Harold Camping (1921-2013) was a very influential Calvinist radio personality. He was the president of Family Stations, Inc. His Family Radio broadcasts had a world-wide presence and were especially influential in the New York metropolitan area via his “Open Forum” program on station WFME. Camping was a prominent teacher of Calvinist doctrine. He wrote a “gospel” booklet titled, “I Hope God Will Save Me.” 1 This title accurately reflects the logical result of his Calvinist soteriological doctrines. They can only amount to the wish. They can only amount to “I hope God will save me.” He was also known for his failed end-of-the-world predictions and for teaching that the church age has come to an end, the holy Spirit has abandoned the church, and people can no longer be saved in the church. (14, these numbers refer to the pages in his booklet)
Influenced by his doctrine of unconditional election, here is how Camping understands salvation.
“…if we have a deep desire for salvation on God’s terms, there is a definite possibility that we could be among God’s elect. Given the fact that today, a great multitude is to be saved, it is possible that, I too, can be one of them. And that is a great encouragement.” (5)
It seems that for Camping, like other Calvinists, “salvation on God’s terms” equates to accepting the doctrine of unconditional election. Speaking about the elect he says,
“…nobody except God himself knows who they are. Only after they receive their new resurrected soul, that is, after they have become saved, will they begin to understand that God saved them…when they have become saved, they will know that they had become saved only because God in His sovereign grace had elected them…” (9)
He adds,
“Before salvation no one in the entire human race knows whether he was chosen by God to become saved. It is only after God has saved us that we recognize that the only reason we were included in God’s salvation plan is because God in His sovereign good pleasure had chosen us before He even created the world.” (12-13)
So, it is only after God saves you that you can know you are among those chosen by God to be saved. But this is to presuppose the truth of unconditonal election, and that is begging the question. Note also that God’s salvation plan is limited only to the elect. It is only by virtue of being one of the elect that you are considered “included in God’s salvation plan.” All non-elect persons have no place in God’s salvation plan, that is, the work of Christ, his death on the cross and his resurrection, do not apply to the non-elect. Recall Camping’s assertion that it is only after God saves you that you can begin to understand that it is God who saved you, and you will therefore know that this is because “God in his sovereign grace” has elected you. This is similar to Luther’s “waiting for God to work in you.” But then Camping asks,
“The question may still hammer in our minds, what can I do to become saved? Is there any way I can make sure that I will be included among those who are elect to salvation?” (15)
Here is Camping’s answer,
“The fact is, the election was made before any humans existed. Moreover, in principle, the payment for the sins of the elect was completed from before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Thus, it is absolutely impossible for any human being to do anything at all to assist in the slightest degree in obtaining salvation.” (17)
And yet he equivocates on his own Calvinist doctrine of total inability by saying,
“…even though he is spiritually dead, he is still capable of being somewhat obedient to the laws of God. Thus, he can believe in Christ to some degree, he can pray, he can seek God, and he can turn from some sins…” (18)
A person can do these things for two reasons according to Camping. One is that “he still has a conscience,” and the other is that “God can work His will in the life of an unsaved person even though it may not be God’s intention to save that person.” (18) So, God may produce evidences of spiritual life or election where no genuine spiritual life or election exists or will ever exist. Furthermore, Camping adds that “God the Father may be drawing Him [sic] (John 6:44).” (18) Camping concludes that,
“…as this person is trying hard to obey God’s commandments, he absolutely cannot know which if any of the above reasons is causing him to try to obey God’s commands. That is, he has no proof, nor should he think even for a moment that his obedience is guaranteed to result in salvation.” (18)
We can see the lack of assurance that is inherent in Camping’s confused and rambling theology.
But what about the element of faith? Doesn’t the person who believes in Jesus receive salvation? (John 1:9-13; 3:14-18) Most Calvinists will maintain that faith must be caused by God in the elect because if faith is “something we do” then this would contradict their doctrines of total inability and unconditional election. Moreover, if believing is “something we do,” it would be a “work” or “meritorious” and we would be making a “contribution” to our salvation. Salvation would not be “all of God” and we might boast in the part we played in our salvation thereby robbing God of the glory due him. Therefore, most Calvinists deny that faith is “something we do.” Rather God causes faith in the elect only. All others cannot believe because God does not grant them faith not having chosen them to salvation.
