"But predestination!" (#17: double-speak and the gospel)
In this series, I'm examining some things that Calvinists (especially my ex-pastor) say about predestination.
Here's the whole series on my other blog: the pastor's sermons ("When Calvinists say 'But predestination!'"), and my comments 1-4 (election) and 5-6 (Romans and sovereignty) and 7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine) and 10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015) and 12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again) and 15 (total depravity, manipulation) and 16A (God's Will, babies) and 16B (sin, evil, suffering) and 17 (double-speak and the gospel).
And lastly, seventeenth: From his September 2023 sermon on Jonah. Notice that the whole thing is basically one big contradiction, talking out of both sides of his mouth, double-speak, shaming us for running from God and telling us we need to repent, but then informing us that God Himself decides if we turn to Him or not:
"Why does Jonah run from God? Why are some of us this morning running from God? At the root of all disobedience, before you have poor behavior you have poor belief. That's at the root of all disobedience. [Actually, in Calvinism, God's Will is the root of all things. And we can't resist or change what Calvi-god wills.] The root of Jonah's disobedience and your disobedience and my disobedience is a mistrust in the goodness of God. [Gee, mistrusting the goodness of a Calvinist god who ordains/preplans/causes all the evil and sin that he commands us not to do and yet punishes us for doing - that's just crazy!]
Jonah did not believe God had his best interest at heart... And it's a reminder, friends, that all sin is rooted in a belief that God's way is not the best way. [What is "God's way" in Calvinism: What He says He wants, or what He "ordains" even if it's disobeying what He says He wants? Calvinists say, when it comes to God's sovereignty over sin, that He decrees that we disobey His decrees. So then, which one was His real decree, what He really wanted, "His way"? It's contradictory, Alice-in- Wonderland-type nonsense.] That's why, when it comes to repentance, the first thing you need to repent of is wrong belief, before wrong behavior. [Well, only if Calvi-god so wills that we repent of the wrong beliefs he willed at first, of course.]
... These are the lies we tell ourselves: We convince ourselves that if I obey what God says, if I do what He's laid out, I'm gonna be miserable. We convince ourselves that if I submit to God's Will, I'm gonna miss out on life and be miserable. [Ironic because, in Calvinism, everything that happens - even sin and disobedience - is God's Will.]
... Maybe you're running from God this morning?... We've all done the Jonah thing. And the message from Jonah is that if I try to run away from God, lots of things are going to happen, and they're all bad. [All ordained by Calvi-god, of course, even our running.]
... We also see at the end of the book of Jonah that God provided the vine and the worm and the scorching wind. And so it's very interesting to see the emphasis here that God is in complete control of the circumstances we are in. Whatever you are going through right now - good, bad, or otherwise - the Lord is in the details. ["In control of" is one thing (being in authority over), but Calvinists really mean "God controls all things" which is very different. Calvinists take verses about God controlling and causing some things and turn them into an all-encompassing "doctrine" about how God controls/causes all things, including sin and evil and our eternal destinies. That's a huge unbiblical leap. And it's an attack on God's righteous character.]
