Back to Chapter 6 – What’s At Stake? The Character of God and the Truth of the Gospel
The Spirit is the Spirit of truth. (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; Eph. 1:13; 1 Jn. 4:6; 5:6) As such, the Spirit cannot affirm a false or inaccurate gospel. William Lane Craig has said, “The Holy Spirit bears witness to the great truths of the Gospel.”[57] This is correct. But note that it is to the great truths of the gospel to which the Holy Spirit bears witness. Therefore, to the degree that Christians believe and preach two incompatible gospels, one or both of them are false gospels. This is a serious matter, as the apostle Paul states in Galatians 1 and 2. As such, to the degree we have got the gospel wrong is the degree to which the Spirit is not at work in the false gospel. To the degree Calvinists or non-Calvinists are inconsistent, incoherent, and contradictory in their soteriology and the “gospel” message, is the degree to which the Spirit, as the Spirit of truth, cannot witness to the soteriology or message that is in error. The Spirit will not be at work in and through a distorted or false message. To the degree that one’s gospel is no gospel at all, the Spirit of truth cannot be at work in it to draw people to Jesus. The evangelistic and cultural implications are profound.
We may reflect upon whether or not the present deterioration of our American political and social fabric is directly linked to the rise of a false gospel within Evangelicalism today. If, as I contend, that Calvinism is a flawed soteriology and therefore does not consistently reflect the truth of the biblical gospel as truly “good news,” and therefore cannot be put into the service of a truly evangelistic ministry in which “good news” is proclaimed, and, this soteriology continues to influence our evangelical Christian churches, then we will have no true gospel message that the Spirit can affirm and work through in the lives of sinners. The result will be a dearth of gospel truth, the salvation of souls, and the changed lives that only the Holy Spirit brings about. We would find a void in that work of the Holy Spirit that Paul recognized in his ministry among the Thessalonians. He states, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” (1 Thess. 1:4, ESV). It may be that Paul experienced these evidences in himself as the preacher or the Thessalonians experienced them as they believed. Such conversions would, in turn, renew our political and social spheres in ethical and moral uprightness. The present deterioration of American culture and civilization may be directly related to the neutralizing of the “good news” and its proclamation due to the rise of Calvinism within Evangelicalism.
Calvinists and non-Calvinists both acknowledge the essential role of the Spirit in conversion. It is the Spirit’s work to convict the sinner of their sin and draw them to the hope of salvation held out to them in Christ. But there must be a hope held out to them. The content of what is proclaimed and taught is crucial. The sinner must hear the great truths of the “good news” as found in Scripture, not a distortion or negation of the “good news” as in Calvinism. Each unsaved hearer needs to know that God has a loving and saving disposition towards them. They need to know that the atonement provided by Christ is for them and can be appropriated to themselves by faith. If evangelical ministry does not accurately reflect the biblical gospel as “good news,” then it is not evangelical, and at some point, the spread of Calvinism will hinder its proclamation. Paul writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Rom. 1:16, 17, NIV) God is the God of truth, and the Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and therefore God’s Spirit can only affirm the preaching of the true gospel. Where the truth is, there the Holy Spirit is at work – and only there. The Spirit can only bear witness to the true gospel message.
But how do we come to know the truth of the gospel? In and through the Word of God. But that requires that we correctly interpret that Word. And when we handle the Word of God, we must not dismiss the role that logical reasoning and our moral intuitions play in the interpretive process.. Calvinist, Kelly M. Kapic, author of A Little Book for New Theologians, writes,
“…the Spirit does not work against reason, but rather the Spirit empowers us, in and through our rational faculties, to acknowledge the truth by redirecting us to the trustworthy God as he has made himself known in his Word.”[58]
I only wish that Kapic could see that his Calvinism is against reason. The Spirit, as the Spirit of truth, cannot sanction the dismissal of logical and moral reasoning from our hermeneutic. He works “in and through our rational faculties.” If the gospel is the message of God and the heart of the power and ministry of the evangelical[59] Christian church, it behooves us to ask, “What is the content of the biblical gospel?” If we find that the Calvinists’ soteriology lacks the “good news,” and runs afoul of logical and moral reasoning, we can conclude that it is not biblical. When the Calvinist jettisons logical reasoning and moral intuition in favor of “incomprehensibility” or “mystery,” then we have good reasons to conclude that the Calvinist soteriological “doctrines of grace” are no gospel at all. If the true gospel is the message God uses to convict and draw sinners to Himself, let us then be about “defining and defending” the biblical Gospel so that it may go forth in the power of the Spirit for the salvation of sinners.
