“Once that church started follwing Calvinism, its evangelistic zeal dried up.” “Calvinism is a virus and it kills the evangelistic spirit of every church it infects!”
These are common comments made by those who do not understand the biblical doctrines of grace and by those who have tradition-inspired animosity toward those doctrines.
My church has been the target of some of those comments. The second quote listed above was stated by a virulent anti-Calvinist professor at a leading Baptist university.
The Founders Blog recently featured a post addressing this situation. Here's a taste of what was said:
While granting the fact that there are, no doubt, exceptions, in the great majority of cases that I know about where Calvinistic pastors have encountered turmoil in their efforts to preach and teach God's Word, it was not because of Calvinism. It was because of biblical Christianity. Calvinism tends to be the tail on which the donkey of controversy is pinned, but the real culprit is the erosion of real biblical Christianity that has occurred over the last generation or more in many of our churches.
Our postmodern culture has adopted the practice of thinking emotionally and we've learned to argue and debate in an emotional manner, rather than thinking our position through and, as Christians always should, applying the filter of scripture to our stands and our beliefs. The question should not be “Did this church's doctrinal stand pragmatically help church growth?” or “Do I want to serve a God who displays his sovereignty over the minute details of my life—including salvation?” but “Does this doctrine square with the Word of God?”
If the Bible declares a truth that our fallen human understanding cannot completely comprehend, we still must hold to that truth. The fact that we have trouble squaring the sovereignty of God with the responsibility of man should not cause us to reject the truth of God’s sovereignty in salvation (the author and finisher of our faith) or to ignore the scriptural mandate to carry the gospel to all people groups (including our own local communities).
Soli Deo gloria!———To God alone be the glory!