...(Quoting Jonah 2:9) 'Salvation comes from the Lord.' Many scholars point out that is probably the key verse, the hinge verse, in the whole book. Salvation comes from the Lord... Tim Keller [Calvinist!] believes verse 9 is the key verse for the book and he writes this, quote: 'It means if someone is saved, it is wholly God's doing. It is not a matter of God saving you partly and you partly saving yourself. No! God saves us. We do not and cannot save ourselves. That is the gospel.' And that is the message of Jonah: Only God elects. Only God sovereignly draws. Only God sovereignly convicts us of sin. Only God sovereignly opens blinded eyes. [So "you need to stop running from God" but "only God can decide if you do that or not." Contradictory. Talking out of both sides of his mouth. And for the record: No, the message of Jonah is not that God sovereignly controls whether we are saved or not. It's that God is merciful and wants all people to repent and be saved, that He made it possible for all people to repent and be saved, even wicked sinners. The message of Jonah is precisely the opposite of Calvinism, because Jonah teaches that no one is hopeless, no one is beyond God's saving grace, no one is predestined for hell. Anyone can be saved because God loves all and wants all to be saved and offers salvation to all. But it's our choice to repent and believe, or to not. That's the message of Jonah. What a horrible twist to make it about Calvinist election instead, a terrible corruption of God's Word and heart and the gospel (*more on this below)! And for another record, if Calvinists bothered to look up Jonah 2:9 in the concordance, they'd see that in the Old Testament, the word "salvation" does not refer to salvation from sin, but it refers to God delivering people from things like distress, war, servitude, enemies, etc. Yet, Calvinists make it about eternal, save-your-soul-from-hell salvation and then say "See, it says salvation belongs to God, meaning that God controls who gets saved" and then they quote Calvinist theologians to "prove" it. Bogus!]
... These kinds of stories, in a weird way, are an encouragement that God, when He puts His affections on somebody and draws them and makes them one of His own, He's committed to them and He uses them, in spite of themselves. [But, in Calvinism, that's not a "when" but an "if" - IF God loves you and chooses you to be saved and causes you to believe. And let's face it, He won't do this for most people, in Calvinism. And so there is no comfort in this for the majority of people, the non-elect. There is only comfort for the elect. And even then, no one can know for sure if they are truly elect until the end of their lives. So, really, there's no comfort in this at all for anyone while we're alive on earth. See my post "MacArthur on Calvinism's (lack of) Assurance of Salvation."]
... Do you know Christ as Lord? Have you been reconciled to God? Isaiah 59:2 says this: 'Your sins have cut you off from God.' The Bible says the moment I am born, the moment of conception even, I am born into sin, with a disposition to sin, and I am born under judgment with Adam's guilt imputed to me, and if something doesn't happen [to me, by God] I am going to perish and go to hell, that we are under the wrath of God and enemies of God... Repent and believe Jesus is the Messiah. Have you done that? [I don't know, ask Calvi-god. It's up to him.] Every week in churches sit people who are not reconciled to God. It is the most important thing in the world to get right, to know God. [This pastor always words it like this: "The Bible says that in order to be saved, we need to repent and believe. Have you done that?" But I've never heard him word it like this: "Do you want to do that? Do you want to be saved, to repent and believe and call on Jesus? If so, you can do that right now." He doesn't ask if we want to do it, and he never gives an altar call to invite people to do it right now. (He says he doesn't want people thinking that walking an aisle saves you, but I'm sure it's just that he doesn't want people thinking they have a choice about being saved.) He always just asks "Have you done that?," as if asking "Has God made you do it yet? Has He caused you to repent and believe, to realize you're one of the elect?" Calvinism doesn't save any sinner from hell; it only makes the elect - those already destined for heaven - realize they are elect.]
... [One lesson we learn from Jonah is that] it's one thing to believe in God; it's another thing to trust this God with the circumstances He's appointed for me. [In Calvinism, tragedies and evils and sins are not just allowed into your life by Calvi-god, but they are specifically appointed for you by Calvi-god. But a god who appoints evil (preplans, causes, controls) is very different from a God who allows and uses the evil He doesn't preplan/cause. These are two very different Gods. And One can be trusted while the other one can't.]
... [In a biography about missionaries and all the trials, tragedies, evils, and struggles they went through] they battled fear and fought unbelief and wrestled with doubt and struggled to trust God until they learned the secret of how to flourish despite the circumstances... 'They finally dealt with the fact that they needed to delight in the will of God and not just submit to the will of God.'... That's a huge difference. When they quite murmuring and quit fretting and quit doubting and quit complaining and started rejoicing, it turned their life around.' [Calvinists believe that everything is ordained by God, even sin, evil, and all suffering, and then they make people feel like they must rejoice about it all because it was all deliberately from God, "His Will." But I think God allows, not necessarily ordains, things that He doesn't want. And so lots of our pain and tragedy and suffering is not what God wanted or appointed, but it's what He allowed because He gave us free-will.
