A purely didactic ministry, which should always appeal to the understanding, and should leave the emotions untouched, would certainly be a limping ministry. “The legs of the lame are not equal,” says Solomon; and the unequal legs of some ministries cripple them. We have seen such a one limping about with a long doctrinal leg, but a very short emotional leg. It is a horrible thing for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly of the doom of the wicked, so that, if he does not actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of heart to think of the ruin of millions of our race. This is horrible! I hate to hear the terrors of the Lord proclaimed by men whose hard visages, harsh tones, and unfeeling spirit betray a sort of doctrinal desiccation: all the milk of human kindness is dried out of them. Having no feeling himself, such a preacher creates none, and the people sit and listen while he keeps to dry, lifeless statements, until they come to value him for being “sound”, and they themselves come to be sound, too; and I need not add, sound asleep also, or what life they have is spent in sniffing out heresy, and making earnest men offenders for a word. Into this spirit may we never be baptized! Whatever I believe, or do not believe, the command to love my neighbour as myself still retains its claim upon me, and God forbid that any views or opinions should so contract my soul, and harden my heart as to make me forget this law of love!
-Charles Spurgeon
Hyper-Calvinism is deadly, and more prevalent than I wish.
If I was going to define what I mean by “Calvinism” in one short sentence, I would say that Calvinism is the belief that, for the believer, everything we have is a gift from God. And with this, there is a great mystery that reveals to me more about the nature of the human spirit than a thousand psychiatrists and their textbooks ever could. This mystery is the wonder that a man can believe every good thing that they have is a gift from God, including their faith, their love, their mind, their life, health, fortune, family, working AC on a hot day, tobacco, books, marriage, etc…and then be proud of the fact that he knows it all to be a gift. To which the Apostle Paul retorts “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”
This grand paradox teaches us how prone our hearts are to pride. They are so prone that we find ways to be proud of the fact that we know that we have nothing to be proud about. Truly, the heart is deceitful above all else! Who can understand it?
When this pride sets in, its effects are deadly. It results in Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism is the teaching that, because God knows who he is going to save, we do not need to and should not preach the gospel to everybody. It says that we should not offer the gospel as a free gift of salvation to all that would believe, but instead we should just “trust God” and let Him save whom He will. It teaches that we should not bother ourselves so much with prayer because God has already decided everything that He is going to do from the beginning of creation to the end. In short, it takes the sovereignty of God – which is a biblical concept – and draws radically unbiblical conclusions from it.
But the tricky thing about Hyper-Calvinism is that nobody is an avowed and self proclaimed Hyper-Calvinist. Just like nobody is an avowed or self-proclaimed Pelagian. Most people that fall into Hyper-Calvinism affirm right doctrine (such as that we should proclaim the gospel to all) but in their practice they have the spirit of a Hyper-Calvinist (from here on called HC – I’m tired of typing that word). Read that Spurgeon quote at the top again – this is what he was driving at in his sermon. Spurgeon, a robust Calvinist that preached on TULIP when he opened his church, was a strong enemy of the Hyper-Calvinists of his day (see Iain Murrays “Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism”). He went to war with the kind of preacher that was so “doctrinally sound” that he did not weep for the lost. And he saw this as a real danger to be watchful of. Surely Spurgeon was right – it is possible to have all of your doctrinal ducks in a row and to be spiritually dead, and this is a terrible thing. It is possible to believe something, but live in a way that proclaims something contrary to what you believe, and this is hypocrisy. As Titus says “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.” And what is so tragic is that, when you live this way, it maligns and gives a bad name to the true doctrine. Calvinism should never lead to a cold, proud, hard-hearted Christianity. If it does, then the people that profess to believe that everything they have is a gift (my overly simplistic definition), show the world that they don’t really believe that by the way they live and feel and talk and think.
