In this post I am going to explain some of the jargon that is used by those with theological training and attempt to bridge the gap and clarify some misunderstandings. This language is often used by those who are trained in seminaries, and, to be frank, I detest that it is this way. Personally, I am not in favor of the existence of seminaries, because they divide God’s church into priests and laypersons, and, because of this divide, there flows from it a sort of arrogance and superiority that is not healthy to the church. I believe wholeheartedly that the church, not seminaries, should be the instructor of doctrine, and it has come to the point where many who have come from seminaries do not believe doctrine is beneficial to the church and therefore do not teach it. This however is an entirely false notion, and in this post I am seeking to share the doctrines commonly labeled by theologians as “Calvinism” to all of God’s people for their understanding and edification. I have addressed certain frequently asked questions in this post, and I may add more as they come to mind or are asked of me. I pray that you will find this of benefit and will share it with others who may have similar questions. To God alone be the glory. Amen.

1. Where does the term “Calvinist” come from?
2. Why do men follow the teachings of Calvin today?
3. What is the heart of Calvinism?
4. Why are Calvinists so fond of tulips?
5. What would Calvinists do without Romans 9?
6. Was John Calvin a Calvinist?
7. Do Calvinists believe that Calvinism is the Gospel?
8. Do Calvinists believe that non-Calvinists are going to hell?
9. What is the difference between the Calvinist Gospel and the popular gospel preached today?
10. Does Calvinism make God to blame for sin, and how can men be held responsible?
11. Do Calvinists believe that Christ only died for those whom he chose to save?
12. Do Calvinists not believe in evangelism or the Great Commission?

1. Where does the term “Calvinist” come from? [Top]
The term “Calvinist” comes from the theologian John Calvin who was a pastor in Geneva, Switzerland shortly after the Protestant Reformation began. He wrote extensively in his life, writing both a systematic theology (a multi-book work on the doctrines of Christianity) entitled “The Institutes of the Christian Religion” and commentaries on the entire Bible except Revelation, because, he, in his humility said that he did not understand the book well enough to write a commentary on it. All of these works are still in print and are used by many today.

2. Why do men follow the teachings of Calvin today? [Top]
If you think about the history surrounding the time of John Calvin, it is really not difficult to see why many Christians who believe that the Bible alone is the authoritative Word of God are labeled “Calvinists.” Just decades prior to Calvin, Luther had nailed his “95 Theses” to the Castle Church at Wittenberg, and the break from the heresies of the Catholic church was just beginning to come about. Calvin was the first theologian after the start of the Reformation to write an extensive theology of biblical Christianity, and as such, those who followed biblical Christianity were labeled “Calvinists” by those who opposed the Reformation. The name stuck, and it is now a term of convenience, for when one speaks of Calvinism, those familiar with the teachings and the history know precisely what is meant.

3. What is the heart of Calvinism? [Top]
Often when Calvinism is brought up in conversation, the first thought that comes to the minds of many is predestination. While it is indeed true that Calvinists believe in predestination, that is not the heart of Calvinism. The heart of Calvinism in short is, “What men could not do, God did” (cf. Rm. 8:1-4). In other words, men, because of sin, are in such a terrible state that they can do nothing to justify themselves before a holy God. Therefore, if God is going to save a soul, he must do all the work from beginning to end, and men, because of God’s work in them, believe in Jesus Christ and repent from sin and worldliness. Therefore, God alone receives the glory for his saving sinners, and saved sinners rejoice and boast in God alone.

4. Why are Calvinists so fond of tulips? [Top]
There is an acrostic that many use to define Calvinism that forms the word “TULIP,” however this acrostic is not summation of Calvinist doctrine as is commonly believed. The “Five Points of Calvinism,” as they are commonly called, was not devised by Calvin at all, but they were actually formed in response to the five false teachings of those who followed a man named Jacob Arminius, one teaching which was that men could lose their salvation after they were saved by Christ. Thus, at the Synod of Dordt, biblical teachers of the church responded to these doctrines with the “Five Points” which in English are rendered: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Because of the desire of some to force fit these points into the TULIP acrostic, some of the terms leave much to be desired. Many instead render these doctrines in English as: Radical Depravity, Unconditional Election, Particular Redemption, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. I will refrain from explaining each for the time being.

5. What would Calvinists do without Romans 9? [Top]
Many allege that the basis for Calvinism come from Romans 9 alone, where the apostle Paul speaks of God having mercy on whomever he wills and hardening whomever he wills, and that “Salvation depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (Rm. 9:16). This however is a false claim, for the teachings of the Calvinist Gospel are found throughout Scripture and very clearly in the teachings of Christ. I jokingly made a comment to a friend that a few weeks ago I taught through Romans 6-8 and taught the Calvinist Gospel without touching Romans 9, and he laughed and said, “You do not need Romans 9 to do it.” This is indeed true, for Scripture is very clear in its teachings of the Gospel.

6. Was John Calvin a Calvinist? [Top]
In my many years at a Baptist seminary, I have heard it said many times by different professors that John Calvin was not a Calvinist. While it does not matter in the least whether or not Calvin was or was not a Calvinist, for we do not follow a man but Jesus Christ, I nevertheless addressed this false conclusion of those who obviously have not read Calvin as well as they ought to have had here.

