The defense of the well-meant offer of salvation was taken up [in the generation succeeding Louis Berkhof] by Anthony Hoekema, professor of systematic theology at Calvin Seminary from 1958 to 1978. His study of soteriology, Saved by Grace, was published a year after his death in 1988. Hoekema’s defense of the well-meant offer is largely dependant on the arguments of Berkhof and A. C. De Jong. In his chapter on “The Gospel Call,” Hoekema identifies three parts of the external call: (1) a presentation of the facts of the gospel and of the way of salvation; (2) an invitation to come to Christ in repentance and faith; and (3) a promise of forgiveness and salvation, conditional upon repentance and faith.44 Hoekema then defends the well-meant offer over against the position of the Protestant Reformed Churches. He declares that the Christian Reformed Church, “in contrast to [Herman] Hoeksema, and in agreement with the majority of Reformed theologians, affirms that God does seriously desire the salvation of all to whom the gospel comes.”45 The preaching of the gospel is “a well-meant offer of salvation, not just on the part of the preacher, but on God’s part as well, to all who hear it, and ... God seriously and earnestly desires the salvation of all to whom the gospel call comes.”46