Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge (1803-1875): A Comforter Of Mourners

By Pieter Devries

Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge was one of the greatest theologians produced by the Netherlands. He has been characterized as an irregular theologian because he did not write a systematic theology; apart from his doctoral dissertation, he wrote only a few minor theological treatises. But Kohlbrugge’s theology can be derived from the many sermons he preached and that were published during his lifetime and after his death. Besides his sermons, he wrote three catechisms in the form of questions and answers, which also help us understand his theological position. Kohlbrugge’s life was full of sorrows and disappointments, revealing the truth of the apostolic principle: “death works in me and life in you.” This article aims to show that Kohlbrugge was a real comfort to mourners, for he knew by experience that the Word of God holds the power of God for salvation. This he ministered to others.

Background And Conversion

Kohlbrugge was born in 1803 in Amsterdam. His forefathers had come from Germany to Amsterdam because of the city’s many commercial activities. Kohlbrugge’s parents were members of the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church, which had seceded from the Evangelical Lutheran Church because of its increasing liberalism. The Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church was centered mainly in Amsterdam. Since the Reformation, a small Lutheran Church had existed in the Netherlands, but the group swelled in numbers because of the many German immigrants. Kohlbrugge’s mother originally belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, the national Reformed church of the Netherlands, which, until 1795, was protected and supported by the government.

As a young boy, Frits Kohlbrugge often stayed with his grandmother, Anna van Teerhuis-van der Horst. She told her grandson about the need for salvation, using the pictures of The Pilgrim’s Progress that were painted on the tiles of the hearth and chimney. After finishing secondary school, Kohlbrugge began studying theology at the University of Amsterdam. During his studies, he embraced a kind of Platonized version of Christianity. However, when he had almost finished his studies, Kohlbrugge felt more and more distressed. He sought help in the writings of mystical theologians but could not find it.

While he was preparing his first sermon (based on Romans 5:1) in 1825, Kohlbrugge was brought by the Lord to a saving knowledge of Christ. He said the Lord gave him faith and assurance in a moment, like lightning. “No matter how much I tried to attain it, I found no power in myself to turn myself to God, no power to utter a single cry, no power to break with just one small sin, weak as the web of a spider or as a thread that has been perished, no power to resist the world and its indignity and there where I was without power I have experienced that the Lord is the power of all His people…. I have never been strong but in the Lord. Glad I have never been, but in the gladness of the Lord.”

When Kohlbrugge started to preach as a theological candidate, his sermons impressed people with their depth in the knowledge of sin and salvation. In Holland, particularly in Amsterdam, there was a revival of interest in orthodox and experiential Christianity, especially in aristocratic circles. People enjoyed the preaching of the young theological student and considered him an experienced believer.

Trials With The Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church And Dutch Reformed Church

In 1826, Kohlbrugge became an assistant pastor in the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church of Amsterdam. However, he soon came into conflict with one of the senior ministers, Rev. D. R. Uckermann, over the increasing liberalism of the denomination. Kohlbrugge objected that Uckermann did not teach in clear terms about the total depravity of man and the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. He presented his objection to the board of ministers and elders that governed the congregation. The result was not that Uckermann was reproved, but that Kohlbrugge was suspended as an assistant pastor.

The suspension caused tension between Kohlbrugge and Cato Engelbert, an orphan from a wealthy family, to whom Kohlbrugge had become engaged on September 8, 1825. Cato’s uncle, who was a leader in the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church of Amsterdam, insisted that Kohlbrugge apologize for attacking Rev. Uckermann. He also advised Cato’s grandmother not to consent to the marriage of Cato and Kohlbrugge. If the grandmother had done so, it would have caused several financial and legal difficulties for Cato.

After his suspension, Kohlbrugge went to Utrecht to write a dissertation. In addition to the philological part of his thesis on Psalm 45, he added a theological one in which he defended the psalmist’s approach to Christ and His church. The theological professors of the University of Utrecht objected to this view, but Kohlbrugge so ably defended his thesis that on June 4, 1829, he was awarded a doctorate with the designation “cum laude.” When Cato told her grandmother how her fiancé had defended his doctoral thesis, the grandmother asked: “How does Frits explain this psalm?” Cato told how Frits had stated that the psalm points to Christ. The grandmother responded: “If he is not ashamed to defend Christ and his bride, I am not ashamed of him.” She then gave her consent for the marriage.

