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What is “reformed theology?” Do I believe in reformed theology? Am I a “Calvinist?” I don’t call myself a Calvinist. I believe some of the things that Calvin believed. But, I don’t think we have to call ourselves “Arminian” or “Calvinistic,” or even “Baptist” for that matter. As a matter of fact, the name “Baptist” was given to us to ridicule us, to make fun of us. The name first of all was Anabaptist, which means “rebaptizers.” And those critical of us said, “Oh, that old bunch of folks wants to immerse you after you get saved…that bunch of rebaptizers…those anabaptists.” Then after a while they dropped the prefix “ana” and just said, “those old baptists…” It’s really not a name the Baptists chose…it’s sort of nickname, sort of like calling a fat man “skinny”, or a bald man “curly”…it was a name given in ridicule. I’m not interested really in a name given to a theology or being called a “Calvinist” or a “Baptist” or whatever else. I am committed to what the Bible teaches. In effect, if any “Baptist doctrine” exists we need to dispose of it. Likewise, if there exists any “Presbyterian doctrine” or “Methodist doctrine” we need to dispose of it also. We need to examine what the Bible teaches and simply zero in on the Word of God.
I want to say that I believe in the Sovereignty of God. If a man doesn’t believe in the Sovereignty of God, he is a sheer fool. I believe not a blade of grass moves without God’s permission. I believe He knows the name of every star. He placed them all there. He is ALMIGHTY! I believe that. I believe in foreordination. I believe in predestination. I believe in calling. I believe in election. I believe in all of that. Why do I believe that? Because I can read the Bible! It’s all there…black print on white paper.
Calvinism in its extreme form is inconsistent with scripture. There are five points in historic, extreme Calvinism. Some call it “hyper-Calvinism”. There are five points and they spell T. U. L. I. P.
The T represents “total depravity.” That means we are just about as bad as we can get. TOTAL DEPRAVITY…to be depraved means to be evil.
The U represents “unconditional election.” That is, salvation begins in the heart and mind of God and it is without any conditions whatsoever. God determines it…UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION. God just simply elects some individuals to be saved.
Next, the L which is “limited atonement.” This is the belief that Jesus did not die for all. He died for the elect. So the atonement is limited to the elect…LIMITED ATONEMENT.
The I stands for “irresistible grace.” If God is going to save you, there’s nothing you can do about it. His Holy Spirit is going to zap you and you’re a goner, because that is irresistible. There’s no way that you could resist the Holy Spirit of God. So, if you’re one of the elect, you’re going to be saved and there’s nothing you can do about it. And if you’re not one of the elect, there’s nothing you can do about that either. So that is IRRISISTIBLE GRACE.
Last, the P, which stands for “perseverance of the saints.” Once you’re saved, then you persevere and eventually go to Heaven…PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.
Now, that’s T.U.L.I.P. Every road has two ditches. On one side is “hyper Calvinism” and on the other side, Arminianism. Arminius taught that you could be saved and lose your salvation, so rather than TULIP it was DAISY… “He loves me, He loves me not…” Either way, you don’t have to wreck the car in either ditch. You just stay on the road that is the Bible road.
Why I am not a five point Calvinist.
First, TOTAL DEPRAVITY. I believe a man is a sinner. I believe he’s a sinner by birth…a sinner by choice…a sinner by nature…a sinner under condemnation…a sinner deserving hell – totally depraved. But I do not believe what some reformed theologians believe and some hyper- Calvinists believe, that a man in that condition cannot hear God until he’s first regenerated. They say it’s like speaking to a dead man. The dead man has to have life before he can hear. So, some people get themselves in the position of saying that somebody is actually regenerated before he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Clearly, that’s getting it backwards. They say, “Well, a dead man cannot hear.” And I say, "Of course, a dead man can hear."
When Adam sinned, was he dead in trespasses and sin? Of course, he was. He was dead in trespasses and sin. “In the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die.” God came walking in the Garden and God said, “Adam, where art thou?” Of course, Adam could hear. The problem arises when we talk about death. They say, “Well, what can a dead man do?” A dead man can do a lot of things. We need to understand what “death” is in the Bible.
