“See to it
that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which
depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than
on Christ” (Col. 2:8).
For the first 13
years of my life, I lived on a property that had two small private ponds. While
neither of those ponds had much for fish in them, they both had lots of frogs.
As a kid I can remember going out there with my older sister and some of her
friends and catching frogs. Those frogs were large enough to enjoy frog-legs,
not a bad thing. And at the time, my older sister had to try the experiments
that she was being taught in school, including how you can literally boil a
frog to death by placing it in pot of warm water then ever so gently increasing
the temperature. So yes, I can verify as an eye-witness that it really does
work on frogs; and sadly the principle works on people as well. No I am not
talking about literally boiling a person to death. Rather, there are things
that can cause a person to die physically, and more important, spiritually die
without them even realizing the danger that they are in. That can be the case
with Calvinism, and it is the case for many others in our area who do not
understand the danger that they are in.
Therefore, this
month I’d like us to consider three very dangerous aspects of Calvinism to help
protect us and those we love from its snares. The first danger of Calvinism is
that it teaches people to rely upon the traditions of men rather than adhering
strictly to what the Word of God has to say. While I am positive that if you
were to ask, the most Calvinists, they will claim that Scripture is there only
ruling authority, but in actual practice it can be something totally different.
For example, many Calvinists will also point to the significance of their
Creeds that they adhere to. Yes, some of the Creeds are simply a summary of
essential elements to Biblical Christianity. However, at times, they are not
clear on their beliefs. For example, within the Apostles Creed the belief in
the Holy Spirit fails to clarify whether the Holy Spirit is one of the Trinity
or merely an impersonal divine force. Additionally, creeds can leave out
essential elements of Biblical Christianity. Finally, Jesus never gave any
authority to written creeds; He only gave His authority in His Word. Watchman
Nee wrote: “For man to consider the creeds as authoritative is for him to annul
the authority of the Bible! It causes man to take the creeds as the standard
instead of taking the Bible as the standard! (The Collected Works of
Watchman Nee, vol. 5: The Christian (3), p. 448.)
True, not all
Calvinists adhere to creeds, yet there is no way for a person to come to the
conclusion that Calvinists do concerning several passages of Scripture without
seeing Scripture through the teaching of
church leaders down through the centuries. For example, 1 John 2:2 states that
Jesus “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also
for the sins of the whole world.” Yet Calvinists teach that world only refers
to the elect (those whom God chose for salvation according to Calvinists). To
assert that world in 1 John 2:2 refers merely to the elect does not come from
the clear reading of Scripture. Likewise, Hebrews 2:9 plainly states that Jesus
“tasted death for everyone.” Yet once again, since the Calvinist holds to
limited atonement (that Jesus died only for the elect), then the “everyone”
which is mentioned in this passage must only be referring to the elect. Thus
again, they must hold to a teaching of man above Scripture. This same argument
could be made for all five points of Calvinism (see the various articles
concerning the five points of Calvinism for proof to this point http://eugenechristian
church.blogspot.com/search/label/Theology%20201?updated-max=2018-11-23T13:49:00-08:00&max-results=20&start=5&by-date=false).
Conversely, Paul
as he instructed his comrade, Timothy, stated hands down that the Bible is the
authoritative means for Christians to live by (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Additionally,
Paul went so far as saying that anyone who perverts the Gospel of Christ are
eternally condemned (Gal. 1:6-9). Moses and Solomon back Paul’s warning of
adding to or subtracting from the word of God. Indeed, John closed the last
words of the Bible with the same exhortation, declaring: “I warn everyone who
hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them,
God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes
words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in
the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Rev.
22:18-19). Finally, Jesus Himself, made it clear that the Bible was in a class
of its own, exalted above all tradition. He rebuked the Pharisees for not accepting
the Bible alone and negating the final authority of the Word of God by their
religious traditions, saying, “And why do you break the commandment of God for
the sake of your tradition?…You nullify the word of God, for the sake of your
tradition” (Matt. 15:3, 6). The Bible alone can hardly be stated more
emphatically. And unfortunately, Calvinism does not adhere to the Bible alone
as their ultimate ruling authority.
Kevin Thompson
explains the issue related to the Calvinist’s Gospel in the following way. “In
Calvinism, the Biblical Gospel, that is, the death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ, is not ‘good news’ for most people. Christ didn’t die for most people
in Calvinism, so therefore, it’s not good news for them at all. In fact, it’s
completely inconsequential whatsoever to most people. What makes Christ’s death
and resurrection consequential to someone? Why it’s simple. It matters if
they’re one of the elect. If they’ve been chosen. What this means is that it’s
not actually the death or the resurrection of Christ that matters at all. The
only thing that matters is one’s election. If you’re elect, you’re good. If
not, too bad. At the end of the day, the death and resurrection of Christ is
just peripheral as far as anyone is concerned. Only their election matters.
Are you a sinner?
Sure. Do you have a remedy for your sin? Well, that depends on whether you’re
elect or not. So in Calvinism, the Biblical Gospel isn’t good news at all
because you have no idea whether or not Christ died for you to begin with. The
only good news for the individual is if they find out that they are one of the
elect. You can’t trust in Christ’s blood if it wasn’t shed for you. The only
thing left to trust is in your election; the idea that you were chosen.
Can you get saved
by trusting your election rather than trusting Christ? No you can’t. So are
those trusting something other than Christ saved? You might think so, but I
wouldn’t bet on it” (Are Calvinists Saved?). Thus, we see a second
fundamental doctrine of Biblical Christianity being rejected in Calvinism.
One final issue
that we want to briefly draw our attention to concerning Calvinism is that
which is a natural byproduct of unconditional election and perseverance of the
saints. To illustrate this point, I am reminded of a woman that I met several
years ago. She was a Calvinist who found great peace in thinking that her
children who had been raised in the church yet had strayed far from living as
the Bible teaches were in fact saved. So while she was saddened by their poor
choice of lifestyle, she found comfort in believing that one day they were
going to be in heaven in spite of their ungodly lifestyles. No doubt it is easy
to sympathize with that woman, but, it doesn’t change what Scripture has to
say.
The Bible teaches
that “without holiness, no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). The Bible also
teaches that those who continually practice sin are of the devil (1 John 3:8).
Therefore, this woman’s hopes for her children were misdirected through the
false teaching of Calvinism.
In conclusion,
Calvinists do not adhere to the Bible alone as their ultimate ruling authority,
nor do they believe that one is saved by trusting Christ alone, and their
teaching can lead to false assurance of one’s salvation. So the moral of the
story is this, do not be misled “through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which
depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than
on Christ” (Col. 2:8).
In His service,
Matt
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