After marrying, the couple settled in Utrecht. They had two children. Kohlbrugge gave private lessons and Bible lectures in his house and in the homes of others. Through the writings of Calvin and Olevianus, Kohlbrugge became increasingly convinced that the Reformed position on predestination was more in accordance with the Scriptures than Lutheran orthodoxy. As a result, he applied for membership in the Dutch Reformed Church.

The response to his request was delayed repeatedly. Finally, a special act was passed by the synod of the Dutch Reformed Church specifically against Kohlbrugge, stating that one could not apply for membership in the church without a letter of right behavior from the denomination to which one originally belonged. The real reason for refusing Kohlbrugge’s membership was that his powerful preaching of the gospel would disturb others in the national church.

Kohlbrugge was also disappointed with friends who belonged to the “Reveil” (a revival movement among Dutch aristocracy in Amsterdam and the Hague; the converted Jew Isaac Da Costa was one of the main representatives). These friends expressed their disapproval about the decision of the synod but did nothing to help their friend. In response, Kohlbrugge wrote the book Het lidmaatschap van de Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk mij op willekeurige gronden belet (The Membership of the Dutch Reformed Church Withheld from Me with Arbitrary Arguments), in which he explained what had happened.

Four years after the Kohlbrugges married, Cato died of tuberculosis. On her deathbed, she came to full assurance of faith through the words of Ezekiel 34:31: “And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.”

“Second Conversion”

During the sickness of his wife, Kohlbrugge’s own health deteriorated. After her death, he went on medical leave to Elberfeld, Germany. There he became acquainted with a local pastor, Gottfried Daniel Krummacher, uncle of the famous Bible expositor Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher. Kohlbrugge preached in Elberfeld and its surroundings sixteen times.

Through the centuries, the churches of Wuppertal were strongly influenced by pietism. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, a revival of a perfectionist form of Christianity made its way to Wuppertal. This revival set the context for Kohlbrugge’s most famous and debated sermon. Because Krummacher was too ill to preach one Wednesday, Kohlbrugge led the service in Elberfeld on July 31, 1833. The text of his sermon was Romans 7:14: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” In this sermon, Kohlbrugge said, “Throw away all your crutches of sanctification far away from you. It is impossible, with them, to climb upon mount Sion. Rip off the rags wherewith you cover your wounds and show yourself as you really are, to Him who is holy and just.”

He went on to say, “Hear what the Scripture says: ‘Who are justified—not those who love, not the saints, the just, the pious, no no—the ungodly’…. The apostle testified not: I made reasonable progress in sanctification, no, but despite his pharisaic past and to console his distressed heart he writes down: ‘For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin’…. Christ sanctifies us only in this way, when we confess: ‘I am carnal and black’; His Word is true above all other things: ‘I see no stains in you; just in this way you are lovely and holy in Me.’”

The sermon protested against all forms of legalism and human activity in sanctification. During the preparation of this sermon, the spiritual struggle in Kohlbrugge’s own life came to a climax. Since his conversion, he had tried to become more holy. In studying Romans 7:14, he realized that he lacked a clear view on the evangelical nature of sanctification. What struck him was that the Apostle Paul, while a true believer, admitted that he was carnal and sold under sin. Kohlbrugge had thought that a believer was sold under sin insofar as he was still carnal. Now he rejected this partial interpretation of “sold under sin,” saying that this struggle against the carnal remains during a believer’s whole life. Even our most holy works are stained with sin and self-righteousness. One of the most essential parts of sanctification is realizing and confessing that. Kohlbrugge regarded this deeper insight of the evangelical nature of sanctification as a kind of “second conversion.”

The publication of this sermon provoked great controversy in the Netherlands. Kohlbrugge’s friend Da Costa accused him of antinomianism in an open letter; Kohlbrugge responded by denying the accusation and accusing Da Costa of the stains of legalism and unholy activism. The tone of Kohlbrugge’s letter was not free from bitterness; nonetheless, he made a valid point.

Justifiation And Sanctifiation

Kohlbrugge believed that sanctification is not a process of growth in a believer but an increasing dependence upon Christ to bear fruit. Essential to sanctification is the acknowledgment of how even our most holy endeavors fail to please God. Kohlbrugge emphasized this element of sanctification, saying that a Christian realizes that he is holy only in Christ. While Kohlbrugge’s teaching on sanctification tended to be one-sided, he did become a real comforter of mourners, particularly those who had struggled with their sinfulness and felt that they sought their own honor even when they sought to promote the honor of God. In his open letter to Da Costa, Kohlbrugge said that the people who truly understood his message were those who walked with the Lord but considered themselves poor sinners who needed Christ even with respect to their own sanctification.