There are three (3) kinds of death mentioned in the Bible. Luke 16 talks about a rich man who died and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and he said, “Father Abraham, send Lazarus that he might dip his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame.” He was dead, but he was not annihilated - still conscious. Again, we read in 1 Timothy 5:6, as the Bible speaks of a woman who is living in sin. The Bible says that “she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives.” Now, she might be walking around the city of Woodbridge tonight… and although dead, she can certainly hear; she can certainly talk; she can certainly feel; she can certainly think. Death in the Bible is not annihilation. The Bible never refers to us as a corpse. This body is just what we live in. We will always and forever will have consciousness.
Further, the Bible speaks of the “second death.” In Revelation 20:14…the second death. That is when a person dies and goes to hell…but the Bible continues, “in hell they have no rest day or night.” So, in hell, there is the “second death.” Often, people will say to me, “Well, how on earth could a dead man hear before he’s first given life?” Of course, the dead can hear and understand. Unsaved people can know truth. Romans 1 for verse 18, God speaks of His wrath. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness…(the word 'hold' here means literally 'that hold back the truth…that smother or stifle the truth') because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them.” Paul is not referencing regenerated people. He’s talking about sheer, raw pagans…God has shown Himself unto them. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen…” To be sure, these are dead people he’s talking about…spiritually dead…pagans… “the invisible of Him”…that is God’s spiritual nature… “are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
Some hyper-Calvinists have gone so far as to say, “Well, man has to be regenerated before he can even believe because if God didn’t give him life, what could a dead man do?” I remind you, a dead man can hear. A dead man can know God. A dead man can resist the truth. I didn’t say he was saved, “but when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.” They know who God is. They are without excuse. One must believe first in order to be saved! The Bible makes that so clear. Romans 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God.” Faith first! John 1:12: “As many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” So, I believe that man is depraved. I don’t believe that any man can come to God except God enable him to come. I don’t believe that we seek God. God seeks us. I don’t believe that we could have faith unless God gave it to us. I don’t believe that we could repent unless God granted us repentance. I reject this with all of the unction, function and emotion of my soul that a man is regenerated before he believes. That’s just totally contrary to Scripture! Now, you can’t come unless the Lord draws you. That’s very clear. I base my whole ministry on that. That’s why before I preach I get on my knees, I have a place where I kneel every Sunday, and say, “Oh God, open hearts, reveal truth,” because Jesus said in John 6:44, “No man can come unto Me except the Father, that hath sent Me, draw him.” But you know, He does draw them. How many does He draw? Is it just the “elect?” John 1:9: “Christ is that light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” He’s the light that lights every man…every person has that light. Man is totally depraved, but he can hear God even if he’s a raw pagan as described in Romans 1. So, therefore I firmly reject the hyper-Calvinist view of totally depravity.
Now, let’s move to the second point, of which I also reject, the hyper-Calvinist view of UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION.
When God gives us salvation, there are no strings attached. God doesn’t say, “I’ll save you if you will perform good works” or anything else. It comes from the grace of God. It is to the praise of the glory of His grace. Sometimes people talk about sovereign grace as if the term had just been introduced to the world. God is sovereign and we’re saved by grace. Anyone who doesn’t believe that has been baptized seven times in ignorance. We are saved by the sovereign grace of God. God places no condition, but one, that condition is faith. One must believe.
Again, John 1:12: “He came to His own and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God.” If I were to give you a set of keys and say, “You have the car that goes with them,” and then I said, “It’s a gift…unconditionally”…you still have to receive it. If you refused to receive it, it would only be a good gesture with shiny keys, and nothing more. Man does have a condition in order to be saved…Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
If you believe that only certain people are the elect and only certain people, therefore, can be saved, all the “whosoevers” in the Bible crumble to the ground. The Bible is full of “whosoever will.”
In Matthew 23 is the story of Jesus on His way to Jerusalem. The crowds are there and they’re casting their palm branches and their garments in front of Him as they shout, “Hail Him! Hail Him!” Soon they’re going to saying, “Nail Him! Nail Him!” They’re going to be crucifying Him and Jesus knows what is about to transpire and begins to weep great salty tears and lament over Jerusalem. Note what He says in verse 37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Now, friend, if they could not rather than they would not, this is the biggest charade in history. Jesus is weeping salty tears, and He said, “I would, but you would not.” This leaves unconditional election wanting.