Now, Camping comes at this from a little different angle. Like other Calvinists he believes that faith is a “work,” but Camping will also admit that it is a “work” that the elect themselves do, not that God causes “the work” in the elect. Camping explicitly states that faith or believing is something we do and considers it a “work.”
“Is believing a work that we do? Indeed it is.” (16)
After quoting 1 Thess. 1:3 and 2 Thess. 1:11 from the KJV (and ESV) which contain the phrase “work of faith” (τοῦ ἔργου τῆς πίστεως), Camping interprets this as if faith is” a work.” Note that the NIV and CSB better translate the phrase in context as “your work produced by faith.” Based on the KJV Camping concludes,
“Significantly, God speaks of the works of faith and also of the labor of love. Therefore, we can clearly understand that both the exercise of faith and love are works that we do.” (16)
And again,
“…it must be soundly emphasized that none of this work of believing can guarantee or contribute in any way to his becoming saved because all the work required for salvation was fully performed by Christ long before the person was born.” (20)
“…believing is a work that we do, and our work can never be a part of our salvation.” (41)
So Camping has eliminated faith as a response that God requires for an individual to appropriate salvation for themselves, that is, to become saved. For Camping, being saved depends on – like other Calvinists admit – one’s unconditional election to salvation. Since faith is “something we do” it cannot play any part in one’s salvation. Contrary to the biblical witness regarding the nature of faith, Camping, like all Calvinists, take it out of the process as far as the sinner is concerned and place it into the realm of unconditional election. God gives faith to the elect, and only the elect will exhibit faith. Only the elect will believe. What then is faith all about?
In explaining how faith is related to salvation Camping encourages us to follow a good hermeneutical principle – compare Scripture with Scripture. Let’s look carefully at what Camping comes up with when he does this. He states the following,
“We will begin with the well known verse, Romans 10, verse 13, where God declares:
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Immediately, a red flag is seen, that is, we must be careful. Obeying the command to call on God is work that we do. This verse appears to teach that if we do the work of calling upon God, it will result in our salvation, but that is impossible because God did all the work to save us. Thus, we know that we cannot understand this verse without seeking more information from the Bible.” (29)
Note how the doctrines of total inability and unconditional election have negatively influenced and redefined what it means to “call upon the name of the Lord.” (cf. Joel 2:32) Those doctrines transform “calling on the name of the Lord” into a “work,” and as such, the possibility of “calling on the name of the Lord” has to be removed from the sinner’s ability to freely respond to “the message of faith” that Paul proclaimed. (v. 8) Camping distorts Paul’s flow of thought in the previous verses, and in the context of Romans as a whole, with this conclusion. The Calvinist doctrines pervert the simplicity of what the verse says – that salvation comes to “whosoever” (KJV) or “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.” Paul writes,
“This is the message of faith that we proclaim: If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, [Isa. 28:16] since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. [Joel 2:32](Rom. 10:8-13, CSB with footnoted references inserted)
In context, Paul’s words tell us that anyone can submit in simple faith to God’s righteousness, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes…” (Rom. 10:4) J. B Phillips has, “For Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness-by-the-Law for everyone who believes in him.” It is a righteousness that “comes from faith.” (v. 6, CSB) or “based on faith” (ESV). Paul is also clear that faith is available to all simply by hearing the gospel preached. The immediate context speaks about faith coming through the preaching of the gospel, not bestowed on only certain individuals by virtue of their being uncondtionally elected to salvation. Belief is directly connected to hearing about Jesus.
“And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14, CSB)
And then Paul places a person’s unbelief squarely upon the person themselves.
“But not all obeyed the gospel.” (Rom. 10:16, CSB)
Paul then summarizes.
