Dr. H. F. Kohlbrugge (1803-1875) Preacher of God's Free Grace (1)

A few years ago, several articles on church history were published in the Banner of Truth. Several forefathers, representatives of the Second Reformation, were discussed, as well as later developments in the State Church in the Netherlands, which resulted in the secession of 1834. Such men as De Cock, Scholte, Van Raalte, and Brummelkamp were the young leaders of this movement. We have seen how two of them, Rev. Scholte and Rev. Van Raalte, came to the United States and settled in Iowa and Michigan, respectively.

Also the life of Rev. Ledeboer and the development of the Ledeboerian churches was explained. There we find some of the roots of our Netherlands Reformed Congregations. We believe that our doctrines are based on God's Word and are rooted in the theology of the Reformation and the Second Reformation, and in the works of godly servants in the 19th century.

However, in the 19th century there was another great theologian who served for many years in an “NRC” in Germany, in the “Niederlandisch Reformierte Gemeinde” in Elberfeld. The name of this theologian was Herman Friedrich Kohlbrugge.

I would like to write something about his life and the significance of his labors for our days.

German ancestry

Kohlbrugge's ancestors came from Germany. Around the t u rn of the 19t h century, his parents, Hermann Gerhardt Kohlbrugge and Petronella Teerhuys, moved from Germany to the Netherlands, where his father started a soap business. Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge was born in Amsterdam on August 15, 1803. His parents became members of the “Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church” of Amsterdam. In 1791 this church had broken away from the Lutheran church, because of the Lutheran church's liberal direction.

A blessed change

Young Kohlbrugge attended the Latin school until 1821. Then he began to study theology.

He had received a religious upbringing, and conversations with his godfearing grandmother had deeply impressed him. But during his student years many of these impressions were lost. Later in life he remembered this time with shame. He said that it became his “pleasure to undermine the holiest truths of Christian religion and to mock with conversion and living faith.” Sometimes he even doubted the existence of God.

Shortly after the death of his father, this changed. God Himself intervened in his life in a powerful way, turning him away from his ungodly life and teaching him in the school of grace. Kohlbrugge himself said of it, “It pleased the Almighty God to draw me through His Holy Spirit effectually and irresistibly to Himself and to reveal His Son in me.” For Kohlbrugge this meant that he had to give up all efforts to save himself. He cast himself into God's gracious arms.

Three years later it was heard from the pulpit with his own words, “Another way must be trodden than a way of one's own virtue and works, honor and enjoyment. It is faith alone that justifies. Only in this way can we exist before God.”

The preaching of the proponent

On October 19,1826, Kohlbrugge passed his examination for candidate for the ministry, and he became an assistant preacher in the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church. His first sermon, which he preached in Loenen aan de Vecht, was about Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

For several weeks he also preached the Word in his own church in Amsterdam. His audiences were often large, and among them were many people from the Reveil movement. This was a movement in the State Church that sought to reform and revive the church, which at that time was in a sad condition. To this movement belonged men like Da Costa, De Clercq, and Capadose.

His sermons had the following contents:

- our total depravity

- the almighty power of the Holy Spirit

- repentance and faith

- the danger of dead orthodoxy and the necessity of a living faith

- regeneration through almighty grace

- justification of the sinner before God through faith alone

- the only righteousness of Christ and the unchangeable faithfulness of God.

It is not surprising that such preaching would lead to conflict with the prevailing spirit of the age, which had not only crept into the State Church and the more liberal Lutheran churches, but also into the supposedly orthodox Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amsterdam.

A conflict

A conflict arose when a Lutheran minister, Rev. D. R. Uckerman, preached in the church in Amsterdam. It was clear that the “Enlightenment” movement had also heavily influenced Uckerman's ideas. This movement was very optimistic about the human understanding and promoted the ideas of rationalism, also in the church. Uckerman believed that by the reading of God's Word man would come to nobler thoughts and good intentions, and he would have a better insight into the truth. This rational understanding of God's Word would be saving. Kohlbrugge strongly protested against this preaching, but without results. At Pentecost in 1827, Uckerman complained from the pulpit that he was accused of being a heretic. He openly warned the congregation against those who opposed him. The consistory sided with Rev. Uckerman, and Kohlbrugge was deposed as assistant preacher. The majority of the congregation, however, took the side of Kohlbrugge and were furious about this. This did not change the decision of the consistory. The young proponent was put aside because he stood up for the truth. This meant the loss of his income, which led to great poverty for Kohlbrugge and his often weak and sickly wife, Catharina Louise Engelbert.

On June 4, 1827, he preached his last sermon. The text was from Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Rejected in the State Church

In spite of the heavy trials he had to endure, Kohlbrugge completed his studies and got his doctorate in theology at the University of Utrecht.

