Why Am I So Hard On Calvinism?

Why Am I So Hard on Calvinism?

What we believe and allow into our hearts matters. Theology is not merely an intellectual exercise. What we believe about God, salvation, human responsibility, and the Gospel inevitably affects how we understand God, how we understand ourselves, and how we proclaim Christ to others. Our beliefs have consequences, whether those consequences are good or bad.

It is not as though I woke up one morning and decided that Calvinism needed to be refuted. Quite the contrary. When I was introduced to Calvinism, I encountered many persuasive arguments built upon biblical passages which, when considered individually, appeared to support the Reformed doctrines of election and predestination. It was certainly new and unfamiliar to me and very different from how I had previously understood salvation. But something being unfamiliar is not a reason to reject it. This was not the first time I had encountered an interpretation I had never considered before, nor will it be the last.

I try to approach Scripture with the recognition that I belong to a very large company of fallible men. None of us comes to the Bible entirely free from assumptions, traditions, experiences, or biases that can influence how we understand what we read. I am certainly no exception. While I do not always succeed, I make a sincere and conscious effort to remember this whenever I examine a theological position—including my own.

So I tested Calvinism. I examined its theology, its doctrines, its interpretations of Scripture, and eventually its historical development. To make a very long story short, that examination led me to conclude that the Reformed system, considered as a whole, cannot be adequately established from the whole counsel of Scripture. Individual passages can certainly appear to support particular Calvinist conclusions when considered in isolation. My difficulty arose when I attempted to reconcile those conclusions with everything else Scripture teaches.

My study has therefore led me beyond simply disagreeing with several points of Calvinist theology. I have become convinced that some of its doctrines carry serious implications for how we understand the character of God, the sincerity of the Gospel proclamation to unbelievers, the assurance of believers, human responsibility, and the purpose and urgency of evangelism. If I genuinely believe those consequences follow from the system, then intellectual honesty requires me to say so.

But there is an important distinction that I do not want anyone to miss: I am opposed to Calvinism; I am not opposed to Calvinists. I regard many Calvinists as my brothers and sisters in Christ. I do not question someone’s love for Christ merely because he or she disagrees with me concerning election, predestination, or the extent and application of God’s saving grace. Nor do I believe that accepting or rejecting Calvinism is what determines whether a person belongs to Christ. My disagreement is with a theological system and its interpretation of Scripture, not with the worth, sincerity, or Christian faith of the people who hold it.

Indeed, some Calvinists have demonstrated a devotion to Scripture, a seriousness about theology, and a commitment to proclaiming Christ that I deeply respect. We can acknowledge those things without pretending that our theological disagreements are insignificant. Christian charity does not require us to surrender conviction, and conviction does not require us to surrender Christian charity. We can strongly challenge one another’s theology while still recognizing one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

At the same time, if I have become convinced that a theological system teaches things about God and salvation that Scripture does not teach, I do not believe it would be right for me simply to keep those concerns to myself. If I see what I sincerely believe to be a danger, I have a responsibility to sound the warning. That does not give me the responsibility—or even the ability—to force anyone to agree with me.

Nor should anyone take my word for it.

I do not ask the reader to accept my conclusions merely because I have studied these matters extensively. I ask the reader to examine the Scriptures. Test my arguments. Test Calvinism’s arguments. Examine the passages in their contexts, consider the alternative explanations, and ask whether the conclusions being drawn are actually stated by Scripture or have been inferred from a theological system brought to the text. Where Scripture speaks clearly, believe it. Where an interpretation requires something Scripture never actually says, recognize the distinction.

Neither do I believe that apparent contradictions should simply be protected by appealing to “mystery.” There are certainly mysteries belonging to God that Scripture does not reveal to us. But mystery should never become a theological escape hatch by which an interpretation is insulated from examination. If two conclusions appear irreconcilable, we should first ask whether Scripture actually requires both conclusions before declaring their contradiction a divine mystery.

That is the purpose of the studies I offer here. I am not asking you to exchange someone else’s theological system for mine. I am offering my research, arguments, and conclusions so that you can examine the evidence for yourself. I hope to raise questions worth asking, identify assumptions that can easily go unnoticed, and encourage readers to test every conclusion against the whole counsel of God.

If, after examining these warnings carefully, you conclude that I am mistaken, then reject my conclusions. I have no difficulty with that. But do not reject—or accept—them merely because they conflict with what you have previously been taught. The same standard must apply to Calvinism, to my arguments, and to every other theological system.

Test everything. Hold fast to what is good.

That, ultimately, is why I am so hard on Calvinism—and why I can be hard on Calvinism while still embracing Calvinists as my brothers and sisters in Christ.