Errors of Hyper-Calvinism

Over and against these four important convictions, I want to briefly respond to four teachings that I have encountered in traditional reformed churches, usually in their zeal to combat Arminianism. By trying to avoid the dangers of Arminianism, which lacks in the appreciation of God’s Sovereignty (His full control over everything that happens), these views fall into the opposite error in failing to recognize that humans have responsibility (and therefore the possibility) to make their own choices. 

1 “Faith and sanctification are not the actions of regenerated people. Since they are gifts of God, they cannot be the work of humans.”

I have had to argue against this teaching in churches of various traditional reformed churches. I believe this to be wrong, for throughout Scripture God’s Sovereign rule does not remove or reduce human responsibility. When faith and sanctification are lacking, the fault lies with humans, yet where they do exist the credit goes to God.

It is true that humans, without the work of the Holy Spirit, refuse to acknowledge their state of spiritual death and refuse to seek and follow God. Yet, through the work of the Spirit many are changed so that they begin to see who they are in light of God’s holiness and consequently embrace the Gospel.

In our science book, in the chapter on magnetism, the problem was stated: If you have two similar bars of metal, and one is a magnet, while the other is just a bar of iron, how can you tell which one is the magnet?*

This gave me the following (limited) illustration. Picture God as powerful magnet, and the human as a simple bar of iron. By itself the iron would not attract the magnet. Yet, you observe that they in fact attract each other. How is it possible? The domain theory states that the magnet produces a magnetic field. Under the influence of this field the particles inside the iron begin to line up with the magnet, so that it begins to act like a weak magnet. Transformed in this way, the iron bar now is able to respond to the magnet’s attraction by attracting the magnet.

Left to our own human nature, we would neither seek God nor would we want His presence in our lives. Yet, when we come under the impact of the powerful work of His Word and Spirit we begin to change. We are quickened: a spiritual life begins to grow in us so that we begin to seek God and to yearn for His presence.

2 “All those who are baptized (in a genuine church), have received irresistible grace. God’s promises in baptism are unconditional.”

This was taught by our pastor when I was accused of heresy.  In fear of Arminianism, even a theology professor insisted that God’s promises in baptism are unconditional (for the infants of believers).  Yet, the sacraments are for the (true) believers; by faith we must appropriate God’s gifts; otherwise we will not (in the end) benefit from them. Rather, for those who despise God’s promises, the covenant becomes a curse. Irresistible grace is true when we consider God’s work in “the elect”, who were foreordained for salvation.

In Egypt, all of Israel received God’s promise of dwelling in a “and of milk and honey”, yet most of them refused to follow God in trust and obedience; many wanted to return to Egypt.

3 “All gracious gifts of God and work of the Holy Spirit are only promised and given to the elect.”

I have had to argue against this teaching when I met with people from, or influenced by, the Protestant reformed churches.  Yet, where the Bible teaches us about people “always resisting the Holy Spirit” and “the sin against the Holy Spirit”, it shows us that certain workings of God’s Spirit have been and are actually resisted, and therefore such workings are not restricted to the elect.

If God’s grace (I am not writing “saving grace”!) is only for the elect, then there are no promises for all who hear the Gospel, and the “Gospel” is only “Good News” for those who happen to be elect.

4  “How we live as Christians has no bearing on our salvation.”

Again, in our home church this actually was a prevalent view until I challenged it. Our pastor even published an article in which he rejected John McArthur’s explanation that true faith always results in a transformed heart, resulting in good works. In this article he agreed with Zane Hodge, who claimed that since “We are only saved by grace, through faith”, the lifestyle of the “Christian” (read: baptized church member) is of no real consequence for his salvation. Some church members loved to ‘prove their point by referring to the passage, “We may be unfaithful, but God will always remain faithful.”  

Yet, the churches have always insisted that a godless lifestyle without repentance and fruit of godliness proves that there was no true faith or saving grace.  God’s faithfulness not only implies salvation for the true believer, who produces fruit of faith, but also in bringing judgment on those without true faith, who fail to produce the fruit of faith!

When we were young, we lived under the impression that we were already believers; we just needed to prove this by pursuing a life of obedience to our parents, our Christian teachers, and the elders in the church.

If we were serious in these efforts, then God would smile upon us and lovingly forgive us the sins that still remained in us.

Only much later did my wife and I realize that this was not in accordance to Paul’s teaching. Rather, when we have a heartfelt desire to please God out of pure thankfulness for his amazing grace, this is evidence that He has graciously forgiven our sins and has given us His Spirit to dwell in us as a foretaste for eternal life, lived for His glory!  Earlier, we could not recognize how self-serving we still were or how inconceivably great His love for us is that, while we were yet sinners, He gave up his Son to take our punishment.

The Myth of the Non-Transformed Christian Life: A Review of Issues

The Myth of the Non-Transformed Christian Life

A Review of Issues

I like to start with a number of statements, formulated in response to misunderstandings or unbalanced teachings, which I have encountered during our years in Canada.

1 There exist so-called “Nominal Christians”. 

Such people refer to themselves as Christians, while that name or label does not match the state of their (unregenerate) hearts.  Although they claim to be followers of Jesus, they continue to foster idols, while God and Jesus are relegated to the margins of their lives or merely used to ease their conscience or to boost their status in their circle of family and friends. 

Most churches have recognized that not everyone who is ‘in the church’ (as regular attendants, as baptized or even as confessing members) is necessarily ‘of the church’ (by true faith grafted into the Body of Christ or the church of all times and places). There will be hypocrites (“actors”), who pretend to be disciples of Christ.

