Another clip from the Amazing Grace DVD. This time dealing with the topic of God's sovereignty and human freedom. The quality is not the best, but it is well worth watching... Ideas have consequences. And when man's freewill is elevated above God's sovereignty, it only leads to problems: theologically as well as socially!
Another helpful clip from the Amazing Grace DVD.
Hopefully you will see that true Calvinists are not teaching the modern version of "Once Saved Always Saved" -that a Christian is free to live like the devil and have hope of Heaven. It's also worth noting the similarities of the Arminian and Roman Catholic teachings on this issue.
A helpful video segment on a very controversial topic:
From the video Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism
Dr. James R. White exegetes Romans Chapter 9.
(47 minutes: Plays in Windows Media Player)
Wanna see more people saved? According to some, here's what we need to do:
# 1. We need to bring home all the missionaries and stop preaching the Gospel!
According to many modern Evangelicals, God would never condemn a person who has never had the chance to hear the Gospel. For these well meaning Evangelicals, sin isn't the issue. No, for them it's whether or not a person has a chance to hear the Gospel -and then reject it- that sends the person to Hell.
If this theology is true, we have to conclude that it's actually by the preaching of the Gospel that people are being condemned! We must also conclude that all the tribes in Asia -with no Gospel witness- actually have a better chance of seeing Heaven than people in the U.S.A. with the Gospel being preached on almost every corner!
# 2. Support abortion!
That's right! A gentleman in my old denomination (the Church of God of Prophecy) once told me that he would not oppose abortion because he believed all aborted children go straight to Heaven! He actually said that it would be better for them to be aborted, than to be born into this world and perhaps have a chance to grow up and reject the Gospel!
Therefore Christian, if you want to see more people saved: support Planned Parenthood! Go out and hold "pro-choice" signs instead of witnessing and handing out gospel tracts. Write your representatives in government and tell them to protect Roe vs. Wade!
Reality Check:
Does anything sound strange about these proposals?
Yeah... I agree. They're absurd!
The question of what happens to aborted infants and those dying in infancy is a hard question that is often very sensitive and hurtful for those who've lost a child.
My personal belief is that the infants are redeemed -by God's Grace alone. Many Reformed theologians have also affirmed the same. However, it must be noted that if they are saved, it's not because they have no sin -for they are guilty of Original Sin imputed from Adam- but because God is Sovereign.
God is providentially in control of the situation. Because I do not believe Salvation hinges solely upon human choice and freewill, I fully believe that God is able to regenerate these infants and bring them to saving faith even in the womb in such cases. (Even in spite of my views here, I believe we need to oppose abortion because it is an abominable evil!)
For the "innocent native" in Asia, I believe the situation is much more dire. The native would be not innocent at all. In actuality, he's guilty not only of Original Sin, but also of committing actual sin. Because these people have a conscience and God's law is written upon their heart, the fact they have never heard about Christ is no excuse. I believe these people will be lost unless they repent and believe in Christ.
In conclusion, no matter what happens in these cases, I believe whatever God does: He is right!
Of all the doctrines I ever despised in the past, the doctrine of Eternal Security, or "Once Saved, Always Saved," had to be at the top of the list.
I can remember teaching Sunday school during my days in the Church of God of Prophecy, ranting and raving about how Baptists in particular "believe a person can get saved and live like the devil for the rest of their life and still go to Heaven."
To make matters worse, I could look around and see plenty of examples of Baptist folks who were not living up to the faith they professed on Sunday morning. I had seen people who professed faith in Jesus and later became hard hearted "backsliders," therefore I had all the evidence I needed to repudiate the doctrine of Eternal Security -or so I thought....
When I finally decided to investigate the doctrine of Eternal Security, it was because I saw some things in Scripture that I couldn't reconcile with my old semi-Pelagian theology. I began a journey to seek after truth, instead of what fit the mold of my theological tradition. I wanted to understand why seemingly decent Christian people believed that their salvation was eternally secure, while others seemed to use it as a cloak for their sinful living.
I began my search to understand Eternal Security by getting a copy of Charles Stanley's Eternal Security: Can You Be Sure?. I had thought Stanley would be a good source because much of what I had heard him teach sounded okay. As I read his book, some of the arguments made sense to me. Some almost convinced me. Then I hit a big snag...
