Why I’m a Calvinist
By
I am not big on labels. Unfortunately though, sometimes it is just impossible to avoid the use of a label, especially when discussing matters of theology. I say that to say this: though I have entitled this "Why I am a Calvinist," I do so only out of a recognition that the theological position I hold to is identified by that label. So, it is only because of that that I attach the label of "Calvinist" to myself. I much more prefer the label "Christian." Bond-servant of Christ will suffice as well! :-) Oh, and with labels in mind, another label that is used sometimes synonymously with the term Calvinism that you will find mentioned in this article is the term "Reformed."
Anyway, now that we are all confused, and labels being what they are, I will tell you why I am of the theological persuasion known as "Calvinist" (or "Reformed"). Also, before beginning, let me say that if you are a non-Calvinist that is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, please know that I count you as a dear brother or sister in Christ. I pray that you simply consider the things that I about to say.
I was a Christian for about 5 years before I finally embraced what is commonly called Calvinism. I say commonly called “Calvinism” to call attention to the fact that I believe that the term Calvinism is somewhat of a misnomer. The reason is because Calvinism didn’t begin with the person for whom the term is based, "the theologian" of the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin. The principles that are espoused in Calvinism were not something new that John Calvin invented, but have their basis in Scripture.
After the Bible, the most prominent teacher in church history of these truths was the fourth-century theologian Aurelius Augustine, who many consider to be the greatest theologian the first 1,000 years of the church, if not ever. After that we discover that the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth-century all proclaimed these truths. It can be said that Calvinism (so called) was in fact the theology that both started, and sustained the Reformation. John Calvin did more than any other person to systematize the key teachings of the Reformers and the Reformation, hence his name is most associated with the theology known as “Reformed.” With that in mind, I’d like to set forth why and how it is that I came to embrace this “theology of the Reformation” that has come to known to us today as Calvinism.
Before getting started, let me give you a brief synopsis of who I am and where I’ve been. I joined the United Stated Air Force since 1984, and was married in 1995 to a beautiful, godly woman named Ursula. We have one son, Michael. When I was an infant, I was baptized Roman Catholic, and my first three years of elementary school were spent in Catholic schools. I received Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior on December 18th, 1994 and joined Cinco Baptist Church in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. After my marriage to Ursula, we decided to become members of the church Ursula attended before we were married, which was a Pentecostal Church in Mary Esther, FL. I was ordained as a deacon in 1996 and then licensed as a minister in 1997 at that church. We were then reassigned to the Washington D.C. area, and joined another Pentecostal Church, where I was ordained into the Gospel Ministry in 1999. After embracing Calvinism, my family and I felt the need to be in a place that was fully Reformed in doctrine. So, after much prayer and searching, we became members of the Harvester Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in Springfield VA, and I was eventually installed as Ruling Elder there. My family and I were then assigned to Incirlik AB, Turkey, for two years, where we attended the Gospel Service on base, and I served on the ministerial team of that service. We were then stationed at Dyess AFB TX (and retired in 2005), and were members of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC), where I serve the Body of Christ as a Ruling Elder. I now reside in Jenkintown PA with my family, and attend New Life Presbyterian Church of Dresher (PCA), and I am currently attending Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree. Quite a journey, huh?! With this very brief bio in mind, let me move on to my testimony…
After God, by His amazing grace brought me to saving faith in 1994, I joined a Southern Baptist church, and really got grounded in the fundamentals of the faith. Shortly after my conversion, there were people close to me that I respected spiritually who told me what to watch out for in terms of doctrine. One of the things they mentioned was a theology called “Calvinism.” They wanted me to avoid this doctrine at all costs, though they didn’t give any clear reasons why. They simply presented Calvinism as some gross form of error that made God a cosmic puppeteer; or, as some popular Christian teachers are fond of saying, a "cosmic rapist." Of course I, being the babe in Christ that I was, just trusted their advice and kept my eyes open for this monstrous doctrine known as “Calvinism” that would teach such horrible things. Sure enough, within a few months (March 1995), one of the people I was having a Bible study with mentioned that dreaded, awful, accursed thing called “Calvinism.” My ears perked up, and I told my friend “No! I don’t want to hear anything about that!” My friend was a bit startled by my reaction, but being the mature, gracious Christian he was, he backtracked and abided by my wishes. So, basically by this point you could say that I had come to really hate Calvinism, and to hold the Calvinists I met in deep suspicion.