There are two incompatible “gospels” in the “evangelical” church today, which means that something is seriously wrong with one or the other or both of them. Any other “gospel” than the one you received would be no gospel at all. And according to Paul in Galatians 1:6-9, to preach any other gospel would bring a curse upon those who proclaim it. If it is a gospel other than what you received, they are accursed.
I have argued that Calvinists-to-be and non-Calvinists heard the same message when they first believed. They heard and received the gospel that is truly “good news,” that is, the gospel as preached and taught by non-Calvinists. That “good news” assures all of us that God loves us, Jesus died for us, we can and should believe in Jesus, our sins can be forgiven, and that we can be assured of eternal life. This is the gospel message we first heard and received. We did not hear or receive the Calvinist soteriological doctrines of total inability, unconditional election, limited atonement, and the perseverance of “the saints.” Note that these doctrines are the full and final explanation as to how and why a person becomes saved. But they are not proclaimed in gospel ministry. They cannot be preached as the message of “good news,” for it is plain to see that there is no good news in them. My point is that no one heard these doctrines preached as the gospel when they first believed. It is only later that some people become Calvinists, that is, they adopt a soteriology contrary to the truly “good news” they heard when they first believed.
There are preachers, teachers, and congregants in the same church who are Calvinists and others who are not. Most people don’t realize this, and many don’t care. Yet such apathy and indifference are indicative of the anti-intellectualism and theological shallowness that mark the evangelical church today. Therefore, the first step for the evangelical church to become truly evangelical once again is to acknowledge that there are two diametrically opposed “gospels” in their midst. One of these soteriologies is not the biblical gospel. As such, that “gospel” will not be accompanied by the Spirit to any saving purpose, for it is not the true gospel. Hence, true Spirit-empowered evangelism wanes. Whereas when we get the gospel message right, it will be spoken and proclaimed in the power of the Spirit, for the Spirit of Truth will be present to work conviction and hope in the hearts of the hearers.
Read the next section – The Theological and Hermeneutical Divides
Back to Chapter 6 – What’s At Stake? The Character of God and the Truth of the Gospel
Footnotes
[57] William Lane Craig states, “…the Holy Spirit bears witness to the great truths of the Gospel. So how do we find out what those truths are? Well, they are in God’s Word. So God’s Word is the medium by which we learn these truths, and then it is the Spirit that bears witness to that truth. Just like in your experience! You heard this, and I am sure it impressed itself upon you somehow as true, that this is really the Word of God that is speaking to me. The assurance doesn’t come from the Word. It comes from the Holy Spirit who bears witness to that Word. The Word is what gives you the content. It is the medium. But then it is God’s own Spirit that bears testimony to the truth of that. That is why the proclamation of the Gospel and the Word of God is so important because it will be the medium by which we will learn about these truths that the Spirit bears witness to.” – William Lane Craig, Defenders 3, Excursus on Natural Theology, Part 4. https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-3/s3-excursus-on-natural-theology/excursus-on-natural-theology-part-4/ Last accessed Oct. 15, 2025.
[58] Kelly M. Kapic, A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 58.
[59] The word “evangelical,” after all, comes from the Greek, euangélion, which means “good news.”
The Truth of the Gospel 