So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” (Rom. 10:17, CSB)
So, there is no “work” involved here that prevents our understanding or doing what the verse encourages and instructs.
Camping goes over to Jer. 29:11,13 and Deut. 4:29 to interpret Rom. 13. He says these verses talk about seeking the Lord “with all your heart.” (29-30) Camping then concludes that since this is an impossibility because of our “total depravity” or “total inability” that we must first be given “a new heart.” (30) He therefore quotes from Ezek. 36:25-27 about “a new heart will I give to you” which Camping concludes means salvation. (30) To sum it up Camping states,
“We read in Romans 10:13 that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” but we cannot come to a conclusion regarding salvation until we include the required additional information that we ought to call upon God with all our heart to become saved. We know that simply calling upon God will not result in salvation. And we will not call upon him with all our heart until God has already saved us by giving us a new heart comma that is until God has already done all the work of saving us.” (31)
So, you have to have a “new heart,” that is be saved, before you can call upon God with “all your heart” so you can be saved! And, in direct contradiction to what Paul clearly says in Romans 10, Camping insists that “simply calling upon God will not result in salvation.” Confused? Yes, Camping is confused. His Calvinism has created this convoluted use and interpretation of Scripture. But Paul is quite clear, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Nothing is said about being saved first before you can “call upon the name of the Lord.” And nothing is said about this being “a work” a person cannot do because of total inability. We should also stress the universality of God’s saving work when Paul writes, “…there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him.” (Rom. 10:12, CSB) J. B. Phillips puts it this way,
“And the scripture says: ‘Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame’. And that “whoever” means anyone, without distinction between Jew or Greek. For all have the same Lord, whose boundless resources are available to all who turn to him in faith. For: ‘Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’.” (Rom. 10:11-13, JBP)
There is no impediment to faith that comes from a “total inability” or “uncondtional election.” God has “boundless resources,” and they are “available to all who turn to him in faith.”
Camping then interprets “shall be saved” in Rom. 10:13 as a future event and then solves the problem of the person having “a new heart,” which he equated to salvation, by explaining that,
“…the reality of salvation in the life of one of God’s elect is a several step activity. The first step was the election of the person to become saved. The second step was that at the moment Christ made the payment for our sins…the penalty for our sins was paid. …The third step occurred when God gave a new heart or new spirit to the elect individuals… And that brings us to the fourth step, and that will occur on the last day when Christ returns and gives all true believers their brand new resurrection bodies (1 Corinthians 15).” (31-32)
There is no “step” of faith here. God simply gives a “new heart” or “new spirit” to “the elect.” I think we can see how convoluted Camping’s theology has become for two reasons. The first is that as a Calvinist, he is obligated to reinterpret the clear meaning of these texts so as to be compatible with his Calvinist doctrines. In other words, he brought those doctrines to the text and imposed them on the text rather than letting the text speak its clear and simple message to us. He engaged in eisegesis rather than exegesis. Secondly, as much as letting Scripture inform Scripture when interpreting a text is an essential hermeneutical principle, we see how it can be manipulated when one brings their own theological propositions to the text and is compelled to support them by linking texts in an obviously artificial and improper manner. Having Scripture interpret Scripture is a good hermenutical princple but it is no guarantee that it will be used properly. It is necessary to attend to the coherence, consistency, and non-contradiction of your interpretations. It is also important to examine whether your presupposed theological doctrines contribute to these problems or alleviate them. There must be a willingness to revisit your theology if it creates incoherencies and contradictions with clear passages of Scripture. In a creative and bizarre way Camping had to have these various texts affirm his Calvinism. Paul’s teaching on believing in Romans 10 completely disappeared because of Camping’s attempt, not only to maintain but also affirm that this section of Scripture supports his Calvinist doctrines. In doing this he only distorted the biblical teaching about faith. In practice, this attempt fostered ignoring the appropriate interpretation of the Old Testament passages in their own context and especially as Paul employed them in Romans 10, while Camping simply twisted the passages to affirm his own doctrinal agenda.
