The Story of I am Not

Calvinism Revisited, Part 1

Calvinism is back on the scene and getting a lot of attention within the Southern Baptist Convention and the Church as whole.  Many Christians do not have a clear understanding of this theological view.  I took a Theology Classes in Seminary, but I had forgotten the details of Calvinism.  In this article, I will look at the basic views of Calvinism and cover the first two tenants of this particular view.

TULIP is an acronym for the five points of Calvinism—total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.  This theological view is making a resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention.  Many people think that this issue is secondary and should have little effect on the day-to-day operations of our churches, but I disagree.  Johnny Hunt, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, stated, "What you believe determines how you behave".  So I am going try to give you a brief overview of some of the issues of the Calvinist Resurgence that trouble many within the convention and need to be addressed within our churches.  As a church, Crestview needs to determine where we stand on these issues.  I hope to shed some light on this subject in this article.

John 3:16 is a verse that describes the gospel in a nutshell. The verse indicates God's love is global, sacrificial, personal and eternal.  Jerry Vines states,  "We will never exhaust the content and the meaning of John 3:16.”  Here is a simple verse that tells us of the mind of God, the heart of God and the will of God.  The Greek word for "whosoever," which occurs more than a thousand times in the New Testament, carries the idea of "anyone, anywhere, anytime”. Now lets look at each of the issues within Calvinism and see what the Bible has to say about this Theological View.

T -- TOTAL DEPRAVITY - The issue of total depravity from Romans means no one is right with God.  Any good deed done is tainted with sinfulness, and there is no fear of God or ultimate peace in a person's heart. All of mankind fell in Adam and are affected by his sin.  Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Seminary asks, "Does that mean we are born guilty before God?"  Patterson states, "I do not think that can be demonstrated from Scripture.  We are born with a 'sin sickness,' a disease that makes it certain that we will sin and rebel against God."  The Bible says people are condemned for their own sins.  Ephesians 2:1 says "... You were dead in your trespasses and sin.  Calvinism holds to the fact that if you are dead, then you can't do anything to respond to God.  Many Calvinists even believe that you must be regenerated before you can even have the faith to believe in Christ.  They believe that regeneration must come before faith.  I do not see that in Scripture.  You always see that faith and belief come before salvation, not the other ay around.  If you look at verses 2-3, which says, "You walked according to the course of this world ... you once conducted yourself in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind...."  This is analogy, you are dead in trespasses and sin, and pressed too far, you will make it say more than it says.  The atonement of Christ is God's way of saving the whole race, if the race would receive Him as Savior.  Although sinners are unable to help themselves, lost men are able to call out to God who can save them.  Calvinist even believe that people who are lost can not even hear the voice of God unless that are regenerated first, but that is contrary to Scripture.  We see in the Garden of Eden that even in their fallen state, God still communicated with Adam and Eve.  It is important to understand that we are all born into to sin, but are out of God’s reach.  He can use people, The Bible, the Holy Spirit, and even circumstances to draw us to him.  We are not so depraved that God can not speak to us in the depths of our souls.


U -- UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION - A historical overview of Baptist beliefs on the topic is consistent with the free agency of man; the question is how election is defined.  It is important for us to differentiate between God's corporate election of Israel and individual election, which is intertwined with and connected to God's foreknowledge.  In 1 Timothy 2:3-4, "... God our savior, who will have all men to be saved," The Greek word for "will" is an earnest desire.  Some Reformed commentaries state that "all" can't really mean "all men" because if God willed something it would have to happen.  Richard Land states, "I believe in a God who is so sovereign and so omniscient that He can break out of Calvin's box ... and He can choose to limit Himself and He can convict us and He can seek to bring us to conviction ... but He will not force us."  Understanding God's perspective of time and recognizing that He lives in what C.S. Lewis termed "the eternal now" should help Christians reconcile theological tensions.  All events are in the present for God. The idea of election or predestination is one that has been debated for years, and I do not think can be resolved with our feeble human minds.  As far as what Scripture says it clearly points to the fact that we are born with Free Will and can choose to reject or accept his gift of salvation.  If we are confused about this issue, it will greatly affect how we approach evangelism.  If we believe that God chooses only to save some and condemn the others, then will not be as passionate about sharing the gospel.  We will only share a watered down gospel that has no power.  The Great Commission demands that we share the “Whole Gospel” which is that Christ died for all who would receive Him not just a select few.  Which leads to the next issue which Limited Atonement that I will cover next month.

As a church, what we believe, will directly affect the way we do ministry.  Take some time this month and search the Scripture and see what the Bible actually says about these key theological ideas.  These issues will never be resolved this side of heaven, but as believers we are expected to know what we believe and why. In 1 Peter 3:15, we are encouraged to be ready to give an answer (or more literally “a defense”) for the hope that is within us.  The best way to do that is to be armed with knowledge.  Next month, I will look at the remaining three issues of Calvinism through the lens of Scripture.  Have a great month and may God truly bless you and your family.

A Maimed Life

As a follower of Christ, we all are on a journey that eventually leads us to heaven and a certainty that we will be transformed to become more like Jesus.  The journey itself is really what God uses to transform us.  I had always thought that the only reason God left us on earth after salvation was to fulfill a given purpose that we were created for.  That is true, but that is only a part of  the story.  I have come to believe God uses this life and the journey of following Christ shape us into who he created to us be.  The journey itself is what God uses to transform us into the image of His son.

