The C-Word (Calvinism)
Roy Fish
delivered at Cottage Hill Baptist Church
Mobile, Alabama
August 11, 1997
I am really a little bit intimidated tonight. Any time I deal with controversy, that’s not my strong suit. I am not a polemicist. But when I deal with it I always sort of feel like a lion in a den of Daniels. I am not suggesting that you are not an affirming congregation. You are. I don’t know when I had never been more wonderfully affirmed than I have by folks here in Cottage Hill. But, I hope you know what you’re getting into tonight having come to hear about the C-Word. I hope you know. I didn’t when I began my study. I didn’t realize it was going to require so much time and so much effort and I am always a little bit ...
There are two things that sort of threaten me tonight. The first one is that this is the first time I have ever done this. Now, I don’t think I have ever said this to you, but for us seminary professors, we get quite a few invitations to preach, here and there. Any sermon that we have preached fewer than 10 times is still a new sermon. But, for me, that first run, (and I’ve done this before on Sunday mornings here), so this is not the first time, but that first run is always, always terribly difficult.
And, the second thing is that basically I’m going to be in the role of teacher tonight, and not so much in the role of preacher. I’m not sure there’s a great deal of difference. They tell me in my classes that I preach my lectures, but this is more what I call didactic, it’s more of a teaching kind of ministry, that I’m sharing with you tonight, as I talk to about, “What In the World is Calvinism?”
Now, as I approach these three nights, I have to confess that I do not feel overly credentialed for doing it. My only credentials, I guess other than being saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and filled with his Holy Spirit, the only credentials are that I’ve been a fairly avid reader of the New Testament now for some 45 years. And if I have any other credentials, I suppose it would be that I have an earned a doctorate in Church history, and otherwise I am probably under credentialed for what I’ve been called on to do this Monday night.
Periodically there surfaces in our convention, I’m talking about the Southern Baptist Convention, periodically there surfaces and interest in what is called Calvinism. The present surge of interest seems to be especially strong here in Mobile right now. But, it is true to a degree across our entire denomination. As far as I know for the first time in the history of our convention in this century, we have two very committed Calvinists who are presidents of two of our seminaries. And so this, now and then, becomes an issue of controversy. It surfaces. Sometimes it serves as a corrective to certain truths that have been neglecting. But it all always to be critically examined.
Now when I talk about Calvinism, I want you to understand that there are many shades of Calvinism. There are degrees to which people accept the basic tenets of the system of Calvinism. There are the old school Calvinists, the hyper – Calvinists, the classic Calvinists, the moderate Calvinists. And the modern thrust as I understand it is encouraging us to embrace all five of the major points of classical Calvinism. Five major points that were adopted in the Synod of Dort in the Netherlands in 1618 to 1619. The Synod of Dort doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, but it pretty well determined those five major points that would characterize the theology of Calvinism throughout the centuries.
I really feel a need of your praying for me right now. So, before I begin I’m going to ask you to please pray for me as I lead us in prayer that the Spirit of God will be our teacher tonight.
Great God, we thank you for the privilege of worshiping you in song, of meeting you in the song service; of rejoicing in great truths about you. And we pray, You O Spirit of God, be our Teacher tonight. And I pray that you will not only anoint the one who speaks, but I pray that the ears of people will hear what they ought to hear. And You be glorified in these minutes. In Jesus name, Amen.
Asa L. Nettleton was a great evangelist in the first 25 years of the 19th century. In fact, you might call him the Billy Graham of that period of time. You probably have never heard of him, but he is one of the great evangelists that this country has produced. He preached basically in local churches and thousands of people were converted under the ministry of this great evangelist. Asa L. Nettleton had this to say about his own salvation, being a very committed Calvinist, as almost all Christians in new England were at that time, and that’s basically where he ministered. Nettleton had this to say about his own salvation: “The most that I have ever ventured to say respecting myself is that I think it possible that I may get to have been.” It’s not that he was afraid of losing his salvation. He knew he couldn’t do that. He believed in the Perseverance of the Saints. He knew his salvation could never be lost. His fear was, this great evangelist, his fear was that he might never have had salvation in the first place. “The most that I have ever ventured to say respecting myself is that I think it possible that I may get to have been.”