On page 33 Camping tells us about the important truths we have learned. They are,
- Christ alone has done all the work that is required to save an individual.
- Any time we obey a commandment, we are doing spiritual work. Even while a person is unsaved, he can, to some degree, do spiritual work, like believing on Christ, but this work can never initiate salvation or assist anyone in becoming saved. (33)
We can agree with the language of number one but would add the condition of faith for that completed work to be appropriated by the sinner for themselves – a believing that is not a “work.” In number two we sense the preoccupation Camping has with obeying commandments and we can see here the oddity and confusion in his understanding about “believing on Christ.” Now, again, “believing on Christ” is, of course, not a “work.” And most importantly, he directly contradicts Paul when Camping says, “believing in Christ…can never initiate salvation or assist anyone in becoming saved.” The error here, as I pointed out previously, is that the Calvinist views faith as “a work” and the Calvinist must have the sinner “totally passive” with respect to their salvation. Camping then summarizes,
“With these Biblical principles in mind, we are warned that even though a verse in the Bible may appear to teach that our salvation is in some way a result of our believing or obeying the commandments of the Bible, immediately, we know that this is an altogether wrong understanding of that verse. We know that we must search the Scriptures and pray for wisdom so that we might properly understand that verse.” (33)
What verse is he referring to here? He is referring to John 3:16. Here Camping completely eradicates faith from the dynamic of salvation. He claims that his two principles are supposed to help us “properly understand” John 3:16, but concludes that if you think it means that “our salvation is in some way a result of our believing…we know that this is…a wrong understanding of that verse.” Obviously Camping has forced his deterministic doctrine of unconditional election onto John 3:16.
Note how twisted his reading of Scripture has become due to him interpreting Scripture through the lens of his Calvinist determinism. Here is how he explains the relationship between believing and being saved.
“We know that only believing in our heart relates to salvation. And when we believe in our heart, we already have been saved because God must give us a new heart in order for us to believe in our heart (Ezekiel 36:26). A new heart signifies the fact that we have become saved.” (35)
Camping is stating the Calvinist teaching of pre-faith regeneration. A person must be “born-again” by a unilateral act of God which first regenerates the elect person before they can believe. This reverses the biblical order of faith before salvation and makes faith redundant. Regarding John 3:16 Camping writes,
“Now, we know that the word “whosoever” can only include God’s elect. We also know that an unsaved person whom God never intends to save can believe on him, to some degree. And we know that those who do become saved are not saved because they did the work of believing on Christ. The truth is that they believe on him because God has given them everlasting life. They’re believing is a result of the fact that God had saved them.” (36)
I think we can see that the Calvinist doctrines have completely turned the biblical truth about who can be saved and the nature of faith and its relation to salvation on its head. “Whoever believes” equals only the elect and God must regenerate them first in order for them to believe. But this makes faith redundant and meaningless. And John 3:16 says none of this! The Calvinist doctrines, when the interpreter tries to remain faithful to them, only distort one’s reading of the Bible. Faith becomes the result of God having saved the elect. So, rather than Camping’s principles helping us understand the text, they have only twisted the text beyond recognition. But we can give him some credit. Calvinists usually abandon their deterministic theology when they come up against texts like John 3:16 and the Scripture as a whole, which everywhere testifies against their determinism. In other words, ususally Calvinists speak and write like non-Calvinists, separating their deterministic theology from their outward ministry (except when teaching directly on their theological doctrines which they support by proof-texting) to avoid the confusion that would result; the confusion that Camping has so obviously gotten himself into here. Most Calvinist realize this, so they put aside their underlying theological beliefs when speaking and writing, especially when the topic is the gospel. The section above on Philip Ryken’s Christmas greeting is a good example of this. Nevertheless, the Calvinist’s underlying theology generates this type of confusion. Few Calvinists remain theologically consistent like Camping does here, but most temporarily jettison their theology so they can speak and write coherently. So, for attempting to be true to his Calvinist doctrines and consistently apply them we must give Camping some credit.