The snag was in chapter 8. It was there that I could no longer follow Stanley's line of reasoning. You see, in chapter 8, Stanley argues that once a person has made a profession of faith, the person can go as far as totally losing all faith in Christ and yet be Heaven bound!
Stanley compares salvation with getting a tattoo:
"If I choose to have a tattoo put on my arm, that would involve a one-time act on my part. Yet the tattoo would remain with me indefinitely. I don't have to have to maintain an attitude of fondness of for tattoos to ensure that the tattoo remains on my arm. In fact I may change my mind the minute I receive it. But that does not change the fact that I have a tattoo on my arm. My request for the tattoo and the tattoo itself are two entirely different things. I received it by asking and paying for it, But asking for my money back and changing my attitude will not undo what is done. Forgiveness/salvation is applied at the moment of faith. And its permanence is not contingent upon the permanence of one's faith."
"And though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves, yet shall they renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end." (LBCF 17:3) emphasis added
"The perseverance of the saints could more accurately be called the preservation of the saints... The believer does not persevere through the power of his unaided will. God's preserving grace makes our perseverance both possible and actual. Even the regenerated person with a liberated will is still vulnerable to sin and temptation, and the residual power of sin is so strong that without the aid of grace the believer would, in all probability, fall away. But God's decree is immutable. His sovereign purpose to save his elect from the foundation of the world is not frustrated by our weakness"
"If salvation depends upon free will, what do you mean by praying that God will have mercy upon all men, and save them with an everlasting salvation, and then tell the congregation that God has done all He can to save them, and the matter now rests with them, whether they will be saved or not? Surely, such vain jangling can never be acceptable to God, however it may feed the carnal mind of man; for if God has done all He can, why pray for him to do more? And if He has not done all He can, why tell the people He has? Strange as such contradictions may seem to a sensible mind, they are frequently produced in the course of one hour by an Arminian preacher." --From a letter by Willian Gadsby (1773-1844) to Edward Smyth.
-Appearing on p. 91 of the April 2006 edition of the Primitive Baptist publication "Advocate and Messenger."
And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. -Matthew 14: 22-24 KJV
I have been told that my Calvinistic view of the Atonement "disgraces the cross" and that it "slaps Christ in the face". Some Arminians get very angry when they are exposed to the idea of "Limited Atonement". When I was an Arminian I did too. It sounded like heresy to me also. This was actually the last of the so-called "5 points of Calvinism" for me to grasp.
The Reformed doctrine of the Atonement went against all I had ever heard preached, or that I had preached myself. It seemed to contradict John 3:16, and Romans 10:13, that says "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". Today I want to let an Arminian theologian weight in on the topic and see if only we Calvinists are guilty of teaching a "limited Atonement"!
Concerning the Atonement, Arminian Theologian Dr. J. Kenneth Grider (pictured above), has written:
"A spillover from Calvinism into Arminianism has occurred in recent decades. Thus many Arminians whose theology is not very precise say that Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Yet such a view is foreign to Arminianism, which teaches instead that Christ suffered for us. Arminians teach what Christ did he did for every person; therefore what he did could not have been to pay the penalty, since no one would then ever go into eternal perdition." -Evangelical Dictionary of Theology p.80 (emphasis mine)
Please note what Dr. Grider has said:
(I want to point out that Universalists are simply taking modern Arminianism --that Jesus died for every person who ever lived AND that it was an actual payment for their sins-- to its logical conclusion. The conclusion of Dr. Grider's statement shows that he would probably agree. Thankfully, no Arminian that I know would ever teach Universalism.)
To my knowledge, neither Arminians, nor Calvinists, teach that the Atonement had any redemptive power for the sins of fallen angels. Neither side teaches that people can be saved without repentance and faith and in Jesus. Therefore, we see at least in these respects, both sides limit the Atonement in some ways.
Calvinists contend that Jesus died to pay the penalty for the sins of the Elect: thus limiting for whom Jesus' blood was intended to save. Grider's form of Arminianism teaches that Jesus "suffered" for the sins of every human who ever lived, but that his blood actually made no payment for the sins of anyone: thus limiting it's power to atone for, or take away, the sins of anyone! Either way you slice it, whether Calvinist or Arminian, you teach a "limited Atonement".
