Back to Chapter 5 – The Nature and Scope of the Calvinist Difficulties
1. Calvinist soteriology cannot be put into the service of a biblical, evangelical gospel ministry.
Properly defined, evangelical ministry, at a minimum, consists of “the proclamation of the good news.” The Calvinist “doctrines of grace” (i.e., total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace or effectual calling, and the perseverance and preservation of the saints, that is, “TULIP” or variations thereof) are not “good news” to sinners. They are “news” but not “good news” because based on these doctrines, the sinner cannot be assured of God’s love for them, Christ’s atoning death on their behalf, or that they can be saved. On Calvinism, all that can be said is that you may have been elected unconditionally by God to salvation, or you may not. God may have predestined you to salvation and eternal life, but then again, he may not.
Although some Calvinists claim their “doctrines of grace” are the biblical gospel, they do not preach these doctrines as the gospel message to sinners. Although some Calvinists will claim their “five points” are the gospel message, they restrict the teaching of their “gospel” theology to “mature” believers while attempting to keep it from non-believers, new believers, and children. A message that has to be kept from non-believers can hardly be the true gospel. A message that needs to be kept from new believers raises the question of what “gospel” message they heard to become a believer. It must have been the truly good news of the non-Calvinists biblical gospel message. And if the Calvinist affirms that all little children must be assured of God’s love for them and that they are “precious in his sight,” then again, that affirmation is disingenuous to those children who are among the non-elect. Remember, your eternal destiny has already been decided by God, and it cannot be altered. The point is that the Calvinist doctrines cannot be put into the service of evangelism as the preaching of “good news.”
Other Calvinists do not claim their “doctrines of grace” should be equated with the gospel message. As such, we wonder how the Calvinists’ soteriology, which contains the full and final explanation of how and why a person becomes saved, can be separated from their gospel content and message. As such, when these Calvinists do present the gospel message that is truly “good news,” they end up speaking disingenuously and inconsistently with their fundamental soteriological doctrines. They end up preaching a non-Calvinist message of “good news” to all. This demonstrates once again that Calvinism has no coherent place within a genuinely evangelical gospel ministry.
2. Calvinists are inconsistent and disingenuous in their preaching and teaching.
When not specifically teaching their Calvinist doctrines, Calvinists preach and teach inconsistently with their deterministic theology. Calvinist preaching, writings, lectures, and expositions of Scripture are incoherent, inconsistent, and contradictory with their fundamental deterministic doctrines of God’s eternal decree and sovereignty. They preach and teach as though reality were contingent and there exists genuine human freedom and responsibility. They completely dismiss the inconsistency between their words and their deterministic theology. Thus, Calvinists are mostly disingenuous in their preaching and teaching.
3. Calvinists must ignore the incompatibility between their theology and the non-Calvinist gospel as they attempt to work together with non-Calvinists for the cause of evangelism and the gospel in ministry.
4. Calvinism is a post-Arminian conversion theology. Calvinists are saved by hearing and responding to a non-Calvinist gospel message. It is only afterwards that they adopt Calvinism and must presume that they are among those unconditionally elected to salvation.
Sometime after they have first heard a non-Calvinist gospel message by which they were brought to salvation by believing it, that believer, who, for certain reasons, becomes a Calvinist, must thereafter presume his own unconditional election. It is only by hearing a non-Calvinist gospel that the Calvinist came to know that God loves them personally and individually, that Christ died for their sins, and that they can have the assurance of salvation. This is the message they first heard and had to hear for it to be “good news” to them, so they could respond positively in reciprocal love to God for his love and grace expressed to them “in Christ.” But this “good news” message is inconsistent with their subsequent Calvinist deterministic soteriology. They therefore leave behind the gospel by which they were saved and must now presume that they are among the elect. It is only after they have been assured that they are included in God’s love and salvation in Christ and therefore are assuredly saved on the condition of faith that they adopt the limited, exclusive partiality and unconditionality of Calvinism.
5. Calvinism requires the suppression of a person’s reason and moral intuitions.
Given the incoherence, inconsistencies, and contradictions in Calvinism, for a person to embrace it, they must be indoctrinated out of their confidence in their fundamental logical reasoning and innate moral intuitions by which they know specific propositions and concepts to be contradictory and incoherent. There is a suppression of reason that one must acquiesce to to become a Calvinist and remain a Calvinist. A troubling example of this is found in the advice J. I. Packer gives when he asserts his inconsistent, contradictory theology should be thought of as an “antinomy.” He states,
“What should one do, then, with an antinomy? Accept it for what it is and learn to live with it. Refuse to regard the apparent inconsistency as real; put down the semblance of contradiction to the deficiency of your own understanding; think of the two principles as, not rival alternatives, but in some way that at present you do not grasp, complimentary to each other…teach yourself to think of reality in a way that provides for their peaceful coexistence, remembering that reality itself has proved actually to contain them both.”[32]
6. Calvinists are inconsistent regarding the death of infants.
Most Calvinists would hold that those who die in infancy, and the massive numbers of unborn that are victims of abortion, are taken to be with God and Christ in heaven. Therefore, they must all be among the elect. If, at one time, all infants are among the elect and would be taken to heaven if they died, when do we who survive infancy become one of the non-elect? Do people at some point in their lives become one of the non-elect? How is this coherent with God having predetermined who will be saved and who will not before they are even born?
Furthermore, on Calvinism, God predetermined and caused the Roe v. Wade decision and the killing of approximately 52 million babies since that decision in 1973. As Calvinists protest abortion, they protest the will, plans, and purposes of God for these babies. On Calvinism, they protest against God’s glorifying himself through the actions of these doctors and parents. These acts are, of course, murderous and heinous. Gratuitous abortion is a crime against humanity. Yet, on Calvinism, God ordained and caused each one of these abortions to occur. The logical and moral incoherence of Calvinism is insurmountable. It is a sure sign of biblical misinterpretation.
In addition, Calvinists believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life because we are all created “in the image of God.” Yet Calvinism is inconsistent with the sanctity and dignity of human life in that God himself condemns the vast majority of those made in his image to eternal damnation and death. The life he calls us to cherish and protect, he himself predestines to eternal condemnation and separation from himself.
7. Calvinists believe there are two ways to be saved.
The first way is, of course, by God’s unconditional election of the individual sinner. But those who are parents (who presume their own unconditional election, and cannot endure the thought that their children may be among the reprobate that God has not chosen for salvation) also believe their children, by virtue of their being children of elect parents, are also among the elect and will be saved. They believe this because the election of God’s people in the Old Testament included the children of God’s chosen or elect people. As children of Abraham, each descendant was among the elect of God. Therefore, the Calvinist parent who believes that they are among the elect of God also believes their children are elect. By virtue of the parents being among those unconditionally elected by God and upon whom God has bestowed faith, their children too are among the elect of God. They, too, will be given faith and be saved. Therefore, these Calvinist parents believe there are two ways to be saved. The first is unconditional election, and the second is by parental spiritual privilege or lineage. The children of such parents are automatically deemed to be among the unconditionally elect and therefore receive salvation by virtue of the parents being unconditionally elected to salvation. The child, of course, will sooner or later believe, but that is a foregone conclusion as a result of their unconditional election having been born to parents who are among the elect of God. Recall that Calvinist election is unconditional, so the response of faith is impossible for these children to exercise. Faith must be given to them by God (as it was for their parents) in that they are unconditionally elected to salvation. Faith and salvation are guaranteed for these children because their parents are among the elect of God.
Go to the next section: Hermeneutical and Interpretive Concerns
Back to Chapter 5 – The Nature and Scope of the Calvinist Difficulties
The Truth of the Gospel 