The idea that a child is born into this world in the city of Woodbridge, Virginia today, having done neither good nor evil; and that child does not have one-half of one chance to go to heaven…that child is going to hell because he/she is not one of the elect? I totally, totally reject that with every bit of my being that there’s a child born in this city anytime, any day where God says that there is no opportunity…none whatsoever…that, there are only certain ones who are unconditionally elected. Jesus said, “I would have, but you would not.” Let's tighten the focus a little bit more. I direct you to a verse that gives the hyper-Calvinists great difficulty; 1 John 2:1-2: “My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” John is talking about the Lord Jesus who pleads our case before the Father. Notice verse 2: “And He is the propitiation for our sins.” Now, that’s a term that simply means that the Lord Jesus, through His sacrifice, sufficiently and fully paid our sin debt; He satisfied the righteous demands of the Law. He is the propitiation for our sins. Now watch this… “and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Jesus died for the whole world. I can’t help but believe that. What will a hyper-Calvinist say about this verse? Well, he’d say . . . “Oh, the whole world of the elect," and he’ll put a little codicil there. He’ll write something in that’s not there. “Well, the whole world of the elect. The Bible's not talking about the elect when it says the whole world." By the way, may I remind you, any text taken out of its context is a pretext. What kind of a “world” is he talking about? Verse 16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world.” He’s not talking about the world of the elect. He’s talking about an ungodly world, and he’s saying that Jesus died for that ungodly world! He’s not talking about Jesus dying for the elect only. John writes that He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only…not just for the “chosen frozen”…He is the propitiation for the whole world.
Let's consider 2 Peter 2:1. Peter is referencing apostates. If you know anything about apostates you know they’re on their road to hell. They deny the Lord. Let's move now to 2 Peter 2:1: “But there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them.” The Lord that bought them. They were bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, they are heretics! They are bringing damnable heresies. Going to hell! But bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Given this undeniable truth of scripture, how could anyone believe in limited atonement? The first Bible verse most of us learned was John 3:16: “For God so loved the elect?” No! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that if the elect would believe on Him?” No! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Limited atonement has no basis in scripture or any educated study of scripture and I’ll tell you why. Examine 2 Peter 3:9. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness. But is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It’s not God’s will that any man go to hell. God’s will is not always realized. Do we believe the notion that because God is sovereign, His will is always accomplished? Do you believe murder is God’s will? Do you believe sodomy is God’s will? Do you think blasphemy is God’s will? No, God gave man a will. God Himself is not willing that any should perish, but God gave man a will and some do perish but the love of God will follow that man to that hell with tears if he goes.
Consider the following illustration. A farmer. This farmer has a swimming hole on his farm. He puts up a sign that says “NO SWIMMING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES – PRIVATE PROPERTY – STAY OUT!” Three boys come in there and they begin to swim. They get out in the middle and they’re drowning. He drives by on his tractor, he looks over there and there are three boys over there. Do they deserve to drown? Yes. Is he obligated to save them? No. Did he put up the sign? Yes. Is he unjust if he lets them drown…(I’m talking about hyper-Calvinism, now)? No. No, he’s not unjust. He said “Don’t do it.” They did it. They chose. Could he be blamed if they drowned? No, so if he wants to, he can be perfectly just and just ride right on by on his tractor. But suppose he says, “Oh, I’m going have mercy on the boy in the blue trunks…” so he throws him a line. After all, he doesn’t have to have mercy on any of them. So he just decides that he’s just going to choose “that one.” And he just chooses “that one” and says to the other two, “You can drown. You deserve to drown. I choose that one,” and he throws that one a line because he is “elect” and he’s the one that is saved. The Calvinist says, “Now, see, that’s consistent with the nature of God. God’s still perfectly just if He does that.” I say, "that’s not consistent with the nature of God because not only is God just…God is love. God is love." “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish…” Do you think that God, a God of love, would not choose to save all three of those boys? Now, suppose the farmer throws a line to all three boys? And two of them say, “No thank you, I think I can make it to shore.” He says, “No, take the line.” They say, “I’m going to do it myself,” and they perish. Does that mean his love was not real and ineffectual? Not at all!
