When it comes to the doctrine of election, the bottom line is this:  Does God choose us for salvation because we first choose Him; or do we choose Him because He first chose us?

Christians of a non- or anti-Calvinist persuasion usually “choose” the former position (pun intended); whereas Christians of a Reformed and Calvinist persuasion affirm the latter.

Those who opt for the former position believe that God’s election of us is conditioned upon something that He sees in us or something we do to earn His choice; whereas Calvinists believe that God’s choice of us in Christ is not conditioned upon anything that God sees in us, whether foreseen faith or works or both; hence the Calvinist view is that God’s election of us is unconditional.  God’s choice of us in not conditioned upon anything in human beings that moves God to choose them.  Rather, it is because God has chosen them in His grace that His chosen ones respond to His gracious initiative with a living faith, a genuine repentance from sin, and an earnest life of discipleship.

The Bible clearly teaches a doctrine of election.  Many passages in both the Old and the New Testaments affirm that God “chooses”, “elects” and “predestines” a select number of people.  Consider just a small sampling of Scripture passages on this topic:

“It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8, ESV; emphasis added)

“Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!” (Psalm 105:5-6, ESV; emphasis added)

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Jesus Christ, in Matthew 24:24, ESV; emphasis added)

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29, ESV; emphasis added)

“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33, ESV; emphasis added)

“And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad – in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call – she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”” (Romans 9:10-12, ESV; emphasis added)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved…In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…” (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11, ESV; emphasis added)

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion…” (First Peter 1:1a, ESV; emphasis added)

And this is just a small sampling of such passages.

As the reader can hopefully see, it is only by a studied avoidance of passages like these that the careful Bible reader can miss being confronted with the biblical doctrines of election and its related doctrine, predestination.  But the issue is, how are such passages to be understood?  Does a correct understanding of such passages lead to a Calvinistic or a non-Calvinistic doctrine of election and predestination?

We in the Reformed Faith believe that a careful, contextual study of such passages supports the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election, and not non-Calvinist doctrines that result in one way or another in a conditional understanding of election.

Some non-Calvinists appeal to passages which speak of our election in Christ being based upon God’s “foreknowledge” (for example, see Romans 8:29 and First Peter 1:1-2).  The “foreknowledge” view of election basically teaching that God chose to save us believers even before He created the world because He foresaw in the future that at some point in our lives we would freely choose to accept Christ as our Savior.

Certainly we Calvinists don’t deny that God foresees everything that happens in the future, including our future choices.  (We would point out, however, that the reason God is able to do this is because God is absolutely sovereign and has foreordained everything that comes to pass, as taught in passages such as Ephesians 1:11.  The reason that God can foresee the future is not only due to His omniscience, but also because He has planned the future in His eternal decree.)  However, we would point out that our non-Calvinist friends have misunderstood the biblical concept of “foreknowledge”.

When the Bible speaks of God “foreknowing” someone, it doesn’t simply mean that God foresees the choices that individual will make.  Rather, just as Adam is said to have “known” his wife Eve in the sense of loving her intimately in the context of the covenant of marriage (see, for example, Genesis 4:1), God “knows” us believers in the sense of loving us with a special, covenantal, saving love.  Thus, when the Bible talks about God “foreknowing” individuals, it means that He has “fore-loved” them – i.e., He has chosen to love them in Christ with a saving love even from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)!  So the “foreknowledge” view of election must be rejected as a false view based upon a misinterpretation of certain biblical passages.

Others seek to explain biblical reference to election by putting forward a doctrine of corporate election.  In other words, it is claimed that in the Bible God doesn’t choose individuals for salvation; rather, He chooses corporate groups (Israel in the Old Testament, the Church in the New Testament).  In this view the way to be identified as belonging to God’s “chosen” and “predestined” people is by choosing to identify yourself with the company of those who are followers of Jesus Christ – in other words, by choosing to believe in Christ and thus to become part of His elect Body, the Church.

Certainly most Calvinists won’t deny that there are corporate aspects to God’s electing purposes.  Yes, the Church corporate can rightly be referred to as God’s chosen people, collectively considered, and I believe the Bible would affirm such a designation.  However, a careful study of a number of key biblical texts (especially, for example, Romans chapter 9) will make it clear to the unbiased student of Scripture that God certainly does elect certain select individuals as individuals to be recipients of His saving grace in Jesus, while passing over others in the operations of His saving grace and leaving them in their own freely-chosen sin.  (For example, the contrast Paul makes in Romans 9:10-13 between God’s choice of Jacob over Esau makes it clear in that particular context that he is speaking of individual election and rejection, not a merely corporate election of the Israelites over the Edomites considered as collective people groups.)

Whether the non-Calvinist Christian adopts the foreknowledge doctrine of election, or the corporate election view, notice that both of these non-Calvinist doctrines of election assume one major thing:  They assume that God’s choice of us depends upon something we decide or something we do.  In other words, salvation is not wholly and exclusively by God’s grace, but by a grace plus works combination.  God’s election of us is not by His sovereign grace alone; rather, His “grace” of election is dependent, at least in part, upon our own will or our own works (or both).  Thus these non- and anti-Calvinist doctrines of election, when taken to their logical extreme, ultimately lead down the road to a false gospel of works-righteousness.

