I am responding to an article in the June 07 Banner of Truth magazine. It was written by Solano Portela and is entitled “A Sin That Threatens Calvinists-Spiritual Pride”. In reality, while I am responding to his article, I am also responding to Reformed theology as set out and practiced today and Evangelicalism as a whole.
The author of the above article says that he does not place experience above scriptural revelation. He says that he is making a distinction between “knowing a doctrine and being able to give a logical, systematic, and detailed exposition of a doctrine.” I am not sure that anyone really believes that one must be able to do that in order to demonstrate conversion. Yet, the author goes on to say that we must never demean faith of a believer that has been redeemed by Christ. “He knows what justification is, even if he has never heard of Luther and Calvin, even if he cannot recite the five points of Calvinism, even if he may not be able to explain what justification is all about.” Certainly we can agree with most of that. However, how does one know if a person that professes faith in Christ is in fact a believer in Christ? How can we call another person a believer when that person is ignorant of the Gospel?
The author goes on to say that God saves and “does so sovereignly; he does not depend on the cleverness, logic, or intelligence of his people.” I am again astounded at this statement. While God does save in a sovereign way, He does save through the preached or heralded message of the Gospel. While it may not take a terminal degree in logic or an extreme amount of intelligence to hear the Gospel, the message was given to us by Jesus and Paul in an intelligent and a logical way. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a message that is unintelligible and simply a jumbled group of statements. It is a message that people must hear and understand in order to be saved. If it is not understood, then how do they believe it? God in His sovereignty opens the minds of the unbelieving and gives them light so that they believe the Gospel. If a person cannot give some account of the Gospel, then again how can we know that the person believes the Gospel? If the person cannot give some account of the deity of Christ, then how can we know that the person believes in the deity of Christ? That is still something different than explaining all of what justification is all about. However, not being able to explain it at all is far different than explaining the message of justification which is the Gospel.
It appears that the author is running from the importance of doctrine in the preaching of the Gospel. It also appears clear that the author is stepping back from the importance of Reformed theology in this article. It appears that being gracious by some definition is more important these days than standing firm on the truths of the Gospel. While a person may not need to know the five points of Calvinism to be saved, let us never forget how vital those points are to the Gospel. The “T” stands for total depravity. It is precisely here that modern theologians depart from the older. For the older theologians total depravity was vital to understanding the Gospel. It was far more than an intellectual acquaintance with the facts, but the experiential knowledge of this in the person’s heart. While Scripture does not set out justification by belief in total depravity alone, we know that the Spirit came to convict of sin. We also know that our minds, hearts, and wills are depraved. If a person never understands that he is a sinner by nature, will that person know that he needs a new nature and the new birth? If a person never comes to know that he falls short of the glory of God by sin, will he ever really know what he is saved from and saved for?
Linked with the above paragraph we must look at the need to be saved by grace alone. If a person does not understand the depths of his of her sin, will that person ever understand the need to be justified by grace alone? If a person does not understand the need to be justified by grace alone, will that person ever trust in grace alone to be saved? If a person does not trust in grace alone, that person does not trust in Christ alone. Until we have been taught to come to the end of our own abilities and wills, we will never come to an end of our own strength in order to trust in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.
Does a person need to understand the five points of Calvinism to be saved? Perhaps not, but if s/he doesn’t understand his or her sin, then that person does not understand the Gospel. It does sound hard to teach that people must understand certain doctrines to be saved, but we must listen to Christ more than we do to those who have a different “graciousness” than the Bible. If we are to have gracious words it means to have words that bring grace (Eph 4:29). If we are to be truly gracious it means that we must have the doctrines of grace to speak words of grace. People may not have a perfect understanding of grace, but they do need to understand the real grace.
God Loves... Himself 
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