Transcript Calvinism and its Impact on World Missions

Calvinism and its Impact
on World Missions
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HOW IMPORTANT IS THE
THEOLOGY OF A MISSIONARY?
DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
WHAT YOU BELIEVE? HOW
DOES YOUR THEOLOGY
MOTIVATE YOUR MINISTRY?
Basic Theology Answers
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 The nature of God
 The essence of salvation
Popular Calvinism
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 Eternal Security
 3 or 4 points of Calvinism as popularly
interpreted
 Total Depravity is seen as the lostness of
man instead of the inability of man
 Perseverance of the Saints is seen as
the Preservation or Security of the Saints
Basic Definition of Calvinism
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T otal Depravity
U nconditional election
L imited Atonement
I rresistible Grace
P reseverance of the Saints
Augustine, Bishop in Algeria
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 Author of RCC doctrine of Dark Age
 City of God is postmillennialist Dominionist Theology
 Suppressed sexuality in marriage to pregnancy
 Denial of salvation to non-Roman Catholics
 Criminalization and suppression of non-Catholics
 Persecution to compel membership in RCC
 Damnation to non-baptized infants
 Baptismal regeneration
 Veneration of relics
 Sinlessness and perpetual virginity of Mary
 Sacerdotalism (attributing divine powers to priesthood)
 Sacramentalism (religious rites necessary for salvation)
Augustine and the Reformation
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 Augustine’s integration of Greek philosophy
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into Christianity formed theology for 1000 yrs.
Luther was Augustinian monk
Offended at Johann Tetzel fund-raiser for
Vatican
Luther’s study of the “righteousness of God” in
Romans as the gift of God changed the world
Augustine had held that justification was a
process
Luther challenged the sacramental theology
John Calvin
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 19 years after Luther’s reformation Calvin writes his
Institutes (1536)
 Luther: “justification by faith” – Calvin:
“Justification by election”
 Predestination explained why some believed and
some did not – logic needs an answer
 Double predestination
 Election = selection of some to salvation or perdition
 Grace defined as irresistible regeneration of “dead”
 Amillennial, allegorical approach to eschatology
Infant Baptism and Covenant
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 Failure to distinguish between Israel and Church
 Acts 16:31 “… and your family”
 Since the Covenant was the same in the OT and NT,
children under the NT should receive the sign of the
Covenant as in the OT
 All children of believers are part of the Covenant as
in OT
 Much presumption of salvation without personal
faith
Early Missions of Calvinists
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 Much of early Calvinism was students spreading new doctrine
with philosophical apologetics
 French Huguenots finally allowed to travel to Portuguese
Brazil to extend the Geneva church
 In 11 months the mission was abandoned
 Five remained in Rio de Janeiro but 3 were drowned because
of faith
 Calvinists severely persecuted “Anabaptist”
 First Baptist Church 1609 in Amsterdam – soon returned to
England
 General Baptist and Particular Baptists formed in England
Arminius and Beza
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 Jacobus Arminius (d.1609) opposed Theodore Beza’s (d.
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1605) Augustinian views on predestination and Limited
atonement.
Both equated election with salvation: Calvin was
unconditional and Arminius was by choice
Arminius accused Calvinist of deductive hermeneutics
through syllogisms
Arminius’ weakness was that he exaggerated free will: 1)
not affected by Adam’s sin; 2) Free to chose or abandon
Synod of Dort decided for Calvin’s TULIP
Became the authoritative doctrine of Presbyterians,
Baptists and Anglicans
General and Regular/Particular Baptists
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 General Baptist: believed in a GENERAL atonement –
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Arminian theology (virtually dissolved in N. America)
Particular or Regular Baptist: believed that Christ died
particularly or only for the believers – Calvinistic theology
First Great Awakening brought criticisms that resulted in the
Separate Baptist Churches
These groups united to form the Union Baptist – then the
American Baptist (North) and Southern Baptists
Liberal influences forced Fundamentalists to split off and
form the GARBC in 1932.
GARBC in the north and SBC in the south were “moderate”
Calvinist (3-point)
Other Independent Baptists tended to be between
Calvinism and Arminianism.
Issues between Theologies
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1. Neither school discerns any difference between the elect
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of Israel and the election of the Church
Both schools miss the fact that election has nothing to
do with the choice of Individual sinners for salvation –
it is the choice of saints for heavenly blessings
-- or the elect of the Gentile and setting aside the Jews
Arminians believed the sinner has the choice of saying
“Yes” to God – Calvinists believe it is only God who has
the choice of saying “Yes” for the sinner
Scholasticism of Augustine and Aquinas was the basis of
Catholic Theology, then the same approach for
Reformers
Scholastic methods inquire beyond biblical texts by
implications of deductive logic into election and God’s
will
Syllogisms
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 Core of Aristotelian logic and Scholasticism
 “Certain things being stated, something
other than what is stated follows of
necessity from their being so”
 “It would not be possible to assert the
premises and to deny the conclusion
without contradicting oneself”
All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Therefore Socrates is mortal
Proof of Catholic Doctrine
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Mary is the mother of Jesus.
