NOTE: I added “Part 1″ to the title after writing this. As I finished this article, there are so many other questions and implications to this and how it all fits together that I want to dive into and write about for the good of my own soul, but it would make this blog post book-length. Over time I’ll add more parts.
I also want to add that I’m no expert on this topic. This series is just me talking about what I learned and struggled through and what helped me.
One of the debates in Christianity down through the ages to this very day is around the term “Calvinism”, named after John Calvin, the Pastor/Reformer from the mid-1500’s in Geneva. The other ‘side’ is called Arminianism, named after Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian in the early 1600’s.
The debate essentially concerns the two sides of man’s free will in salvation (Arminius) vs. God’s sovereignty in salvation (Calvin) and the meaning of terms like predestination and election. I boil it down to the “whosoever believes” of John 3:16 with “God’s sovereign choice of the elect” of Romans 9.
That right there should tell us something. Both ‘sides’ in this debate are using God’s Word, but God does not argue with himself. His word does not contradict itself. It is objective truth and is not illogical, holding to “A” and “Not A” as simultaneously true. There is a harmony, a unity, in the Scriptures. Therefore if we as humans pit “my verses” against “your verses” attempting to use part of the Bible to disprove another part, it betrays our misunderstanding of God and His word as a whole. If God says “A” in these verses and says “B” in these other verses, and we can’t harmonize them and hold equally to both, the problem is us. We must get to the point in our understanding of Scripture that all verses are in harmony. That is the goal here, and finally understanding this really helped me.
Calvinism is commonly summarized as “5 Points.” The 5 points have been used to form the acrostic TULIP: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints. These are also known as the “Doctrines of Grace.”
A bit of history is in order as to the origin of these terms and concepts. In 1610, a group of Arminius’ followers consisting of 46 pastors wrote the Five Articles of Remonstrance, a statement of opposition to certain parts of the Belgic Confession of Faith, the common teaching in the Dutch Reformed Church at the time. In this statement they outlined…you guessed it…five areas of disagreement. My definition of Arminianism is that link above on the Five Articles of Remonstrance and in less than a minute you can read a synopsis of the 5 articles. In response, the Dutch church called a Synod, the Synod of Dordt, and gathered church leaders to respond to these 5 articles of remonstrance, summarizing their decisions in the Canons of Dordt which defended the 5 points.
The interesting fact from this is John Calvin died in 1546, over 60 years before these 5 points of disagreement came up and this synod occurred. Calvin never created “Calvinism” nor summarized his theology in these 5 points. Calvin’s life work was a large, full-orbed, pastoral systematic theology still used and loved today: The Institutes of the Christian Religion; which became so popular as a textbook on Protestant Christianity that he was involved in making five editions in his lifetime. I imagine that Calvin, were he alive today, would be saddened to see his name and massive systematic theology of God and His creatures reduced to 5 points and his name associated with an “-ism” (though he would agree with the doctrine of the 5 points). Arminius as well died a year before the Remonstrance was written; yet he too became an “-ism”. The acrostic TULIP, which is obviously based on the English language and a play on the Dutch origin is a recent 1960’s creation from what I can tell.
But this isn’t a history blog; I simply find the history quite helpful in this debate as some today consider Calvinism a cult started by Calvin, preaching his 5 points that are the epitome of an arbitrary God and anti-evangelism with his ‘followers’ following the man John Calvin rather than Jesus Christ. I think history shows this is a straw man argument. The debate is over a few (extremely important!) points of doctrine; always has been. From the Remonstrance and Canons of Dordt in the 1600’s to today, these points of doctrine are still debated and the two “ism’s” are not religions or cults but simply shorthand for if you fall on one side or the other on what Scripture teaches on these points. It is an intramural debate among brothers. Using the labels is a shorthand way of telling someone what you believe about a category of doctrine, much like the terms Baptist vs Methodist, covenantal vs dispensational, or paedobaptist vs credobaptist. It is not about villifying a “side” as the enemy.
