The Debate Over Election

The following is the introduction to a Bible Study I taught at Calvary Chapel of the Sierra on 08-10-2011

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;


Whenever you get into Biblical terms like calling and election or predestination it really does cause a lot of confusion for some folks. And when those tight little theological systems of thought are taken to the extreme it often causes major disruptions in the church. We’ve seen Calvary Chapels over the years just come apart at the seams because of the extreme reformed views of folks who call themselves either reformed Christians or Calvinists. But then, to be fair, we’ve seen the excesses of those who would fall more into what might be considered Arminian theology hurt the church as well!

One of the confusing aspects of all of this is that you can actually go back and read much of what these founders wrote on the subjects of atonement and salvation in general. And you can walk away believing very strongly that Calvin wasn’t a Calvinist. There’s a lot of presupposed thought that has taken some of what Calvin actually believed and twist it to support some pretty unbiblical views among the so called reformed theology today.

Now this isn’t an endorsement of John Calvin I’m just giving you some of this information so that you can see that Calvinists today aren’t necessarily representing what he actually believed himself.

It’s interesting that you have two very opposite views, according to theologians today, concerning what Calvin taught and what Arminius taught. And yet just recently, as I was reading from Spurgeon’s lectures to his students, in one section he was providing his students with recommendations on what commentaries would be best to use in their studies. Being a good Calvinist himself, he recommended Calvin’s commentary but he provided them with another recommendation of Calvin’s commentary. According to Spurgeon, Arminius himself once said that Calvin’s commentary was his favorite commentary on the Bible! And yet, according to so called scholars today these two men were as opposite in their beliefs as heaven and hell.

The point is this, there can not be such opposing views provided in scripture. The Word of God doesn’t provide two views and expect us to choose which one we think is best. There is one view concerning the doctrines of salvation and it’s up to us to find out what it is. And we do that by ignoring the arguments that often times rip the church apart.

I was reading about this just the other day in a book that’s intended to bring some clarity to the subject entitled, Whosever Will. And the author made one statement that really should settle the argument forever and it’s this…

Christianity isn’t a tight theological system, it’s a relationship with the risen Lord!

The theological system that we have from God’s Word is intended to facilitate the proper relationship with Christ as we submit in obedience to Him. And so it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship!

I remember hearing the testimony of one pastor who had found himself on the extreme path of reformed theology. After repenting, he said that in his arrogant pursuit and understanding of “true Biblical grace” He had forgotten about graciousness….

And so Christianity is not a system of belief, though it contains that. Christianity is a relationship with a gracious and loving Savior. He will judge sin to be sure, and that’s a part of the theology. But let’s never forget, that it’s a part of the many attributes of a God with whom we are to pursue a relationship with. And so when we deal with these things in the scriptures, let’s look at what the scriptures are saying from that perspective. And really, that perspective can be put into proper perspective this way…

That God truly does desire a relationship with all sinners!

That’s what the Gospel is all about, in fact, Charles Spurgeon
once said something to the effect that he couldn’t embrace certain aspects of Calvinism because who would he preach the Gospel to?
Now, Spurgeon did embrace other disturbing aspects of Calvinism which point out just how much confusion actually does come out of that system of thought. But at least he had the integrity to not only reject other aspects of it but exposed it as error and you’ll see that in just a minute.

And so just for a brief overview of what Calvinism and Arminianism teaches…

Calvinism teaches five elements of salvation and it’s typically described as the five points of Calvinism using the acronym TULIP

T Total depravity
U Unconditional election
L Limited atonement
I Irresistible grace
P Perseverance of the saints

Now, one thing you need to know, these five points of Calvinism came about more than 50 years after Calvin’s death. He wasn’t there, he had nothing to do with the five points that are attributed to him.

I don’t want to spend the evening going into all of these points of doctrine. But I do want to point out some problems with two of them

First is Total Depravity

We wouldn’t argue with the fact that man is utterly depraved and unable to save himself apart from the grace of God. But some Calvinists actually take this to the point to where salvation, which is predetermined before history began, is the result of God regenerating only those sinners whom he has chosen and that regeneration occurs before one can exercise faith in Christ. This is the teaching that Spurgeon argued against when He said he would be wasting his time preaching the Gospel…

If I am to preach faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the man being regenerated is saved already, and it is an unnecessary and ridiculous thing for me to preach Christ to him, and bid him to believe in order to be saved when he is saved already

Spurgeon goes on to say this…

But you will tell me that I ought to preach it only to those who repent of their sins. Very well; But since true repentance of sin is the work of the Spirit, any man who has repentance is most certainly saved because evangelical repentance can never exist in an unrenewed soul. Where there is repentance there is faith already, for they never can be separated. So then, I am only to preach faith to those who have it.

Spurgeon is bringing their arguments to their obvious and ridiculous conclusions. And listen to his response to those conclusions…

Absurd, indeed! Is not this waiting till the man is cured and then bringing him the medicine? This is preaching Christ to righteous and not to sinners.