We are allowed to make real decisions, even sinful ones, and Satan is allowed to influence things and fallen nature is allowed to run its course within boundaries... and so bad things happen that God doesn't want. But He allows it because He knows He can bring something good out of it, for the good of His glory, His kingdom, and our lives and eternities. And that's why we can trust Him anyway, even in the painful circumstances.
I think the real "secret" to flourishing is to trust God anyway, even when we hurt, to praise Him in spite of the pain, tragedy, heartache, and evil in the world - not necessarily to praise Him for them, slapping on a fake "good Christian" smile, acting like it's all hunky-dory with us: "Bring me the pain if that's what You want, Lord. I can handle it. It's all good. I love it!"
Instead, the writers of the Psalms teach us to pour out to God all our pain, doubts, fears, frustrations, or anger - honestly, fully, real and raw, not stuffing it or hiding it or polishing it up all nice and shiny and acceptable-looking. But at the end of it all, they always come back to "But in spite of all this, I know You are good, and I trust You anyway."
That is how I want to honor God - not by slapping on a fake smile, acting like I'm thankful for the pain, evil, and sin He supposedly "ordained and appointed" for me - but by opening up my heart to Him honestly, laying it all down at His feet, even the unpleasant and "unacceptable" things, collapsing into His arms in my pain and weakness and heartache and doubt and fear, trusting Him to work something good out of everything, even the tragedy and evil caused by a fallen world full of fallen people. Because I know He is good and He cares and He is over-and-above it all.
Psalm 34:18: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God never wanted sin and evil and disease and tragedy to happen (these are consequences of the Fall, attacks from Satan, ruining God's perfect creation), so why would we praise Him for it?
Non-Calvinists trust Him to be a good, loving, faithful Father even though people are allowed to make their own decisions, even wicked ones, because we trust that He didn't want or cause the evil to happen to us, that His heart broke for us when it happened, that He was with us in the pain and will carry us through it, and that someday He'll avenge all wrongs, vanquish all evil, punish all evildoers, set all things right again, and work all the bad into something good.
But Calvinists praise God for the sins, evils, and tragedies of the world. Calvinists believe He gets glory for causing the evil things people do. And Calvinists believe they have to trust God even though they're taught that He preplans, causes, controls all the wicked things people do, all the evils that happen to us, all the sinful things He commands us not to do but causes us to do and will someday punish us for. Calvinists are taught to call this kind of god "loving, just, righteous, holy, good, and trustworthy." No wonder Calvinism kills people's faith!
(Also see this post of mine: "Are Tragedies Gifts from God?" And listen to a favorite song of mine: Praise the Lord by The City Harmonic.]
... Are you running from God? If so, it's not going to go well. If you're running from God, take a lesson from Jonah, you're going to make a mess and it's gonna hurt more, until you do it God's way." [Since Calvi-god sovereignly controls whether or not we're running from God, this is a nonsensical, pointless, inconsequential sermon.]
And from his January 14, 2018 sermon on amazing grace, here's more contradiction, more double-speak, and more "Has God done it to you yet?", with no actual altar call or appeal to put your faith in Jesus. This is after 25 minutes of telling us how we are depraved, dead, and enslaved to sin, how it's not just that we're separated from God by sin but that we're wicked and enslaved to sin and unable to come to Him, and how there is no free will but just our fallen wills which are enslaved to sin:
"Once someone has a grace-encounter with the Holy Spirit, they still have to choose to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ... So you still have to make that choice, but the key is that you can't make that choice unless God wakes you up. That's why theologians will talk about, really, regeneration precedes saving faith - because you can't believe until God wakes you up. But there still is that role, you still have to make that saving choice.
... This is what it says God wants to do with His saints: He doesn't just give them mercy, and He doesn't even just give them grace. Then He says 'I want to show them off. I'm gonna take a child of wrath, who is spiritually dead, a rotting corpse, and I'm going to resurrect them and make them a son or daughter... and then I'm gonna say 'Look at what I have done!''... That's what God's amazing grace does.