I ask you to compare this with a statement of the apostle Paul. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.” Now Nettleton was a very prominent man. He was a Calvinist. But he was an honest man. He was willing to admit that when tuned to its finest point, Calvinism eliminates the possibility of assurance of salvation. Surely there is more joy and assurance in the New Testament than this! Where is the buoyant faith of the early Reformers, the assurance, the absolute confidence seen by Saints in the New Testament. For a great evangelist and a man looked on and revered as a great Christian to say, “The most that I have ever ventured to say respecting myself is that I think it possible that I may get to have been.”
Michael Eaton in doing studies, some of the old Puritans, particularly those in England, said he studied their deathbed experiences, hoping that he would find tremendous inspiration, victory, and great assurance. But he said, “I was terribly disappointed for many of those Puritans who were extremely Calvinistic did not die with that kind of assurance and that kind of victory.”
Calvinism as a theological system has, in my opinion, a number of holes in it, and that’s why to embrace it fully can be dangerous either to an individual or a church.
Before going into what Calvinism is and where I came from, I want to examine some of these practical dangers as I see them, and history substantiate every one of them.
First of all, there is the danger of what Calvinism can do to evangelism and missions. Now I want to surprise you by saying that this is not always the case. The moderate kind of Calvinism has been the most vital in the earl kind of the evangelism this country has ever known. And, yet Calvinism has undercut missionary and evangelistic efforts.
Historically, back in England about 1790, God had laid it on the heart of a young shoe cobbler, to try to fulfill The Great Commission. His name, of course was William Carey. And William Carey proposed this at an associational meeting. I think we ought to take the gospel to the heathen. He wanted go to India. And a very prominent Baptists named John Rylands, Sr., said to him, “Young man you are just a youthful enthusiast. Sit down. If God wants to convert the heathen. He will do it without you and me.”
John Rylands was a Calvinist, and this was mainline traditional Calvinism as it existed in Presbyterian, Congregational, Reformed, and mitigated somewhat through in Baptist churches of late 18th century Europe. The whole modern missionary movement could have been snuffed out had Carey listened to John Rylands. But Carey refused to sit down, for he realized that God would not convert the heathen without you and me, that they have to hear the gospel, that somebody has to take the message to them.
Calvinism has led many churches and even the entire denominations away from a belief in instantaneous conversion. As I read my New Testament, I cannot help but believe that conversion is an instantaneous experience. It is possible that you do not remember precisely when it happened. But, whether you do, or you don’t, conversion is instantaneous. Calvinism has led churches to the point where they believed that you had to go through a series of stages, maybe three or four. And these stages could take months, and then after nine months or 12 months, only then and were you a real candidate for conversion.
Then a Methodist named John Wesley came along, and he rejected much of Calvinism. Wesley believed in instantaneous conversion. Drunkards would come into his meetings, and they would find the Lord and meet Jesus and leave with their lives dramatically transformed, radically changed. The Congregationalist and the Presbyterians couldn’t believe it. How could this be happening? A man experiencing conversion – it began to shake up some Calvinists groups in this country.
Jonathan Edwards, who preached the most famous sermon ever preached in the United States – “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” – Jonathan Edwards was a traditional Calvinist. But in his little town of 1200, North Hampton, Massachusetts, he began to see people converted so fast. Three Hundred within a space of a few months. Then he had to change his mind about this kind of preparationism for conversion. But, Calvinists in the past have led churches away from a believe in instantaneous conversion. I have read what I called the form of some of this progressive conversionism. I think that God must have been saying to those folks in those days, “Hurry up! Let’s get on with this thing! I’ve got a world out there that is lost, and needs to be saved!” But, that’s a part of historic Calvinism.
Third, a kind of Calvinism has virtually brought to a standstill evangelism, in certain Baptist groups. They believed that if God was going to save people, that he would not do it through human instrumentalities. Like Rylands said, “If He wants to convert somebody, He will do it without you or me.” And they believed this. So they ceased to try to win people to Jesus. They were a large Baptist group in the 19th century. Today, they are only a handful. We call them the Primitive Baptist or the Hardshell Baptist, who have just about gone out of existence, because they rejected evangelism and the winning of people to Jesus Christ, through sharing the message with them. I predict that won’t be long until this denomination has erected a tombstone, a victim of extreme Calvinism. I’m talking about what Calvinism does to evangelism.
