Does It Really Matter if You're a Calvinist?

Gary: Now, Contending for the Faith….Here is this week’s question: “Dave and Tom, I recently got into a discussion with a friend who refers to himself as a “soft Calvinist.” He doesn’t hold to all the five points, which are basic to Calvinistic theology. But here is why I’m writing to you about him. He believes that the issues of Calvinist teachings are so secondary to the gospel that disputing over them is to miss far more critical issues affecting the church, and therefore, counterproductive. Since I understand that you are writing a book on the subject, you obviously do not agree. What are your objections to this concern?”

Dave: Tom, that’s a…we have a few minutes. That’s too large a topic, but I could say several things. First of all, real Calvinists—and how do we define a “real Calvinist”?—would say you cannot reject one point. If you accept one of them, you accept all of them—number one.

Tom: Dave, can you just tell us very quickly the five points, and the needed Calvinist definition, but generally…

Dave: Well, it goes by TULIP. “T” stands for Total Depravity—that man is not just depraved—he’s totally depraved, to the extent that he is unable; he lacks the ability to even respond to the gospel except negatively. So, God must therefore make him respond.

Unconditional Election then follows. Because they can’t respond, God must make them respond, but He doesn’t do that for everyone. He does it for certain ones. It has nothing to do with whether they want to or not because they don’t want to. Everybody only wants to reject Him. And so He could save everyone, but He only saves certain ones.

And the next one, “L”—Limited Atonement: So that Christ did not die for everyone. He only died for the elect.

And then the “I” follows—Irresistible Grace, so that those that He has elected, He irresistibly causes to believe. He could do that again for everyone, but He doesn’t, because the ones that He does it for are no more totally depraved than anybody else. So if He does it for some, He could do it for all, but…

Tom: Then again, they’re against God. That’s all…that’s the only way that they can be until they receive Irresistible Grace.

Dave: Right. The “P” stands for the Perseverance of the Saints—not on the basis of our having believed the gospel but on the basis of God having elected us, and therefore, He will see to it.

Tom: So there are a lot of things in there that are critical—not just secondary or not just peripheral, wouldn’t you say?

Dave: I think so. Tom, plus the fact that the real Calvinist, again, says that Calvinism is the “clearest expression of the gospel of salvation that there is.” Therefore, if they equate it with the gospel, then we have to take them at their word, that this is what they mean by the gospel.

Now, one of the quotes that I give in the book, for example, is from Jay Adams, a man that I know and love, and a good brother in the Lord, and I really agree with his books countering the delusion of psychology. But in his book Competent to Counsel, he says that a counselor could not say to a counselee, “Christ died for you,” because how would you know that this person is one of the elect?

So, in contrast to Paul and Peter, whoever, the apostles—they preached to audiences and they said that Christ died for them. You can’t say that, so, now we…because you don’t know who the “elect” are, and “Christ didn’t die for everyone; He only died for the elect…”

Tom: According to Calvinism…

Dave: According to Calvinism. So now, well, that raises a question: Is this another gospel?” Now, I have…some of my best friends are Calvinists. We don’t discuss—we’ve had our discussions. I know they love the Lord. They preach the gospel—the same gospel that I preach. Many of them are really zealous for souls. I have a Calvinist friend who goes out door-to-door to bring the gospel.

On the other hand it does sound like a different gospel. The Bible says, “Whosoever will may come,” but they mean “whosoever of the elect.” Well, I don’t know why you would say, “whosoever of the elect who wills, may come,” because you can’t will, and therefore you’re going to have to come anyway. It doesn’t fit.

So, the fact that this person said it doesn’t really impact the gospel, I think it depends upon the way a person looks at it. But on the one hand, as I said, I have Calvinist friends who are zealous for the gospel, and on the other hand, if you wanted to be rational about it, logical about it, if those who are elect will be saved, and there is nothing they can do about it, nothing anyone else can do about it, this is determined by God before the foundation of the world, then I think that would rather mitigate your zeal—somewhat, at least—that God is going to see this through no matter what.

But this is a very difficult problem. It has been in the church for 400 years, since…at Reformation—since John Calvin, but I think it is becoming more of an issue now, and that is the reason why I’m writing this book.

Tom: Yeah, and Dave, very simply, we encourage people to be Bereans. There are a lot of issues that they have to bring before the Word of God to have an understanding, and if I’m interpreting verse by verse, if I’m interpreting Scripture with a bias or a mindset that comes out of a system, I have to, before the Lord, check to see whether this is true to God’s Word…

Dave: Amen.

Tom: I think it’s just important…

Dave: You have to do that, I have to do that, the Calvinists have to do that…

Tom: Right. And particularly issues that affect how we live for the Lord, what we do, decisions that we make. I think that’s really important.

Dave: When you talk about how we live for the Lord, there are some really serious problems with the way Calvin treated people in Geneva, and I would say that my theology ought to be reflected in my life. And I think his theology was reflected in his life, and that would be another problem for me with Calvinism.