faith for faith

There is a sad reality in the existence of denominations in the church, and it is this: denominations unite people in the church under secondary doctrines of the Faith so as to make those doctrines primary to the denomination, and they take doctrines that should be primary and make them secondary for the sake of unity in the denomination. For example, the Southern Baptist denomination is a denomination that is united under the secondary doctrine of the mode of baptism (viz. immersion), and since Southern Baptists have this secondary doctrine of mode of baptism in common, it becomes to the denomination a primary doctrine. Despite this common ground on baptism, there is division within the denomination on other issues that are of primary concern to the Faith (e.g. the Gospel and its proper understanding) that however become secondary issues in the denomination because they divide the denomination. And thus you will find in these denominations capitulation of doctrines that are of first importance for the sake of preserving the denomination, for the denomination, not the Church nor righteousness, is end of doctrine and practice, and therefore every doctrine must be filtered and ranked through the denomination not through the Revelation of God.

And thus, to jump to the point, you will find efforts in the Southern Baptist Convention to unite with one another within the denomination over issues such as Calvinist / Arminian understandings of the Gospel for the sake of what is being called the Great Commission Resurgence whose chief end is to get the Gospel out to the Nations. The problem with such an endeavor is that despite pious sounding mantras to “Just give the world the name of Jesus,” it neglects the very Gospel that is to be delivered to the Nations. Its practice would be tantamount to rounding up medicine and sending it to a country that is perishing from smallpox, when it is not merely medicine that the country needs, it is the particular medicine of a smallpox inoculation. Sending aspirin would not do, and neither would a measles vaccine, but they need the pure, unadulterated cure of a smallpox vaccine. Likewise, when we speak of a Great Commission Resurgence, we do not merely need to send to them the name of Jesus (for the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are just as well-equipped to do that), but we need to send to them the pure, unadulterated Gospel that was delivered to the prophets and apostles.

And so it will be asked, “What has all this to do with Calvinism and Arminianism? Do they not preach the same Gospel?” My answer is a resounding, “No!” for the Gospel is not something that can be merely assigned to a single phrase, but it is the whole corpus of the doctrines of what Christ has done for his people. And as a friend so rightly put it, “Doctrine is not something that can be neatly relegated into tiers, but its ramifications can be felt in all spheres of Faith.” In other words, doctrine directly affects and influences practice, and since the call of the Great Commission is not, “Go and make believers,” but it is, “Go and make disciples,” correct doctrine is not something that is merely an added bonus, but it is essential to the Great Commission.

Therefore, since proper doctrine is essential to discipleship, and discipleship is essential to the Great Commission, and we claim that our goal is to fulfill the Great Commission, the Calvinist / Arminian discussion cannot be something that is cast by the wayside. For the two understandings of the Gospel do not differ merely in semantics, but they differ in essence and substance. And since they differ so greatly, one or both of them is a wrong understanding of the Gospel. And while I could directly go into a discussion on why Calvinism is the Gospel and is called Calvinism by haters of the Gospel and why Arminianism is a false gospel, I shall instead address it indirectly by addressing the destructiveness of the Arminian heresy.

Arminianism Despises and Destroys the Word of God and the Gospel Given by our Lord Contained Therein
Arminianism at its core is a system of doctrines that is so enamored with the free ability of men to seek after God so that its adherents can claim that they are able by their own free ability to save themselves from destruction by accepting Jesus Christ. Its foundational doctrine is the free will of man, and it is a doctrine that is assumed by human reason before it ever encounters the Word of God. It says to itself, “In my experience, I know that I make free decisions every day, therefore my will must be free.” And thus it is through this sieve that they strain the Word of God, accepting that which seems to accord with their understanding of the will of man and explaining away and rejecting that which does not.

The problem with this assumption of man’s will is that the Scriptures tell a different story. They declare, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God” (Rm. 3:10, 11). And, “So then, [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (Rm. 9:16). And our Lord himself declares, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6:43, 44). And he also declares to Nicodemus concerning those who are shall enter the Kingdom of God:

Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8).

The problem with Arminian adherents is that they have no answer to these clear declarations of Holy Scripture. They, instead of expositing what these verses mean according to their contrived system of doctrine, explain them away by proof-texting. They will say, “Look at John 3:16, it says, ‘Whosoever believes in him will not perish,’ and thus it intimates that men have the ability to believe or not believe in Jesus.” The problem is that this is mere assumption of the text not the fact of the text. The simple fact of the text is that whosoever believes in Christ will not perish. It says nothing of men’s ability to believe in Christ in their natural state or that all men will be given the opportunity to believe, but it simply says that those who do believe will not perish.

Indeed we see elsewhere that this is consistent with the declaration of Romans 3, namely that “No one understands, no one seeks for God,” for it is God who gives men the ability to believe (cf. Eph. 2:8; Rm. 3:22). Men in their natural state cannot believe on Christ and live, for men in their natural state are blind to the Gospel (2Cor. 4:4). Therefore, a supernatural impartation of what the apostle Paul calls, “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Cor. 4:6) must be granted to men before they can believe on Christ and be saved. God must call out, as he did at the Creation, “Let light shine out of darkness,” before any man can see Christ and live.

And we see this clearly in the life of Christ where he dwelt among the Israelites and performed many great and miraculous deeds, yet they still rejected and crucified him. The apostle John is so bold as to write:

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

….“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
….….and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

….“He has blinded their eyes
……..and hardened their heart,
….lest they see with their eyes,
……..and understand with their heart, and turn,
……..and I would heal them” (Jn. 12:36-10)

And this disbelief and hardening of the Israelites by God is contrasted with the belief of the Gentiles (cf. Rm. 9:30-33). Luke writes:

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

…. “I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
……..that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed (Acts 13:47, 48).

And so, these things are not obscure teachings that are debatable issues, but they clear, undeniable truths. Arminians simply do not like these teachings by our Lord, the prophets, and the apostles, and they instead spit on them. They say, “I will never believe in a God like that. A God like that is unjust.” All the while, the apostle Paul declares, “Is there injustice on Gods part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (Rm. 9:14, 15). For God alone is the Dispenser of mercy, and man has only ever merited destruction for himself, therefore God can give his mercy to whomever he wills; he owes no man nothing.

And yet they cry out, “What of, ‘The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, now wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance’ (2Pet. 3:9), and, ‘This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1Tim. 2:3, 4)?” In these texts, these have only shown their disposition to proof-texting without expositing what these verses mean in their context so that they might cling to the filthy rags of their unrighteous doctrines. I have dealt with these texts thoroughly elsewhere (2Pet. 3:9, 1Tim. 2:4, see also Jn. 3:16), and it would add little to address them here.

Therefore, when it comes to laboring alongside an Arminian in the Great Commission, I refuse to do it, for no Arminian can stay faithful to the Scriptures upon which the Great Commission is built. They must distort them, they must twist them, they must spit in their venomous philosophies so as to rip and mangle that which the very Spirit of God has breathed forth. And for what? So that they might have their free will. Such a man does not love God and God’s Salvation, but he loves himself and his personal claim to righteousness.

Next: Why I Refuse to Labor beside an Arminian in the Great Commission, 2. Ramifications of a Distorted Gospel