Fighting the Wrong Enemy
In my experience, most people do not really hate historic Calvinism. Most people do not even know what it is. What they really hate is HC. They assume that Calvinism must lead to HC, and so they kick back against historic Calvinism with all their might, and, frankly, I can understand why they do! I hate Hyper-Calvinism as well! The problem with this is that when they kick against HC they throw out true and good biblical doctrines like predestination or the absolute sinfulness of man, and end up fighting against their friends. Many people do this because they are faced with what feels like a dilemma that goes like this: If “predestined” here means that God predestines who will be saved, then what is the point of evangelism or prayer? I know that evangelism and prayer are good, so predestination cannot mean that. In other words, If I believe that faith and salvation from beginning to end is totally a gift, then I must become a Hyper-Calvinist. This is the lie that I am so eager for all of us to reject, and is the main reason I am writing this article. that Calvinism does not have to lead to Hyper-Calvinism is easily seen in history. The greatest evangelists since the reformation, George Whitefield and Charles Spurgeon were both Calvinists! And deeply devoted to prayer! We ought to believe what the following verses obviously mean, that God predestines those who will be saved to salvation and appoints them to eternal life without doing any theological gymnastics, and I will even argue that believing it ought to make us more humble, more evangelistic, and more loving.
[Rom 9:10-16 ESV] “10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad–in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls– 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
[Eph 1:3-6 ESV] “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
[Act 13:48 ESV] “48 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.”
[Phl 1:29 NASB95] “29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,”
[Jas 1:17-18 NASB95] “17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.”
I could keep going, but this post would get really long. The point is that predestination – and that everything we have is a gift – is a biblical doctrine, and for the writers of the new testament it did not drive them to hard-heartedness or pride, but they rather wept and pleaded and persuaded and became as nothing that they might win the lost. It is my contention that these truths ought to lead us to bear spiritual fruit that is the exact opposite of what many people assume will be the spiritual fruit of believing such verses at face value.
Calvinism at it’s Best
I don’t necessarily like the word Calvinism because the ideas that we are talking about did not begin with Calvin. The reformers (Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, etc…) were all in agreement on this doctrine (what is commonly called Calvinism) against the Roman Catholic Church that taught (and still teaches) Semi-Pelagianism. The reformers simply recovered this doctrine when reading their bibles after it had been largely lost in the Roman Catholic tradition. But that is how most people speak of this doctrine, and so I will use the word Calvinism to avoid confusion.
Why fight so hard for predestination when it makes people so uncomfortable? Why fight for the fact that everything we have is a gift, and that we are more sinful than we think? Does it really matter? Is it really that practical? Am I just wanting to be one of the cool kids that looks smart and reads big books? No. At least, I hope not (the heart is deceitful after all). Besides the fact that it is simply biblical, as I have tried to show above, here are six ways that God has used these truths in my life to make me a more Godly man. And I pray, pray, pray that He does the same for you. Meditate on these things:
1. Calvinism, rightly applied, is first and foremost humble: [1Co 1:26-29 NASB95] “26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God.”
A true Calvinist will acknowledge that God chose him, as the verses above clearly indicate, not because he was great, but was chosen by God simply to display His perfect patience and glorious grace in order to shame the “wise” and “strong”. This grace is best displayed when God saves, not good people, but radically sinful people. True Calvinism will also produce humility in the believer because, as noted above, they will acknowledge that everything they have is a gift, including their knowledge of God, and their faith: [Rom 12:3 ESV] “3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” A true Calvinist will despise pride in his life, and know it to be a lie straight from hell.
2. Calvinism, rightly applied, is hopeful: [2Co 4:3-6 ESV] “3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 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. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 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.”
A true Calvinist will not proclaim the gospel less, but much more! Because they have this profound hope that God is willing and able to take blind sinners and give them sight! He is able to bind the strong man (Satan) and set free sinners that are enslaved to his blinding power. A Calvinist will proclaim the gospel to the most hardened sinners and then plead with them to be saved because the scripture tells us to persuade men to come into the house of God (Luke 14:23), and my persuasion might be the means that God uses to save them. This means that no man is too far gone, and if God so chose He could pour out His Spirit and save hundreds of people at a time, as He has done in revivals throughout history. This gives us incredible hope and courage in sharing the gospel.