Then about a year later, in Apr 1996, I was deployed to Saudi Arabia. We had a small chapel on the base there to attend. Anyone familiar with military chapels understands that the chapel program is organized in such a manner as to not cater to any particular denomination. In other words, there isn’t a Baptist service, and a Presbyterian service, a Lutheran service, or a Methodist service, etc. Rather, for Protestants, there is usually a General Protestant service, where people from all of the more traditional mainline denominations would go. Then there was a Full Gospel service, where all of the Charismatics and Pentecostals would go. Finally, there was a Contemporary Service that caters to the modern trends in Protestant worship (sort of “charismatic-light”). It was during this deployment that I got into an in-depth discussion really for the first time with a Calvinist about “Calvinism.”
It all started when I had been teaching at the little chapel on base. I was teaching a Bible Study I developed entitled ironically, Amazing Grace, and a discussion about eternal security came up. At that time I strongly believed in eternal security, while most in the class did not (it was a predominately Pentecostal crowd). The discussion went on for about 10 minutes, and I wasn’t doing very well! Suddenly, a hand arose in the back. I called on the young man, and he began to touch on several verses that defended the concept of eternal security. As a matter of fact, he did such a great job that a hush came over the room. Everyone was ready to move on! All I could do was say to myself “thank you Jesus!” We then moved on and completed the study.
After the Bible Study, I went up to the young man, whose name was Steve Price, and we introduced ourselves to one another, and started to walk back to our dorm rooms together, talking the whole time about Jesus and how His perfect work on the cross has made us eternally secure. As it turns out, this was really Steve’s golden opportunity, because he realized the implications of my beliefs. He understood that if I really believed in eternal security, but didn’t hold to the Reformed position, then I was being internally inconsistent in my thinking and my theology.
My memory is a bit hazy at this point, but along the way Steve mentioned that he was a Calvinist (uh-oh!), and as we got closer to our respective dorms, I believe Steve asked me if he could explain further why it is that he believed in eternal security. I was skeptical to say the least about Steve’s Calvinism (and immediately became suspicious of him!), but since he had done such a great job of bailing me out in the Bible Study, I figured the least I could do was listen to what Steve had to say. So, we went to his room and began to discuss the thing that I had been told to fear almost as much as the plague: Calvinism.
I can’t remember the details of our conversation, and how Steve initially presented the Reformed view to me, but I do remember stopping him part of the way through his presentation (as I recall, at the point when he began to speak about God’s sovereignty in salvation), and saying to Steve in loud, passionate voice, “My God isn’t like that!!!” Steve was a bit taken back by my passionate hostility to what he had been saying, but then calmly and lovingly just began to show me one verse after another; verses that I simply had no explanation for. The more we discussed issues, the more I realized that my case was rather slim (actually non-existent—a verse here and there, all of which could be explained by the Steve, while Steve offered verse after verse, none of which could be explained by my theology, which was basically Arminian, though I didn't know it). After showing me some Scripture, in particular Romans 8 and 9, and Ephesians 1 and 2, and after realizing that My God just might “be like that” after all, I told him, “Well Steve, maybe God is like that, and I take back what I said, however, this is just hard for me to digest. I will definitely have to study this more.” Though I told Steve that, I don’t think I was really serious. I didn’t like the implications of the Reformed view (or better, I didn't like what God's Word was clearly teaching), and I just wanted to keep believing that something was off with it. I had my preconceived ideas, and when I saw a view of God in the Scriptures that went contrary to that, I didn’t want to hear it.
Steve and I forged a cordial relationship, and right before his tour of duty was finished, he was kind enough to give me 2 resources: Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, and The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink. Steve wrote these words on the inside cover of the Systematic Theology,
“Bro John, Jesus continues to pose this question to His disciples throughout the ages: “Who do you say that I am?” My prayer is that this book will help you answer this question of our Savior.”
When I saw those words, I thought to myself, “Come on Steve, I know who Jesus is; I mean, did you suddenly forget that I was a Christian!” Though I didn’t realize it at the time, those words that Steve wrote were extremely profound, and really lay at the heart of the discussion between the Reformed and the non-Reformed, which I will touch on a bit later. It took me 3 years from that time to even look at The Sovereignty of God by Pink, and while I read most of the Systematic Theology, I simply ignored the chapters on God’s Providence, and Election (how convenient, huh?!).
Upon my return from Saudi Arabia, my wife and I decided to join the Pentecostal church she attended before we were married. About a year or so after that we received orders to be reassigned to the Washington D.C. area, and joined another Pentecostal church, where I became a part of the ministerial team. As time went on though, I began to find myself drifting toward the Reformed position. The church I was at began teaching things from the Word of Faith movement, and I was drivin to Scripture, deeply concerned about the errors being taught. The more I studied the Word though, and did research, the more that God's absolute sovereignty was jumping off of the pages of Scripture. The I discovered the teaching ministry of the theologian R.C. Sproul. I really enjoyed and appreciated his teachings on Apologetics, but was apprehensive of anything else because I knew he was a Calvinist. I ordered a few of his teaching series’, and I was just so enriched and edified. I was still apprehensive of the Reformed position. I also began reading other Reformed sources on the internet. It seemed like every time I went surfing on the internet, I ran into a Reformed website.
