Sermon by Pastor James M. Duncan, Bible Baptist Church of Erie
Erie, CO 80516
www.biblebaptisterie.com
March 22, 2015
CALVINISM AND THE REFORMED BAPTIST MOVEMENT AND WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES
Galatians 1:1-9; Romans 16:17-18
In my 45 years as a pastor of a Bible Believing N.T. Baptist Church, I have never preached or even taught what I am
about to do today. Primarily I have never done it because it was not necessary, however, I feel very differently today. There is a
movement that is sweeping across the county into churches called Reform Theology that has brought disruption, disorder and
dissension that I believe now needs to be addressed and explained. This is a difficult subject and my heart’s desire is not to bring
more confusion to the table but that when we leave here today we will have a better understanding of this important subject
and what we believe and why we believe it.
Now look at our two passages of Scripture and what we are being told in them. First notice what Paul is saying to the
believer in Galatia (Gal. 1:1-9) about the Gospel which is the GOOD NEWS THAT JESUS SAVES. The look again at Romans 16:1718. We are told to “mark them” and “avoid them” which create “divisions in the church”. I believe that is pretty plan and clear
for you and me to understand. Amen!?
So, first let me say that I am not mad or upset with anyone nor do I have any axe to grind with anyone. For the last several years I have observed this Reformed Theology movement and feel now is the time to speak up. Now I have some friends
who are part of this and there are even some missionaries that fall into this movement that I am not going to break fellowship
with but I stand my ground on what I believe. Also there are many good men in this movement, many who I personally respect
and admire and often read their books, men like John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis , Albert Mohler, president of
Southern Baptist Seminary of Louisville, KY and Charles Spurgeon. Pastor and author John MacArthur of CA would also fall into
the Calvinist group.
Now I want to build a foundation before I get into the nuts and bolts of Reformed Theology or Calvinism which are basically one and the same.
THERE ARE TWO MAIN SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY:
Arminianism – which would be opposite of Calvinism. Named after Jacob Arminus a Dutch theologian and they would be those
who believe in salvation by works and do not believe in eternal salvation, like the Free-Will Baptist, Methodist or Nazarene
churches and a whole long list of more.
CALVINISM – also called Reformed Theology and sometimes known as the Sovereign Grace Doctrines and is known by what is
called the 5 points that I will go into detail in a few moments. John Calvin was a French theologian born in 1509 and died in 1564.
Calvin was a contemporary of Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation. Calvin's ministry was centered in Geneva, Switzerland where he is credited with founding the Presbyterian Church in 1536.
In all fairness to Calvin, we should mention that he is considered to be one of the greatest Bible expositors in history. However, in spite of Calvin's obvious spiritual gifts in expounding the Scriptures, he also had serious doctrinal errors
in his theology. Some of Calvin's teachings that did not agree with the Scriptures which are as follows:
1. Calvin believed in sprinkling babies contrary
to Bible baptism by immersion of believers.
2. Calvin did not believe in the rapture of the church.
3. Calvin did not believe in the coming anti-Christ to rule the world.
4. Calvin did not believe in the coming seven-year tribulation period as taught in the Bible.
5. Calvin did not believe in the coming millennial kingdom reign of Jesus Christ from the Throne of David in Jerusalem.
6. He also hated Baptist and would have them burned at the stake when he could. Because they re-baptized sprinkled
babies when they believe as adults.
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However I fall into a third category of theology not after men but after God’s Word and that is:
NEW TESTAMENT BAPTIST THEOLOGY.
We had our beginning with what John the Baptist prepared for Jesus and from that Jesus founded what I believe is a N.T.
Baptist church. Doctrine is to be based on the “whole council of God’s Word” not just some.seldom used passages. I believe we still hold the cardinal tenets of the Christian faith found in the New Testament that established the N.T. Church.
you BELONG TO THAT MAKES YOU A New Testament CHURCH! IT IS WHAT YOU
Listen dear ones; IT IS NOT WHAT
HOLD TO - OF THE WORD OF GOD!
We Believe in The Priority of Our Scriptures
All the Bible is Scripture, and all the Scripture is in the sixty-six books of the Bible. The Word of God is the absolute, supreme, sole, and final authority for all matters pertaining to faith and practice of believers.
We Believe in The Person of Our Saviour
No one can be a N.T. Baptist who does not believe in,
adhere to, and contend for the Virgin Birth, the Virtuous Life, the Vicarious Death, the Victorious Resurrection, and the Visible Return of the Son of God.
