DNK : Documentatieblad voor de Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis na 1800 - Volume 45, Issue 99, 2023

‘For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?’

Jan de Liefde (1814-1869) and Reformed Secessionists debating election and atonement in the 1850s

This article answers the question how Reformed Secessionists responded to the establishment of an independent church in Amsterdam, the Vrije Evangelische Gemeente of the evangelist Jan de Liefde in 1856. Some of them, for instance Anthony Brummelkamp (1811-1888), reacted positively. Others, like Simon van Velzen (1809-1896), responded critical. The discussion about the Vrije Evangelische Gemeente became intertwined with questions concerning the doctrines of election and atonement. The difference between Reformed theologians like Brummelkamp and Van Velzen, and the readiness to cooperate with De Liefde of only the first, suggest that the concept of Evangelicalism, as defined by the British historian David Bebbington, can be more fruitful to the study of Dutch Church history than the Dutch dichotomy between evangelisch and Reformed (gereformeerd).

‘A God-Given Problem’

This article analyses the views of the Old Testament scholar and orientalist Johannes de Groot on the relations between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. De Groot (1886-1942) visited the Holy Land five times in the period before World War II: in 1912, 1926, 1929, 1931 and 1937. Much more than fellow travelers and scholars he was interested in the situation and future of Arabs and Jews living within the same borders. He gave testimony of the growing tensions and showed comprehension to both sides. How to deal with their rights and ideals? De Groot considered the complicated relationships in Palestine as a God-given problem to mankind wearying itself. At this early stage, he already judged the Israeli-Palestine conflict as insolvable. The future was only safe in the hands of God.

‘We hear your word afar.’

Dutch Protestant reactions to Niemöller before 1945

Niemöller became a well-known man in the Netherlands soon after 1933. But how well did the Dutch really know him? Niemöller never visited the Netherlands before the Second World War. The complicated conflicts in and around the German Protestant Church were hard to comprehend in the Netherlands. Unlike Social Democrats and Communists, who immediately after 1933 showed solidarity with their persecuted party comrades against Hitler, Dutch Protestants initially also saw something good in the attitude of National Socialism and its demand for a ‘positive Christianity’ and waited. But after his arrest in 1937, Niemöller became a martyr for Christians in the Netherlands from all walks of life. He became a phenomenon behind which the real person disappeared. During the German occupation from May 1940, Niemöller’s image in the Netherlands changed again. Was he a staunch defender of the freedom of the church or was he a German nationalist?