Chosen By God
Anyone familiar with Calvinism will find little new in this book, which is simply a re-hash of the “doctrines” so dear to the heart of the confirmed Calvinist. Oh, there is some tinkering with the well known T.U.L.I.P. acronym, but the unscriptural conclusions of this theological system remain the same. Sproul echoes the party line and uses the proven weapons of Calvinism against all nay-sayers, the sound of his cannons drowning out all protest, if not silencing them.
His armory contains the relatively few scriptures that deal with the basic premise of Calvinism; mainly, that God has selected before time began, those who would be saved. These individuals would be the recipient of a mysterious inner enabling that would cause them to believe the Gospel. The obvious counterpart to this teaching, is of course, that by electing some, God, by default at least, was also electing some to eternal punishment.
This part of the theological equation is reluctantly acknowledged with much clarifying and a good deal of hedging, both by most Calvinists but here also by RC Sproul. No doubt sinners will go to Hell happier under Sproul’s explanation than the hyper Calvinist’s( or as the author calls them “sub-Calvinists"). The sub-Calvinist believes in double predestination which means that as God actively works on the elect to bring them to salvation, so He also actively works on the unsaved to make sure they don’t miss Hell. Sproul expresses horror at the implications to God’s character in this awful teaching. He is much more comfortable believing that God simply allows the sinner to go his way and thus justly wind up in Hell forever! Can anyone in their right mind find comfort for the honor of a God who does not lift His little finger to warn and save a blind sinner from an eternal Hell? And can anyone, except a Calvinist, believe that such a view as RC Sproul expresses is not as equally horrifying as the previous? Especially in light of the many clear passages to the contrary?
RC Sproul has confidence in his weapons; he, like all Calvinists, believe that they are placed on the high ground of God’s Sovereignty. After all “Who are you, oh man, to reply to God?” The problem with this position is that no Christian denies the Sovereignty of God. However, the Calvinist’s assumes that he alone speaks for God, so any opposition to his incorrect view is, in his eyes, the enemy of God. To question the Calvinist, is to question God! The truth of God, that He is Sovereign and holy is often used as an intimidating club to keep those of us who disagree with Calvinism at bay. For the record, God can do ANYTHING at ANYTIME as long as it is full accord with His revealed character and will. We do NOT question God’s Sovereignty; we simply look to the scriptures to see how He has deigned to exercise it in love. We reserve the right to “question the spirits, to see if they be of God.” This includes the Calvinist, who trumpets his love for the character of God and then besmirches it with his awful misuse of the Scriptures.
And then RC Sproul not only has confidence in his weaponry and position, he also glories in his “army”, men who espouse Calvinism. He says the unacceptable in a gracious way which in no way mitigates his obnoxious conclusion. The bottom line is that RC Sproul takes an elitist position here that is totally out of keeping with Christianity. He divides this Calvinist militia into the past and the present, with the past rosily viewed as those who should be listened to, since they all agreed on this theology. He even gives us a little table of comparison of the “greats” of the past who presumably were Calvinists, even though they disagreed on other points.
Augustine, St. Augustine that is, heads the list, as well he should. He is the true Calvinist, the one who Calvin viewed as his spiritual father. That Augustine was brilliant no one can argue. But does brilliance guarantee spiritual validity of concepts? Or should this brilliant philosopher/Christian’s teachings be checked against that of “ignorant and unlearned” fishermen instructed by the Master? Or against one who proved that brilliance of intellect is neither a barrier or a boon to truth, the Apostle Paul? Unequivocally, yes!
One only has to read one of Augustine’s sermons (the Good Samaritan passage comes to mind) to see the paucity of his hermeneutic skills. Such a sermon today would be a disgrace for a first year seminarian’s initial effort! Yet this is the mind and man behind Calvinism, one greatly influenced by his previous “spiritual” experiences and certainly the teachings of philosophy. One last comment on the so-called “church fathers”; one must realize that the Reformers for all their bravery and love for God, still made many mistakes, many of them from the influence of the errors of the “fathers! Perhaps the greatest Reformer’s mistake was to seek to reform the Catholic church rather than to leave and build a true church on the Apostolic teachings. May we learn from their grievous error and return fully to the scriptures and the Apostles, particularly Paul.
We shall now respond to RC Sproul’s main point in Chosen By God. That is, his dealing with what he considers the main point of Calvinism, the depravity of man including his moral inability. In fact, he declares that if one accepts the Biblical view of human corruption, the debate about predestination is over. I for one, do accept the Biblical teaching on the sinfulness of man, but the Calvinist’s\Reformed solution to that condition is not predestination. Predestination deals with the ultimate place that God has ordained for every believer. Sinners are not predestined to salvation. People in Christ, believers, are all predestined for glorification with Christ and will ultimately be like Him in the beauty of holiness.
The helplessness of the sinner in doing right gives the Calvinist opportunity to offer his unscriptural solution. Since the sinner is “dead”, the Calvinists would have God inject new life into him which would then cause him to believe on Jesus. So in effect, God raises someone from the dead and then they believe unto salvation. This is far superior, in their view, than a “mere external call”, that is, the Gospel preached. Amazingly, “mere external call” is RC Sproul’s description of preaching the Gospel!
Let us consider a Biblical explanation and a Biblical example that correct this Calvinistic solution to the problem of man’s sin. First of all, the Calvinist persists in likening spiritual death to physical death. This is proven to be an error since both Adam and Eve were promised (threatened?) that in the day they ate the forbidden fruit they would die. They ate but they did not die physically as promised. Yet they died spiritually, that is, they were separated from God’s presence and blessing. They tried to cover up, hide, and they were afraid: they were aware of their lost condition even as “dead” people!
Another Biblical example of spiritual death misunderstood by Calvinists, is that of Lazarus. Christ raised him from the dead with no help from Lazarus. The Calvinist points to this as an example of Christ imparting life into a dead sinner. But this is a misuse of the actual experience since Lazarus was a saved man when he died. This is NOT a picture of a dead sinner raised to new life in Christ, but rather a preview of that time when Christ will physically raise all believer’s bodies to new life!
Back to dead Adam and Eve; how did they experience the grace of God to sinners? God came and preached the Gospel to them, even demonstrating same by shedding the blood of an animal to picture the death of the innocent Savior for sinners. Then He wrapped them in the coats of the animals, picturing the wrapping of sinners in the righteousness of Christ. This hid their nakedness (indicative of sin before God) from God’s all seeing eye. Thus they were restored to blessedness by His grace alone.
Consider the case of Cain, the first sinner to reject the Gospel. Instructed by his now Godly parents, his Godly brother’s blood sacrifice, and the pleadings of God, he nevertheless “went out from the presence of the Lord”. Here we see that Cain has no one to blame for his awful rejection of God’s Word except himself! We also see that contrary to the teachings of Calvinism, God strove desperately to draw Cain to himself, to no avail!
Thus it will always be; sinners will be saved by grace alone expressed in the Gospel which inspires faith. Sinners who are lost will have no one to blame except themselves for their stubborn unbelief. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” The so-called “mere external call” is entirely valid and open to all or God is a liar. The Gospel is the power of God that sets the prisoner free into new life in Christ.
God gave His Son for a sinful world and He gave the Gospel to enable sinners to believe. In His Sovereignty, He has allowed man the one major privilege of obeying (believing) or disobeying (not believing) the Gospel. This is in keeping with the tremendous choice that Adam was allowed to make. As that one choice of Adam’s plunged us all into death, so our right choice places us in life … forever. John 5:24
Dennis Clough
All Scripture fron NIV