HOW IMPORTANT IS THE THEOLOGY OF A MISSIONARY? DOES IT MAKE A

DIFFERENCE WHAT YOU BELIEVE? HOW DOES YOUR THEOLOGY MOTIVATE YOUR

MINISTRY?

1

Calvinism and its Impact on World

Missions

Basic Theology Answers2

The nature of GodThe essence of salvation

Popular Calvinism3

Eternal Security3 or 4 points of Calvinism as popularly interpreted

Total Depravity is seen as the lostness of man instead of the inability of man

Perseverance of the Saints is seen as the Preservation or Security of the Saints

Basic Definition of Calvinism4

T otal DepravityU nconditional electionL imited AtonementI rresistible GraceP reseverance of the Saints

Augustine, Bishop in Algeria5

Author of RCC doctrine of Dark Age City of God is postmillennialist Dominionist Theology

Suppressed sexuality in marriage to pregnancy Denial of salvation to non-Roman Catholics Criminalization and suppression of non-Catholics Persecution to compel membership in RCC Damnation to non-baptized infants Baptismal regeneration Veneration of relics Sinlessness and perpetual virginity of Mary Sacerdotalism (attributing divine powers to priesthood)

Sacramentalism (religious rites necessary for salvation)

Augustine and the Reformation6

Augustine’s integration of Greek philosophy into Christianity formed theology for 1000 yrs.

Luther was Augustinian monkOffended at Johann Tetzel fund-raiser for Vatican

Luther’s study of the “righteousness of God” in Romans as the gift of God changed the world

Augustine had held that justification was a process

Luther challenged the sacramental theology

John Calvin7

19 years after Luther’s reformation Calvin writes his Institutes (1536)

Luther: “justification by faith” – Calvin: “Justification by election”

Predestination explained why some believed and some did not – logic needs an answer

Double predestinationElection = selection of some to salvation or perdition

Grace defined as irresistible regeneration of “dead”

Amillennial, allegorical approach to eschatology

Infant Baptism and Covenant8

Failure to distinguish between Israel and Church

Acts 16:31 “… and your family”Since the Covenant was the same in the OT and NT, children under the NT should receive the sign of the Covenant as in the OT

All children of believers are part of the Covenant as in OT

Much presumption of salvation without personal faith

Early Missions of Calvinists9

Much of early Calvinism was students spreading new doctrine with philosophical apologetics

French Huguenots finally allowed to travel to Portuguese Brazil to extend the Geneva church

In 11 months the mission was abandonedFive remained in Rio de Janeiro but 3 were drowned because of faith

Calvinists severely persecuted “Anabaptist”First Baptist Church 1609 in Amsterdam – soon returned to England

General Baptist and Particular Baptists formed in England

Arminius and Beza10

Jacobus Arminius (d.1609) opposed Theodore Beza’s (d. 1605) Augustinian views on predestination and Limited atonement.

Both equated election with salvation: Calvin was unconditional and Arminius was by choice

Arminius accused Calvinist of deductive hermeneutics through syllogisms

Arminius’ weakness was that he exaggerated free will: 1) not affected by Adam’s sin; 2) Free to chose or abandon

Synod of Dort decided for Calvin’s TULIPBecame the authoritative doctrine of Presbyterians, Baptists and Anglicans

General and Regular/Particular Baptists

11

General Baptist: believed in a GENERAL atonement – Arminian theology (virtually dissolved in N. America)

Particular or Regular Baptist: believed that Christ died particularly or only for the believers – Calvinistic theology

First Great Awakening brought criticisms that resulted in the Separate Baptist Churches

These groups united to form the Union Baptist – then the American Baptist (North) and Southern Baptists

Liberal influences forced Fundamentalists to split off and form the GARBC in 1932.

GARBC in the north and SBC in the south were “moderate” Calvinist (3-point)

Other Independent Baptists tended to be between Calvinism and Arminianism.

Issues between Theologies12

1. Neither school discerns any difference between the elect of Israel and the election of the Church

2. Both schools miss the fact that election has nothing to do with the choice of Individual sinners for salvation – it is the choice of saints for heavenly blessings-- or the elect of the Gentile and setting aside the Jews

4. Arminians believed the sinner has the choice of saying “Yes” to God – Calvinists believe it is only God who has the choice of saying “Yes” for the sinner

5. Scholasticism of Augustine and Aquinas was the basis of Catholic Theology, then the same approach for Reformers

6. Scholastic methods inquire beyond biblical texts by implications of deductive logic into election and God’s will

Syllogisms13

Core of Aristotelian logic and Scholasticism

“Certain things being stated, something other than what is stated follows of necessity from their being so”

“It would not be possible to assert the premises and to deny the conclusion without contradicting oneself”

All men are mortalSocrates is a man

Therefore Socrates is mortal

Proof of Catholic Doctrine14

Mary is the mother of Jesus.Jesus is God.