... Do you know Christ? Is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Are you on your way to the new heaven and earth, or are you on your way to the lake of fire? That is the question that every human being has to face. We're born dead in sin, enslaved to the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's the bad news. But the good news is that God is rich in mercy and grace and He delights in opening blinded eyes and He does it all through grace. [This is not an appeal, a call, or a challenge to believe in Jesus and be saved. It's just information on what happens to you if you're elect.]
[And then in prayer at the end of the sermon:] Father, thank You for Your grace and mercy... Thank You that there are many here today who have chosen, through the Holy Spirit's power, to place their faith in Jesus... May You continue to do Your work in the area of summoning the dead to life."
Amazing grace for the elect only, causing them to believe in Jesus after God regenerates them! And everyone else is out of luck, hopelessly damned and on their way to the lake of fire.
Calvinist amazing grace, how sweet the sound!
*Note about "the gospel":
So far in his sermons, I've counted at least three times he defines the gospel as Calvinist election.
From this one: 'It means if someone is saved, it is wholly God's doing. It is not a matter of God saving you partly and you partly saving yourself. No! God saves us. We do not and cannot save ourselves. That is the gospel.' And that is the message of Jonah: Only God elects. Only God sovereignly draws. Only God sovereignly convicts us of sin. Only God sovereignly opens blinded eyes."
From his February 2015 sermon: "The Bible's teaching on our human condition especially outside of Christ [is that we are] hopelessly blinded and in slavery to sin unless God graciously opens human sinful eyes and summons them to Himself as Lord... That's the gospel: That there is a God who seeks hardened sinners, pursues them, turns them around, drags them to Himself, blesses them, pardons them, and justifies them."
From his May 2024 sermon: "The context of Ephesians 2 - in fact, the whole New Testament - is that of enslavement [to sin]. Jesus said the same thing, that he who sins is a slave to sin, meaning that the unsaved, the unregenerate, cannot see spiritual truth, they have no appetite for the things of God, they hate God's authority - that's our natural state - and they are unwilling and unable to commit to God... And the only hope - hear this, because that's what this miracle [of the blind man] is about and what this message is about - the only hope is if God in His mercy, just like Jesus with this [blind] guy, chooses to open blinded eyes, just like Jesus did in this miracle... Exodus 33:19: 'The Lord God says, 'I have mercy on those I've chosen to have mercy on, and I will have compassion on those on whom I choose to have compassion.' That is the gospel."
Really, that is the gospel!?! No mention of Jesus's death or resurrection or of God loving people or of our need to choose to believe in Jesus, to call on Him - just the Calvinist doctrine of election/predestination, that God chooses who gets saved and makes them believe.
That's the gospel in Calvinism?
Silly me, I thought the gospel was "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son (to die on the cross for our sins and then rise again), that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."
1 Cor. 15:3-4: "For what I received I passed onto you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures,".
Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 3:23-24: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ."
Romans 10:9,13: "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
To be fair, he did mention Jesus in his July 1, 2018 sermon: "The gospel is very clear: It is the announcement that God is reconciling sinners to Himself through the life, death, and resurrection of His uniquely begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth."
But notice his carefully chosen word of "announcement." The gospel, in Calvinism, is not an invitation or offer to all people to believe in Jesus and be saved; it's an announcement that God will save some sinners. Some prechosen sinners. The elect. Calvinist election.
Joe answers "Because any kind of evangelistic efforts, I have a 100% success rate for the kingdom of God. So either it is going to add to the condemnation of vessels prepared for wrath, for destruction, that God will use to glorify Himself - so it will be adding to the condemnation of unbelievers where God will be just in destroying them for eternity - or He will use the preaching of the gospel...[to] draw the elect to Himself. So I have a 100% success rate with whatever I'm doing because I'm accomplishing God's purpose either way." [It's "success" to bring people more condemnation in hell? And it's "for God's glory"? That's sick and disturbing.]