7. Do Calvinists believe that Calvinism is the Gospel? [Top]
While there are some differing views among those who call themselves “Calvinists” with regard to whether or not Calvinism is indeed the Gospel, I myself say as the beloved, English Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon said, “Calvinism is the Gospel.” For if we do believe that the very heart of Calvinism is that God through Christ has done what men could never do and everything else in Calvinism is a fleshing out of that glorious truth, then Calvinism is very much the Gospel preached faithfully. Which leads us to the next question…

8. Do Calvinists believe that non-Calvinists are going to hell? [Top]
The answer to this question is a resounding, “No.” No man has to affirm the “Five Points of Calvinism” or to understand all of its beliefs to be admitted into heaven. For we hold that men are not saved by works and neither are they saved by theological rightness, but they are saved through the merits of Christ alone. As no man will be sinless in this life, so no man will be perfect with regards to this understanding of God and his salvation. The basis of salvation rests totally in the work of the Spirit of God in the heart of a person to look upon Christ alone as his Savior, and that happens apart from a perfect understanding of right doctrine. With that said, I have no doubt that some who call themselves Calvinists are in fact not children of God (as is evidenced by the fruits of their lives), and many who do not call themselves Calvinists are in fact children of God (as is evidenced by their fruits). However, I do believe that many who call themselves Christians who are not Calvinists have bought into the lie that men are saved by affirming historical facts about Jesus Christ and by saying the so-called “Sinner’s Prayer.” Many who have done these things and “accepted Jesus as their personal Savior” have done so at one time and have gone on to live unholy and worldly lives without any rebuke from a pastor or teacher. This teaching that men can be saved and not be changed by the Spirit of God is a lie from the pit of hell, for the Gospel call has always been, “Believe and repent” not “Affirm some doctrines, pray a special prayer, and believe ‘Once saved, always saved’ without any regard for the fruits of the Spirit.” The Gospel always brings unrighteous men to righteousness, and to claim otherwise is to preach a false gospel.

9. What is the difference between the Calvinist Gospel and the popular gospel preached today? [Top]
While there are many differences between the Gospel that Calvinists preach and that which is popularly preached today, the chief difference is whether or not men have a free will that can choose Jesus Christ. The Calvinist teaches that men do have a will, but that will is not free. In other words, men make decisions all the time, but they are not free in their own power to choose Jesus Christ. The Calvinist believes that true faith is that which comes from the heart (cf. Rm. 10:8) brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. Ez. 36:26, 27). Men apart from God love darkness rather than light (cf. Jn. 1:9-14, 3:19) and are born slaves to sin (cf. Rm. 5:12-25), and therefore, “No one understands, no one seeks for God” (Rm. 3:11). Therefore, for anyone to believe, Christ must speak that faith into existence (cf. Rm. 10:17), and God must speak sight of faith into existence just as he spoke light into existence at the creation (cf. 2Cor. 4:6). Therefore, faith is gift from God.

The popular gospel today however teaches that faith is work of man rather than a work of God. Charles Finney, the man from whom we get many of our popular doctrines, called faith the “first work” of the Christian. By doing thus, by making faith a work of man’s free will rather than a work of God, justification is accomplished by the work of faith not by the work of God. Rather than faith being the response of dead men to the special revelation of God, faith is the work of living men to make themselves right with God. It is at its core a gospel where men meet God halfway rather than God accomplishing salvation fully and freely so that he alone gets the glory. Therefore, men can boast in their faith despite the apostle Paul’s declaration that all man-centered boasting is excluded from the Gospel (cf. Rm. 3:17; Eph. 2:8, 9) and despite our Lord’s declaration, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44).

It is for this reason that the Gospel of our Lord has been distorted and manipulated to this day. For if salvation comes from making a free decision and not from the work of God alone, then all we have to do as Gospel preachers is persuade men to believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore, when many preach, they do not preach repentance, because repentance makes it harder to sell the Gospel. Therefore they say instead, “Pray to receive Christ as your personal Savior and let him into your heart,” though no such language is found at all in the words of Christ or the apostles. They therefore speak much of hell and much of the riches of heaven, but they speak little of turning away from sin and denying one’s self and taking up his cross. These think that by getting men to say a ritualistic prayer that these will be saved by that prayer, because faith is a work of man. Therefore, if a man prays such a prayer, they pronounce him saved and assure him by saying, “Once save, always saved,” and care little about that man’s growth in holiness. It is hit-and-run evangelism, despite the command of our Lord to make loyal and obedient disciples not nominal converts (cf. Mt. 28:18-20).

10. Does Calvinism make God to blame for sin, and how can men be held responsible? [Top]
The objection is often raised, “If men cannot choose Christ, and God alone causes a person to believe in Christ, how then can they be held accountable for not choosing Christ?” I shall answer to question in two parts. First, despite the popular teaching that men are going to held accountable to whether or not they believe in Christ, men are not held accountable for believing or not believing in Christ, but they are held accountable for their sin. Romans 2 deals with this clearly declaring that men are going to be judged according to their deeds not by whether or not they chose or rejected Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not, as many make it out to be, a new law to be kept, but it is the remedy for unrighteousness. To give an analogy, those who die from cancer do not die because they do not have the cure, but they die from cancer, The Gospel comes in as cure for the disease of sin, and men die and are judged not because of the lack of the cure of the Gospel, but because of the disease of sin and unrighteousness.

Second, the Calvinist does not claim to know all the ways of God, indeed he declares that men are creatures and God is the Creator, and therefore his thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways (cf. Is. 55:8). We do not have the answer for all of life’s questions, and we dare not question our Creator. Therefore when the objection is made against the ways of God in Romans 9, the apostle Paul writes:

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to then, “Why does he still find fault, for who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make know his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known his the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory–even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles (Rm. 9:18-24).

Indeed, who are we as men to answer back to the ways of God? If we are to come to God, we must come humbly as children recognizing who we are and who he is. We must respond in awe and fear, praising him who bestowed his mercy upon us, not arrogantly presuming that we as men can put God in the dock. We must, at the end, declare as the apostle did:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Rm. 11:33-36).

11. Do Calvinists believe that Christ only died for those whom he chose to save? [Top]
This is a complex issue, and many Calvinists and non-Calvinists alike have simplified the answer beyond what Scripture declares. The answer is both yes and no, and I have dealt with the issue thoroughly here.