Therefore, Mary is the mother of God.

Deductive weakness: Both premises are valid but the deduced conclusion is false = this is not a valid method for determining biblical doctrine

Inductive process identifies the particulars of a passage to come to a general meaning.

Calvinism deduced from Syllogisms15

Starting point: God’s immutable decrees or sovereignty

Any act contrary to His sovereignty contradicts His sovereignty

God has decreed all events, choices and destinies

Sinners don’t reject God – rather, God has rejected the sinner

God’s decrees of election to salvation are immutable

Was Jonah’s view of God immutable?

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE THEOLOGY OF A MISSIONARY? DOES IT MAKE A

DIFFERENCE WHAT YOU BELIEVE? HOW DOES YOUR THEOLOGY MOTIVATE YOUR

MINISTRY?

16

Calvinism and its Impact on World

Missions

Total Depravity17

All Bible-believers accept that sin ruined man as image-bearer of God and he has received a depraved nature prone to self-centeredness, selfishness and rebellion.

Does this mean “total INABILITY”? “Plum dead” = identical to a corpse

Man is totally depraved.A totally depraved man is unable to do anything

goodTherefore, man is unable to repent and believe

the gospel

Gift of Faith?18

Depraved men are unable to believe the gospelBut the elect believe the gospel

Therefore, the elect must be given the faith in order to believe

The Bible states that man is condemned because he does not believe (Jn 3:18) – How could anyone be condemned for what he could not possible do if given the opportunity?

John 3:19 declares “light is come into the world and men loved (chose) darkness rather than light”

It is not that they cannot; it is because they will not believe

Gift of Faith?19

Eph 2:8, We are “saved through faith (fem) and this (neut) is not of yourselves, it is a gift (neut) of God; not of works lest any man boast”

Calvinists think of “faith” as a “work”; therefore faith must be a gift.

If “faith” is feminine and “this” and “gift” is neuter gender, they cannot refer to the same thing!

It is not “faith” that is the gift of God, but salvation as a whole (neuter implies a number of words and concepts).

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God – Hebraism meaning “wanting to know and obey” = “to hear”

If we are unable to believe, yet commanded to believe, then faith is like the law, where we are likewise commanded to obey but cannot. Both are meant to condemn?

Faith is a clear understanding of truth and a conscious decision to trust in it fully, even if it is exclusive (claims to be the only truth).

Olson’s 8 Questions20

1. Why did Christ bother to witness and persuade the non-elect?

2. Why should Paul bother to use persuasion at all?

3. Why did Christ marvel at unbelief?

4. How can unbelief be judged?

5. How can we explain degrees of unbelief being judged more severely?

6. How can demonic activity hinder a direct work of the Spirit?

7. Why are some classes of people harder to reach than others?

8. Why does God give the gift of faith to so many Americans and to so few Liberians, Mongolians, Tibetans, Afghans, Iranians, Turks, etc.?

Unconditional Election21

This is the only solution to total depravity (inability)

All men are depraved and totally unable to believe the gospel

However, some men are regenerated and believe the gospelTherefore, God must elect which men to regenerate

Augustine equates foreknowledge with predestination of man’s destiny: thus 2 parts: election and reprobation

Calvinist gospel preacher is to preach AS IF any sinner may come but knowing that this cannot be so.

Conflicts between sovereignty and free will are irresolvable – no such problem exists in Scriptures!

The gospel of unlimited grace of God and full pardon of all sins to anyone who will hear and believe, is rendered powerless to save the non-elect.

Parallel lines theory to resolve the man-made conflict: the finite can not understand the infinite we are told.