I listened to a tape yesterday of a contemporary preacher who addressed the issue of evangelism. He is a five – point Calvinist. He speaks to many of our Baptist meetings and referring to people as either spiritually dead or spiritually alive, he made in this statement. I went back and listened again, just to be sure I got it right. He said, “It is impossible to evangelize the spiritually dead.” Oh, I couldn’t believe might years. “It is impossible to evangelize the spiritually dead.” If we don’t evangelize the spiritually dead, that leaves us with but one option, and that is to evangelize those who are spiritually alive. If I understand what it means to be spiritually alive, those who are spiritually alive and don’t need evangelism!
I’m telling you there are potential pitfalls as far as evangelism and missions are concerned in the embracing of Calvinism.
Second, (I’m talking about some dangers) there’s that to which I alluded a minute ago. Calvinism is extremely weak when it comes to giving assurance to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s very difficult to know for sure (if you are a committee Calvinist) whether or not you have eternal life. Assurance in Calvinism is based on the quality of the life of the believer. It’s a matter of obedience to the commands of God. But one has to ask, “Am by as obedient as I ought to be? Is my life as qualitative, as it ought to be as far as my being a Christian is concerned?”
Ian Murray who has spoken on our campus, and whom I have met and with whom I have had some joyful fellowship has said there is much reason to fear that the Christian Church has to a large extent neglected the duty of self-examination. He tells us that we are to ask such questions as, “Am I an heir of God?” “Do I bear the marks of the children of God?” “Do I have the title deed to the resurrection of life and to the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens?” He is encouraging us to do some serious introspection.
Now, I might say that it wouldn’t hurt most of us to do a little bit of that – a little bit of introspection. Not so much as to whether or not we are going to be in celestial missions as Murray says. But just to see if my life is pleasing to Jesus Christ, and I see if I am measuring up to Him. But the Westminster Confession (as you know, the Magna Carta of the Reformed faith, and when I speak of the Reformed of faith, it is a synonym for Calvinism) says this, “Infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before that believer is a partaker of assurance of salvation.” it’s no wonder that Middleton said, “The most that I venture to say respecting myself is, I think it possible that I might get to happen.”
Now along with that, Calvinism can lead to a kind of morbid introspection. I said a minute ago, what I’m saying to you is, what is been historically documented. It leaves one to start looking within rather than without to the cross and the finished work of Jesus as the hope of our salvation. For instance, the reformed doctrine of Calvinism could get us into this kind of labyrinth. It could lead us to this kind of real severe introspection.
See if you can follow me. If Christ didn’t die for all (and that’s a part of the Calvinistic system – He didn’t die for all) and if it is possible to have a sorrow for sin n(which is not true repentance, and Calvinism teaches that) and a faith which is not a true faith, and possessing of the Spirit, which fall short of true regeneration. If despite any and every experience of the gospel, there’s a way to hell almost from the dates of heaven if Paul himself, as they say, feared that he would lose his own salvation than what remains of assurance for a Calvinist? No wonder. One of the great Calvinists in our country could say (and I repeated again), “The most that I venture to say respecting myself is, I think it possible that I might get to happen.”
Well where did this Calvinism come from? Calvinists of course, would like to answer that by saying, “It comes from the Bible and historically Calvinism has been very strong in its behalf and inspiration of the Scripture.” But historically Calvinism came out of the Evangelical Reformation of the 16th century, that occurred in much of continental Europe, and also on the island continent of England.
Calvinism at its inception was a strong statement of salvation by faith alone to the exclusion of human merit and of Christ as the only object of saving faith. Its initial creed was the Bible and traditional Calvinism, as I said, has always had a very high view of Scripture. John Calvin, a French Reformer, who labored primarily in Switzerland, was the greatest theologian of the entire Reformation perhaps along with Philip Melanchthon. His great theological work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion in all likelihood, has never been surpassed as theological treatises that sum up virtually the entire scope of Christian doctrine.
Calvin was a very autocratic man. He formed church courts in Geneva, which had some people executed his heretics and Calvin himself encouraged the burning of Michael Servetus because Servetus did not agree with him and his doctrine of the Trinity. Calvinism of course derived its name from John Calvin. Some of the basic tenets held by Calvin were later changed by those who became his followers. I’d say some of them out-Calvined Calvin. American Christianity, in its early decades, was almost entirely Calvinistic. The Pilgrims were Calvinists. The Congregationalists of New England, were Calvinists. The reform groups, the Presbyterian groups, in the middle colonies of this country – they were all Calvinists. So I want you to understand that. Remember, I said there are different schools, different degrees to which people held the tenants of Calvinism.