Again, the scripture speaks. In John 1:29, John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the elect.” No! “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” Do you know what motivated the Apostle Paul? Do you know what made Paul the greatest missionary-soul-winner that ever lived? It wasn’t hyper- Calvinism. I’ll tell you what it was as revealed in 2 Corinthians 5:13. Many said that Paul was crazy. They said, “Paul, you’re out of your mind. You’re beside yourself.” And Paul says, “Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead.” How many did Jesus die for? ALL! All the dead! “If One died for all, then were all dead that He died for; that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him that died for them and rose again.” What Paul is saying is “This is what motivates me…I’m not crazy…they were all dead…and Jesus died for ALL.” He died for all. If you don’t say that Jesus died you might as well say with the same logic that all were not dead . . .that in Adam, all did not die. But the Bible declares that, "in Adam all died, even so in Christ are all made alive.” Friend, the hyper-Calvinist will say, “If you say that Jesus’ death was for all and all don’t get saved, then that makes His death ineffectual…it means He’s not sovereign.” May I pose a question? When God fed the children of Israel with manna in the wilderness, do you think all the manna was eaten? Do you think some of it lay on the ground and not consumed? Of course! Did that mean God didn’t do it or that God was not showing love and mercy just because some manna was not taken? If God offers His love and His love is not received, that doesn’t mean God has failed; it means man has failed. God is love! I reject the Calvinist belief of limited atonement because of these Scriptures that are so clear and so plain. He is the propitiation for our sin and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Next, IRRESISTIBLE GRACE…you’re going to get saved, no matter what…God’s going catch you…God’s going zap you, and you’re going to be saved. You cannot resist the Holy Spirit of God.
In Acts 7 we find Stephen who is being stoned because of the message he preached. He says to his executioners in verse 51: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears…ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you.” Who says the Holy Spirit can’t be resisted? Stephen said, “You do always resist the Holy Ghost.” Absolutely, the Holy Spirit can be resisted. Remember Jesus words in Matthew 23:37… “I would but ye would not…”
There is a classic passage in Proverbs 1. This makes it about as clear as any passage. Proverbs 1:22, God is speaking: “How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and the fools hate knowledge. Turn ye at My reproof. Behold I will pour out My Spirit unto you. I will make known My words unto you, because I have called and ye refused. I’ve stretched My hand and no man regarded, but ye have set at naught all My counsel and would none of My reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity and I will mock when your fear cometh.”
Isn’t this plain that He can be resisted?
Continue with verse 27: “When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon Me and I will not answer. They shall seek Me early but they shall not find Me, for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord they would none of My counsel. They despised My reproof. Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. For whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”
Now, it’s so clear that God speaks but God gives man the right to say, “NO!” This is not irresistible grace.
Coerced love is a contradiction in terms. The idea that God has some irresistible grace… when you say, “I don’t want to be saved!” . . . and He says, “Well, you’re going to be saved! I am going to make you love Me!” That’s ridiculous. True love is reciprocal. God gives us the privilege of saying “no” so we may have the delight of saying “yes.”
If God’s Holy Spirit is irresistible, how shall we justify the doctrine of the unpardonable sin? Matthew 12:22: “Then was brought unto Him one possessed of the devil, blind and dumb, and He healed him insomuch as the blind and dumb both spake and saw and all the people were amazed and said, ‘Is this not the Son of David?’ But when the Pharisees heard it said, ‘This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.’ And Jesus knew their thoughts and said, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city and house divided against itself shall not stand and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then shall his kingdom stand?’” What Jesus is saying is “I’m not in collusion with the devil." “And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges.” The Lord had performed a miracle and the Holy Spirit was working, but then Jesus goes on to say, “Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.”
This serves as the most extraneous passage of Scripture I’ve ever seen if people can’t be forgiven anyway. If they’re not part of the elect…what is the sense of it? What difference would it make if a person blaspheme the Holy Ghost or whether he didn’t if he’s not part of the elect? It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. There’s no rhyme, no reason, no nothing to that. The so-called unpardonable sin doesn’t make any sense at all if that’s what it’s all about.