Godless Granny then asks, "If you found out that God chose not to save one or more of your children, how would you feel about that?"
Joe answers "It means He's God. You see, God is a bigger being than I am. He's higher than I am. And I sure hope that God has chosen my children...but if God chooses not to save my children, that is His prerogative because He is God and I am not God. He decides who's in His heaven. He decides who's in His hell."
Godless Granny then points out that the odds are that at least one of Joe's children is predestined to eternal torment in hell, and she asks "And you don't have a problem with that?"
And Joe responds "Okay, we've got two ways to look at this. This is a glass half-full or half-empty. Either I can rejoice that God chose a wretched sinner for salvation, which is me, or I can worry about God's choices with other wretched sinners. When I realize that the human nature and the human position against God is that I've sinned against an almighty God and that everyone deserves His judgment, I should be mystified, shocked, and stunned whenever He chooses anyone, not surprised when someone doesn't get chosen." [This is the glorious end of Calvinism, where it leads to! Oh, how this must hurt his children's hearts!]
3. From a Heidelberg Theological Seminary article called "The Doctrine of Limited Atonement..." (quoting Rev. Paul Trieck's book Faith of our Fathers, Living Still: Study of the Five Points of Calvinism): "If it is true that God only intends to save his chosen people and if Christ only died for them, then how can we bring the message of the gospel to all men?... Can we sincerely preach the gospel to all men, knowing that many of those who hear it throughout the world will never believe it?
It is inaccurate to say that we 'offer' salvation to all men. The preaching of the gospel is not an offer, but a 'command' to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. The non-elect person will never have ears to hear this and obey. Yet, the call of the gospel must be sincerely given, allowing God to gather his people by the power of His Holy Spirit.
... While the messenger of Christ may never say to all men indiscriminately, 'Smile, God loves you' or 'Christ died for you,' yet he must say that Christ died for the sins of His people and all men are commanded to repent and believe in Jesus Christ... It is precisely through this preaching of the gospel that God has determined to save His elect for whom Christ died.... God will also use the preaching of the gospel to condemn those who reject it and continue in their unbelief [by Calvi-god's decree].
The success of preaching is guaranteed, for none of the sheep will be lost... Others do not hear the voice of Jesus and will not believe, because they are not His sheep whom He died for... The only method which the Bible outlines for doing mission work is to go to all men and preach the gospel. God will apply the message to the hearts of His elect through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
... We as mere men do not know whom God has chosen, but only that those chosen will be repent, believe, and be saved. Therefore, we can be assured of success in missions. Success is not determined by how many become Christians, but it is a matter of faithfulness in bringing the true gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth.
... Unfortunately, in a mistaken attempt to bring all men into the Church, men have forsaken true doctrine in order to give greater appeal to the sound of the gospel. It may sound like a nice way to approach all men and say 'Christ died for you, now you must choose Him,' but it is not true, and does grave injustice to the intent of Christ on the cross.
... When we say that we 'freely proclaim' the gospel we must not think that all men are equally capable of receiving it in faith. The unregenerate man is not 'free' to believe – not until and unless the Holy Spirit has brought new life and freedom into his heart. No man can do this himself. Only the sheep will listen, and that will be only because the Holy Spirit works faith in their hearts.
5. And as our pastor preached in April 7, 2019: “God is the one who opens eyes. God is the one who closes eyes. To God be the glory. And this should bring a freedom in our evangelism [and] in our mission endeavors. Otherwise, someone like [a missionary who had no converts] would come home and feel like an utter failure. But the reason he didn't - and the reason he doesn't have to - is because he understood the sovereignty of God. And it’s God who gives the results... J.I. Packer, in his classic Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, writes this: ‘It’s a Christian’s job to share the gospel. It is God’s job to open people’s hearts.’ Meaning that whether someone ends up believing or not, that’s God’s call. And what many miss is this is a very liberating thing when you share the gospel... God sovereignly opens some regions and hearts to the gospel, and He sovereignly closes some hearts and regions to the gospel. And ladies and gentlemen, that is needed tonic to the Western church which has become so man-centered… It is God only who gives results. And that is something the Western church needs to embrace, remember, and rejoice in as the gospel goes out.”