Well, I was eventually ordained into the Gospel ministry at this church in March 1999. I wasn’t Reformed, but was as I mentioned I was being drawn to that position (irresistibly drawn, I might add (!)). Then in April 1999 I attended a Bible study on the topic of Faith, and the material was drawn from Word of Faith guru Kenneth Hagin. I was quite familiar with the Word of Faith teachers, and was (and remain!) opposed to the heresy they teach. Basically, Word of Faith teaching states that man has the power to create his own reality through the power of his “faith-filled words.” God Himself is reduced to a faith Being—He Himself must exercise faith to accomplish things! I could go on, and mention how some of them have said that God is the biggest failure in the Bible, etc., but I will leave it at this. If you’d like to get more information on this heretical movement, click here.
Out of respect for the person teaching the study, I attended a couple of the classes, hoping that maybe he was just going to glean certain things from Hagin, but not teach the full blown Word of Faith theology. Unfortunately, it was thoroughly Word of Faith. God was on the outside looking in, He couldn’t do anything unless we gave Him permission, and we had the power to create reality itself by speaking things into existence. I remember I kept saying to myself, “where’s God in all of this,” and “I thought God was sovereign.” And that’s when it really hit me. Everything that was being taught directly contradicted the sovereignty of God. I embarked on a rigorous study of these things through the Bible and the book that my friend Steve Price gave me 3 years earlier, The Sovereignty of God. At the same time I was reading the book, I was also reading the chapters in the Systematic Theology book on the matters of Election and Providence.
The clincher came after I had listened to a lesson taught by R.C. Sproul in a teaching series I had purchased some months earlier called The Cross of Christ. I thought the last lesson would be about Eternal Security, which I was not interested in hearing about, because by that time I had even rejected the teaching of Eternal Security (guess you could say that I was now a consistent Arminian). I figured I’d go ahead and just listen to what Sproul had to say; maybe he would share something that I had missed when I decided to reject that view. What I soon discovered was that the lesson wasn’t about the doctrine of Eternal Security (necessarily that is), but about the most controversial point in Calvinism, Limited Atonement (more precisely, Actual or Perfect Atonement: http://www.geocities.com/johnandursula/limitedatonement)! Remember the question my friend Steve posed to me: “Bro John, Jesus continues to pose this question to His disciples throughout the ages: “Who do you say that I am?” Well, I was about to find out what one of the key differences between Calvinism and the non-Calvinism was, and Steve’s prayer for me was about to be answered!
As the lesson began, I was more than a bit skeptical, but the more Dr. Sproul taught, the wider my eyes got. Dr. Sproul began to talk about a Savior who doesn’t just try to save, but One who actually does save. He spoke of how people were actually, not potentially, saved at the cross. He spoke of how neither the Architect of the plan of salvation nor the Savior experience any frustration to their holy, omnipotent will. He spoke of the fact that if this doctrine were not true, then Christ could have theoretically suffered on the cross, and no one might have been saved. Think of it: The non-Reformed view teaches that Christ’s atonement only saves if people accept it...it only makes people "savable." Man is the determining factor. Well, what if no one would have ever accepted it? Christ, according to that view, could have died in vain if no one ever "accepted" Him. Dear reader, is not that one fact alone enough to cause you to at least stop and think for a moment? Is it conceivable that Christ’s precious Blood could have been spilt in vain? Did Jesus do nothing more than merely make people "savable?" God forbid.
Sproul then spoke of how every single person for whom Christ died would be saved, because Christ never fails to do that which He came to do, i.e., save. In a word, he spoke of the cross as having real power! He spoke of a powerful God versus an impotent God who sits up in Heaven and crosses His fingers hoping that someone would “accept” His offer. I remember after that lesson, I got up from my couch, turned off the VCR, and said, “Oh my God, I’m a Calvinist!” It was as if I had heard the Good News all over again, only this time it was really good news, because I heard about a God and Christ who truly is Almighty over all! It was then that I surrendered to that dreaded, monstrous doctrine I had been warned about: Calvinism. I finally submitted myself to the teaching of Scripture concerning the nature of God, man, grace, and the perfect work of Christ. The answer to the question Steve posed to me, which Jesus continues to ask, was answered: Above all else, Jesus is the sovereign, omnipotent Savior of the world who always accomplishes His perfect, holy will. He is a perfect Savior who perfectly accomplished the redemption He was sent to accomplish.