In Jesus’ Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) we learn about people, who at first accept the Gospel, yet they never produce good fruit. In the end it is obvious that they were not truly saved. Yet, when they initially embraced the Gospel, they would have been seen as believers.

John writes in his first letter (2: 19) that certain enemies of Christ had come out of the church. Although at first they looked like Christians, they did not remain in the faith. As true Christians will persevere and produce fruit, their turning their backs to Christ betrays that they never were “of the church”.

Paul warns Timothy (2 Tim. 3: 5) about people in the church, who maintain an outward form of godliness while they lack the powerful presence of the Spirit.

Hebrews 10: 29 warns us that there will be judgment for those, after hearing the Good News, continue to live in sin.

2 In the church there can be a danger of false assurance and useless faith

James warns us that there is a kind of ‘faith’ that does not lead to salvation. 

If faith is merely an intellectual agreement with certain doctrines or a feeling of certainty that “despite of us being wretched sinners” our sins are forgiven by Christ- it is useless faith. When our thoughts and lives are not radically transformed by the realization of God’s amazing grace manifested in Christ’s suffering and death for our sakes, then there cannot be true faith.

Hebrews 4: 2 talks about people who heard the Good News, but who did not benefit from its promises and blessings as the Word was not combined with a response in faith.

The Lord Jesus already warned his audience that many would call upon his name in vain (Matthew 7: 21 - 23).

Hebrews 10 gives us a strong warning about those who have come to know the Gospel only to reject it. Those who know the truth, yet wilfully reject it, will be damned.

3 There are two distinct ways in which the Bible uses the term “sinner”.

It makes me nervous when I am in a church where people love the mantra, “We are all sinners”, or even “We are all totally depraved”.  To be sure, the Bible clearly shows us how in the fall of our ancestors human nature has been corrupted so that nobody seeks God to serve Him. Also, even the most good and pious person could not please God and satisfy His demands, for even such “good behaviour” has (strong) elements of self-interest.  In that sense all people are sinners, from the prostitute to the preacher.  

Yet, the Bible also shows us another reality. For the Kingdom of God is taking shape, even in the world today. There are now also people who no longer seek to pamper and protect their idols, since their hearts have been transformed by the love of God (in Christ’s sacrifice) and the power of His (indwelling) Spirit. Although such people will still commit sins, as they will not and cannot keep God at the centre of their lives all the time, yet they must consider themselves no longer as sinners (dominated by sin), but as saints (dominated by the Spirit).

A simple test is to use a concordance or website like biblegateway.com and to search for all occurrences of the term “sinner”. You will quickly realize that the term is most often used for the ungodly people, who do not care about God and His Word. Typically, they are self-seeking people, who worship created things or themselves.  Psalm 1, for instance, distinguishes righteous people from the sinners. Yet, there are also passages that warn us that all people sin and have sinned; therefore nobody can perfectly love God and follow His rules for life. Therefore, in that sense, we are all sinners.

I have met preachers, who love to emphasize Paul’s exclamation in Romans 7, “O, wretched sinner that I am”, yet they fail to keep this passage in its proper perspective between Romans 6 (“We are no longer slaves to sin.”) and Romans 8 (“If God’s Spirit lives in you, you are no longer controlled by your sinful nature.”)  

If we ignore or reject the reality of our remaining sinfulness, we have not (yet) recognized the holiness of God. If we give the impression that we are still sinners like before, then we either deny the gift of rebirth or we refuse to walk with the Spirit, or indeed we have not (yet) been born again!

4 Christians are not “just” forgiven sinners!

Sure, all people go against the will of God, and in that sense we are all sinners. Sure, those who know and follow Christ may know their sins to be forgiven by His sacrifice. Yet, there is more! Christians have also received Christ’s Spirit to live and work in them so that they are transformed and renewed in accordance with His will!

I have heard preachers argue that (primarily or only) our status has been changed in God’s record books. While we ought not to, we could continue to live as sinners, while through Christ’s sacrifice God views and accepts us as righteous.

Peter writes (I paraphrase 1 Peter 4: 4) that the readers’ old friends are surprised to see that those who were recently converted no longer care to join them in the things they used to enjoy together. They no longer seek their joy in getting drunk and feeling good by pursuing fun; they have now experienced the joy of doing the will of God, which provides true and lasting pleasure!

The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that all people are unable to do anything good (that is: that will honour and please God) unless they are regenerated, transformed by the Spirit of God. All true believers are (have been) so regenerated; therefore we cannot continue to argue (nor use it as an excuse) that we are all totally depraved and incapable of doing good and at the same time argue that all of us (in the church) are believers!

Faith and Works

The relationship of (true) faith and (good) works has been a theme for extensive discussion throughout church history.  Reformed churches may think that these issues have long been resolved with the writing of their confessions, but in my personal battles and in the impact of a popular re-interpretation of St. Paul, the same issues have surfaced again.  Recently they have entered reformed circles through men like Steve Schlissel and John Baruch.  Tom Wright is a strong proponent, too. Apparently, Wright has gained great popularity in the more conservative reformed churches in The Netherlands.  Yet, it seems that only a few elders in these churches are aware of his teachings on this point or why we should be concerned about it.

Therefore I want to return to my blogspot “Praying for Rain” to add a few more posts. The first must deal with “The Myth of the Non-transformed Christian Life”. This gives a review of concerns, which I have mostly mentioned in earlier posts.  Next, I will deal with the issue of “The New Perspective of Paul and Justification.” This will require several, perhaps four, posts.