We have been critiquing Morris Chapman’s article in the August 2007 edition of SBC LIFE. He said this: “The Baptist Faith and Message agrees that both the work of grace and the responsibility of man are necessary elements in the salvation experience.” This continues to be a shocking statement in contrast to Scripture and the older writers who all spoke of a salvation that is of grace alone by the works of Christ alone. There are other statements that are of great concern as well. “If we are swept up in a Convention-wide debate between those who believe in five-point Calvinism and those who don’t, especially so soon on the heels of the Conservative Resurgence, we will do irreparable harm to the Kingdom of God and our Convention.”
At this point I am not critiquing Morris Chapman’s article but have moved instead to critiquing what goes under the name of “Calvinism” today. In the last BLOG I tried to set out that one could call himself a “five-point Calvinist” and yet not have grace at all. There are probably many people that call themselves “Calvinists” that are not converted. In the last BLOG the real issue was over grace and that of a real grace in the heart and not just one agreed to by the intellect. I John was written for a specific reason: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13). John did not write asking people if they were Calvinists or Arminian. What he wanted to know was whether they had eternal life in their soul or not. If a person is trusting in the fact that he is a Christian because he is a Calvinist of one stripe or another, that person is quite deceived. One is not saved by the points of Calvinism; one is saved by Christ alone. One is not saved by an assent to something as true, but only because the Spirit has applied them to the person.
Am I at this point denying the truths of Reformed theology? Not at all. I am simply asserting them in a way that stresses life itself and rather than in just as a creed or a doctrinal formulation. On the one hand I would tell Arminians that they teach something far different than Luther and the Reformers did even though they use the same words Luther did by describing the Gospel as justification by faith alone. Though Arminians use the same words as Luther did, they teach the opposite of what Luther did on the subject. So when a Reformed person can say that he teaches the same Gospel as his “Arminian brothers” do, we can know that something is terribly wrong somewhere. The Reformed person has at some point, though he may still hold to his beloved “five-points” in some way, actually fallen from his five-points as informed by sola gratia. The other option is that those who are calling themselves Arminians have actually moved from the Arminian position. The truth of the matter remains that the doctrines must be applied by the Spirit or they are nothing more than words to the brain.
Let us be very clear on this. There is enough bad terminology around that one can call himself a “five-point Calvinist” and really be more in line with historical Arminianism. One can call himself an Arminian and in reality be more in line with historical Calvinism. Along with the terminology and definitional issues, we have the polarization and inflamed rhetorical issues. What we must do is get beyond the rhetoric and get to the real issues at hand. Unless Jesus and Paul were mistaken (sarcasm intended), there is only one Gospel of Jesus Christ. All those who teach a false Gospel are condemned without exception whether that person is a professing Calvinist or a professing Arminian (Galatians 1:6-10). What that means is that there can be peace or war in the SBC between professing Calvinists and professing Arminians and both sides could be condemned for teaching a false gospel. The peace being sought could simply be an effort to please men rather than God (Gal 6:10).
What that should also show us is that it is so easy to get away from the main issues at hand. How frightful it would be to be a staunch protector of Reformed theology or of Arminian theology and teach a false gospel. How needful it is to search our own hearts and see by Scripture if eternal life is really there rather than fight for a system as a system. It matters little if the founders of the SBC were Calvinists or Arminian if the present generation does not stand for the Gospel itself and actually has the Spirit of the living God in their hearts. We must never be moved from what the two main issues are. The first main issue is the Gospel of grace alone which is the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. In one sense that is what I have been trying to stress in the past two BLOGS. The second main issue is that of doing all to the glory of God out of a true love for God. It is being God-centered in all that we do because of the God who is at the center of His people’s hearts and affections. This will be addressed starting with the next BLOG. But for now, remember that both the system of Calvinism and the system of Arminianism can be used to deceive people as to the real Gospel. That is said by a Reformed person.
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