We Believe in The Plan of Our Salvation
God never has had, does not now have, nor ever will have but one plan of salvation - salvation by grace
through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There is only one way and that is in and through The Lord Jesus Christ who said; “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
We Believe in The Purity of Our Symbols
Believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper mean today just what they meant in the Scriptures and must not be
tampered with or tainted with addition or subtraction.
We Believe in The Preservation of Our Saints
A person is saved forever the moment he or she experiences
regeneration. A faith that is conditioned upon "living up to it,"
"holding on to it," or "holding out faithful to the end" is not saving faith. A faith that must be supplemented
by baptism, church membership, or the sacraments for salvation is not saving faith. We are saved by "the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10). We are "kept by the power of God" (I Pet. 1:5).
"He is able to keep" (II Tim. 1:12).
We Believe in The Parousia of Our Saviour
The foremost truth in the Word of God after that of salvation is
the imminent, visible, literal return of the Son of God to this earth to reign for a thousand years. Whether one
is premillennial determines his acceptance or rejection of much of the Word of God. This eliminates a lot of
the folks who claim to be "New Testament" and a whole lot more who claim to be "Baptist."
We Believe in The Pre-eminence of Our assembly
The local assembly of baptized believers is sovereign, autonomous, and self-governing - not subject to the
jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical hierarchy and/or denominational control. This just about eliminates all others
who call themselves "Baptists," and leaves the independent, fundamental, missionary, evangelistic, premillennial, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, Bible-preaching, Bible-practicing local assemblies as the only rightful
wearer of the name "New Testament" and/or "Baptist." I hope you are one of the number.
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Now I want to get to our main subject of today and that is the “Difference Between N.T. Baptist and the Reformed Baptist.” I
heard Dr. Ed Nelson (3/10/2015) speak a couple of weeks ago in Loveland and he said; “Reformed Baptist is an oxymoron.”
That means a contradictory term or two words with opposite meanings.
Now when you use the word “reformed” is has to do with the “Protestant Reformation” of which Martin Luther started
when he as a catholic priest broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in October 31, 1517 when he nailed his 95 thesis on the
door of Castle church in Whittenberg. He was protesting “the selling of indulgences” and believed the doctrine of “justification by
faith”. Now Baptist were never part of the Protestant Reformation because we were never in any way connect to the Catholic
Church ever!
That is why Reformed Baptist is an OXYMORON, two words with opposite meaning.
The BIBLE for the Reformed Baptist movement seems to be a document called “THE BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH OF
1689”. And I have a copy of it here in my hand. I find it rather interesting reading for example from page 20 in Chapter 10 under
# 3 and 4, I quote. I ask you can that be true according to the Bible. I do not think so.
It is also my observation that the Reformed movement takes an ELITIST attitude and come across as very PRIDEFUL of
who they are. They pride themselves in teaching and preaching in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek like the common
people cannot understand our English Bible and therefore come across as being superior to us who don’t speak and teach in the
original languages. They also are often more “liturgical” like the Protestant Churches in their worship style.
Now this morning for the reminder of our time I want to preach on the 5 points of Calvinism, and examine each one in
the light of scripture.
The 5 points of Calvinism are usually identified by using the acronym (ak-ruh-nim) T-U-L-I-P; each letter representing a
point that, taken together, constitutes the doctrine of Calvinism.
Let’s look at what each letter represents, and then we’ll examine each one individually:
T – Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
U – Unconditional Election
L – Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
I – Irresistible Grace
P – Perseverance of the Saints
Some claim to be only a 1 point, or 2 point, or 3 point, or 4 point Calvinist.
But contrary to what these believe and teach, these 5 points must be accepted as a package; for refuse any one, and like
a house of cards; the entire doctrine collapses.
Now let’s examine what each point teaches, and what scripture says about it.
1. Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
“The Calvinist asks the question, "In light of the scriptures that declare man’s true nature as being utterly lost and incapable, how
is it possible for anyone to choose or desire God?" The answer is, "He cannot. Therefore God must predestine." Calvinism also
maintains that because of our fallen nature we are born again not by our own will but God’s will…”
So then, the Calvinist teaches that because of man’s total depravity, he is incapable of choosing to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Does the Bible really teach ‘original sin’? Yes it does for example in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God.” If then, the scriptures teach that because of Adam’s sin, all mankind has inherited the same sin nature; and
that because of this inherited sin nature all men are depraved, that they have all fallen short of God’s glory and do not seek Him,
is it possible for man to have the ability to choose to believe?