Now, we agree with Camping that we are not saved by works of obedience to God’s law and commandments. (25) Also, for someone to claim that they have faith without works is reason to conclude that faith is dead (James 2:14ff.). But Camping continues to mischaracterize faith as “the work of believing.” This is not a description that we find in Scripture. Camping states that,
“…God commands people to do the work of believing. It places that individual on trial or tests him…the command to do the work of believing and the work of calling upon God for salvation is a test…Mankind by nature is proud, and he is anxious to receive some credit and glory for anything that he has accomplished by his actions…we are not to think even for a moment that any work on our part could possibly assist, even in the tiniest way, in getting us saved.” (21)
“Thus, the conclusion that simply believing in Christ will result in salvation is completely impossible.” (40)
Again, this is bizarre and completely contrary to what Paul teaches in the several passages Camping has tried to interpret according to his Calvinist soteriological doctrines. As I see it, Camping, as a Calvinist, has no “good news” to offer sinners. We see in the Bible that the purpose and dynamic of faith in salvation as God has designed it is as a response and not a work. It is a reciprocal, grateful, submissive, trust in God and Christ, not a “trial or test.” Due to Camping’s soteriological doctrines the role of faith is marginalized and distorted beyond biblical recognition.
In Scripture, faith is a response of loving trust in God involving the mind and heart. It is a submission and reliance on the promise of God of salvation in Christ and his death on the cross on our behalf. This is how we know we are saved – God promises to apply the saving efficacy of the person and work of Christ and his death on the cross to us by the Spirit when we believe what Jesus has told us of who he is as “the Christ” come from the Father and what he has done for us as “Savior” in bearing our sin upon himself on the cross. Hence, anyone can be saved because anyone can believe this “good news” when they hear it proclaimed to them. (See on Rom. 10 above) Camping’s Calvinist doctrines of total inability and unconditional election leave us in a situation of ignorance, doubt, and confusion as to God’s salvific will for us. The biblical way out of this confusion is to know that we are saved by faith in Christ’s work on our behalf. But Calvinism erodes this truth to the vanishing point.
Note therefore the absence of the role of faith as the means to appropriate salvation for oneself. Camping can have none of that. Note again, therefore, the lack of assurance the doctrine of unconditional election produces. We see it in the phrases “there is a definite possibility that we could be among God’s elect.” (5) Also, “…it is possible that, I too, can be one of them.” (5) Note that the source and assurance of salvation has shifted from faith in Christ to discerning whether or not you are among God’s elect. And this is supposed to be “a great encouragement?” Really? How so? This is a gross distortion of the clear words of Scripture in passages like John 3:14-18.
Camping disparages those who preach that “You, too, can be saved tonight. Believe on Jesus as the Son of God and accept him as your Savior” and who assure sinners that “I, too, right now, can know my sins are forgiven, and I will be eternally secure in Christ.” Camping says they are preaching a “false gospel.” (46, 47) Camping then entertains the very questions that persist for all of us due to his deterministic soteriological doctrines. He writes,
“Can there be any hope for me? Could it be that God will forgive all my sins and save me, too? The answer from the Bible is, Christ came for sinners. You have just as much hope of salvation as any other unsaved person. You, too, should repent of the sin of following a wrong gospel, and pray, and hope that maybe God in His great mercy has elected you to salvation.” (48)
The fact that I have as great a chance (50-50?) of being among the elect to salvation as any other sinner is little comfort, for I also have as great a chance of being predestined to hell as any other sinner! We see here the nebulous and disingenuous statement that “Christ came for sinners” which is often employed by Calvinists to suppress their deterministic, limiting, exclusive soteriology. It makes it sound like you, since you are a sinner, can be saved. But again, there is the ontological issue here, that is, the issue of what is to be. The reality of the situation is that you are either among the elect or you are not. There is just as much a chance that you are not among the elect and will not be saved. This, of course, is not in accord with the “good news” of the gospel that Paul preached as we saw in Rom. 10. Therefore, we see that any epistemological assurance (what I can know for sure) of salvation “in Christ” has vanished into the premundane darkness of the unalterable, eternal decision of God to save some and not others. But this “maybe God…has elected you to salvation” is not the soteriology found in the Bible. Anyone can look to Christ and his work of salvation on the cross, and by believing, can know and be assured that they are saved. Camping states that,
