Evangelism – Part 1: The Calvinist

I will be posting a series of blogs on evangelism – likely once every two weeks or so I will continue on this topic of evangelism.

The topic of evangelism is dear to my heart.  I know the rich blessings of the grace of God.  I know the forgiveness of  my sin, and the spiritual restoration that comes from faith in the blood of Christ. I am born again, I am baptized in the blood, I am a Christian. Since I know the blessings that come from faith in Christ, I want to share them with everyone, I want to evangelize.  In fact I do evangelize.  I am not a preacher, but I attempt to live my life as salt and light and engage people in in my daily life always hoping for the opportunity to express my faith so I might present the gospel.   I am a sinner, even the chief of sinners (I know Paul took that title but I feel that way!).  I want people to see that if there is hope even for a wretched person like me, then no one is beyond hope.   Do you know Christ crucified and resurrected?

I am reformed in doctrine, or if you prefer you can label me a “Calvinist. “  I believe in the sovereign election (predestination) of our merciful God, yet I also believe that we must evangelize. People ask me how to reconcile these two points. I admit that on the surface, Reformed Theology appears to be its own worst enemy when it comes to evangelism.  In fact, I even struggle trying to get my fellow reformed believers to engage in evangelism.  While it is not explicitly stated by anyone I know, there is the underlying tension between the Sovereignty of God and our duty to evangelize.  Most of us would never say this, but there is a hint of it in Reformed and Calvinist circles: “If God is sovereign and he elects us to eternal life…why should I evangelize, won’t He take who He wants? “  My beloved reformed theology has also been under attack by protestant evangelicalism , Anabaptists, and others on this point for centuries.  So this is my dilemma – both my “reformed” Christian brothers appear to neglect evangelism and “non-reformed” Christians attack us for not evangelising. Alright I need to defend my faith and I need to light a fire under some people that I love.

I am sure most of us are familiar with the famous exchange between Charles Simeon(Calvinist) and John Wesley(Arminian):

Charles Simeon: Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?

John Wesley: Yes, I do indeed.

CS: And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?

JW: Yes, solely through Christ.

CS: But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?

JW: No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.

CS: Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?

JW: No.

CS: What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms?

JW: Yes, altogether.

CS: And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?

JW: Yes, I have no hope but in Him.

CS: Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree.

Wesley’s theology broke down when it came to his own personal experience of the grace of God. With Simeont, his theology explains his experience. Head and heart are united around the truth that salvation is of the Lord. With the Wesley, his belief-system is contradicted by his actual experience of salvation.

Now lets look at evangelism from a reformed perpective.

I have read a number of books on evangelism, and J.I Packer’s, “Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God” plainly and eloquently removes the conflict between reformed theology’s belief in the sovereignty of God and our role as labourer’s in God’s plan of salvation…in evangelism.

This book is a good read regardless of which side of the “Calvinistic” fence you are on.  Be it on my side, or on the other side.  Whether we are Calvinist or not, we should all agree as Christians in these 4 points concerning evangelism:

1. 1.     The necessity of evangelism
2. 2.     The urgency of evangelism
3. 3.     The genuineness of the gospel invitations, or the truth of the gospel promises
4. 4.     The responsibility of the sinner for his reaction to the gospel

This is what J.I. Packer says on these points in defence of Reformed theology.  He explains it better than I could ever hope to. Please enjoy and if you want to borrow the book let me know! 🙂

Point 1: The belief that God is sovereign in grace does not affect the necessity of evangelism. Whatever we may believe about election, the fact remains that evangelism is necessary, because no man can be saved without the gospel. . . . They must be told of Christ before they can trust Him, and they must trust Him before they can be saved by Him. Salvation depends on faith, and faith on knowing the gospel. God’s way of saving sinners is to bring them to faith through bringing them into contact with the gospel. In God’s ordering of things, therefore, evangelism is a necessity if anyone is to be saved at all. . . .

Point 2: The belief that God is sovereign in grace does not affect the urgency of evangelism. . . . The world is full of people who are unaware that they stand under the wrath of God: is it not similarly a matter of urgency that we should go to them, and try to arouse them, and show them the way of escape? . . . The non-elect in this world are faceless men as far as we are concerned. We know that they exist, but we do not and cannot know who they are, and it is as futile as it is impious for us to try and guess. . . . Our calling as Christians is not to love God’s elect, and them only, but to love our neighbour, irrespective of whether he is elect or not.

Point 3: The belief that God is sovereign in grace does not affect the genuineness of the gospel invitations, or the truth of the gospel promises. . . . The fact remains that God in the gospel really does offer Christ and promise justification and life to ‘whosoever will’. ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ As God commands all men everywhere to repent, so God invites all men everywhere to come to Christ and find mercy. . . .

The fact that the gospel invitation is free and unlimited—‘sinners Jesus will receive’—‘come and welcome to Jesus Christ’—is the glory of the gospel as a revelation of divine grace. . . . Some fear that a doctrine of eternal election and reprobation involves the possibility that Christ will not receive some of those who desire to receive Him, because they are not elect. The ‘comfortable words’ of the gospel promises, however, absolutely exclude this possibility. As our Lord elsewhere affirmed, in emphatic and categorical terms: ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ . . .

Point 4: The belief that God is sovereign in grace does not affect the responsibility of the sinner for his reaction to the gospel. . . . A man who rejects Christ thereby becomes the cause of his own condemnation. . . . The unbeliever was really offered life in the gospel, and could have had it if he would; he, and no-one but he, is responsible for the fact that he rejected it, and must now endure the consequences of rejecting it. . . . The Bible never says that sinners miss heaven because they are not elect, but because they “neglect the great salvation”, and because they will not repent and believe.