Rejoicing that God supposedly causes people to reject the gospel so that they can burn eternally in hell for His glory? Calling it "successful evangelism"? Does anyone else's heart hurt right now?
Calvinism's "gospel" is only good news for the elect. But the Bible's gospel is good news for all people: God loves all people and sent Christ died for all our sins so that anyone can believe in Him and be saved.
Luke 2:10: "But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people."
Romans 11:32: "For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all."
2 Peter 3:9: "... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
Ezekiel 33:11: "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live..."
From his April 17, 2022 sermon, which he begins with "The great theologian, one of my heroes, John Calvin...": "The gospel at its core is about the radical depravity of the human heart from the moment of conception. You might say, 'I don't like that!' I may not either, but the first question when it comes to the Bible is not 'What do I like and what don't I like?' The question is 'What does the text say?' And the abundant testimony of Scripture is that human beings are born in rebellion against God, wicked, depraved, needing help... [it's about] our sinfulness, our alienation from God and our desperate need to be reconciled to God lest we perish in the fiery judgment to come.
"What do you think about heaven? Because guess what? It's going to be better than we can ever imagine. So what do you believe about it, and how has it impacted your life now? When we set our minds on the glory of heaven, the things of earth [the things we focus on now and take pride in now] will grow strangely dim...
In heaven, we're going to be fully exposed to God, fully known. Even all the stuff we try to hide from others will be exposed before Him. But guess what? We're going to feel more love than we ever have - because the Bible says God is love. And the amazing thing is, God's always fully known you, and yet He's always fully loved you. This love has been there all along. God has always known all of you and always loved all of you. You don't need to hide from Him. One day we'll be standing before God in heaven, fully known and fully exposed, but because of Who we're standing before, we'll never feel more love than that.
Heaven, the throne room of God, will be full of His holiness and His glory and angels praising Him, and yet we'll be able to approach His throne with confidence. How? Because on that day, we'll be approaching God not with our resume full of our good deeds... but with Jesus's resume, His blood shed for you, His righteousness. I can't enter God's presence because of any good I do but only because of what Jesus did for me. I plead His blood. The blood He shed as a substitute for me. I don't believe in myself or my ability to be good - because I'm not good enough even on my best day - but I put my faith in Jesus who died for all our sins. I believe in Jesus. Do you? Or have you just been trying to believe in yourself? Because you don't have to anymore. I... believe... in Jesus!
Guess what? Heaven is filled with people who know they don't deserve to be there either on their own - but in Christ, it's more than enough. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. So who will get to heaven? The people who put their faith in Jesus Christ! Is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? For those who know it is, rejoice! Jesus is our reward. But for those of you who don't know if your name is written there, what's stopping you from putting your full faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior?
Jesus says that in His Father's house are many rooms. And guess what? One of those rooms can be yours. God's still taking reservations. Have you made your reservation? Pray with me if you want to do that, if you want to put your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior: 'God, I believe in You. I'm sorry I've been trying to live life for myself, without You. I believe You sent Your Son, Jesus, to die the death I deserve. I believe He rose again to give me life, and I want that life. I want to receive that life from You. I believe. And help my unbelief. Right now, I put my faith and trust in You, Jesus. Amen.'"
How different this is from the contradictory, confusing, pessimistic, shaming Calvinist sermons that barely talk about God's love (and when they do, it's about His love for "peoples/nations," but not for all people of all nations), that present Calvinist election as "the gospel" (Good news: If you're elect, you're saved!) and that simply ask if you repented and believed yet (if God caused you to do it) but that don't give any kind of altar call, no chance or appeal to actually choose to do it.
A great way to end this series!