3. Calvinism, rightly applied, is full of peace: [Rom 8:28-30 ESV] “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
A true Calvinist will not be terrified of any thing that comes against them because they are able to trust that God works all things together for good, to conform them to the image of Christ. The hardest and scariest trial will always, always, always work out for good for the believer because God sovereignly works all things together for their good and has promised to bring us to completion in the image of Christ. this doctrine means that it is not random chance that is in control, ultimately; it is not men, or the devil; it is the all good, powerful, wise God, and that ought to give us profound peace.
4. Calvinism, rightly applied, produces gentleness in conflict: [2Ti 2:24-25 ESV] “24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,”
We do plead with men and women to be saved. But knowing that ultimately it is a gift from God enables us to plead and reason with the person with a gentle spirit that continues on in hope that God will grant them repentance.
5. Calvinism, rightly applied, intimately knows the love of God: [Eph 1:5 ESV] “in love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”
God did not choose to save us randomly, arbitrarily, or capriciously, but was rather motivated by love and wisdom. He knew us from the foundation of the world and because of his great love for us, while we were yet sinners he died for us. Calvinism thinks of salvation not so much as God holding up a sign that says “I will marry anybody that wants to get married” as it thinks of God as pursuing a specific bride for himself that he knows and loves and is willing to die for. It makes the salvation of God personal in the sense that He really knows us and has foreknown us. This means that when Christ was hanging on the cross and actually paying for sins, it is possible that he was thinking, not of a mass of humanity, but of specific individuals. He knew and loved Rebekah from the foundation of the world and he paid for HER sins on the cross. He knew and loved Jason from the foundation of the world and paid for HIS sins. This shift in understanding has massive implications for the love of God in your life. If He has loved you like this from the foundation of the world, then how can anything separate you from that love? If He has purchased you with His precious blood, will He really allow Satan to snatch you away?
6. Calvinism at its best, then, produces a radical joy: There are fuddy duddies everywhere. Some people are actually able to be sad on a jet ski, on a clear day, with people that they love. And some “Calvinists” really do lack joy…but so do some Arminians, and so do some lottery ticket winners, and so do I – and so do you! But what should Calvinism logically produce in us?
[Luke 10:21 ESV] “21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
For Christ, Calvinism produced rejoicing. Why? Because our lives from beginning to end are in the hands of the most good, most wise, most loving being that exists. For my salvation to depend on me would be a massive downgrade for I am often fickle and evil. For my salvation to depend on my parents would be a massive downgrade, for they are evil parents and God is perfectly good. If my fate has to rest anywhere – and it does – let it rest in the hands of the all-wise God that has raised this sinner from death to life. If I am going to commit my spirit to anyone, I most happily commit it to the one that is full of mercy and grace and truth. I commit my spirit to God for good or for ill, knowing that whatever God decides to do with me, or anyone else for that matter, will certainly be GOOD. His kingdom knows no end! He does get the victory over all of his foes; nothing can thwart his power, and He is good. Christian, this is good news! God has conquered all the forces of the devil and Jesus now holds the keys to death and hell, meaning that He has complete authority over these things. I want Jesus to have the keys. I don’t want them for myself, and I certainly don’t want Satan to have them; I want the one who responded to the leper that said “If you are willing, you can make me clean” with, “I am willing, be clean” to be in charge of my salvation from beginning to end.
Conclusion
Notice how vital love is in all of our doctrine. It is what is most important. Indeed, we can have all knowledge and know all mysteries and, yet, if we do not have love, it is all worthless. A good North star for if you are truly growing to know God is if your knowledge is leading to an increased love for God and man. If your Calvinism – or Arminianism, or whatever “ism” you subscribe to – is not doing that, then it is not working and it is time to re-evaluate. But keep in mind: the problem might not necessarily be that you believe the wrong facts. The problem might be that you have not been adequately affected by the facts that you claim to believe.