Let’s get to the Scriptures. The debate is primarily over the free-will autonomy of man vs. the sovereignty of God in salvation. The nature of man and the nature of God. What Christ actually accomplished on the cross. It is a question of first causes.
I think most start out as Arminian in their beliefs, as I did, unless you’re raised in a reformed theology church. I’ll assume that most reading this are familiar with the flagship verses like John 3:16, the most famous “whosoever believes” verse, among numerous other similar verses. I believe them to be true with all my heart. I just also believe God’s word then goes on to describe WHO the whosoever are. Not by name of course, but by describing what is going on as they repent and place their faith in Christ. It is fundamentally about the glory of God – and that statement will take some explanation, which is the remainder of this article.
So this is not about attempting to prove that John 3:16 and others are not a true and sincere open offer of salvation. It is an extremely sincere offer of forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe. There is a general call to salvation to all who draw breath. Absolutely. ‘Hill to die on’ kind of verse. I think this debate is one of those “keep reading” things – see what God says about those who do accept the offer of salvation. For example, most will quote John 3:16, but stop before John 3:18 where he begins to dive a bit into who the whosoever are:
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:18 ESV
And meditate on Jesus’ words in the last verse of this same chapter:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36 ESV
So right here in John 3 we are already getting hints that will be developed in John’s gospel. There is a group for which condemnation is not only in the future when they die and have rejected Christ. As Jesus is walking this earth 2,000 years ago, the Bible is speaking of those condemned “already” and that God’s wrath “remains on them.” Their rejection of Christ and his gospel is proof of their pre-existing condition. Let me be clear: even for the elect, until they actually do repent and believe, they too are in the same boat. However, they will repent and believe and John develops that point fully later. To us, we can’t know those who won’t as long as they draw breath. We can only say, as of this moment, whether people accept or reject Christ as Savior. But God is not limited as we are.
But the elect, in God’s timing, choose Christ and believe. So who are they? Who does repent when they hear the gospel? Who does place their faith in Christ alone? The one’s that are smart enough? The one with just a little more ‘goodness’ in them? It is a VERY telling question, if you are a believer, to ask yourself, “Why me?” If the answer exalts attributes of yourself to any degree over others, you have the wrong answer and you are stealing a bit of God’s glory for yourself. That hit me hard when I faced that question.
God does not leave us without the answer, and he answers over and over and I’ll pick a few. One of the hard-hitting verses describes what happened right after Paul preached a wonderful gospel sermon in Acts 13. God then states in His word:
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Acts 13:48 ESV
This is a wrestling verse – it will fight you until it subdues you. “Whosoever believes” and here God tells us who the whosoever are – those appointed to eternal life believed. You can’t make this say what we want it to say – they believed and then became appointed to eternal life. It does not say that. Three chapters later, the Bible describes a lady named Lydia and tells us the answer to why she truly heard Paul’s preaching and believed:
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
Acts 16:14 ESV
So Lydia’s answer to “Why me? Why did I hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from Paul and believe it?” is “The Lord opened my heart.” I was no better than those who heard and didn’t believe; God was the first-cause, it was his work in me, and then I believed.
Some anti-Calvinists will offer a straw man argument of Jesus turning away someone who freely comes to him, as in Him saying, “I see you sincerely and freely coming to me, but you’re not of the elect, so be gone.” No! Of course not and that’s an invalid argument. Listen to Jesus address this and meditate on all that he says:
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
John 6:37 ESV
The last half is “whoever comes to me”! – but in the same sentence, in the same thought, he defines the whoever. The ones the Father gives to me. And to the point of irresistible grace – those given WILL come. So why me? Why did I come to Christ? The Bible’s answer is because the Father gave me to His Son. Read Christ’s priestly prayer to His Father for believers in John 17 and you’ll see this in full, glorious detail.
