I have in front of me an article by Randy Alcorn dating March 22, 2010. The article can be found at https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Mar/22/spurgeons-theology-embracing-biblical-paradox/
Now any Bible believer should understand that Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a great preacher. His stance in favor of Calvinism, to us, is certainly a weak point. We acknowledge he was a Calvinist, and if we read his material, we take the meat and spit out the bones. Just because Charles Haddon Spurgeon believed in something doesn’t mean that we have to. As Bible believing Baptists, we believe in Individual Soul Liberty. We have the liberty to follow God according to what we believe is God’s dictates on our consciences.
The author, first of all, seeks to label the God of Spurgeon as “big.” I’m left to believe that if someone isn’t a Calvinist, then their God isn’t AS big. This is due to that word that Calvinists love so much that, coincidentally, is not even found in the King James Bible at all: sovereign! The Sovereignty of God is said NOT to be an attribute of God (Unger’s Bible Dictionary),to which I would agree. No one would argue against God’s sovereignty. However, we as Bible believers would argue against the exalting of this sovereignty ABOVE his attributes. The Bible says that God is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:9) so God is to be held to his word. Though he is ALL powerful, he is to be held to his word and lives and operates within the confines of his infinite character and person, which the Bible reveals to us. He will never go against his character or expressed truth. It is not that we believe God is SMALLER! We just believe that God is held to his word, which is “magnified above ALL THY NAME (Psalms 138:2).
Another major problem with this article and with Calvinism and Reformed Theology as a whole is that they don’t understand predestination whatsoever. “Predestinate” shows up twice (Romans 8:29,30) and “predestinated” shows up twice (Ephesians 1:5, 11). Let’s look at all four of them.
Romans 8:29, 30 says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” You may be saying, “Look! It says ‘foreknow,’ and that means we were predestined and chosen before the foundation of the world and he knew us way back then.” Problem. Look at Galatians 4:8,9. It says, “Howbeit then, when ye KNEW NOT GOD, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye HAVE KNOWN GOD, or RATHER are KNOWN OF GOD, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage.” Here was a saved person in Galatia that at one time didn’t know God, but now he does. Paul equates knowing God with being known of God. So, that doesn’t work. Now, back to the text in Romans, notice that the predestination is in reference to somebody being conformed to his image (which happens at the rapture). In other words, if someone believes on Jesus Christ for their salvation, God predestinated it to be so that THAT individual would be conformed to look like God’s Son one day. It wasn’t some arbitrary choice in eternity past to save someone and damn another, it was predestinated by God to do something for someone if they accept the love gift of salvation (Romans 6:23; John 1:12).
Now, we look at “predestinated” in Ephesians 1 verse 5 and 11. We better start in verse 4. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” First thing I want to point out is that God made a choice in heaven to die for the sins of the world and draw ALL men unto him (I John 2:2; John 12:32- which explains John 6:44). He chose to die for everybody, but the choice in this verse is in regards to his body! “IN HIM” is where this choosing ends up, but here is the trouble. While Christ may have been slain before the foundation of the world (and that is in a very specific sense), there was no body for us Christians to be put into until Christ rose from the dead. He had no body pre-4000 BC for us to get into. So, what is this verse saying? Once you get past the initial Calvinist interpretation, you see that God made a choice before the foundation of the world that a certain people “would be holy and without blame before him in love. These same people are the ones that God chose to adopt as his children “BY JESUS CHRIST to himself.” Who are those people? Random people God picked to be saved? NO! It was anybody who would hear the gospel and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior (John 1:12). Now, the last reference is in Ephesians 1:11, which says, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” What is predestinated? What is the “being” in the verse? Its obviously in reference to an obtained inheritance. The inheritance was predestinated. To whom? I don’t like to beat dead horses, but that inheritance was predestinated to people who would ACCEPT the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing more, nothing less. The earnest of that same inheritance is given upon BELIEF (v. 13) after you “heard the word of truth,” after you believed and after you TRUSTED Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit comes in and SEALS you unto the day of redemption (v.14).
The author goes on to write of Spurgeon that “he didn’t try to harmonize this with God’s election, since scripture clearly teaches both.” I agree, but the Calvinist has perverted the definition of election and the subject of election. I believe in election, but the Bible makes it clear that God elected (or VOTED) that any man or woman could receive the gift of God if they wanted it. This matches Christ saying, “him that cometh to me I will in NO WISE cast out (John 6:37).” It matches Christ saying “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).” We have to come to him on his terms, simply put!
What the author has tried to do, by quoting Spurgeon, is to harmonize both Calvinism and Arminianism. He is free to choose to do whatever he wants (that is, if he is ABLE- T- Total depravity, remember?), but I have never been Calvinist OR Arminian. I am a Bible believing Baptist. I don’t have to harmonize my theology to include Calvinism when every single alphabetical digit to the Tulip is proved conclusively false in the scriptures. They are all twisted, stemming from the mind of a man who was trying to “reform” the Catholic Church at first, before he left it, all to finally (actually) embrace one of the Catholic Church fathers (Augustine) as his hero who he took nearly all of his theological ideas from. John Calvin admitted this, quoting him at least once for every four pages in his Institutes.
Man is indeed depraved, but not to a degree where they can’t respond to the gospel because they are “inable(Acts 17:30).” The election is NOT unconditional, it is conditioned upon whether someone will accept Christ or reject him. (John 1:12) The atonement of Christ is for every single person on the planet. It is an unlimited atonement. (I John 2:2) The grace of God is NOT irresistible. It has been resisted quite frequently over the centuries. Stephen said the Israelites were always “resisting the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51). We don’t need to worry about perseverance as far as our soul is concerned, because Christ has preserved us unto the end (2 Timothy 4:18). There is no need to harmonize what God has NOT joined together (Mark 10:9).
Leave a Reply