I mentioned to you a minute ago the Synod of Dort. It was there that five basic points of Calvinism were set forth. This is why some of you have picked up on the acronym TULIP. These letters TULIP suggest the basic tenets of the five-point Calvinism. The ‘T’ is Total Depravity of people, the ‘U’ is Unconditional Election, the ‘L’ is Limited Atonement, the ‘I’ is Irresistible Grace, and the ‘P’ is Perseverance of the Saints. I want to deal with these as quickly as possible.
The first one – total depravity of people. Now, what does this heavy word, “total depravity” say to us? About what does it speak? Well, total depravity speaks to us about the extent of our sinfulness as human beings. People are totally depraved.
Now I want to tell you what this does not mean for a minute. It does not mean that all people are as bad as they could be. It doesn’t mean that depraved people cannot do some good things. It doesn’t mean that depraved people don’t have a conscience, that they cannot feel remorse.
But, what total depravity does mean is that people are depraved in all parts of their being. Sin has invaded our minds, our bodies, our affections, our wills. In all parts of an individual he or she is depraved. It does mean that people are not so bad that they cannot keep from sinning. And it also means that people are so bad they cannot save themselves. And that nobody can be saved apart from the saving grace of God.
But I have a question at this point. It is this: “Is mankind so depraved that he cannot respond to God in repentance and faith?” The answer of the Calvinist at this point is “yes.” Man is so depraved that he can’t respond to God in repentance and faith in that depraved condition. “We are dead in trespasses and sin,” the Calvinists would say, “and dead people cannot respond.” I come at this point to a major tenant of almost all people who are Reformed or Calvinistic position. By the way, in response to that, I want to remind you that when Adam and Eve sinned against God they spiritually died. But when God spoke to them in the Garden they heard Him. People who were dead in trespasses and sins, Adam and Eve, heard the voice of God. They not only heard the voice of God they were convicted about what they had done. They obeyed God. They put on them skins of animals.
So to say that a person who is dead in trespasses and sins simply cannot hear God speaking does not have biblical basis. That people cannot respond to God in saving faith until and unless they are born again is the position of the Calvinists.
Now to most of you that’s very surprising. You were born again, you might not even know when it happened. But only if you are born again can you come to repentance and saving faith. The new birth does not come through saving faith. Saving faith comes because one has already received the new birth.
Yesterday again I listened to a tape on this very subject. The speaker said (and I quote), “Repentance and faith are gifts from God given only to those who are quickened by regeneration.” Now this truth was stated in a number of ways in the message but essentially what it said was that only people who are capable of repentance in faith are those who have been born again. I kept listening for explicit statements from Scripture to support this thesis. I heard none.
For over 45 years I have been studying the New Testament with some degree of diligence. Well over a hundred times I have read through the entire New Testament and I should have read through it much, much more. On top of that I have studied particular books and have done some intensive word studies in the New Testament. In all of my reading I have never once read anything that says that regeneration precedes repentance and faith. Instead I have read verses like Acts 15 (this is a pivotal, crucial verse) Acts 15 where Peter is talking about his experience of sharing the gospel with the household of Cornelius. “So God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us and made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith.” Purifying their hearts – friends that’s a clear statement of regeneration. People came with dirty hearts and they had their hearts purified. And how did they have their hearts purified? Purifying their hearts by faith.
In that classic passage where Jesus talks about the new birth of Nicodemus, He twice told Nicodemus he had to be born again. But what those of Calvinistic breed fail to go on to say is that Jesus not only told Nicodemus that he must be born again He told him how. He said to Nicodemus, “Nicodemus, you know the Old Testament. Like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness” (John 3:14) and the mind of Nicodemus went back to that time when the children of God sinned grievously against God and God sent fiery snakes among them and those snakes bit the people and they died and they cried out to Moses and Moses cried out to God and God said put a brass serpent on a pole. And everybody who looks at the serpent will be healed. That’s what Jesus is referring to. And so He said to Nicodemus, “Like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must I, the Son of Man, be lifted up that whosoever trusts in me should not perish but have everlasting life.” Like people who were dying got life through a look at a serpent, so people who look to Me in faith will get life, life eternal, life everlasting.