Unconditional ElectionTextual Evidence: Romans

22

9:1-5 Seven privileges given to Israel 9:6-13 Sovereign choice of Isaac over Hagar (Arabs) and Esau (Moabites) to be the people of His choice – Nothing to do with individual salvation

9:14-18 God’s intervention to protect and bring Israel into the promised land -- Nothing to do with individual salvation

9:19-21 God’s choices here are national, not individual – now He is electing Gentiles as He had elected Israel but, Nothing to do with individual salvation

9:22-26 The vessels of wrath are nations (i.e. Israel) and the vessels of mercy (i.e. Gentiles, the “not my people,” v. 25; see 11:25)

9:27-29 Isaiah refers to temporal persecution of national Israel

9:30-31 the offering of God’s righteousness to the Gentiles (“vessels of mercy”) by “faith”, contrasted with Israel who attempted to attain righteousness by works.

NOWHERE in this chapter is there any hint of individual election and reprobation.

Unconditional ElectionTextual Evidence: Ephesians

23

1:4-5 the different concepts of predestination from the Greek or Latin word

Predestination in English follows the

Latin originTime of BeliefCalvinist Biblicist

Limited Atonement24

God has predestinated the non-elect to eternal damnationIf Christ died for such, His death would have been in vainTherefore, Christ could not have died for the non-elect

Yet 1 Jn 2:2 – “He Himself is the propitiation [atoning sacrifice] for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world”

“the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for [on behalf of] all” 1 Tim 2:5

Logic would conclude that a sacrifice of an infinite God would be likewise INFINITE in offer

Irresistible Grace25

Men are totally depraved.Totally depraved men will resist grace.

Therefore, men must be drawn by irresistible grace.Proof text: Acts 16:14 Lydia “…whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul”

Note: Lydia was already seeking God: she “worshipped God (v. 14) as did Cornelius (Acts 10:2) -- All who seek for God will find him.

No resistance here! Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-23) focuses on the type of soil (or people): some receptive (fertile), some did not understand (hard wayside road), some choked with this world (weeds and thorns) and some are persecuted (rocky ground) – but the problem is not the sower’s design … as in Calvinism.

Ordo Salutis:Regeneration precedes Faith

26

Depraved persons are unable to believe the gospelOnly a regenerated person can believe the gospel.Therefore, a person must be regenerated before he

or she believes.Contra Eph 1:13, “And when you heard the word of truth (gospel), - when you believed in Christ (faith) – you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.”

Illumination (understanding) is often redefined to mean regeneration (?)

Hearing and understanding the gospel are prerequisites for a evidentiary faith that results in regeneration.

Steps of Divine-Human EncounterSteps of Divine-Human Encounter

Foreknew, prognosis, Ro 8:29Determined counsel, horizo boule, Acts 2:23

Elect (chose), eklektos, 1 Pet 1:2Predestinate, proorizo, Eph 1:4Convicts, elecho, Jn 16:8 and Calls, kaleo, Rom 8:30Illuminates, photizo, Heb10:32Draws, helkuo, Jn 6:44Regenerates, paliggenesia, Tit 3:5 and Seals, sphragizo

Justifies, dikaioo, Ro 3:24Leads (Isa 48:17), empowers (Ro 15:13), and gifts (1 Co 12:4-7)

Someone was sent, Ro 10:15Someone preached, or announced gospel, Ro 10:15Heard, Ro 10:15; Eph 1:13Understood, Mt 13:15; Ac 8:30

Persuaded, Ac 26:28Commitment to Believe, and Trust Eph 1:13

Obey (Phil 2:12) and Serve (Mt 6:24; 1 Th 1:9He Glorifies us and we Glorify Him (Ro

8:30)

Perseverance of the Saints28

Perseverance is not Preservation “The believer will persevere in trusting Christ” – “he that endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt 10:22; 24:13)

Reform: “It is utterly wrong to say that a believer is secure quite irrespective of his subsequent life of sin and unfaithfulness”

Therefore, no one can know if he is elect or has the gift of perseverance until he has persevered to the end of his life.

The elect exhibit certain signs which accompany salvationAt present I exhibit these signs.

Therefore, provided I persevere, I am among the elect Leads to introspection, self-righteousness, legalism and works-based hope for eternity

Regeneration gives power to obey, not a guarantee; Chastisement passages warn of present consequences; Judgment passages for believers will determine future status (not presence!)

Implication for Missions29

Is there hope for man beyond the reach of the gospel?

If one believes in an arbitrary grace election that regenerates a sinner before hearing and understanding the gospel, then this could … must… happen anywhere.

Some hold that General Revelation is all that is needed with regeneration, but faith comes by hearing the Word

Many theologians plead ignorance of what happens to the unengaged people, but few say it is our responsibility.

God is clear: men are lost and condemned until they hear and believe the gospel as described in the Word of God