While ‘Original Sin’ and ‘Total Depravity’ are scriptural concepts, ‘Total Inability’, or the inability of man to make a choice
concerning his relationship to God is not true according to scripture. Joshua demanded of the people to choose that very day
whom they would serve. (Joshua 24:15) He said, “…choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.”
Turn with me to John 3:16-20. Jesus made it clear that condemnation was not his purpose for coming into the world;
but that condemnation was a choice that man makes when he refuses His gift. Man does this because man’s deeds are evil and
he enjoys the darkness rather than the light. In Verse 20 Jesus said that those who do evil refuse to come to the light. So, man’s
condemnation is not based upon his inability to come; but rather upon his refusal to come.
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Look at John 6:40; “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
So, Original Sin, and Total Depravity do not mean that man is not capable of choosing to come to the Lord to be saved, as
the Calvinists teach.
2. Unconditional Election
According to Calvinism, God has unconditionally or arbitrarily elected those to be saved before the foundation of the world solely on
the basis of the counsel of His will, not taking anyone’s accountability into consideration. As a result, no matter what anyone does,
some are pre-destined to salvation, and the rest are pre-destined to damnation.
God does not base His election on anything He sees in the individual. He chooses the elect according to the kind intention
of His will (Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 9:11) without any consideration of merit within the individual. Nor does God look into the future to see
who would pick Him. Also, as some are elected into salvation, others are not (Rom. 9:15, 21).
Does the Bible teach Election? Yes! 1 Peter 1:2 says; “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”
However the Calvinist doctrine of election, reduces man to a robot with no hope whatsoever to change his eternal destiny.
The word elect or election appears in the Bible 27 times. The elect always refers to the people of God. In the Old
Testament the elect refers to the children of Israel. In the New Testament the elect refers to the born-again believers.
There is a Bible doctrine of election. However, in the Bible no one is elected until they accept Jesus Christ, and no one is
reprobated until they reject Jesus Christ. The decision on whether you become one of the elect children of God, or whether you remain one of the non-elect children of Satan is up to the choice of each individual sinner. Every sinner is born with
a free-will to choose or reject the Gospel. God does not force anyone to be saved with His unconditional election. And neither does God reject anyone to be damned with His unconditional reprobation. In order not to be led astray by the Calvinistic philosophers, the following Biblical facts should be emphasized.
God is not willing that any should perish. (2 Peter 3:9)
God desires for all men to be saved. (1 Timothy 2:4)
Listen again to what Paul said to the young pastor Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:3-6; “For this is good and acceptable in the
sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God,
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” IT
IS NOT THE ELECT WHO ARE SAVED: IT IS THE SAVED WHO ARE ELECT – TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF GOD’S SON.
We do not disagree with the Biblical doctrine of election but with the non-Biblical definition of election as being unconditional. The Bible truth is: CONDITIONAL ELECTION ACCORDING TO THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
Election is conditional upon you being in Christ. (2 Cor. 5 :17) If you are in Christ, you are one of the elect. If you are not in
Christ, you are not one of the elect.
3. Limited Atonement
Calvinism teaches: “Jesus died only for the elect. Though Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for all, it was not efficacious ( ef-i-keyshuh s) [effective, successful] for all. Jesus only bore the sins of the elect.” Scripture blatantly refutes this teaching!
1 John 2:2 says, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” John 3:16;
listen to me ‘the world’ in this verse means ‘the world’! The ‘whosoever’ in this verse means ‘whosoever’! The scriptures are VERY
clear that Jesus’ death was not only sufficient for all, but that it was efficacious, or effective, or successful, for all
Heb. 10:12 says; “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;”
It is limited in its application – only being applied to those who believe because salvation is by grace through faith. Only
when faith is exercised, or placed in Jesus’ sacrifice for him, does one receive the application of the atonement that Jesus made for
him. But, the offer and application of Jesus’ atonement is NOT limited in that it is available and effective to all; and anyone who
chooses to take advantage of the offer finds that Jesus’ sacrifice was indeed UNLIMITED!
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4. Irresistible Grace
Calvinism teaches: “When God calls his elect into salvation, they cannot resist. God offers to all people the gospel message. This is
called the external call. But to the elect, God extends an internal call and it cannot be resisted. This call is by the Holy Spirit who
works in the hearts and minds of the elect to bring them to repentance and regeneration whereby they willingly and freely come
to God.”