12. Do Calvinists not believe in evangelism or the Great Commission? [Top]
It is often charged that if God alone saves sinners, what is the point of preaching the Gospel? Well, the point of preaching the Gospel is, as the apostle Paul declared, not chiefly the salvation of souls, but it is spreading the fragrance of Christ around the world (cf. 2Cor. 2:14-17). Calvinists evangelize not chiefly because they wish to save souls, but they do so to magnify the name of Christ in all the earth. Just as God proclaimed his name to the world through the hardening of Pharaoh (cf. Ex. 9:16), so now God proclaims his name through the preaching of Jesus Christ. We preach this message in season and out of season (cf. 2Tim. 4:2), whether God grants a great harvest or not. For our message is and always will be “to one a fragrance from death to death, and to the other a fragrance from life to life” (2Cor. 2:16). We are simply called to be faithful in preaching the Gospel and to allow God to cause the growth (cf. 1Cor. 3:6).

In addition, the charge is false because some of the most esteemed missionaries and evangelists were Calvinists. This includes William Carey (who is called the father of modern missions), David Brainerd, Andrew Fuller, Lottie Moon, Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield, and countless others. To say that Calvinists do not desire to preach the Gospel of our Lord and to reach the nations for Christ is simply a unfounded and venomous lie.

Such a charge is not a light charge, for when one takes that which is the Gospel and distorts it into a salvation that is based upon human merit and law-keeping, he does not merely tarnish the Gospel, but he destroys it in its entirety. The apostles, for this reason, speak very harshly concerning those who do thus to the Gospel and admonish the church over and over throughout their letters to watch out for those who distort the Gospel in this way and to cast them out of their fellowship. And to demonstrate this great passion of the apostles for the purity of the Gospel, the apostle Paul speaking to the Galatian church regarding the Judaizers (those who sought to add the work of circumcision to the Gospel), wrote:

You [Galatians] were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? [i.e. The Judaizers did.] This persuasion [of the Judaizers] is not from him [i.e. God] who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump [i.e. a little distortion ruins the whole Gospel]. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine [i.e. the Gospel that I have preached], and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who [Judaizers] who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (Gal. 5:7-12).

Now, the apostle makes it very clear of how he feels about the Judaizers adding the work of circumcision to the Gospel. He says that their doing thus, first, leavens and destroys the whole Gospel, in that, second, it removes the offense of the cross of Christ thereby demonstrating that it is a false gospel, and, third, that, because of this false teaching, he wishes that they who did this to the Gospel would castrate themselves! In other words, he is saying in not so many words, “I wish that they who wish to cut off the foreskin of your flesh and by it destroy the Gospel would instead keep cutting on their own genitals and leave you and the Gospel alone.”

Was this an overreaction by the apostle? For it is not as though these Judaizers were not preaching Christ crucified for sinners through belief and repentance, but they were simply adding the practice of circumcision to the mix. We can understand this, can we not? Just imagine if you grew up a Jew around the time of Christ and that the sign that God had given to your people concerning his covenant was circumcision. Would it not be difficult for you to let go of that which you grew up practicing? In addition, what is wrong with preserving a tradition here and there even though you have now believed in Christ and the Gospel?

Well, the “innocent” tradition and requirement of the law became wrong, because it became more than a tradition (which traditions have a tendency to do). These Judaizers (who preached Christ, mind you) believed that their tradition was such a wonderful and valid tradition that they sought to impose it on those who had not been raised a Jew–viz. the Gentiles. Therefore, in doing thus–in taking that which was not the Gospel and adding it to the Gospel–they created a false gospel. For when any work of man, be it a work of tradition, deed, or volition, is added to the Gospel, it destroys the Gospel. Why? Because the heart of the Gospel is this: “For God has done, what men weakened by the flesh could not do, by and through and for Jesus Christ” (cf. Rm. 8:3, 4). Therefore, if any deed of fleshly men is added to that which God has done through Christ, then, as the apostle told those who accepted circumcision, “Christ will be no advantage to you” (Gal. 5:2), because in doing thus they forfeit the righteousness that comes from God by seeking a righteousness that they can call their own (cf. Rm. 10:2-4).

It is in this light that we come back to the claim of Spurgeon, namely, “The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works.” If this is indeed true what Spurgeon claims, viz. that a free will gospel is salvation by works, then such a gospel must be treated as harshly and with the same vehemence that the apostle Paul treated the gospel of the Judaizers. So then the question remains, “Is a free will gospel really salvation by works? Is a free will gospel truly a false gospel?”

However, before this question is addressed, we need to first understand what the Gospel is and what it is not. It is very often the case that when we speak of the Gospel and what it is, we confuse it with the Gospel Call. For the Gospel is not, “Believe on Christ, and you will be saved,” neither is it, “Take up your cross and follow Christ,” nor is it, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and let him into your heart”–all of these statements, whether rightly or wrongly, are Gospel calls, not the Gospel itself. The Gospel, however, is the entire corpus of Redemption. It is the magnum opus of God played out through his creation and climaxing in his glory. Since, therefore, the Gospel is the glorious composition of God’s glory manifested through the history of men, it cannot be summarized in one-sentence phrases. And it is for this reason that the apostle Paul, after stating that he is eager to preach the Gospel to the saints at Rome, spends sixteen chapters of his letter teaching the Gospel to the saints at Rome.

Therefore, when it is supposed that those who preach free will and those who do not preach free will share the same Gospel because they may share the same Gospel Call, it is a presumptive conclusion. For, since the Gospel Call is by design simple–for it is the initial call of men through the power of the Holy Spirit to believe upon Christ–men who share different gospels can certainly share the same Gospel Call (or ones that sound similar). Indeed, even a man who believes a false gospel but preaches a biblical Gospel Call can observe men come to faith and repentance in Christ. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is not confined by men, as some think he is, but he blows where he wishes, and he can blow through a heretic to save his child if he so desires.