One of Kohlbrugge’s objections against later Reformed orthodoxy was that it tended to separate sanctification and justification. The first Reformers stressed that justification was more than an act; the consolation of justification is received by the believer every time he acts by faith in Christ. This emphasis was also evident in the writings of Kohlbrugge. In the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), which was much appreciated by Kohlbrugge, the question “How are you righteous before God?” is answered: “Only by true faith in Jesus Christ: that is, although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.” This summarized what Kohlbrugge taught about the relationship between justification and sanctification.

Some who adhere to the Reformed faith face the danger of a certain kind of triumphalism. They can acknowledge justification by faith alone but give the impression that the life of sanctification is a kind of repayment that we offer to the Lord in response. Kohlbrugge offers a healthy antidote to this. He teaches us that a Christian always remains a poor sinner in himself who trusts in Christ and is a debtor to His mercy.

The teachings of Kohlbrugge are also evident in the writings of men such as Walter Marshall in The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification and William Romaine in The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith. John Newton was one of the writers quoted by Kohlbrugge in his open letter to Da Costa. The words of Newton’s hymn precisely state what Kohlbrugge taught:

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love, and every grace;
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek more earnestly his face.

I hoped that in some favoured hour,
At once he’d answer my request;
And by his love’s constraining power,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

“Lord, why is this” I trembling cried;
“Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?”
“‘Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”

“These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou mayst seek thy all in me.”

View On The Ecclesiastical Situation In The Netherlands

On October 31, 1834, Kohlbrugge married Ursuline Phippina, Baroness of Verschuer. His second wife belonged to a Dutch noble family touched by the influence of the “Reveil.” The two had a daughter named Anna after her grandmother. The baroness was a good mother to her daughter as well as to Kohlbrugge’s sons. She also had a moderating influence on Kohlbrugge’s irritable character. From 1834 to 1845, the family continued to live in Utrecht.

Soon after Kohlbrugge’s marriage, the first secession from the Dutch Reformed Church took place. That same year, Rev. Hendrick de Cock was suspended as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. The official explanation was that De Cock did not observe certain rules of the church order, but among the leadership there was an undercurrent of aversion to De Cock’s outspoken proclamation of the doctrines of free grace. Kohlbrugge wrote to De Cock, advising him to form a congregation and to continue to preach. De Cock did not follow that advice but seceded from the national church with a few other ministers, declaring that church to be false and formed a separate body that came to be known in due time as the Christian Reformed Church (Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in Nederland).

Kohlbrugge believed the ecclesiastical statesmen had treated De Cock dishonestly and connected with his beliefs on the doctrines of free grace. Nevertheless, he could not follow De Cock and his fellows out of the Dutch Reformed Church. When he was invited by one of the leaders of the Christian Reformed Church to join this body in 1839, he decisively refused, stating his reasons in an open letter. He felt that his insights into the evangelical nature of sanctification were not well understood by those who had separated from the national church. He also believed the new denomination showed too much of the triumphalism against which he had clearly testified.

Kohlbrugge also thought that the leaders of the Christian Reformed Church were overly confident in their ability to form a sound denomination and were not dependent enough on the Spirit of God to revive the church. Though Kohlbrugge was not accepted by the national Dutch Reformed Church, he felt a deep love for the church which was so closely tied to the existence of the Netherlands as an independent nation and which had been such a blessing for the Dutch nation over centuries. He prayed that the Lord would build up His church in the Netherlands. Later in life, Kohlbrugge’s attitude towards his brothers who had left the national church became milder. He declared that as a minister he could only serve the Dutch Reformed Church but that as a parishioner he would just go to “where the grass was green.” That is how he advised friends who asked him where to go to church.

Pastoring An Independent Reformed Congregation In Germany

While Kohlbrugge was vacationing in Godesberg in 1845, he was invited by friends he had made twelve years earlier to pastor an independent group. Several people in Elberfeld who loved the truth of free and sovereign grace were dissatisfied with the union between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Germany created under pressure by the government. Among other things, they could not agree with the liturgy that was mandatory in the united church, believing it betrayed the Reformed heritage. At first, Kohlbrugge hesitated to accept the invitation, but his wife said, “All must be done that souls may be saved.” So Kohlbrugge went to Elberfeld.