I believe that the idea of a "general atonement" is actually foreign to Scripture. When one looks at the Old Testament sacrificial system, there were always specific sacrifices, for the specific sins of specific people! Even the national "Yom Kippur" sacrifice (Leviticus 16) was specific (or limited) in that was only for Israel: God's chosen people! None of the other nations had any part in it!
Revelation 5:9 says that Jesus "purchased for God with [His] blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (NASB)". Notice it says, Jesus purchased "men from" every tribe, tongue, people, and nation: not that He purchased "every man from" every tribe, tongue, people, and nation! This verse alone shows very clearly that Jesus' blood did not, and will not, actually purchase redemption for every single person without exception.
Let me be clear, Calvinists affirm that Jesus' blood was sufficient to pay for all the sins of every human who has ever lived. We believe that -had God decreed it- Jesus' blood could have redeemed all of humanity without exception. I believe true Calvinists would defend that idea to the last man. There's no disputing Jesus' death was of infinite value and power.
Charles Spurgeon sums up the Calvinist position quite well:
"We hold most firmly the doctrine of particular redemption, that Christ loved his Church, and gave himself for it; but we do not hold the doctrine of the limited value of his precious blood. There can be no limit to Deity, there must be infinite value in the atonement which was offered by him who is divine. The only limit of the atonement is in its design, and that design was that Christ should give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him; but in itself the atonement is sufficient for the salvation of the whole world, and if the entire race of mankind could be brought to believe in Jesus, there is enough efficacy in his precious blood to cleanse everyone born of woman from every sin that all of them have ever committed."
Please understand, my desire is not to close up the doors of Heaven to anyone. I do not want to limit the Atonement where God has not limited it Himself. I hope that I have shown that no matter what theological position you subscribe to -outside of Universalism- you limit the Atonement in some way whether you realize it or not!
None of us know whom God has chosen for Salvation. However, we are commanded to share the Gospel and make it known that whoever repents and believes in Jesus will be saved. We can do this boldly knowing that Jesus has laid His life down for the sheep, and that His sheep will hear His voice when He calls them.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Was the Crucifixion a Disappointment?
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;" - Paul the Apostle (Ephesians 1:3-8 )
"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby" -Paul the Apostle (Ephesians 2: 13-16)
"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;" -Heavenly vision of John the Apostle (Revelation 5:9-11)
"Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." -Isaiah the Prophet (Isa 53:10-12)
"Some preachers and professors affect to believe in a redemption which I must candidly confess I do not understand; it is so indistinct and indefinite—a redemption which does not redeem anybody in particular, though it is alleged to redeem everybody in general; a redemption insufficient to exempt thousands of unhappy souls from hell after they have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus; a redemption, indeed, which does not actually save anybody, because it is dependent for its efficacy upon the will of the creature; a redemption that lacks intrinsic virtue and inherent power to redeem anybody, but is entirely dependent upon an extraneous contingency to render it effectual". - C. H. Spurgeon (3532.476)
"The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. His government is exercised over inanimate matter, over the brute beasts, over the children of men, over angels good and evil, and over Satan himself. No revolving world, so shining star, no storm, no creature moves, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of Devil -- nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. -A.W. Pink (from his book The Sovereignty of God)
"and unto the Greeks foolishness; as that the Son of God should be crucified; that riches should come through his poverty, and men be brought to a kingdom and glory through one so mean and abject; that there should be life for men in his death, and salvation through his crucifixion, or the shameful death of the cross; that blessings should come through his being made a curse; and that his death should be an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of men; and that justification should be by one that was condemned; and peace and pardon should be by his blood; and that he should be raised again from the dead." -John Gill
"God's justice stands forever against the sinner in utter severity. The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of iniquity while death draws ever nearer and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings, we dare not so trifle with our eternal future." -A. W. Tozer (The Knowledge of the Holy)
"Christ's sacrifice has purchased and provided for the effectual calling of the elect, with all the graces which insure their faith, repentance, justification, perseverance, and glorification." -R.L. Dabney (Theologian, Southern Presbyterian, and chaplain, chief of staff, and biographer to General "Stonewall" Jackson).