Then it will be asked, “If men can be saved through the preaching of the Gospel Call in spite of a preacher’s false gospel, what is the problem, for men are saved regardless?” The problem is inherent in the question, for its asking demonstrates that we believe that the confession of men is the end of the Gospel, and that the Gospel Call, when backed by a false gospel, has no consequence. Despite this belief of ours, Scripture demonstrates that God and his glory are the end of the Gospel (2Cor. 4:4), and that the preaching of the Gospel, when placed in the hands of those who believe otherwise, becomes the work of peddlers and swindlers not of prophets and priests (cf. 2Cor. 2:17; 4:2). For when men believe that the chief end of the Gospel is the salvation of souls and not the glory of God, they will tamper with God’s Word for the sake of getting results. Therefore, those who think thus will do things such as reword the Gospel Call so as to make it less offensive and more accessible. For example, instead of preaching as Christ and the apostles did, viz. “Believe and repent!” they will change the call to, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and ask him to come into your heart.” In doing so, they rip from the Gospel Call the immediate requirement for repentance for the sake of conning men into praying a prayer. Now, while it is indeed true that men have, by grace, been saved through such a distorted call, how many have responded to such a call only to walk away having never repented? What good is such a call and response if men indeed are going to be judged according to their works? (cf. Rm. 2:6).

There, indeed, is no benefit in such distortion, and the results of such distortion are only detrimental to the Body. For the apostle testifies of the effect to Gospel distortion in the Galatian church, writing, “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion [i.e. distortion of the Gospel] is not from him who calls you” (Gal. 5:8). In other words, by accepting this distorted gospel, the Galatian church, though elect by God, was hindered in obeying the truth. Their view of the Gospel directly affected the way that they lived, the way that they preached, and, most importantly, the way that they worshiped God in Christ. For, by accepting a works-based gospel, they reduced Jesus Christ from the Savior of their soul to the One who shortened the stepladder to God. For in adding one, single work to the Gospel, they declared that salvation is not from the Lord alone, but it is from the Lord plus human effort. In doing thus, they vested salvation not in God but in man, and thereby gained for themselves a cause for boasting. The Lord God despises such Gospel-manipulations and will judge those who place the glory for salvation upon men, for he will not give the glory that is due to him to another (cf. Is. 48:11).

So again we come to the question, “Is a free will gospel a false gospel in that it, as Spurgeon claimed, makes the Gospel a gospel of works?” The free will gospel indeed is a false gospel, for it does precisely the same thing to the Gospel that the Judaizers did to the Gospel with circumcision. For it takes the Gospel that is based solely on the work of the Triune God alone (cf. Rm. 8:1-4), and makes it so that any man can make his way to God if he so chooses.

How does a free will gospel do this? It does this by taking the Gospel Call, “Believe in Christ,” and it makes belief a work of man rather than a work of God. Now, it should be noted that no one will claim that men do not believe or that men do not have a will, but it is a question of ability. Yes, men must believe in Christ, but do men have the ability to believe apart from the work of God? And, yes, men do have a will, but do men have the ability to will themselves to God apart from God’s work? The proponent of a free will gospel will say, “Yes, for men’s wills are free.” Therefore they believe that if any man is going to be saved, he must exercise his free will and accept Christ–he must work his free will. Therefore, to them, Christ has met all men halfway, and men merely need to freely extend out their hand and grasp his.

The problem with such a notion, other than the fact that he takes the burden of Salvation off of Christ and places it upon the backs of men, is that Scripture declares that men’s wills are not only not free but that they are bound in slavery to sin. Because of the curse wrought in us by our father Adam, we and our wills are bound in service to another slavemaster–sin. And since we are thus, we can no more choose God than an elephant can choose to fly. For the apostle Paul writes of all men, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God” (Rm. 3:10, 11). For, since all men are in such a state that they are blind to Christ and deaf to the Gospel and dead in their trespasses, no one can understand, and no one can seek for God. It is for this reason that our Lord and Savior says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44), and, “You must be born again [by the will of the Spirit]” (Jn. 3:7, 8). And it is for this reason that the apostle Paul concludes, “So then [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy,” for, “He has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Rm. 9:16, 18).

However, the proponent of human free will comes in and says, “Surely these things are not true, for I know that I have the ability and power to choose or to reject God.” What a terrible and haughty declaration! You believe against the testimonies of God that you are able by your own fleshly ability to ascend to him by your will so as to bring Christ down to yourself! (cf. Rm. 10:6). Yes, you are right in saying that faith comes from hearing, but where does your hearing come from? Do you have ears on your own volition? Do you somehow hear as you claim that all men hear though Christ cries out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”? (Lk. 9:44). Yes, faith indeed comes from hearing, but the ability to hear comes from the spoken and creative word of Christ (cf. Rm. 10:17). Just as seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ comes from God who says, “Let light shine out of darkness” (cf. 2Cor. 4:4-6), so too does hearing comes from him who calls it into existence.

For this very reason, the apostle John writes concerning those who did not believe in Christ, though they had heard him preach and witnessed his miracles:

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)

Lest what the apostle writes be missed, he says of them, “They could not believe.” Why? Because Christ had hidden himself from them and did not grant them eyes to see him or ears to hear him.

Therefore, it must be concluded that even our faith in Christ is gift from God (cf. Eph. 2:8). For if men cannot see Christ’s glory in their natural state and if men cannot hear the Gospel apart from the work of Christ, then faith must come from God’s work in granting men eyes and ears. For this reason, no man can boast in his own salvation (cf. Eph. 2:9; Rm. 3:21). Why? Because Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith (cf. Heb. 12:2), so that in all things he might get the glory and that “no man might boast in the presence of God” (1Cor. 1:29), so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1Cor. 1:31).

