Fourteen years ago, I was fired for being a Calvinist.
This was in spite of the fact that the church I had served for four years had doubled in size and strength, engaged our community and country and world in evangelistic and missionary enterprise, and received nothing from their pastor but hard work and honest service. They killed me and my family, in many ways, because they feared Calvinism, the "C" word, was going to kill them.
Sadly, it was denominational politics and theological ignorance that led to my demise. The former, led by an old cadre of fundamentalist pastors, had their dander up after ridding the Southern Baptist Convention of "liberals" (and many of those fired pastors and professors were not liberal at all). In a secret meeting attended by a former friend of mine, one of the megachurch pastors stood up and said, "Now that we've got rid of the liberals, how do we get rid of the Calvinists?"
Slander and fear-mongering amongst a people who don't know their Bible very well works every time. So, allow me to set the record straight for anyone who might misunderstand or fear the dreaded "C" word.
Calvinists are not cult followers of John Calvin. Calvinists are evangelical Christians who follow Jesus Christ and adhere to the authority of Holy Scripture for faith and practice. We do stand on the five pillars of the Great Reformation (scripture, grace, faith, Christ and the glory of God alone) and believe in the so-called "five points of Calvinism," which were not invented by Calvin at all. Those five points (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints) are clearly derived from the Bible and have been articulated by the Apostle Paul, Augustine and many other church fathers long before Calvin rolled on the scene.
They were formulated at the Synod of Dort, 50 years after Calvin's death, as an answer to the "new" theology of Jacob Arminius, which was considered unorthodox at the time. Since then believers who think seriously about soteriology have been divided into camps of "Arminians" and "Calvinists" and points in between, but all of them are sincere Christians who follow God in Christ, not another Christ follower, no matter how famous or infamous. May we lighten up, agree to disagree, and work together to keep the bond of unity in the spirit of peace.
Calvinists are not detrimental to evangelism and missions. Though we believe strongly in the sovereignty of God and the biblical truths of election and predestination, no Calvinist I know pretends to know who the elect are or who is predestined to Heaven. That's God's business. As far as I and my fellow Calvinists know, any person on the planet could be one that God has chosen, so we choose to share the gospel with all people and hope all of them will choose to repent, believe, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Admittedly, we typically do not give a so-called "altar call" practiced by some churches during the past two centuries, because we do not believe it is biblically nor historically sound. We try not to criticize those who do, but we believe salvation should be counseled in a more careful, thoughtful, holistic way. Christianity is not a private club to us, it is an open door. But doorkeepers should be careful to give more than a couple of minutes at the end of a service to guide those who are walking in.
Calvinists are not encroaching upon Baptist or other evangelical churches. When I was fired, it was because I was falsely accused of being a part of a conspiracy to take over the Southern Baptist Convention, which had recently been taken over by the group previously mentioned. It was not Baptist, they said, to be Calvinist. Yet Calvinism, or the doctrines of grace, was the theology of choice for over half of the early Baptists and almost all of the first Southern Baptists.
People do not tend to drift toward the truth, they drift away from it. Once great denominations who fervently adhered to the authority of Scripture and the doctrines of grace have often let the first go, only to lose the latter also. The call of Calvinists is not political nor denominational, but theological. It is a call back to the Bible, back to the gospel, back to the supremacy and glory of God in all things.
Do not fear. The "C" word is not out to get you. It stands for biblical truth, as do other strands of historic Christian theology. You don't have to embrace it, but please don't attack those of us who do.
Charles F. "Chuck" DeVane Jr. is pastor of Lake Hamilton Baptist Church. His weekly sermon article, The Gospel Truth, has been published in newspapers in Arkansas and Georgia. DeVane is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and has served in the pastorate for more than 20 years. Contact him at [email protected].
Religion on 08/22/2015