ANNOUNCER: What are the major denominations that are Calvinistic? We will answer that question today. Please listen for an interesting discussion taken from the book “Whosoever Will.” And this is Grace in Focus from the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. Many things about us there to be interested in. One is our magazine also called Grace in Focus. It is a free subscription magazine. We want you to have it. The only charge you will have is if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you have to pay the postage. Otherwise, absolutely free. Sign up for it. 48 pages. Great articles. You will love it. Get signed up for it today at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: We’re going to be talking about the major Calvinist denominations today. And let me ask you this, Bob. Is this mostly American denominations? Or is this going to be international? 

BOB: Well, a lot of, you know, the first ones we’re going to look at are all American, but some of these others move into all of North America or even to other countries of the world. All right. So the first one in terms of this would be various types of Presbyterians. And by the way, Presbyterian, it’s not a real common word in English, but for someone who is taking New Testament Greek, it sounds a lot like the Greek word, presbuteros. And presbuteros means elder. An elder is a presbuteros. And the word presbuteros in the New Testament is used to refer to older men. And it’s also used to refer to the leaders of local churches who are called elders like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 give the requirements for being an elder or presbuteros in the local church. 

And so Presbyterian churches follow the principle of elder rule. So that’s why they’re called presbyterian. However, they do have a kind of a hierarchy where you can have synods and other councils that have an influence on the local elder board in any local church. But there are various types of Presbyterian churches. And so one of them that’s very common is called the PCUSA. And what do you think PCUSA stands for? 

SAM: Presbyterianchurch USA? 

BOB: Yeah, or Presbyterian churches in the United States of America. And the PCUSA is the largest, but it’s also the most liberal among the Presbyterian churches. So it’s not a conservative bunch. Now the second largest denomination within presbyterians is called the PCA. What do you think PCA stands for? 

SAM: Presbyterian Churches of America? 

BOB: Correct, so these are conservative and they are influential, especially among new Calvinists, people who are more like I was describing. And of course, new Calvinists also have other characteristics. They get into some emerging church ideas, some of the new Calvinists get into the idea of seeker sensitive model, those kinds of things. Then there’s the evangelical presbyterian church called the EPC. And the evangelical presbyterian church is somewhere between PCUSA and PCA. 

And then there’s another one called the Orthodox Presbyterian Church or the OPC. And that would follow very strictly with the various Calvinists confessions, like the Synod of Dordt or the Westminster Confession of Faith. So both of the Synod of Dordt, the Westminster Confession of Faith, all of the various creeds like the Nicene Creed or the Calcedonian Confession. 

Reformed people believe that the church councils and creeds are authoritative. For example, they believe that the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1649 is binding to them. And other church councils and creeds they believe are binding. But Calvinists who are not reformed would not agree with that. And then you also have the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. This is one of the oldest Presbyterian churches. 

There are also various reformed denominations. For example, there’s Christian Reformed Church in North America. There’s Reformed Church in America, which is the oldest Protestant denomination. I believe it goes back to like 1648 or something. So this goes way back. And then there’s the United Reformed Churches in North America. Notice these all have the name Reformed in their title. Right. And so these Reformed churches are clearly more than just Calvinists in their soteriology. They’re Calvinists in their ecclesiology, their Calvinists in their eschatology. And so also are by the way the various Presbyterian churches. 

But now there also reformed Baptist. Now these are not even though they have the name Reformed. That’s a bit misleading because they do not follow all aspects of Calvinists or reformed ecclesiology or reformed eschatology. For example, I looked it up in there are 119 Reformed Baptist Churches in the state of Texas alone. I didn’t get a count on how many are in the United States, but it’s got to be in the tens of thousands. And that doesn’t count Southern Baptist churches that don’t carry the name Reformed Baptist but yet they are reformed. They’re at least Calvinists in their soteriology. But these Reformed Baptists are going to baptize adults or children by immersion, but they’re not going to baptize babies. And so they break away from the Reformed churches or the Presbyterian churches in terms of baptism. And they’re also going to have independent local churches. So that would break away from the Presbyterian or the Reformed models. And also they’re going to have an eschatology that’s more consistent with dispensationalists than is consistent with covenant theologians. 

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BOB: And there’s also something called the Acts 29 Network. And the Acts 29 Network is made up of new Calvinists. And they call it Acts 29 because Acts only has 28 chapters. So this is the continuing work of the spirit in the Church. These are people who are part of the emerging church, they’re part of the church growth movement, but they’re wanting to have the new Calvinist bent. And so they are going to be talking about the various points of Calvinism, but they’re also going to be talking about final salvation and winning final salvation. 

So now our last few minutes we have in this show, I’d like to kind of summarize what we discussed in the first time plus what we can take away from all of these various Calvinists denominations. And first of all, I would say, remember that all reformed people are Calvinists, but not all Calvinists are reformed, at least the way I’m using it. And that is, there’s a distinction between those who believe in the five points of Calvinism and those who practice the reformed ecclesiology, baptizing babies and having elder rule and that sort of thing. And a reformed eschatology, which would be amillennial, there’s no Rapture, there’s no Tribulation, there’s no Millennium. And that would not be true of, for example, Reformed Baptist. 

And then remember, there’s old type Calvinists and new type Calvinists. The old type Calvinists are the ones who will say, if you fail to persevere, you prove you weren’t born again in the first place. The new type Calvinists sound a lot like Arminians in that they will say, you’ve got to persevere in order to win final salvation. Now they won’t say what the Arminians say, that you can lose eternal life. They’ll just say what you have right now is not final salvation. So you’re not losing it per se. You just fail to win final salvation.

SAM: Right. And both views don’t allow for the believer to have assurance because you’re either stuck in a state of hoping that you’ll persevere to the end and hoping that you’re a real believer, you’re one of the elect, or you’re doing lots of good works in order to try and maintain what you have so that you can achieve final salvation. But either way, neither of them rest in the promise of Christ, they both rely on whatever kind of confidence you can instill in yourself based on works and good feelings and things like that. 

BOB: Now most of the people or maybe all the people in the book Whosoever Will that we’ve been talking about edited by Allen and Lemke, they would also you can be sure of your eternal destiny by believing the simple promise of John 3:16 and they don’t say works for assurance. But many of these in that would say if you fell away doctrinally, you would prove you weren’t born again in the first place. So this is where some Southern Baptists divert from the grace position because they think that John 3:16 refers to whoever believes is an ongoing belief. It’s never going to stop. But you’re right, they believe that you can’t be sure, Calvinists believe you can’t be sure, whether they’re old or new. 

Let me give you a quick example. In about 1990, I debated a Calvinist named Dr. Ken Sarles and this was at Dallas Seminary in a brown bag. I don’t think he claimed to be a five-point Calvinist at the time, but I think he was. In the course of the debate, I asked him if he was certain of his eternal destiny, he said, I’m 99% sure. And he said, the reason he’s not certain is because he could fall away. My response to him is you may be 99% certain while we’re debating this topic. But if you get in an argument with your wife and you yell at her and you say some things you shouldn’t say, you’re not going to be 99% sure anymore. And I said 99% assurance is like Ivory Soap, it’s slippery when wet. And so whenever you have a problem where you get angry or you have an outburst of anger or anything else, your assurance is not going to be 100%. In fact, we would say that assurance is only assurance if it’s certain, right? Anything less than that is an assurance. 

Well, thanks so much. And next time we’ll take a look at the Calvinist understanding of John 3:16 and also how Jerry Vines sees John 3:16. So thanks so much. And remember, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: why is the Calvinist understanding of John 3:16 misleading? We will see you next time and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.