Yet despite these declarations, the proponent of the free will of man persists. Why? Because of their hard-hearted ignorance and self-righteousness, so that what can be said of unbelieving Israel can be said of them: “For [they], being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rm. 10:3). They persist in their false doctrines and godless philosophies, because they refuse to submit to the Gospel that declares that God has done what men could never do (cf. Rm. 8:3). Therefore they praise themselves, not God, and they lead others into their pit of ignorance. They instead choose to keep for themselves a portion of the glory due to God, and thus they ruin the whole Gospel, for, as it is written, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9). Therefore God will judge them in their arrogance, for, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jm. 4:6).

Conclusions
If you are reading this and are by grace devastated that you have taken for yourself a portion of God’s glory for yourself, fear not, for as Spurgeon rightly said, “We are all born Arminians.” All men are born egocentric, and all presume that when they come to Christ they did so on their own accord. It is for this reason that the apostle Paul admonishes us, “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rm. 12:2). Do not continue in worldly philosophies and what you in your ignorance and submission to false doctrine have believed, but repent from it and turn in praise to Christ who alone is the One who saves souls.

If you are a teacher of the church of God and have known these things and yet have remained obstinate, take heed lest you leave yourself with no room for repentance. Your doctrine of the free will of man is nothing but a works-based salvation with your will as the arm by which you pull yourself up to God. Are you so arrogant as to presume that God will have mercy on you in your works-based religion though he gave no mercy to Israel, his own people, who sought him by works? (cf. Rm. 9:31, 32). You, too, if you continue in your falsehood will stumble, as they did, over Christ the stumbling stone.

If you, by humility in grace, have already submitted yourself to these truths of God’s Gospel found in his Holy Scriptures, continue, dear brother or sister, in praising our Lord and Savior for the great Salvation which he alone has accomplished for us. Continue in this, and yet do not grow callous to the horrible distortion that is the free will gospel. It will be tempting (for tolerance has not wholly bypassed the church) to seek peace with those teachers who teach a free will since they may give a Gospel Call similar to your own, but do not be deceived, for this abomination is no more damning than that the distortion of the Judaizers. The free will gospel preaches justification by works, and it is an attack by the Adversary upon the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not associate with those who are hardened in their free will distortion, and by no means presume that you can labor with them in the Gospel. For they preach a Gospel that is a false gospel, and their methods for preaching are the same as peddlers and swindlers. You will be wearied by their manipulation of souls, and you will see them turn the Gospel of our Lord into a sales pitch.

However, in spite of these hardened teachers, there are many of God’s people who have been deceived in their ignorance. These, unlike false teachers, do not need disassociation, but they need love in rebuke and knowledge. Show them with love and patience, as the apostle Paul did with the Galatians, the error of their beliefs, and admonish them to understand the greatness of the grace of God demonstrated in his Gospel so that they might be sanctified in truth. They may full well be sheep led astray by a vicious pastor, and they may need time, as we all have, to, by the Spirit, submit fully to the righteousness that comes from God alone.

May God be glorified and his people be sanctified by the pure and unadulterated proclamation of the Gospel of his glory and grace. Amen.

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

However, the reason that I am making such a statement is not so much based upon a disagreement with Spurgeon and his sympathizers, but is more of a reaction to an attitude of many that seems to have come about from it. For it is one thing to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and mean by it that Calvinism is the proper understanding of what God has accomplished for men through his Son Jesus Christ, and it is another to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and by that declaration attack every Christian that does not hold to Calvinism as defined by Dordt. For the former is a humble and mature assent to God’s revelation of himself in Scripture, and the latter is a proud and immature conquest to quell every non-Calvinist dissenter. The former comes from a heart-felt realization of unmerited grace received and creates in a person a heart of mercy and love, and the latter comes solely from an intellectual understanding of God’s revelation and creates in a person a heart of arrogance and disunity. The former understands the Gospel; the latter, despite theological precision, misunderstands the Gospel.

For what is the Gospel? It is the Good News that God has taken those who were once his enemies and has reconciled them to himself through the work of his Son by faith in him. In the believer, it is the recognition wrought by the Holy Spirit that he has fallen short of the glory of God and needs a Righteousness that is not his own. It is the Good News that God has loved us and has brought us to himself in order that we might bear the fruit of loving him and loving others in return. Therefore, the Gospel from beginning to end is the love of God for sinners, having its foundation in the foreknowledge of Eternity Past and its fulfillment in the adoption of Eternity Future. Hence, “God is love,” for he has so enveloped all things so that the greatest expression of himself to his people is love.

Therefore, when anyone claims anything to be the Gospel, that person who claims such must be saturated with love. And since the Gospel flows from the love of God, it must be a love that is likened to God’s love–a love that is compassionate, merciful, patient, and self-sacrificing. Thus if anyone claims to understand the Gospel who is not compassionate, merciful, patient, and self-sacrificing, he lies and does not practice the truth.

In the case of the statement, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” the Calvinist must be one who is a lover of men’s souls. He must be one who is compassionate, understanding that he once was misinformed and bore the burden of his own wicked philosophies. He must be one who is merciful, understanding the great mercy that he has received from God without merit. He must be patient, understanding that God has endured him with great patience in his own sins and heterodoxy. And he must be one who is self-sacrificing, understanding that God sacrificed himself, coming to serve others and to die for them.

Therefore when a person claims that “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and he himself is not compassionate, merciful, patient, and self-sacrificial, that person’s Calvinism is not the Gospel. For while he might understand the Ordo Salutis and might have read Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, he, like the Pharisees of old, has neglected the weightier matters of the Law–justice, mercy, and faithfulness (cf. Mt. 23:23), and by his neglect has distorted the Gospel. For a gospel without love is no gospel at all, and a gospel that does not transform a man’s heart is a powerless gospel.