His dissertation was on Psalm 45, in which he followed the Christocentric exegesis.

The contents of this work contained a sharp attack on the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment movement, and it is not surprising that it met with much opposition from the theologians of his day.

Some universities in Germany offered him a professorate, but he rejected these offers. He felt that with his new convictions there was no place for him there.

But Kohlbrugge did not just sit back and wait for further developments. He actively proceeded to apply for membership in the Dutch Reformed (State) Church in Utrecht.

Other and great disappointments awaited him there, too. The State Church closed the door to him; he was not accepted, not even as a member. The reason given for this rejection was that the consistory of the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amsterdam refused to give him a clean attestation, “a testimony of good moral behavior.” However, the true reason was the fear that Kohlbrugge would cause unrest and trouble in the State Church. Many did not want to hear the penetrating sound of the trumpet of the gospel that Kohlbrugge had given in his preaching and writing.

The tried servant of God was deeply wounded by this unjust treatment, and his sorrow only increased when during this time he also had to lose his wife.

Kohlbrugge was called “the martyr of liberalism.” In 1833, he published a brochure in which he wrote about this case of unjust denying of membership. The case received national attention, and also in the Reveil movement it was discussed, with sympathy for Kohlbrugge. But the leaders of the Reveil did not send an open public protest to the church leaders of the State Church.

A guest in Germany

In the summer of that year, Kohlbrugge stayed for a while for health reasons in Rhineland in Germany. In this area there were still some churches which adhered to the Reformed doctrine. The well-known Gottfried Daniel Krummacher had a pastorate in Elberfeld. He asked Kohlbrugge to preach for him. Kohlbrugge preached a sermon on Romans 7:14, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” This sermon was printed and widely distributed, and it made deep impressions on many. In a letter to a friend, Kohlbrugge later mentioned what this text had meant for him. It had been a discovery for him that there was a comma in the text.

“I am carnal, sold under sin.”

His eyes were opened for the fact that every regenerated sinner, every true believer, remains carnal in himself, and that every attempt to climb up to God through the law, every effort to increase holiness in his own strength, is in vain.

Later he wrote about this, “I have long persisted in coming to perfection by means of the law. And though I resisted unto blood, I sank deeper and deeper, and even far below where the devil had sunk. But in my lost condition and utter desperation the Lord met me and said to me, Thou art holy to Me as thou art, only holy in Christ.” He referred to what this text revealed to him as his second conversion.

A sad misunderstanding

Many did not understand Kohlbrugge's teaching in this regard. They were afraid that he obscured the need for an active sanctification. He was suspected of antinomianism, even by some men from the Reveil movement, such as Da Costa. There came a breach with those who initially seemed to be supportive of him.

Da Costa's accusation that Kohlbrugge was antinomian could not be substantiated. He accused Kohlbrugge of being in conflict with the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism, which speaks of the necessary knowledge of three parts: our misery, deliverance, and gratitude. In his view, Kohlbrugge did not teach the necessity of the third part, the life of gratitude.

However, this accusation had no ground. In his theological disputes about these matters, Kohlbrugge sometimes used bold expressions, which can be misinterpreted. He did this because he was afraid of a religion of the flesh and of proud self-confidence in the believer whose striving after sanctification is often considered as an acceptable “achievement” in the sight of God.

He wanted to warn against pious work-holiness, which, said he, “wants to come into the tree through grace, but then climbs to the top of that tree by its own strength.” Kohlbrugge was afraid that the religious man, or even a converted person, would rob the honor of Christ.

He wanted to place everything, justification, but also sanctification, in Christ alone. Kohlbrugge's reaction to Da Costa's attack was sharp. He said that Da Costa put Christ aside, took predestination out of its context, bound the liberty of the gospel, burdened the conscience, and plagued the concerned ones with all sorts of marks.

The summary of Kohlbrugge's theology we can find in Psalm 73, verse 22b: “I was as a beast before Thee.” It is in vain to try to renovate that old corrupt nature. We are sin, and from our side there is no expectation. All our holiness is only in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, the Savior. Kohlbrugge wanted to emphasize that grace is free and that only the work of Christ will make the sinner acceptable in the sight of God.

It is sad, however, that there was a misunderstanding of each other's statements, and that there came a separation between men who feared the Lord.

Kohlbrugge was afraid that the work of man and not the complete work of Christ would get all the honor. We read of Him in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

What a great blessing it is if we may be brought to the end of all our own legalistic works, and learn to flee unto and rest upon the finished work of the precious Savior, Jesus. They will not be put to shame who trust alone in Him.

—to be continued—

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