“We are to teach that unsaved mankind should attempt to obey God’s laws while hoping and praying that they, too, may be included in God’s salvation plan.” (50)
This “I hope I was included in God’s salvation plan” is a completely unbiblical teaching. You were included in God’s salvation plan in that God loves you and Jesus died for you. You appropriate that salvation by believing in, that is, putting your whole trust in God and Jesus. For Camping, the right environment for one’s election is to be hearing God’s laws and commandments. It is being in the right environment of hearing the Word of God and obeying his commandments that one’s unconditional election will somehow be realized, that is if it is a predestined reality in store for you at all. We agree that one must hear the Word, that is, the gospel message, to be saved. But that gospel leaves no doubt as to God’s love and desire to save the hearer (John 3:14-18; 1 Tim. 2:3-6; John 20:30-31; Rom. 3:23-25, 5:8, 10:6-13, 11:32; Acts 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 2 Cor. 5:18-21, et al.). But on Calvinism the lack of assurance persists. Camping writes,
“The prayer of the unsaved suppliant must be, ‘Oh, God, have mercy on me. I do not deserve salvation. I am thankful that as I diligently strive to do thy will, I know that only God can qualify me so that I will be seeking God with all my heart and soul, and this can be true only when I have been given a new heart, that is, when God has already saved me.” (26)
This boils down to the incoherent statement, “God save me so I can be saved!” But let’s try to tease out his thinking more clearly – if it can be made clear at all! Camping states the suppliant must say, “Oh, God, have mercy on me.” That is irrelevant. Either this person is among the elect or he isn’t. God does not change his predetermined decree of election. He then should say, “I do not deserve salvation.” Agreed. But then he is supposed to pray, “Thanks for arranging salvation to be in the context of my diligently striving to do they will, but I know that only you can “qualify” me, and if you do so then I will be seeking you with all my heart, and that will indicate that you have given me a new heart, and that will confirm to me that I have already been saved. I am one of the elect.” Camping teaches the sinner to pray, “Lord, I am waiting for you to confirm that I have already been saved and I am among the elect which will be indicated by me seeking you with all my heart.”
What a bizarre way to think about salvation. This is what happens when the Calvinist feels that they must understand salvation in accord with their doctrines of total depravity and unconditional election. When the Calvinist doctrines are wedged into the scriptures regarding salvation they seriously distort those scriptures beyond recognition.
I contend that the Calvinist view of soteriology inevitably results in the conclusions that Camping articulates here. All Reformed Calvinists, those in the Gospel Coalition for instance, if they were theologically forthright and consistent, would end up where Camping ends up regarding salvation. They of course would not agree with much of Camping’s other teachings (e.g., his view of obeying laws and commandments, that the church age has ended, predicting dates for the rapture, etc.), but regarding soteriology, they ultimately must confess that salvation works along these lines. This is what the deterministic doctrines of total depravity and unconditional election require. When Calvinist preachers and teachers give us the impression that they do not hold to an exclusive, limited, salvific determinism by telling people “Jesus loves you,” “Christ died for you,” “Jesus died for sinners,” “Come to Christ for salvation,” etc., it is only because they are being inconsistent with their theology and they are better at obfuscating the inevitable conclusions of their theology than Camping is. Although inconsistent on “total inability,” Camping is at least forthright in his presentation. And it is in this regard that we should have respect for Mr. Camping. Although he seriously misinterprets many scriptures, at least he attempts to be forthright and consistent in word and theology. At least Camping is being honest in letting his theology inform his teaching and “gospel” message. Yet in doing so he makes it clear how convoluted and unbiblical his Calvinist soteriology really is. Hence, we conclude that Calvinism is not a tenable biblical soteriology and theology. That means that the most popular Calvinist pastors and teachers of our day are believing a seriously distorted interpretation of the Bible, and you either know it because they are being honest with you, or you do not know it because they feel they must hide it from you.