Therefore, my question to you who call yourself a Calvinist is not, “How many points do you adhere to?” but it is, “How is your heart?” Do you by your doctrinal understanding love God and people, or do you by your doctrinal understanding flaunt your supposed superior knowledge and seek to destroy all who disagree with you? Do you endure with much patience and love those who disagree with you as God has endured and loved you, or do you loathe and despise those whom God has called you to love? For if you do not love and are not gracious and merciful, you have misunderstood the doctrines to which you so fiercely hold, and, ironically, you are not a Calvinist.

As unfortunate as it is, it cannot be denied that those who call themselves Christians are oftentimes the quickest to use such strong and despicable rhetoric. And among those Christians, many times the most vocal are those who call themselves Calvinists. And while I openly call myself a Calvinist and affirm what are called the Doctrines of Grace, I cannot help but be appalled and disgusted by the language that is used by many Calvinists to propagate their doctrinal beliefs. Amid other propagators of other things, Calvinists oftentimes stand out as the most hateful, most distasteful, and most unloving people, and they show no restraint or remorse in the language they use to dispel the beliefs of those who disagree with them. And while it is true what Luther said, that we must fight for “truth at all costs,” the manner in which many of us fight is not a part of the necessary costs.

Ironically, the manner in which many of us fight opposes that for which we claim to fight. For we claim with our words to be about the glory of God, yet we speak in manner that is disobedient to his command, namely, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And while the proclamation of truth is one way in which we can love our neighbor, it must spoken with the end of loving our neighbor, otherwise it is sin. More often than not, this is the case of the most vocal of Calvinists, viz. that they speak the truth, but they do so in a manner that demeans and destroys. Therefore, those who speak thus do not speak in love and for the building up of their brother, but they speak in hate in order to win a debate, to demonstrate their own intellect and understanding, or to accomplish some other selfish end that only God knows.

You, who call yourself a Calvinist and speak in such a way, need to examine your heart and determine the motivation behind why you speak as you speak. Do you speak thus because you love your brother and desire to build him up in the knowledge of Christ, or do you speak thus to win a debate or to glorify your supposed superior comprehension of the Scriptures? For if you do the latter, you, despite your opinions on the matter, have not rightly understood the Scriptures, and you are nothing more than a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal, and God is weary of hearing you (cf. 1Cor. 13:1).

For, unfortunately, is commonplace that those who are most vocally Calvinists are those who would esteem themselves to be scholars of some grade and great exegetes of the Word of God. These, at times, act as though they bear some special knowledge that others in church have missed and therefore have about them a certain air of arrogance with regard to their particular understanding of the Scriptures.

This common occurrence within the ranks of Calvinists is a strange one, for it contradicts the very doctrines that they seek to propagate. For the Doctrines of Grace exist so that all boasting is eliminated (cf. Rm. 3:27; Eph. 2:8), and these who hold to such teachings are often very arrogant people. They demonstrate by their lives and their haughty attitudes that they do not believe the very doctrines that they boast in, for if they did, they would be very humble people.

Now, I write this both as an exhortation and a confession, for I am by no means devoid of all human boasting. For I have found myself many times delighting in whether or not my interpretation of Scripture was right compared to others, rather than boasting in cross of Christ alone and counting my arrogance dead in him. My exhortation both to you, the Calvinist, and to myself is to believe the very doctrines that we claim to believe and by it become a very humble people. For if we are not, we demonstrate that our greatest joy is not in seeing Christ glorified, but it is in seeing ourselves and our understanding of Scripture glorified.

1. Calvin Did Not Hold to Limited Atonement (Particular Redemption)
I have heard this claim made–that Calvin never made any statements regarding particular redemption, and that it was Theodore Beza and company who made the whole thing up. Those who claim thus, should read Calvin before they say such things, for in his commentary on 1 John 2:1, where the apostle writes that Christ was the propitiation for the whole world, Calvin writes:

Here a question may be raised, how have the sins of the whole world been expiated? I pass by the dotages of the fanatics, who under this pretense extend salvation to all the reprobate, and therefore to Satan himself. Such a monstrous thing deserves no refutation. They who seek to avoid this absurdity, have said that Christ suffered sufficiently for the whole world, but efficiently only for the elect. This solution has commonly prevailed in the schools. Though then I allow that what has been said is true, yet I deny that it is suitable to this passage; for the design of John was no other than to make this benefit common to the whole Church. Then under the word all or whole, he does not include the reprobate, but designates those who should believe as well as those who were then scattered through various parts of the world. For then is really made evident, as it is meet, the grace of Christ, when it is declared to be the only true salvation of the world (Commentary on 1 John 2:1).

It is clear that Calvin sees the extension of Christ’s work as efficient for the elect realized and the elect not yet realized scattered about the globe and excludes from its efficiency the reprobate.¹

2. Calvin Was More Profound than the Five Points
This must be granted without hesitancy. Calvin’s theology was much more broad and rich than the classic five points will ever be. There is, however, something inherent in such a statement that is itself untrue, namely that those who claim to be Calvinists can be summed up in five points. To claim thus for all Calvinists would be as unfair as someone claiming that all Baptists hold to three points: baptism by immersion, abstinence from alcohol, and fried chicken. These three points, while obviously holding true for many Baptists, are not boundaries in which all Baptists live and move and have their being. The same is true of the five points for Calvinists. For, it is not as though the followers of Calvin, Augustine, Paul, and Jesus sat down and said, “Let us think of five doctrines that will define us,” but the five points originated as a response at Dordt to the five points of the Arminian heresy. The five points were therefore a particular application of Calvinist theology to a particular issue, just as today the Baptist Faith & Message contains in its parts applications of Baptist theology to certain issues that are presently prevalent.

I now have two points of application for you who would be wise. One, please do not go around saying that Calvin was not a Calvinist simply because you heard someone else say it. Just because it is spoken on a seminary campus does not pontify it. Second, even though Servetus deserved it, do not spend your life criticizing men of God for their various shortcomings. I, for one, would much rather have a man who was faithful to the Word of God his whole life and burned one heretic, than many in our country today who do not burn heretics but are leading hundreds and thousands to eternal burning by their pansy-fied and false preaching.

