Calvinism: One Misunderstood and Misrepresented Aspect of Biblical Theology
“Did you hear that? I think he said the ‘C’ word?” You might be asking, “What is the ‘C’ word?” The “C” word that many Christians seem to despise, particularly in American Evangelicalism, is the word “Calvinism.” There are even Christians who hold to the tenets of Calvinism that don’t like the label. I can relate to that. There is a sense in which I don’t like to be labeled a Calvinist because of all of the misunderstanding and confusion about what classical Calvinism actually teaches. This is due in large part to the caricatures and misrepresentations that come from those who disagree with it. Additionally, there is a part of me that doesn’t like to be labeled a Calvinist because to some it gives off the impression that I am following Calvin rather than the teaching of Jesus that is found in the Bible. Either way, I can relate to those Calvinists that do not wish to carry all that baggage that comes along with the term “Calvinism.”
With all that being said, I have come to the place where I no longer shy away from being called a Calvinist. I am happy to stand with those that believe God is sovereign over all things, including the salvation of sinners like me. Just because I believe that John Calvin was right about the way God saves sinners doesn’t mean that I follow a particular man more devoutly than I follow Jesus. That would be like saying anyone who has a MacArthur Study Bible really doesn’t follow Jesus, but rather, John MacArthur. Everyone knows that is an absurd statement. Just because someone uses a MacArthur Study Bible to better understand the biblical text doesn’t mean that they follow MacArthur rather than Jesus. The same is true for Calvinists. Just because we agree with Calvin and others in the Reformed tradition pertaining to their understanding of salvation doesn’t mean we follow them rather than Jesus.
Different Tribes within the Camp of Calvinism
Just like there are many tribes within evangelicalism, there seem to be many tribes within the Calvinist camp. I have heard people describe themselves as “four-point Calvinists.” Others go as far as to say they are “four-and-a-half-point Calvinists.” I have even read of a pastor that was comfortable with three out of the five points. In my own opinion, when you are down to three points you might as well just abandon the label altogether. And although I have questions for the “four-pointers” and “four-and-a-half pointers,” I am not out on a crusade to eliminate the usage of the labels “four-point Calvinist” or “four-and-a-half-point Calvinist.” I understand what those labels mean and we will deal with them in more detail when we discuss the third point of Calvinism, namely “Limited Atonement.”[1] For the sake of clarification, this series of blog posts will be defending the classical or traditional teachings of five-point Calvinism. The next blog post will be a summary and brief explanation of each of the five points. After that, the remaining posts in this series will be spent unpacking each of the points in more detail.
Learning from the Old, Dead Guys
I think Calvin rightly understood the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the salvation of man. Contrary to what you may have heard Calvinism is not some strange, abstract, theological construct that the Protestant Reformers placed upon the text of the Bible. Rather, it is a biblical theology derived straight from the text of sacred Scripture that dates all the way back to the church father, Augustine, around the fourth or fifth century. I don’t agree with Calvin on everything and you don’t have to either. In fact, outside of the essentials of Christianity and the five points that bear his name (which he did not articulate as “The Five Points,” but more about that in the next post), there isn’t much that we do agree on (i.e., mode of baptism, covenant theology, etc.).
However, we need to be willing to learn from those who came before us and devoted their lives to studying the Scriptures. You have probably heard this saying before, but there is no such thing as a Long Ranger Christian. This is particularly true when it comes to theology. We need to test what we think about God by not only comparing it to what the Bible actually teaches about Him, but also to what the Church has already been saying about Him for the last two-thousand years. That is what we are going to do in this series of blog posts. What does classical Calvinism actually teach us about God and how he saves sinners? We will find out over the next several blog posts.
[1]The term “limited atonement” is a really misleading term to use for the third point of Calvinism. There are two clearer and more helpful terms to use for this point, namely “particular redemption” or “definite atonement.” This will be discussed more in the blog post on this particular point of Calvinism.
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