The bottom line is the annihilation of the gospel. This is a serious matter. It removes the “good” from the “good news.” Calvinism teaches that you have nothing to do with your eternal destiny. There is nothing you can do to become saved or avoid eternal damnation. This is a serious misunderstanding of the biblical nature of faith and salvation. Indeed, where has the gospel as “good news” gone? It has been eviscerated.
Therefore, the Calvinist doctrines of total inability and election as unconditional introduce doubt and confusion and distort the biblical emphasis on the nature and function of faith in salvation and render the true biblical teachings on faith and election vacuous concepts as to both conversion and Christian living. It takes the biblical dynamic of faith as a non-determined human response to God’s initiative and completed work of salvation and renders it superfluous and transforms the doctrine of election rightly understood into something mysterious, dark, hollow, and empty of meaning. On Calvinism, the doctrine of election, instead of being a profound reflection of God’s eternal plans, blessings, and assurances for the believer, becomes a source of despair and destroys the gospel as “good news.”
Non-Calvinists would not deny that the fruit of the Spirit, Christian virtues, and godly behavior are the marks of a genuine believer, but they are marks of a genuine believer. They are the marks of true conversion which is the result of a genuine faith in Christ, not the marks of one’s unconditional election. To seek to know whether you are among the elect or not is like chasing the wind. And when the Calvinist agrees that this should not be the sinners concern and they call the sinner to believe on Christ to be saved, then they have adopted a non-Calvinist position proving that their doctrine of unconditional election is immaterial and therefore false. The Calvinist encourages the Christian to continue to believe as the way to know whether they are elect or not. This is no different that the non-Calvinist position that teaches the necessity of perserverance in faith. The substantial difference is that for the Calvinist it is a way to confirm uncondtional election, which may or may not be in store for that person, regarless of their present devotion to God. For the non-Calvinist, perserverance in faith is in the context of their being assured of their eternal salvation, not because they believe, but because they believe in the work of Christ on their behalf. They know that the work of Christ applies to them and therefore they are strengthened by God in their faith until the end.
Note that one’s unconditional election can only amount to a presumption brought into the situation. But the biblical doctrine of election and biblical regeneration is not based on a presumption. These are based on a public demonstration of God’s love to man and saving work through Christ’s death on the cross. Biblical election and regeneration are linked therefore to the response of faith in an objective saving work, not in a decision of God made in eternity past as to who will be saved and who will not be saved. Therefore genuine evidences of conversion have reference to believing, and God’s election applies to the believer. I will deal with the doctrine of election in a future chapter, but suffice it to say here that New Testament “believers,” in continuity with the Old Testament context of Israel as the “called” or “elect people of God,” are also designated as “called” and “elect” as the new people of God. Peter says to his readers to “make every effort to confirm your calling and election.” (2 Pet. 1:10, CSB, cf. 1 Pet. 2:9-10) To speak this way is not confirmation of the Calvinist understanding of predestination and unconditional election. That must be read into the passage. I have demonstrated in many other chapters the untenability of theistic determinism. As such, unconditional election, which is salvific determinism, cannot be biblically, philosophically, or experientially verified to be the truth of the matter. What we are exhorted throughout Scripture to do is believe and continue in belief. Whatever “calling and election” are, they cannot be defined as in Calvinist soteriology because faith is spoken of throughout Scripture as a condition for salvation and a possibility and responsibility for every person. Those who have faith are now viewed in continuity with the Old Testament “people of God” who were “chosen” or “elect,” not for their exclusive salvation, but for their role in the universal, inclusive nature of God’s salvation plan.
1 Harold Camping, I Hope God Will Save Me, (Oakland: Family Stations, Inc., 2006)
The Truth of the Gospel 