¹ cf. 2Pet. 3:9; for a further treatment on the nature and extent of the work of Christ, go here.

However, contrary to the popular belief that those who hold to a more Reformed view of theology are less apt and motivated to preach the Gospel and to reach the Nations than those who are not, I believe that the opposite is true, namely that those who are truly Reformed in their theology are better equipped both doctrinally and historically to be about the work of the Great Commission. Therefore, I hope that this post will not only adequately answer the question, “Why do Calvinists do missions?” but will also demonstrate that those who are genuinely Calvinists cannot help but “to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of [Christ's] name among the Nations” (Rom. 1:5).

The End Determines the Means and Motivation
A question that is seldom asked is “Why do we as Christians, regardless of doctrinal persuasion, evangelize and do missions?” In other words, “What is our chief goal in doing missions?” To such a question, the overwhelming response, I believe, would resemble something like this: “We evangelize and do missions so that people might hear the Gospel and be saved.” This is indeed a noble endeavor–to preach the Gospel so that souls might be saved–but is this our chief goal? I believe that this is for many their chief goal, for it is from this goal that the question arises, “Why, if you believe in the sovereignty of God over the salvation of souls, do you preach the Gospel?” If one’s belief is that the chief end of evangelism is to win souls to Christ, then that question is the natural one that one would ask of those who believe in God’s fore-ordinances.

However, I am convinced that our chief goal in and our driving force behind the Great Commission should not be the salvation of souls but it should be the proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Yes, I do believe that we are called like the apostles to be fishers of men and harvesters of the ripe fields, but I believe that salvation of men is the result of our endeavor not the endeavor itself.

Romans 1:5, in its brevity, packs in several profound declarations, but I only wish to look at one those. In it, the apostle writes, “Through [Jesus Christ] we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for his name’s sake among all the Nations.” In this verse, Paul declares that the reason of his journeys, the very core of his work is the name of Jesus Christ. In other words, Paul did his evangelism and his missionary work just as he did his eating and drinking, viz. to the glory of God (cf. 1Cor. 10:31). And lest I be accused of building a theology off a single passage, the apostle writes elsewhere:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ (2Cor. 2:14-17).

In this text (one of my favorites, by the way), the apostle likens the spreading of the Gospel around the world to a victory march. He declares here that our business in our labors is to spread the fragrance of the victorious Christ around the globe, not to save souls. Notice the language that he uses concerning men: “To one [Christ is] a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” In other words, Paul intimates that the chief end of his labors was not to save the souls of men, but it was to spread the aroma of Christ. This is not to say that Paul was ignorant or apathetic to the effects of the Gospel, but it is to say that he knew his role in the salvation of souls. He said it elsewhere in these words: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1Cor. 3:6). Paul understood it is God who saves men, not Paul, and he therefore preached the Gospel to the glory of Christ recognizing that to some it would be a fragrance from life to life, and to others it would be a fragrance from death to death.

The Consequences of the Wrong End
In the same passage where I demonstrated the end of Paul’s apostolic work was the glory of Christ, he writes this sentence: “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” A profound problem arises from our evangelism and our missions when the salvation of souls is at its center and not the glory of God and his sovereignty, namely, we become peddlers of the Word of God. For this reason, the salvation of God is presently warped and twisted from its orthodox view–the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit who brings about faith through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to a sales pitch and a prayer. This wrong end manifests and has manifested itself in thousands of different ways throughout the Church’s history. For example, today, we print thousands of different “Gospel” tracts every year that work in the same way that a travel brochure does–it lures someone in and makes the sale. On the academic side, we find those who become really smart by studying philosophy so that they argue with atheists and persuade them that they are wrong, and then they brag about how they can give a Gospel presentation in under three minutes as supplement to their “evangelism.”

What have we become? We are not prophets and preachers of the Gospel of God promised beforehand in the Scriptures, we are salesmen and debaters who think little of God’s part in salvation and much of our part. We, rather than boldly proclaiming repentance and belief in Jesus Christ, slither and snake people into coming to our churches and praying some concocted prayer. We lure them with our music, our feel-happy preaching, and our open doors, all for the sake of saving their souls when in actuality we a killing them. Our churches are malnourished and dying from all the fluff that has been preached for decades for the sake of bragging about sales numbers, so much so that the church is now filled with people who think that they are saved because they bought the sales pitch and said the magic words. And people wonder why the American church looks no different from the rest of the world!

Paul continues this same theme a couple of chapters later is his letter to the Corinthians, and I think it is fitting passage to conclude with:

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Cor. 4:1-6).

]]> http://faithforfaith.org/2009/02/23/the-end-of-the-gospel-missions-from-the-eyes-of-a-calvinist/feed/ 2 http://faithforfaith.org/2009/02/17/addressing-texts-that-conflict-with-romans-9-iii-1-timothy-24/ http://faithforfaith.org/2009/02/17/addressing-texts-that-conflict-with-romans-9-iii-1-timothy-24/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:49:22 +0000 D. Matthew Brown http://xpistou.com/weblog/?p=1523 ]]>

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).

As promised, I am continuing my survey of texts that supposedly contradict the doctrines taught in Romans 8-11, et al. Several weeks ago, we dealt with the texts of John 3:16 and 2 Peter 3:9 and how those classic texts supposedly portray God as a God who is, respectively, desperately in love with the world and is wringing his hands at the thought that any person on this planet should have to perish. We demonstrated through these texts’ context and through biblical theology that this is not the God that is portrayed in these verses, but instead we find a God who is quite the opposite.