Now, that leaves a bit of a gap: those given by the Father will come to Christ, but there may be others as well that choose to come to him. Will he turn those away? He closes that door just a few verses later:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:44 ESV
He repeats the same thing in John 6:65 with a different emphasis to this same truth:
And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
John 6:65 ESV
So here, if we thought the “drawing” in vs 44 was about a “wooing” and then we choose to respond, he shuts that door here. No, coming to Christ is GRANTED to you by the Father. The word for “draws” in vs. 44 is “to drag”, the same word used of Peter “drawing” his nets full of fish onto the shore. He did not stand on the shore and woo his full nets to himself. He dragged them.
Note in both verses as Jesus tightens up the “whoever will” to define it for us, he says no one CAN – it is a clear statement of inability. Now they also won’t, they will not, but here he focuses on they are not even able. God must be the first-mover, he is the first cause.
One last verse as Jesus states plainly to a group of those who have chosen to reject him why they do so:
but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.
John 10:26 ESV
We by nature want that to read backwards – that we choose, we believe, and THEREFORE we BECOME his sheep. But Jesus was the master communicator, the master teacher, God in the flesh, and he’s not confused. Jesus states the reason they do not believe is they are not his sheep.
Let’s let the Apostle John have another word as he writes in Rev 13:8 speaking of the end times Satanic ruler:
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Rev 13:8 ESV
That begs another question to really wrestle with. Did you hear the gospel, choose to believe, and in response to your free will choice God then wrote your name in the book of life? When does the Bible say your name was written in this book of life? Before the foundation of the world…
That should throw us on our knees.
But all this makes us robots, right? We have no real choice then, right? What a crucial point. This drawing to Christ is done without violence to the individual’s will. He changes the will. Do I choose him because I want to in response to hearing the gospel and believing it? YES, a thousand times YES. But I want to because my desires have been changed, at a level underneath my conscious choices and will, when he removes my heart of stone and creates in me a new heart. THEN my desires, my want-to’s are changed, and with my human will I freely choose to run to Christ. But HE is the first cause – for His glory. It is NOT because I’m better/smarter/more moral than the person who doesn’t. It’s not about me. There wasn’t anything in me that impressed God over anyone else.
This is the irresistible grace. Can and do we resist God? Of course, even today as a believer when I sin I resist God and his will. That’s obvious. But this grace that put a new heart in me and changed my want-to’s and made me turn to Christ in repentance and faith? That was grace – pure, undeserved grace – and it was irresistible. Once He grants you “eyes to see” and “ears to hear” Christ for who He really is, you will come to him. All the Father gives WILL come. You have been drawn/dragged, you have been given to Him, and you love it so, freely and willingly. You don’t go kicking and screaming, you go because you NOW WANT TO. And it’s a gift.
Repentance and faith (the definition of “believe”) are spoken of in the Bible as gifts from God, not something drummed up in you by your choices.
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
2 Timothy 2:24-25 ESV
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:8-9 ESV
That verse brings up the answer to a huge question – Why? Why has God set it up this way? So that no one may boast and HE gets all the glory.
As of the time of this blog article (March 2023) it has been 16 years since I spent many months desperately struggling with these doctrines. From what I knew and believed before that time, I was fully Arminian in my view of salvation. As I was exposed to the ‘doctrines of grace’ and this debate, it took many months of hard Bible study, wrestling with these and other verses, and difficult internal spiritual struggles with my own beliefs. And then one day, I got out of my chair, lay prostrate on the floor beside my bed, and cried out to God, “It’s you! It’s ALL you!” and got up a “Calvinist”. Not because I knew much of anything about John Calvin, but because I wrestled with God’s word and verses like these, and He won. The answer to “Why me?” wasn’t because Christ wooed and I had sense enough to respond; the answer was absolute undeserved grace. God displaying His grace, for His glory alone, in GIVING me faith and repentance. HE CHOSE ME. Me? Undeserving recipient, but now worshipper of what I could now truly see as “amazing grace.” As Christ clearly said in John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Soli Deo Gloria.