According to research done by LifeWay and others, the next big controversy in Baptist life will be over Reformed theology, popularly called “Calvinism.” Southern Baptist Convention leadership has become concerned enough to hold a conference on the topic on Aug. 4, and subsequently, on Aug. 15, Frank Page, SBC Executive Committee president, named a 16-member advisory team to help him “craft a strategic plan to bring together various groups within the convention who hold different opinions on the issue of Calvinism.”
Jim White
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I am not a Calvinist. Oh, I understand and accept that God is sovereign and can do anything he decides to do, but my mind and my soul just can’t quite reconcile why, or even how, a loving God would decide that some of us will be saved no matter what, while others will be condemned to eternal hell just because.
Now, at this point, I must ask the reader’s pardon. The issue is so clear-cut to me that I have a tendency to gloss over the fact that some serious Bible scholars believe the following basic five points of Calvinist theology:
• Human beings are so evil that they cannot turn to God unless God causes them to do so.
• God decided before the creation of the world that he would cause some to turn to him while the others, whom he has not caused to turn to him, will perish.
• Jesus died for those whom God causes to be saved.
God’s power to save is so great that those whom he has decided to save cannot resist the call to come to Christ. It is literally an offer you can’t refuse.
• Those whom God has saved cannot become unsaved.
They believe these tenants because they believe the Bible teaches them. In truth, taken by themselves, some passages seem to teach points of the above. Among them is Ephesians 1:4-5: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
Most Bible readers have pondered those verses, but have balanced them with the great preponderance of Scripture that presents the view that God loves us all despite our sinfulness, that God offers us all the gift of salvation through Christ to atone for our sin, that we may choose to receive God’s gift of salvation or reject it and remain in our sin, that those who receive God’s gift of salvation enjoy heaven with him in the next life while those who remain in their sin remain separated from him eternally in hell.
Something about these tenets of Calvinism doesn’t compute with, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotton Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Or with “Whosoever will may come.” Or even with the Great Commission, “Go ye therefore … baptizing … teaching ….” If God decided long ago who he was going to save and if, on the other hand, God decided long before they were born that others could not be saved because he would not call them to Christ, then why are we putting so much time, money, effort and prayer into missions?
Oh, I know the Calvinist’s argument: The Bible commands it so in obedience we should evangelize no matter how little sense it makes. After all, God is sovereign and we are unable to think on his level. Well, I agree with that part. God is sovereign and we are unable to think on his level. Still, is the Father revealed to us by Jesus, one who wishes to hide himself or to reveal himself?
Isn’t the whole point of the incarnation, in God becoming a human being, to reveal himself and his desire that no one should perish (2 Peter 3:9)? In becoming flesh he became the sacrifice by which everyone might be be saved. Calvinists say Jesus died only for those God decided to save.
And, is a God who creates a life only to deny it salvation and consign it to hell forever really the picture of the Father Jesus paints for us? Is this Paul’s “Abba, Father?” Granted, I can’t think on the Almighty’s level, but even I can see a pretty serious disconnect there! It seems to me that it would be hard for a person in hell (because God decided that’s where the person would go long before he was born) to fully appreciate that God loves him and has a wonderful plan for his life. In an email dialogue, Jim Baucom, pastor of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va., remarked that some of us “have a vision of a God who actually likes the people he created!”
Again, I understand that strict Calvinists believe that a person can’t possibly want to be saved unless God puts it into his heart to want to be. They quote John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Well, there you have it. Calvinism proved—unless you keep reading, that is. Because the very next verse says, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”
All will be taught. Those who listen will come to Christ.
Although 78 percent of SBC pastors surveyed said they did not hold to Reform theology, the influence of those pastors who do (many of whom are not Baptists) is growing. Six years ago 85 percent said they were not Five-Point Calvinists. For many of our 400 years, Baptists have been plagued by controversy over Calvinism going back to the days of the Particular Baptists who believed that Jesus died for a particular few and the General Baptists who believed he died for everyone generally.
Page hopes that he and the advisory group can find a way for those who hold differing theological perspectives to respect the opinions of others while also finding a way to continue working together. What a novel idea! But given the SBC track record the outlook isn’t good.
Jim White ([email protected]) is executive editor of the Religious Herald.