Jesus is God.
Therefore, Mary is the mother of God.
 Deductive weakness: Both premises are valid but
the deduced conclusion is false = this is not a valid
method for determining biblical doctrine
 Inductive process identifies the particulars of a
passage to come to a general meaning.
Calvinism deduced from Syllogisms
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 Starting point: God’s immutable decrees or
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sovereignty
Any act contrary to His sovereignty contradicts
His sovereignty
God has decreed all events, choices and destinies
Sinners don’t reject God – rather, God has
rejected the sinner
God’s decrees of election to salvation are
immutable
Was Jonah’s view of God immutable?
Calvinism and its Impact
on World Missions
16
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE
THEOLOGY OF A MISSIONARY?
DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
WHAT YOU BELIEVE? HOW
DOES YOUR THEOLOGY
MOTIVATE YOUR MINISTRY?
Total Depravity
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 All Bible-believers accept that sin ruined man as
image-bearer of God and he has received a depraved
nature prone to self-centeredness, selfishness and
rebellion.
 Does this mean “total INABILITY”? “Plum dead” =
identical to a corpse
Man is totally depraved.
A totally depraved man is unable to do anything good
Therefore, man is unable to repent and believe the
gospel
Gift of Faith?
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Depraved men are unable to believe the gospel
But the elect believe the gospel
Therefore, the elect must be given the faith in
order to believe
 The Bible states that man is condemned because he
does not believe (Jn 3:18) – How could anyone be
condemned for what he could not possible do if given
the opportunity?
 John 3:19 declares “light is come into the world and
men loved (chose) darkness rather than light”
 It is not that they cannot; it is because they will not
believe
Gift of Faith?
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 Eph 2:8, We are “saved through faith (fem) and this (neut) is not of
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yourselves, it is a gift (neut) of God; not of works lest any man
boast”
Calvinists think of “faith” as a “work”; therefore faith must be a gift.
If “faith” is feminine and “this” and “gift” is neuter gender, they
cannot refer to the same thing!
It is not “faith” that is the gift of God, but salvation as a whole
(neuter implies a number of words and concepts).
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God – Hebraism meaning
“wanting to know and obey” = “to hear”
If we are unable to believe, yet commanded to believe, then faith is
like the law, where we are likewise commanded to obey but cannot.
Both are meant to condemn?
Faith is a clear understanding of truth and a conscious decision to
trust in it fully, even if it is exclusive (claims to be the only truth).
Olson’s 8 Questions
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Why did Christ bother to witness and persuade the non-elect?
2. Why should Paul bother to use persuasion at all?
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Why did Christ marvel at unbelief?
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How can unbelief be judged?
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How can we explain degrees of unbelief being judged more
severely?
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How can demonic activity hinder a direct work of the Spirit?
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Why are some classes of people harder to reach than others?
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Why does God give the gift of faith to so many Americans and
to so few Liberians, Mongolians, Tibetans, Afghans, Iranians,
Turks, etc.?
Unconditional Election
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 This is the only solution to total depravity (inability)
All men are depraved and totally unable to believe the gospel
However, some men are regenerated and believe the gospel
Therefore, God must elect which men to regenerate
 Augustine equates foreknowledge with predestination of man’s
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destiny: thus 2 parts: election and reprobation
Calvinist gospel preacher is to preach AS IF any sinner may come but
knowing that this cannot be so.
Conflicts between sovereignty and free will are irresolvable – no such
problem exists in Scriptures!
The gospel of unlimited grace of God and full pardon of all sins to
anyone who will hear and believe, is rendered powerless to save the
non-elect.
Parallel lines theory to resolve the man-made conflict: the finite can
not understand the infinite we are told.
Unconditional Election
Textual Evidence: Romans
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 9:1-5 Seven privileges given to Israel
 9:6-13 Sovereign choice of Isaac over Hagar (Arabs) and Esau
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(Moabites) to be the people of His choice – Nothing to do with
individual salvation
9:14-18 God’s intervention to protect and bring Israel into the
promised land -- Nothing to do with individual salvation
9:19-21 God’s choices here are national, not individual – now
He is electing Gentiles as He had elected Israel but, Nothing to
do with individual salvation
9:22-26 The vessels of wrath are nations (i.e. Israel) and the
vessels of mercy (i.e. Gentiles, the “not my people,” v. 25; see
11:25)
9:27-29 Isaiah refers to temporal persecution of national Israel
9:30-31 the offering of God’s righteousness to the Gentiles
(“vessels of mercy”) by “faith”, contrasted with Israel who
attempted to attain righteousness by works.