The new congregation included several members of the influential family Von der Heydt, who had connections in Berlin. Through these connections, King William Freidrich IV of Prussia gave the group a license to unite under the name Dutch Reformed Congregation. Kohlbrugge justified his becoming a pastor of an independent congregation as a means to restore the unity of the church. He had a warm heart for the national churches both in the Netherlands and Germany; when several theological students came to Elberfeld to speak with Kohlbrugge, he advised them to seek places in the national churches.

Kohlbrugge’s preaching in Elberfeld was richly blessed. During his time there, many friends from the Netherlands came to Elberfeld for days or weeks to hear Kohlbrugge preach. Many sermons appeared in print in English and then in Dutch. Spurgeon mentioned one of Kohlbrugge’s sermons in Commenting and Commentaries, noting that it was free of German modern theology.

Kohlbrugge was serious about church discipline, so his congregation experienced some internal struggles. Several people left the congregation during that time, but those who remained were united even more closely to their pastor and to each other. Kohlbrugge preached the Word with gladness while in Elberfeld. In 1856, his daughter-in-law and son, Gerrit Kohlbrugge, who were in Vianen in the Netherlands, took the initiative to ask the local pastor to invite Kohlbrugge to lead a service. Although theologically not of one mind with Kohlbrugge, the pastor agreed. So on June 28, 1856, Kohlbrugge preached for the first time in the Netherlands since he had been suspended from the Restored Evangelical Lutheran Church and the national Dutch Reformed Church.

Just before the service started, Gerrit, who was spiritually close to his father, showed the first signs of mental illness. Nevertheless, Kohlbrugge was enabled to preach the Word of God with freedom. He preached on Genesis 3 in a service that lasted about two hours with the people listening attentively. He preached that God in His love seeks and saves sinners who deserve nothing but hell. The ecclesiastical governing boards of the Dutch Reformed Church did not take measures against the pastor or the consistory of Vianen, so from that time on, Kohlbrugge regularly preached in Dutch Reformed churches when he visited the Netherlands.

Kohlbrugge And Kuyper

In 1865, correspondence started between Kohlbrugge and Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was converted from liberalism as a young minister in his first congregation. He and Kohlbrugge met for the first time in 1868. They spoke about the ecclesiastical situation of the Dutch Reformed Church. Kuyper wanted to reform the national church; his ideal church consisted only of people who were born again. Kohlbrugge stressed that only the Lord ultimately knows who are His and that the church is where the gospel of free grace is proclaimed to lost sinners. To Kohlbrugge, the foundation and starting point of personal spiritual and ecclesiastical life was not human faithfulness—not even the faithfulness of believers (that seemed to him to be the consequence of Kuyper’s position)—but God’s faithfulness to His own covenant.

Though Kuyper and Kohlbrugge differed on this, Kuyper had a deep respect for Kohlbrugge as a man owned by God, a witness of God’s free grace, and a Christian in the best sense of the word. Kohlbrugge appreciated Kuyper, but said once to a friend that he thought Kuyper understood little of the mysteries of salvation that the Lord teaches His people. When Kuyper became a minister in Amsterdam, he invited Kohlbrugge to preach in the Southern Church. Thus the man who had been despised for many years preached the gospel in the city of his birth. This was a deeply moving experience for Kohlbrugge; he regarded it as a sign that the Lord owned his ministry. One and a half hours before the service started, the church was packed. Some three thousand people came to hear the sermon, which was based on Psalm 68:19-21: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.”

After Kohlbrugge’s death, Kuyper left the national church. The denomination he had formed fused within a few years with the Christian Reformed Church. Before he left, Kuyper had already formed the Free University of Amsterdam. He became a member of Parliament and organized a Christian political party. From 1901 to 1905, he was Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Kuyper considered himself to be a neo-Calvinist, bringing Calvinism in contact with the spirit of the age. He emphasized what he called the cultural mandate of the Christian: all areas of life had to be conquered for Jesus as King.