Are we saved by grace? YES without question according to (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 2:11). But this grace is not irresistible. In
other words, God’s grace that is extended to man is offered to all; but only imparted, or given, to those who, by the act of their
own will, choose to receive it.
Man has a free will to respond to the call of salvation and that is what Jesus said and taught in John 5:40; “And ye will not
come to me, that ye might have life.”
According to the teaching of Irresistible Grace, only the elect will receive this special call, and they will not be able to
‘resist’ or refuse the call. This point, this teaching, is in direct contradiction to the doctrine of scripture! Matthew 11:28; “Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Here, the call was to all; and it was to come; and He said
He will give you rest.
The idea that God would call those who He never intended to accept is not only foolish, it is against the very nature of
God that is taught in scripture.
John 14:6 Jesus said; Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life…” If Jesus is the truth, and He issued a
call that He would not allow to be answered, He would then be found to be a liar, a deceiver. But He is truth; He is not a deceiver;
he is not a trickster. Being the truth, He must do what He says He will do or He would no longer be the truth; He would be a liar.
We are saved by grace (God’s unearned, undeserved favor), and it is genuinely offered to everyone; but only those who
choose to receive it, by an act of their own will, will have this grace applied to their lives, or imparted to them.
Thus, the grace of God is not ‘irresistible’; it can be, and most often is, resisted, refused by those to whom it is offered; for those
who are saved are always the remnant, the minority; not because God has only chosen to send His ‘Irresistible Grace’ call to a
select few, but because only a few have chosen to take advantage of the offer of grace that is issued to all.
5. Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved; or Eternal Security)
Are we eternally secure once we are ‘saved’? Yes! Else we would have probation; not salvation. But the Calvinist’s view of eternal
security is a distorted one.
Here’s why. The very term ‘Perseverance of the Saints’ is a misnomer. Perseverance – the definition is “determined continuation with something; steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or
setbacks.” The word ‘perseverance’ itself then, means that one has to exert his own effort by his own determination in order to
‘hold out to the end’. This is contradictory to the intended meaning according to Calvinism.
The Calvinist’s position on eternal security is that we are eternally secure; but that we must ‘persevere’ or hold out to
the end in order to receive the salvation he says we have; but he states that all who are ‘Unconditionally Elected’ will persevere,
or hold out to the end.
Thus, Calvinists are often described as teaching eternal security; but their teaching of eternal security is not the scriptural
description of it. The scriptural teaching is not the ‘Perseverance of the Saints’; but the PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS. In other
words, we are eternally secure once we are saved; not because we will persevere until the end; but because God Himself will preserve us unto the end. We are PRESERVED IN CHRIST OUR LORD. Years ago a popular song was “Hold on to God’s Unchanging
Hand.” We are not saved by holding on to the Lord. We are saved because the Lord is holding onto us.
Again let’s look at the Scriptures:
Eph. 4:30; “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
So, we are told that the One Who has stablished us in Christ (saved us), is God; and that it is He Who has sealed us; giving us the
earnest, or down payment, of the holy Spirit as proof positive of our eventual total transformation which includes our bodies as
well as our souls.
In John 10:27-29, Jesus says it as plainly as it is possible to be said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me:” “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
“My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all: and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
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Romans 8:37-39; “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Here again, our keeping rests in God’s hands; He is doing the preserving; we are not doing the persevering.
When we are saved, we are exactly what the term implies – saved; eternally secure. But, the Calvinist’s concept of this
doctrine is distorted because it involves man’s effort in the process; even though it teaches that his effort depends on God to make
it happen.
Calvinism or Reformed Theology consists of 5 tenets. These 5 tenets, or points, are usually identified by the acronym
T-U-L-I-P. Each letter of the acronym represents a particular tenet, or teaching, that constitutes the doctrine of Calvinism. As we
have seen, these tenets, these points, these teachings, range from a distortion of the scriptural position, to an outright contradiction of the scriptural teaching.
I want to come back to where I started this morning in Romans 16:17-18 as I close this message:
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and
avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”
Maybe today God is speaking to you about your church identification and you want to be part of a N.T. Baptist church like
BBC or Erie, then you should come today! You need to trust Christ as your Saviour today – COME! You need to follow the Lord in
Believers Baptism why not COME TODAY! As we sing.