NOWHERE in this chapter is there any hint of individual
election and reprobation.
Unconditional Election
Textual Evidence: Ephesians
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 1:4-5 the different concepts of predestination
from the Greek or Latin word
Predestination in
English follows the Latin origin
Time of
Calvinist
Latin: praedestinavit
Determined the
destiny of who would
be saved
Belief
Biblicist
Greek: Poorisen
Decide the end of a
thing: all believers
become adopted sons
Limited Atonement
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God has predestinated the non-elect to eternal damnation
If Christ died for such, His death would have been in vain
Therefore, Christ could not have died for the non-elect
 Yet 1 Jn 2:2 – “He Himself is the propitiation
[atoning sacrifice] for our sins, and not only for
our sins but also for the whole world”
 “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom
for [on behalf of] all” 1 Tim 2:5
 Logic would conclude that a sacrifice of an infinite
God would be likewise INFINITE in offer
Irresistible Grace
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Men are totally depraved.
Totally depraved men will resist grace.
Therefore, men must be drawn by irresistible grace.
Proof text: Acts 16:14 Lydia “…whose heart the Lord opened,
that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul”
Note: Lydia was already seeking God: she “worshipped God
(v. 14) as did Cornelius (Acts 10:2) -- All who seek for God will
find him.
No resistance here!
Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-23) focuses on the type of soil
(or people): some receptive (fertile), some did not
understand (hard wayside road), some choked with this
world (weeds and thorns) and some are persecuted (rocky
ground) – but the problem is not the sower’s design … as in
Calvinism.
Ordo Salutis:
Regeneration precedes Faith
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Depraved persons are unable to believe the gospel
Only a regenerated person can believe the gospel.
Therefore, a person must be regenerated before he or
she believes.
 Contra Eph 1:13, “And when you heard the word of
truth (gospel), - when you believed in Christ (faith)
– you were marked with the seal of the promised
Holy Spirit.”
 Illumination (understanding) is often redefined to
mean regeneration (?)
 Hearing and understanding the gospel are
prerequisites for a evidentiary faith that results in
regeneration.
Steps of Divine-Human Encounter
Foreknew, prognosis, Ro 8:29
Determined counsel, horizo
boule, Acts 2:23
Someone was sent, Ro 10:15
Elect (chose), eklektos, 1 Pet 1:2
Someone preached, or
Predestinate, proorizo, Eph 1:4
announced gospel, Ro 10:15
Convicts, elecho, Jn 16:8 and
Heard, Ro 10:15; Eph 1:13
Calls, kaleo, Rom 8:30
Understood, Mt 13:15; Ac 8:30
Illuminates, photizo, Heb10:32
Persuaded, Ac 26:28
Draws, helkuo, Jn 6:44
Regenerates, paliggenesia, Commitment to
Tit 3:5 and Seals, sphragizo
Believe, and Trust
Justifies, dikaioo, Ro 3:24
Eph 1:13
Leads (Isa 48:17),
Obey (Phil 2:12) and
empowers (Ro 15:13),
Serve (Mt 6:24; 1 Th
and gifts (1 Co 12:4-7)
1:9
He Glorifies us and we Glorify Him (Ro 8:30)
Perseverance of the Saints
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 Perseverance is not Preservation
 “The believer will persevere in trusting Christ” – “he that endures to
the end shall be saved” (Matt 10:22; 24:13)
 Reform: “It is utterly wrong to say that a believer is secure quite
irrespective of his subsequent life of sin and unfaithfulness”
 Therefore, no one can know if he is elect or has the gift of
perseverance until he has persevered to the end of his life.
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The elect exhibit certain signs which accompany salvation
At present I exhibit these signs.
Therefore, provided I persevere, I am among the elect
Leads to introspection, self-righteousness, legalism and works-based
hope for eternity
Regeneration gives power to obey, not a guarantee;
Chastisement passages warn of present consequences;
Judgment passages for believers will determine future status (not
presence!)
Implication for Missions
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 Is there hope for man beyond the reach of the gospel?
 If one believes in an arbitrary grace election that
regenerates a sinner before hearing and understanding
the gospel, then this could … must… happen anywhere.
 Some hold that General Revelation is all that is needed
with regeneration, but faith comes by hearing the Word
 Many theologians plead ignorance of what happens to
the unengaged people, but few say it is our responsibility.
 God is clear: men are lost and condemned until they hear
and believe the gospel as described in the Word of God