Spurgeon certainly wasn’t what we would call a hyper Calvinist today!

I’ve heard Calvinists thank God for forcing them to believe in Him. But if you take that argument to its obvious conclusion, as Spurgeon did you would have to say that saving faith isn’t really faith at all. From that perspective what you have is a sovereign God, and on that we all agree. But from some so called Calvinist’s perspective He’s a sovereign God Who’s exercising His sovereignty by forcing people to be His children. And again, what kind of relationship is that?

I believe that in God’s sovereignty He can choose whatever and whoever he wants. But doesn’t He have the right, as a sovereign God to give people the choice to choose Him? When we’re talking about relationship doesn’t that make more sense? This is where much of Calvinism looses me, it’s in that God is sovereign but it has to be their kind of sovereignty that He exercises. And so within that kind of tight little theological system, who’s the sovereign one? It’s not God, it’s the system that becomes sovereign!

The next doctrine that we’ll deal with tonight is the doctrine of limited atonement that basically says that the atonement of sins is limited to those whom God has chosen before the foundations of the world. And in a sense, and to a point, we can agree with aspects of that because the Bible does teach predestination and election. But what occurs within modern Calvinism is the ultimate conclusion that since God chose this group for salvation, He also chose this other group for eternal punishment. Which is a slap in the face of scripture that very clearly portrays God as loving all and desirous of all coming to faith in Him!

Again, when reading some of Calvin’s writings it’s very difficult to conclude that he believed in limited atonement. Listen to a quote from Calvin’s commentary on Romans 5:15

Romans 5:15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Calvinists actually use this verse to support limited atonement by saying, you see, the grace of God is only offered to many and not all. But listen to Calvin’s interpretation of this verse…

Paul makes grace common to all men, not because it in fact extends to all, but because it is offered to all. Although Christ suffered for the sins of the world, and is offered by the goodness of God without distinction to all men, yet not all receive Him

Calvin was a terrible Calvinist!

Now listen to this quote from Martin Luther, the man considered to be the father of the reformation and ultimately reformed theology…

Christ has taken away not only the sins of some men but your sins and those of the whole world. The offering was for the sins of the whole world, even though the whole world does not believe

Another quote from Luther…

Who knows whether Christ also bore my sin? I have no doubt that He bore the sin of St. Peter, St. Paul, and other saints; these were pious people…. Don’t you hear what St. John says in our text:

This is the Lamb of God. Who takes away the sins of the world”?
And you cannot deny that you are also a part of this world, for you were born of man and woman. You are not a cow or a pig. It follows that your sins must be included, as well as the sins of St. Peter or St. Paul….

Don’t you hear? There is nothing missing from the Lamb of God. He bears all the sins of the world from it’s inception; this implies that He also bears yours, and offers you grace!

For being the father of the reformation, Martin Luther sure doesn’t seem to have a very good handle on “reformed” theology!

Now Arminianism, like Calvinism, has some solid Biblical foundations for many of its beliefs but puts more of an emphasis on the faith and choice of man than it does the sovereignty of God. And taken to its extreme what you end up with are folks just never sure of their salvation. Always working toward earning their salvation and constantly afraid of loosing their salvation. And again, these are the extremes just as within Calvinism there are the extremes. What we want to do as good students of the Word is end up where the scriptures take us in our study of God’s Word, which is basically, somewhere in the middle.

A word that I use a lot when teaching the Calvary Distinctives is the word balance. We often find ourselves in the middle of many of the arguments that take place in the church. Not because we’re trying to be moderates for the sake of pleasing everyone. But because that’s where the scriptures often land us in our pursuit of the truth. For example, the whole debate on tongues as being a gift of the Spirit that’s still in operation today. We believe that it is but we find ourselves in the middle of that debate in that it’s to be exercised in an orderly fashion, not to dominate a service where the teaching of God’s Word is taking place. And it’s not the evidence of the baptism of the Spirit.

That places us in the middle of the debate between those who believe tongues have ceased altogether and those who do believe that it’s the evidence of the Spirit in their life and who allow it to take precedence over everything else that takes place in the church.

In the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism we find ourselves somewhere in between those two groups. We believe that whosoever will call upon the Lord will be saved. But we also believe that God is sovereign and that His election and predestination are valid doctrines. What all of it means, I don’t think we’ll ever know on this side of heaven, but if we just focus, again, on our relationship with Christ and seeking to make others aware of their need for Him, the Holy Spirit will lead us into God’s truth as we read and study the Word. It wasn’t until I made that commitment in my walk with Christ that I was finally delivered from all the confusion! It’s okay to not know some things!

Paul says in 1Corinthians 13:12

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

Much of the arrogance and destructive nature of the extreme views within Christianity seem to forget the reality this verse proclaims, that we wont have all the answers until that day when we're in the presence of the One Who gave His life for us all