Last , PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. I believe in the eternal security of the believer…just as I believe in election, foreordination, and predestination. But I really don’t believe it’s the perseverance of the saints…I believe it’s the perseverance of the Spirit. Note Philippians 1:6: “He who hath begun a good work will perform it until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The hyper-Calvinist says, “If you claim to be a saint, and at the end of your life have a ‘spiritual blowout,’ you’re going to hell, because you did not persevere.” They believe only the “elect” persevere, so those who are not “elect” don’t persevere. This sounds so much like Arminianism it’s crazy. But that’s what they believe and they’ll tell you that right at the end, if you have a spiritual failure or you do this or that, then you were never among the elect. But, if it’s the “perseverance of the Spirit” then “He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it.”
In summary, all five points of T.U.L.I.P. in its extreme form are inconsistent with scripture.
God is sovereign. Do you agree? A sovereign is a king. You didn’t vote him in and you can't vote him out. God is sovereign. Election and predestination are Biblical. Election is based on foreknowledge.
Consider Peter 1:1-2… “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bythynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” God lives in eternity. We live in time. We must not assume that eternity is just a lot more time. We drift toward that sometimes when we sing songs like “Amazing Grace”… “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun.” That’s just poetry, that’s not Bible. In eternity, time is irrelevant. It does not pertain. We say that God is sovereign, but there are some things God can’t do. For example, God can’t lie. Isn’t that correct? He cannot lie. God can’t learn anything. How can God learn anything? He knows it all. He knows the beginning and He knows the end and He knows the middle…He knows it all…He sees it all. If God were to learn something, He would not be omniscient. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God? God is God!! He knows the beginning from the end…yet God gave you a will and God has already known what you’re going to do with that will. Because God knows what you’re going to do with that will, you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. However, in that God knows it doesn’t mean God has caused it, or programmed it.
There was a man named Halley, who studied about a comet. He knew exactly when the comet was going to appear. Now knowing when the comet was going to appear didn’t mean that he made it appear. Halley’s Comet just appeared right on time because he had foreknowledge that the comet would appear…and God’s foreknowledge of my salvation does not mean that God gives me irresistible grace and I’m a part of a special elect group, and that He did not die for the whole world. The order is foreknowledge, election and predestination. Election looks backward to foreknowledge. Predestination looks forward to destiny.
God saw a "no account, simple boy" from South Carolina…that’s me… God saw that boy repenting of his sin. He said, “That’s one of My elect.” God saw him trusting Jesus and He said, “He’s one of My elect, and He’s going to be like Jesus. It is predestined.” “Whom He foreknew, them He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.” 1 Peter1:2: "We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God.”
If you communicate this doctrine to some people, it’ll make infidels out of them…it will cause them to turn against God altogether. I’ll tell you why. Think about little babies that die. How many babies die in the world today? Think about the little babies that are aborted every year…a million and a half. Well, let me ask you a question. Are the little babies that die that are not part of the elect… do they go to hell? Do those little babies who didn’t know their name, they never did any good or evil, some of them never even got born? I have a sister, who died at birth, now in heaven…I’m sure she’s there. I couldn’t be sure if I thought she might not be one of the elect. Well, you say, “Pastor, maybe your sister's not in heaven…maybe she wasn’t one of the elect.” I don’t believe that! Consider world missions. Do you believe that God gathered all the elect here in our country? Think about it! Let your mind just begin to work on this. See what this will do to your reasoning. If I believed that it’s already settled whether they’re going to heaven or hell and there’s nothing we can do about it, We wouldn’t have any need of world missions or evangelism. Few people have ever suffered as the Apostle Paul suffered. Notice in 2 Timothy 2:9 “Therefore, I endure all things (and you know some of the things he endured…he was in prison, he was beaten, he was stoned, he was left for dead, he was shipwrecked…) I endure all things for the elect’s sakes that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
” FOR THE ELECT’S SAKES THAT THEY MAY OBTAIN SALVATION… Hey Paul, if they’re going to be saved anyway, why didn't you just go fishing? Why the shipwrecks, why the beatings, why the floggings, why the jail, why the prison? They’re going to be saved anyway! Paul replies, “I do it for the elect’s sake that they might obtain salvation.”
The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The only logical conclusion of five-point Calvinism is fatalism.