Kuyper offered valid and useful insights, but his teaching encouraged the Reformed triumphalism and evangelical legal activism that Kohlbrugge so much dreaded. In the long term, Kuyper’s teaching severely damaged the experiential piety fostered in the Netherlands by the Dutch Further Reformation. That was not Kuyper’s intent, but the seeds of it were evident in his own doctrine. Already in 1916, a minister in Kuyper’s denomination complained that many of the people who were going out to win all areas of life for Jesus and were propagating the Reformed world and life view everywhere had lost the battle in the most important area, namely, that of personal reconciliation with the Lord. He said that with all their Reformed convictions, they felt too much at home in this world and were estranged from the life of pilgrimage of their forefathers.

Lasting Significance

In 1866, Kohlbrugge’s second wife passed away, dying triumphantly in the Lord. His beloved daughter Anna died in 1873 in the home of her father in Elberfeld. Anna was married to Eduard Böhl, who became professor of systematic theology in Wien, Austria, teaching theology in agreement with the insights of his father-in-law. Anna had always been a great help to Kohlbrugge. After her death, he felt lonely and longed to depart this life to be with Christ. In his last days, he wrote to a friend, “I walk through the streets of Elberfeld a dead man among the living.” On November 29, 1874, he preached for the last time. On March 5, 1876, he died in the arms of Rev. Julius Künzli, his friend and successor as pastor of the congregation at Elberfeld. The life of Kohlbrugge was full of conflicts, struggles, and trials.

But the Lord used those to prepare him to comfort those who were in trouble with the comfort by which he had been comforted by the Lord. Kohlbrugge preached the law in its condemning power, and the gospel against that dark background as the message of complete salvation. He stressed again and again that the gospel is not a new law but the fulfillment of the law. His emphasis on the condemning power of the law may have been due to his Lutheran background. Kohlbrugge never denied that the law is given as a rule of thankfulness for believers, but in accordance with the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism, he stressed that the law is preached to us in order that we, as long as we live, may learn more of our sinful nature and in turn more earnestly seek the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ.

The spiritual heritage of Kohlbrugge was preserved by a minority within the national church, which, as a whole, was deeply influenced by liberalism and various theologies that tried to balance liberalism and orthodoxy. In the course of the years, the writings and the teaching of Kohlbrugge were valued more in smaller denominations that left the national church and whose spirituality was more closely connected to the Dutch Further Reformation than in the denomination of which Kuyper was one of the most important spiritual leaders.

The writings of Kohlbrugge offer the same experiential emphasis as the writings of the Dutch Puritans. At the same time, his teaching was a corrective, especially in the last stage of the Dutch Further Reformation when preaching became excessively introspective, and the marks of grace were emphasized at the expense of the cross of Christ as the only ground of salvation. Kohlbrugge preached the complete reliability of God’s promises. He did not theorize about for whom the promises of the Lord were intended; rather, he preached that the consolation of the promises is for lost sinners and that the promises of the Lord are a source of joy for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ.

At times, Kohlbrugge’s teaching has been misunderstood. Because of his strong emphasis on the promises of God, some have interpreted Kohlbrugge’s theology as denying the value and significance of religious experience. He was thus considered a forerunner of Karl Barth, for whom the meaning of “Christian” was purely objective. But this is at odds with the intentions of Kohlbrugge. He believed that the consolation of the objective character of God’s promises is always placed against the background of the condemning power of the law. In the midst of this anguish, the sinner saved by grace testifies: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly rest on Jesus’ name.” Barth denied the historicity of the fall of Adam and the doctrine of eternal punishment. At the very least, we must say that his theology tends to universalism. To Kohlbrugge, the historicity of the Fall was essential for real spiritual life. He was sure that we could only understand the work of the last Adam in relationship to the first Adam. Throughout his writings, God’s grace is clearly particular.

One of the sayings of Kohlbrugge recorded on his deathbed was, “My dear children, hold fast to the teaching of the Catechism of Heidelberg.” The first answer of that Catechism declares that the only comfort of a Christian is that he belongs to Christ as his complete Savior. The second question clarifies how that comfort becomes our personal possession. We acknowledge our sin and misery, and we have to trust in Christ alone as Savior who gives completely deliverance from sin to all His people. Because we are delivered, we are filled with gratitude. Gratitude is not a legal activity, but a gospel grace. Since we are saved by grace, it is impossible not to be filled with gratitude and not to regard God as the God of complete salvation. It is the deepest desire of a Christian to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Along with Kohlbrugge, let us affirm that we hold fast to this teaching to the honor and glory of God, to the upbuilding of His church and to our salvation.