Transcript

ANNOUNCER: If both Calvinists and Arminians teach a work salvation, is one group more honest about their works gospel than the other? What are the distinguishing features of each? And what does the Gospel of John say to each group?

Thank you so much for joining us today. This is Grace in Focus coming to you from the Grace Evangelical Society. We have a website, faithalone.org, lots to learn about us there, and on our website we offer a free magazine. It’s also called Grace in Focus. It is a full-length magazine and full-color great articles. Yes, I did say free, if you live in the 48 contiguous United States, otherwise any other place in the world, all you have to do is pay the postage, and we will send it to you. Sign up for it today at our website, faithalone.org. Now with today’s discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr.

BOB: Sam, I think you have a question from John that’s short, we love short questions, and it’s kind of thought-provoking.

SAM: Yep, here’s his question. Do you think this statement is accurate? Both Arminians and Calvinists preach a works gospel. The only difference is the Arminians are honest about it.

BOB: I don’t quite agree, I laugh, but I don’t quite agree that Calvinists are dishonest about their beliefs. I think they simply have the ability to somehow have what’s called cognitive dissonance, where they believe two things that don’t seem to mesh together, but they’re okay with that. But let me mention first of all, where we get the names Calvinists and Arminians.

Calvinists, you would think, comes from Calvin. Well, in a sense it does, but actually modern Calvinism and the Calvinism that developed from the Synod of Dort, that was not exactly the theology of John Calvin. For example, the best I can tell based on Calvin scholars, Calvin believed in unlimited atonement, but Calvinism teaches Christ only died for the elect, limited atonement, or particular redemption. So Calvinism isn’t exactly what Calvin taught in the Institutes, but it’s pretty close.

Arminianism comes from a guy named Arminius, Jacobus Arminius. Now, you would think based on a question like John asks us and based on reading theology, that Arminius was opposed to Calvinism and that Arminius was trying to destroy Calvinism. Oh no, Arminius was defending Calvinism. Arminius was a Calvinist. However, as he continued to study the Scriptures, he became convinced that there was such a thing as free will and that the Calvinism he was hearing didn’t take into account the Biblical concept of free will. It saw God’s sovereignty and he agreed with God’s sovereignty, but it didn’t have any place really for free will. So Arminius was seeking to defend Calvinism and he was seeking to modify it in such a way that made it Biblical or more Biblical.

So we shouldn’t think of Arminians today as some other species of people from within Christianity. They’re a modified form of Calvinist. That’s why the two systems are very close.

So do they both preach a works gospel? Well, they both teach the person who fails to persevere in faith and good works until death is going to the lake of fire. Now, the Arminian will say you can lose everlasting life. The Calvinist will say you can’t lose everlasting life.

The Calvinist will say something like “the faith that saves is faith alone, but that faith is never alone.” In other words, we’re justified by faith alone, but that justifying faith always is united with good works. So Calvinism has this kind of complicated way of saying you must persevere in faith and good works to get into the kingdom, but they say that isn’t works salvation because these are the works of God. These aren’t your works.

And the problem with that view is—I remember Tim Timmons went to Dallas Seminary and back in the day one of his friends preached in chapel and did a good job and Tim went up to him and said, “Man, that was a great sermon you gave.” And the guy got this real spiritual look on his face and kind of scrunched up his face a little bit and says, “Oh, it wasn’t me. It was the Lord.” And you know what Tim Timmons said? “I could have sworn I saw your lips move.”

When we do something, God empowers us, yes, but we do it. In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “the life which I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who love me and delivered himself up for me.” “The life which I now live in the flesh,” I do the living. God doesn’t somehow make me into a puppet. So Calvin is getting a little carried away.

Arminians will come right out and say something like, well, you’re saved by faith, but in order to retain that salvation, you have to continue to work. That’s really not that much different from Calvinists.

Are you familiar Sam with the difference between old Calvinists and new Calvinists? Have you heard those terms?

SAM: Maybe I’ve heard you and Ken talk about it.

BOB: New Calvinists are people like John Piper or The Race Set Before Us by Tom Schreiner and Ardel Caneday. What they say is when you believe in Jesus, you get what they call initial salvation. And if you persevere to the end of your Christian life, you win final salvation. Have you ever heard that term final salvation?

SAM: Yeah.

BOB: Well, that’s a Calvinist expression today. Many Calvinists speak of final salvation. So they say that when you are born again, you don’t have final salvation. You have initial salvation. If you read Schreiner and Caneday’s book, The Race Set Before Us, I believe it’s page 40, they have a picture of a man running a race and he’s running to win the prize of everlasting life. It says right there in the picture.

