When I had an opportunity to preach at the SBC Pastor’s Conference several years ago, I took the opportunity to take a swipe at Calvinism and have wished ever since I had not. Any believer who is reformed is my brother and we will spend eternity together, and I should treat them with the respect any brother in Christ deserves.
That being said I am not a Calvinist for a number of reasons, the most prominent being the denigration of faith that they commit. They confuse action with meritorious deeds by making them the same, and they are not. Scripture makes it plain that in response to the eternal sovereign work of God I must believe in order to be saved. My belief does not merit salvation, it does not make me worthy of salvation, it merely receives the salvation offered from before the foundations of the earth. That is the one and only condition required in order to receive the saving, regenerating benefits of grace. Granted on the timeline of salvation, it is a very small spec of difference between believing in order to be regenerated and being regenerated in order to believe. But the Bible makes this spec of difference significant, and for me it will always keep me out of the Calvinist camp.
I have many days when I wish all of us Christians believed everything alike. But that would be as too good to be true as Bernie Madoff’s returns on investment. So in the meantime, I remain anchored in the Biblical necessity of faith and in love with my reformed brethren.
What about you? What do you think about Calvinism?
Jason Kinch
Jonathan Black
August 26, 2009
I think all the New Testament writers understood their position outside of a Sovereign God, Who saves who He wants to save, because He loves them, not because of anything in them, but because He glorifies Himself in rescuing them out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1Peter 1)
Calvinism notwithstanding, The Lord Jesus Christ, The Creator of the universe, causes people to be born again to a living hope. True belief in The Lord God Almighty is a gift granted from above, not something we can boast about, at all. (Eph 2:8-10)
What I think about Calvinism is that not enough of the 5 points are taught from the pulpits of evangelical churches. Most professing Christians correlate the term Calvinism with something offensive…..because they have never been taught anything other than easy believism, free-will, have made a decision, or any other traditional exercise without true repentance and faith. A deeper understanding of God’s Bible is not something many of them desire at all. The result has been a large population of false converts in the church who are not saved at all.
I think the real John Calvin was as significant to the church today as Martin Luther, Augustine, Wycliffe, King James, Spurgeon and the Wesleys.
I do not understand why a Sovereign God would save me, because I know my own heart…..but because He has, I want to tell everyone! The desire to evangelize should be in the heart of every Christian, Calvinist, Armenian and all points in between.
I wish more Christians would study the 5 points of Calvinism for themselves. Unfortunately, it is a foreign language to most……