Schaap goes on to say, "We are all influenced by our history and biases" (245). Some books say Hoeksema and other pastors left, and other books say they were kicked out.
             This issue of common and particular (or special) grace was discussed in the Synod of 1924 which split up the church and started the Protestant Reformed church. Then there was the aftermath of the Synod and the start of the new denomination. In this paper I would like to tell the story of the Protestant Reformed Church, with special emphasis on the doctrinal issue of common grace.
             Rev. Herman Hoeksema is one of the most important men in the story of the Protestant Reformed Church because he started it. He was born in the Netherlands in 1886. He lived in a very poor home, and his father was a drunk, adulterer, and unbeliever. Hoeksema immigrated to the United States in 1904 and went to Calvin College Seminary. He was ordained a minister in the Christian Reformed Church in 1914 at the age of 29, and when the reformation was happening he was only 38. Rev. Hoeksema was a regular writer in the Banner, a powerful preacher, a...