Every time the scriptures speak about life, whether it’s John 3:16, or whether it’s John 5:24, when you hear and read those terms “everlasting life,” friend, I want to tell you that life comes out of this new birth. It is a reference to the life that God gives to us and the New Testament is transparently clear that one believes or trusts into eternal life. It’s not something you already have. You believe into it, you don’t have it in till you trust. No one with any grasp of Scripture would fail to say that this experience of believing is prompted by the Holy Spirit. I want you to know that the Spirit of God is the one who leads us to repentance and faith.
I didn’t realize that when it happened to me. You probably didn’t either. Man, I didn’t know what it was the Holy Spirit making me miserable in my sin. I didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit who showed me the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. So, don’t hear me saying that one comes to a grasp of saving faith apart from the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit does not have to make us alive, before we have this saving faith.
But the scripture teaches just the opposite. Just think of all those passages where it talks about God loving the world. Just look at John 3:16. God so loved the world ... 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (this is a clincher) Paul says pray for all men and he goes on to tell us why we ought to pray for all men. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved.” How many? All men to be saved. God desires all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Peter says the same thing, it’s God’s will that none perish, but that all come to repentance. And then the Apostle John in 1 John clinches it when it says, “Jesus himself is the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins, and not four hours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” The “I” in the TULIP is what is called irresistible grace. That means that people who are going to be saved have no other option. They really don’t have a choice. The grace of God cannot be resisted. They cannot resist this special saving grace. Now, the corollary to this follows: that is that those who are not elected are irresistibly damned. They cannot be saved. Like those who received grace cannot resist it, so those who received damnation cannot resist it.
Now, this is one reason why some groups have virtually given up on evangelism. Because it follows that if God works so irresistibly to either say is or damn, Christians cannot affect the salvation of sinners . so they feel no need to do anything about it. They feel no responsibility for sharing that which might even have a tendency to interfere with the immutable purposes of God.
Now ladies and gentlemen, all who are here, I trust believe in the sovereignty of God, the absolute sovereignty of God. It is taught in the Bible. But along with a sovereignty of God taught in the Bible, also is the free will of people. You and I can choose. You say, “How can that be reconciled that God is sovereign, and yet people make choices? People have a will regarding what they are going to do. If God is sovereign, how do you reconcile it?” I don’t have to. Friend, there are times when you start looking at God, that you scrutinize the inscrutable. And God doesn’t have one bit of trouble reconciling his sovereignty with man’s free will. You get to heaven he’ll explain it to you in a second if you still want an explanation.
Reconcile them? I like the way Spurgeon who was a moderate Calvinist said it, (my kind of Calvinist). Spurgeon, when somebody said, “How do you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the freewill of man?” he said, “I never have to reconcile friends.” And these are friends. It was Spurgeon who was trying to lead a person to Christ, and somebody got frightened, and they were always having to caution Spurgeon. Somebody got frightened, I mean the Baptist pastors especially cautioned him: “You may be speaking to one of the non-elect” Spurgeon said, “That’s all right. I don’t think God would mind too much if a few of the non-elect got saved.”
My kind of Calvinist! Spurgeon preached from his pulpit, “Whosoever will may come.” Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, wisely said, “The elect are the whosoever wills. The non-elect are the whosoever wont’s.” God’s grace can be resisted. People do not have to say yes to the call of God, and nobody is compelled to say no to the call of God.
Finally, the “P’ of the TULIP is perseverance of the Saints. All of us believe that. Actually, I’d like to add another word though, another “P”. Perseverance and preservation, because God “preserves” or “keeps” and puts within us his Spirit that we might persevere. I don’t know my congregation very well tonight, but I would just encourage you not to be a follower of Wesley, nor to be a follower of Luther, not to be a follower of Calvin. But, to get your New Testament out and see what God has to say. The problem is, I know there are some minds that are already tainted. They were tainted with a system before they got into their New Testaments. It’s going to be harder for you. But I remember being on program with Dr. Carl Armading (reformed in his theology, president of Wheaton College). Dr. Armading stood behind a pulpit, and said it was a painful thing for me to have to come to the place where I realized that the author and finisher and founder of my faith was not John Calvin, but Jesus Christ. I believe getting involved in reformed theology is a backward step which you as an individual or that you as a church d0 not want to take.
Thank you.