In Matthew 5:30, we see Jesus giving those gathered on the mountainside a very strict rule for how we should live.  In these verses, he shares the importance of cutting sin out of our lives even if that means cutting off the very body part that causes us to sin.  It would be better for us to live a maimed life without sin, than to have a complete body racked with sin.  This idea is quite unique.  Then later in verse 48, Jesus gives us hope that we can live a well-rounded life as we become complete in him.  I always thought these verses pointed to an extreme idea of how sin should be handled, but upon further study, I can see that Jesus was really talking about the process of how the journey of a believer progresses.

Once we come to Christ, we are “reborn”.  For the first time, we are alive spiritually.  In my own journey, I can look back and see that at that moment my whole world changed.  I soon began to see the enormity of my sin and the sin in the world that I was oblivious to before.  I soon began to cut myself off from the world.  I became isolated and really did not know how to function in a world so different.  It was as if I was a stroke victim and had to learn how to live all over again.  A few years ago, I walked with my dad through the painful ordeal of a stroke.  He lost functionality in his limbs and could not speak.  It was a slow and frustrating process for him to learn to move, walk, and talk again.  He had to relearn something that just came natural to most of us.  As babies, we just learned all these things naturally by being a product of our environment and watching those around us.  It came so easy because we do not remember the challenges that we faced as a baby.  My dad, now in his mid 60s, had to learn all these things again.  His world would never be the same.  This is also what we experience as believer.  When we come to Christ, we have to learn a new way of living.  We have to learn how to talk, how to follow, how to think, how to feel, how to interact with a lost world, and how to love.  

Although we each come to Christ in different ways, I believe that the journey we each go through has very similar phases.  When we first come to Christ we are hyper-sensitive to the world around us.  We do not want to do anything that will corrupt us or cause our salvation not to “take”.  We isolate ourselves and only interact with people like us.  As we grow and understand who we are and who God is, we venture out a bit.  We learn how to share our faith and begin to have a heart for the lost, but we are still very cautious.  We very rarely want to engage the world in which we live for fear that world will rub off on us instead of us rubbing off on the world.  The sad thing is that this is where most Christian’s spiritual growth becomes stunted.  They know that they are called to reach out to the world around them, but they are content to live in a bubble and not interact with the world around them.

As believers we need to practice relational and incarnational ministry in the place where we live, work, and play. The world in which we live is the perfect arena in which to practice Incarnational Ministry.  Jesus’ ministry gave us insight into how we should approach our culture with the message of renewal and restoration.  All ministry is local.  As a believer, I must bridge the gap between Biblical culture and local culture.  Jesus was great at this.  He used common everyday language and situations to communicate God’s love to the people he came into contact with.  His message was presented differently depending on the individual he was speaking with.  We must learn how to construct Local Theologies.  We need to figure out how to best communicate the love of Christ to our culture.  

The history of the incarnation plays a vital role in helping us understand 

who Jesus is.  It helps us to see that Jesus is more than just a person to call on in times of trouble.  He is God in the flesh.  He is a person who understands us. We can truly say that Jesus “gets me”.  He knows my thoughts, my needs, and my dreams.  He is not just a problem solver.  When we understand the incarnation, then we can see the power of the cross revealed.  We see a God who came in the flesh to show us how to live, how to die to our sins, and how to be raised to walk in His righteousness. The incarnation transcends cultural boundaries. People want to be understood.  They are looking for a place to 

belong.  They want someone to understand them and identify with their struggles.  We can help them see that the incarnate Christ is that person.  If we become an extension of Christ’s life, we can impact this generation in a mighty way.  By investing our lives in people, just a Christ invested in the disciples, we will see much change.  

In John 1, we see that “Jesus dwelt among us”.  He became a part of the culture.  He was “one of us”.  We must have the same mindset.  Paul encourages us in Philippians 2:5-11 to have the same attitude as Christ, which means we must live out the Gospel before the people that we have been entrusted with.  The Holy Spirit allows us to be the “incarnate” representative of Christ on earth.  We will have the same spirit and mind of Christ if we tap into the power and guidance that the Holy Spirit offers.

We must keep the BIG picture in mind.  We have to put people before 

programs.  We cannot underestimate the power of presence.  Just being available and listening to people share the successes and failures in their life; we will make a great impact.  We also must realize that we can’t minister to everyone.   Not everyone wants to be ministered to.  Remember, we are a model of relational ministry.  We must be able to balance these two areas.  

We need to be real and authentic with the people we encounter.  Jesus 

was able to do this very well.  His disciples saw Him in His full glory on the Mount of Transfiguration and in His brokenness in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Authenticity is really at the heart of the incarnation.  When Jesus was baptized and the Father spoke his affirmation over his son by saying “in whom I am well pleased”, we see who Jesus really was.  His divine nature and human nature were transparent for all to see.  All we have to do is look.  His miracles testified to his deity while his sorrow and brokenness in the Garden displayed His humanity.

Incarnational Ministry is what every believer is called to.  We are the body of Christ.  We are an extension of His saving grace.  We must be willing to step outside of our comfort zone, and “dwell” with those who need to experience the incarnate.  God never intended for us to remain in the maimed state that we began our journey in.  He wants us to have a well rounded life and become more like His son.  Take some time this week and examine which areas of your life are still maimed and have not grown.  Allow God to transform you into the person He created you to be.