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BOB: I think Calvinists and Arminians basically touch in the middle when they get to the issue of perseverance because for both of them, if you fail to persevere, you’re not going to make it. So I like John’s statement. I think he’s right. Both of them teach a sort of works gospel. Now, Calvinists absolutely deny it. In fact, they’ll say even faith itself is a work.

SAM: So I have a question there. So is the old Calvinist perspective that if you’re part of the elect, you’re predestined to be with the Lord? So it doesn’t matter what you choose to do. It’s the people that persevere in good works, they’re proving that they were elect and the ones who don’t persevere, proving that they weren’t elect.

BOB: That’s a very good point. The old style Calvinist believed that if they were elect, then basically there was nothing they could do to mess it up. And if they weren’t elect, there’s nothing they could do to get into the kingdom.

I remember when I was at Dallas Seminary, I graded in the Greek department for several years and one of my fellow graders was talking about his Calvinist beliefs that even the sins which he committed were preordained by God, that God would kind of let go of his life and allow him to commit certain sins. And there was really nothing he could do about it.

Of course, that was one of the problems Arminius had. He said a real strict view of Calvinism makes God the author of sin. So yeah, the Calvinist ultimately, well, how did you put it?

SAM: Point I was getting to is, you might have a better argument saying that the old Calvinist view isn’t a works gospel because it’s just God chooses arbitrarily, who was going to go to heaven and who’s not and that’s it. So no one’s works are what decides anything, it’s just, in that view, God’s arbitrary decision.

BOB: Yeah, that’s a good point. They don’t like to call it arbitrary, by the way, but I agree with you. When they say that election is unconditional, the “U” in tulip, T-U-L-I-P, unconditional election, they mean God didn’t look in advance and see anything in you or me or John Piper or anybody else and say, I’m going to choose him because of or I’m going to choose her because of. It had nothing to do with us. I would call that arbitrary, wouldn’t you?

SAM: Yeah, I would. And that is another thing that makes it just less hopeful. That’s very nihilistic in my view. If you’re a logical thinker, because it’s like, well, maybe God chose me. Maybe He didn’t and I don’t really get to decide. So I’m just hoping.

BOB: Yeah, exactly. It seems to me that what you have within Calvinism, at least the old Calvinist, people who would say, well, the way I know I’m probably elect is because I’m on a trajectory where I think I’m going to persevere.

SAM: Right.

BOB: I remember back and I think it was the year 2000. I went to the Ligonier conference. It was in Miami that year. R.C. Sproul was speaking and they had other speakers. I met with a leading Calvinist pastor and seminary professor for breakfast one day. A friend set it up. And this guy was a pastor of a church of about a thousand and he was teaching at a leading Calvinist seminary.

And I said to him, “Is it true, according to Scripture and Calvinism, that those who persevere to the end of their lives in faith and works are going to prove they’re elect and they’re going to get into the kingdom?” He said, “Yes.” And I said, “Is it true that if we don’t persevere, then we prove we never were elect in the first place?” He said, “Yes.” “Well, is it the teaching of Scripture that we can’t know for sure whether we’re going to persevere or not until we die?” And he said, “Oh, absolutely.” And he quoted 1 Corinthians 9:27. He said, “If Paul wasn’t sure, how can I be sure?” Paul said, “I discipline my body and bringing it into subjection, lest when I’ve preached to others, I myself might be disqualified or disapproved, adokimos. And so he said, “I see what I think are the works of the Spirit in my life, but I must admit, I could fall away. And if I fall away, then I’m going to prove I wasn’t elect and I’ll go to hell.”

I was not exactly shocked because I had many Calvinists say that to me, but normally they don’t say it quite so openly. They kind of couch it in theological terms and things, but that is the position of Calvinism. And it’s a sad position.

So John, I love your question. What I would say, look, if you’re a Calvinist, I would urge you to study the Scriptures, especially the Gospel of John and see if it’s really as simple as just believing in Jesus. And that if at the moment we believe in Him, we’re secure forever. I’d also like you to study and see, is it possible to know I believe? I challenge you to look at John 11:25 and 26. Jesus asked “Martha, do you believe this?” And she says, “Yes,” and He doesn’t rebuke her for saying, yes, I believe that. So Martha knew she was a believer, how come she wasn’t rebuked?

So if you’re a Calvinist, I’d urge you to go to the Gospel of John, find the simple promise that the one who believes has eternal life. And if you’re an Arminian, same thing, because everybody is born again the same way by faith in Christ, apart from works.

Well, thanks, John. And thank you all. And remember, let’s keep grace in focus.

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