Despite this clarity in context, we must realize that we live in a reader response society and among Christians who use the Bible as a reference book rather than the meat upon which they feast daily. Thus we find not Christians who read the Scriptures through and thoroughly in its own context, but we find Christians who google, “Why Calvinism is evil,” and find a website of some other person who also only uses his Bible as reference book and then compiled a list of verses and spouted the infamous lie that Calvinists do not believe in evangelism and missions, despite the fact that the greatest preachers and evangelists (e.g. George Whitefield, C. H. Spurgeon, etc.), the leaders of great revivals (e.g. Jonathan Edwards), and the one who is called the father of modern missions–William Carey–were all Calvinists.

It is in this context that we teach the ignorant. Most people who fill our churches have not been, as the apostle commanded, “transformed by the renewal of their minds,” but instead attempt to conform Scripture to their minds. For this reason, people hold to such doctrines as free will, not because Scripture teaches that men are free, but because they believe that they are free because their experience teaches them that they are free. They have no categories for being dead in their trespasses, enslaved to sin and death, blind and deaf to the truth, etc.–all of which Scripture declares of those apart from Christ. Thus, people in our churches presumptuously believe that if men are commanded to do something by God that they by their nature and strength have the ability to do it, and they strive, like foolish Nicodemus, to crawl back into their mothers’ wombs because God commanded them to be born again.

Please forgive me for the lengthy introduction, but I believe that it is necessary to understand the nature of the beast with which we have to deal. And now we come to 1 Timothy 2:4, where the apostle writes, “[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” This text seems to be straightforward on the surface, and it seems pretty safe by its declaration to do what Sunday School literature has done for decades, viz. cut out Romans 9-11 from their literature. But again, therein lies the assumption that we saw in John 3:16′s kosmos, namely that “all” means every person who has ever lived since Adam to the telos despite class, race, etc. But let us step back a couple of verses in 1 Timothy 2 just to make sure this interpretation is the apostle’s intention.

In 1 Timothy 2:1, the apostle writes, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” Given that this verse is in the context of the “all people” in verse 2:4, it is probably safe to say and destructive not to say that Paul is speaking of the same persons in verse 1 as he is in verse 4. Now, let us add verse 2 to verse 1, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, etc. … be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Did you see what the apostle did? He clarified all people with “kings and all who are in high positions.” Why? So that Christians might live peaceful and godly lives in the state where they live.

As in John 3:16, where Nicodemus the devout Jewish Pharisee was told that Jesus the Messiah came not merely for the Jews but for all the Nations, so the impoverished Christians who are being addressed through the apostle’s letter to young Timothy are learning that Jesus did not merely come for the poor, but he came for all classes of men, even for kings and those who are in authority. Here in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, we find reinforcement that the Gospel is not a social gospel, nor is it a racial Gospel as Nicodemus thought in John 3, but it is a universal Gospel. Jesus came to redeem men from all tribes, tongues, social classes, and skin colors. Indeed, we find that this is the apostle’s intentions in this text for he writes in v. 2:7, “For this I [a Pharisaical Jew] was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher to the Gentiles in faith and truth.” In other words, God appointed Paul, a Jew of Jews, to be the preacher to the Gentiles to demonstrate that God’s Gospel is not for a single people, but for the whole world.

Is not this a better understanding of the text than a cheap proof text? I implore you, no matter your theological tendencies, read God’s Word as God intended for it to be read. The devil knows the Scriptures much better than you or I do, and he has twisted them from the beginning of time to serve his purposes. Please do not be like him.

That said, we had an excellent discussion last night in our Bible study on Romans 9:14-18. Of the ten or so people that we had, we found that we were pretty much of one accord with regards to the doctrine of this text, and we briefly discussed how we each arrived to such conclusions in different ways. What we found is, though we came to our present commonality at different times, that most of us came to our present convictions in a similar progression. I would think that this progression is similar in most who have come to the same conclusions about God’s sovereignty over the destiny of souls.

This progression begins with our natural philosophy as humans and how we view the world through our natural eyes, and it ends with what Scripture declares as reality. All of us without exception were either reared or assumed by our natural philosophies that we were the dictators of our lives. If we were in the church, we believed that if we were to come to God we must either choose him or do some list of deeds to commend ourselves to him, be it a list of works or a kind of faith that is itself a work. If we were outside the church (or acted as though we were outside the church), we believed that we were in control of our lives and that we could pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and have “success” if we so desired.

Then at one point in our lives, through the proclamation of the Gospel and through the power and work of the Holy Spirit, a ray burst forth through our darkness and opened our eyes to see the light of glory of the Gospel of God in the face of Jesus Christ (cf. 2Cor. 4:3-6). We desired for the first time to truly follow after God for him alone, and we desired to know him better by studying what he had revealed to us in and through his Word. As we studied Scripture, we began to encounter texts like Romans 9 and Ephesians 1, and they struck us like a ton of bricks. We had no categories for such declarations, yet we did not, by God’s grace, throw them out, because we believed that all Scripture was breathed forth by God.

After wrestling with texts like Romans 9 (some of us for years), we finally submitted ourselves to the teachings of Scripture and finally gave God all the glory for our salvation. We finally found no reason to boast in our decision to choose Christ and in our inclinations towards him, because we knew that we did not choose God but God chose us and that if we love God it was because he first loved us. We marveled at God’s ways, and we were floored by God’s mercy given to us by his own good pleasure alone for his name’s sake.

We also discussed how we did not have all the answers and that we are to love one another as Christ loved us regardless of one’s present doctrinal correctness. We discussed how we should always be humble people, knowing that we are students for eternity of God and his ways and that we each have much room to grow with regards to our conformity to Christ. Yes, we can say quite confidently that we are correct in our understanding of God’s sovereign working in the salvation of souls, but there might be other areas where a brother or sister who is weak in that particular area might be strong in an area where we are weak. We need to recognize that as long as one is Christ’s, he is our brother and has something of value to offer to the body. We are to grow together into Christ’s image, and we can only do that with each other and our differences.