Though I had embraced the Reformed view and was excited about the truth of it, that is not to say that I didn’t experience any inner turmoil or travail of soul--quite the contrary. The issues involved are very complex and, frankly, can be disturbing, particularly as it relates to the doctrine of predestination. This is why the Westminster Confession of Faith admonishes, “This important and mysterious doctrine of predestination must be treated with special care…” Unfortunately, we very often fail to heed that sound advice. Instead, we begin to look out from ourselves, and try to reconcile these truths with our own personal feelings and finite human understanding. We begin to try and probe into the inner counsel of God—into the secret things that He simply has not revealed to us, and we try to figure out how and why He does all that He does. It is not for us to know all of the details of why God chooses one person and not another. What is for us to know is that God, as the sovereign Potter, reserves the right to do so, and that He does in fact act on that right. It is not for us to know why God doesn’t save every single person; what is for us to know is that He isn’t obligated to save even one person, yet He has purposed to save a multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue, all according to the good purpose of His will.
People say, “God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good!” Is He really? Is He still good when you realize that He chooses to save one person, and not another, according to the good pleasure of His own sovereign will and grace alone? This is why I say that the absolute sovereignty of God compels us to trust God absolutely. It forces us to acknowledge that His ways really are higher than our ways. And there is the rub: Calvinism completely robs us of all of our pride, and of any sense of self-sufficiency. We can’t take glory for anything, not even for our faith, because even that is a gift given by God purely out His is grace--this is why we say that we’re saved not merely by grace, but by Grace Alone.
In time we begin to see what Sproul calls “the sweetness
of election.” We see the sweetness of it because the Bible shows us precisely who God is, and precisely who we are (and are
not). It shows us just how awesome,
majestic, and Holy our God truly is, and it shows us just how far short of the
glory of God we really fall. It
shows us how depraved we really are, and what the true effects of that depravity
really is. It shows us what true
justice is, and what true mercy and grace really is.
It shows us that if God didn’t choose us, we would have never chose
Him—without God’s unconditional election, without His perfect
atonement, without His raising spiritually dead sinners to spiritual life, and
then preserving us to the end, salvation would be impossible.
Well, after both my wife and I embraced the Reformed view, it became increasingly apparent that we needed to be in a place that was fully Reformed so that we might get our theological bearings straight, so to speak. As noted above, My family and I joined a Reformed church (Harvester Presbyterian Church In America). I was eventually installed as a ruling Elder in that church, and served there for 2 years until we were reassigned to Turkey in January 2002.
In time, the more I studied, the more I realized that the non-Reformed perspective, regardless of the label and/or variation (Pentecostal, Evangelical Arminian, etc.) has a completely different foundation and starting point. The bottom line is that in non-Reformed theology, the starting point and foundation is man, and man’s ability and responsibility. Non-Reformed systems of theology start with man, and try to fit God into their system. Once I came to realize that my starting point was incorrect, I then realized that the proper starting point and foundation for everything isn’t supposed to be man, but God. We aren’t to try and fit God into our equation. Rather, we start with God, proceed in God, and end with God. And God tells us where man fits into the equation, not the other way around. This to me is the fundamental principle of Reformed thought. Everything else flows from there.
So, I am a Calvinist (remember what I said about labels though!). I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God. I believe in the absolute inability of the unregenerate sinful man to do anything to the spiritual good. I believe that the only reason I chose God is because God first chose me, and He did that not on the basis of anything good in me, or good foreseen in me, but according to the kind intention of His will alone. I believe that Christ actually accomplished redemption on the cross, and that there is no possibility that any part of His work could ever fail—Jesus didn’t and doesn’t merely try to save; He actually does save. As the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen stated, “It isn’t the cross plus my converted heart that equals salvation; rather, it is the cross that gives me a converted heart and therefore salvation.” I believe that at just the right time, God breathed life into my dead spirit; He raised me from spiritual death to spiritual life, taking out my stony heart and giving me a heart of flesh, whereby I could do something that I previously was unable to do: submit myself to the Lordship of Christ. I believe that those whom God has chosen, and for whom Christ has died, and whom the Spirit has made alive, will endure to the end. God is the One who preserves and keeps His people by His sovereign power; He does for us what we could never do for ourselves, and to Him alone be all of the glory.
In short, I believe that our perfect God had a perfect plan to save a multitude of imperfect sinners from every nation, tribe, and tongue, whom He calls His sheep, by sending His perfect Son to accomplish all of His perfect holy will, and He sent forth His perfect Holy Spirit to perfectly apply and bring about all that is related to His perfect plan. And it is all by grace alone, God’s unmerited favor bestowed upon completely unworthy sinners, and it is all to His glory alone.
This is why I am a Calvinist.
Soli Deo Gloria. Amen.