The Reformed and Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election serves to guard the one main point of Calvinism that undergirds all the other points of the Calvinistic system:  namely, the truth that we sinners are saved by God’s grace, and by God’s grace alone!  From beginning to end, our salvation in Christ was planned, executed, applied by the unconditional grace of God alone, apart from anything we have done or ever can do.  And this is why the doctrine of unconditional election is, at heart, a gospel doctrine.

God’s choice to save us in Jesus Christ is grounded in His unconditional, unmerited, free and sovereign grace.  Period!  Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)!  Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be glory)!  Let us glory in this precious Reformation doctrine, and let us proclaim it boldly and clearly in this age which is so saturated with and under the deluding spell of man-centered, man-glorifying, me-centered distortions of the biblical gospel.

Is Roman Catholicism Christian?

To some the answer to this question is an obvious “yes”.  “Of course Roman Catholicism is Christian!  That’s like asking is the city of Mecca Muslim.  The Roman Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians in the entire world.”

To others the answer to this question is an equally obvious “no”.  “Roman Catholicism isn’t truly Christian because it preaches a false gospel and teaches things that go against the truths of the Bible.”

What are we to think?  What would a biblically-based answer to this question look like?

Before seeking to answer this question let me offer several reasons why I think it is both a fair and an important question.

First of all, this is an important question for the very reason that the Roman Catholic Church does indeed profess to be a genuinely Christian church (indeed, it claims to be the one true church of Jesus Christ on earth); because it exercises such a large cultural and (in some cases) political influence throughout the world; and also because it boasts such a large membership worldwide.

It is also a fair question because not everything or everyone who claims to be “Christian” is, in fact, Christian, at least as measured by the only infallible standard of God’s Word.

So, is Roman Catholicism Christian?  The answer we give to that question depends upon how we define the term “Christian”, and also upon the different senses in which that term can be used.

I believe the answer to this question is:  In one sense, “yes”; in another sense, “no.”

Lest it seem like I’m trying obfuscate and complicate matters, allow me to explain.

First of all, all Bible-believing Christians should recognize that the Roman Catholic Church in her official teachings confesses and uphold many biblical, gospel based truths.  Orthodox Protestants and traditionalist Roman Catholics share a great deal in common, at least at the foundational level of “Mere Christianity” (to borrow the title from C.S. Lewis’ famous book).

For example, historic Catholics and Protestants share the same New Testament and agree that the Bible is, in some sense, the Word of God, a written Divine Revelation.

Together they confess the Bible-based truths summarized in the great ecumenical creeds, such as the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds.  For example, both Bible-believing Protestants and traditionalist Catholics confess belief in the Holy Trinity (the one true God existing eternally in three co-equal Persons:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  Both affirm the full Deity and full humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Both confess His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, His sinless life, His mighty miracles, His death upon the cross for our redemption from sin, His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, His reign at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and His coming again at the end of this age to judge the living and the dead, and His bringing in of the eternal state.  And both (to the surprise of some Protestants) believe in the absolute necessity of Divine grace for eternal salvation.

Let it be said that, in the context of the increasingly secular, “post-Christian” culture in which we live, where rank unbelief and anti-Christian hostility seem to be the new norm, these commonly-shared Christian beliefs held by both biblical Protestants and traditionalist Catholics stand in sharp contrast to our contemporary secularist zeitgeist.

So, at this basic level of “Mere Christianity” and the ancient ecumenical creeds, Roman Catholicism is indeed “Christian.”

At the same time, and at a deeper level still, there is a sense in which Roman Catholicism, as it has evolved from medieval times into the contemporary world, is profoundly unChristian – even anti-Christian.  For while, at the level of “Mere Christianity” it is Christian, at the level of its’ distinctive teachings and practices it does indeed deny and/or distort the saving truths of the Bible.

For example, in response to the Protestant Reformation the Roman Catholic Church officially added the apocryphal (or “deuterocanonical”) books to the Jewish canon of the Old Testament, so that the Roman Catholic version of the Old Testament contains books that both Jews and Protestant Christians believe should not be there.  The Apostle Paul tells us that the “oracles of God” (i.e., the Old Testament Scriptures) had been entrusted to the people of the Jews (see Romans 3:2).  While the apocryphal books contain some valuable historical and devotional material, and while the Christian church has always read these books for edification (though, historically, not to establish doctrine), the Jews had never recognized the apocryphal books as being inspired by God, and therefore they were excluded from the Jewish canon of Scripture.  The Protestant Reformers accepted the Jewish canon of the Old Testament Scripture, in accordance with Romans 3:2.  But the Roman Catholic Church added uninspired books to the inspired Word of God — a very serious sin which is strictly forbidden by God and which calls down the anathema of God upon those who dare to add to or take away from God’s Word (see Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Revelation 22:18-19).

In addition to adding the uninspired apocryphal books to the inspired Word of God, the Catholic Church has added, over the years, many man-made traditions to the requirements of God’s Word, burdening the consciences of the faithful with a plethora of man-made ecclesiastical rules, rituals and laws with no clear warrant from Holy Scripture.  This, too, is profoundly unChristian.

Arguably the worst errors of Roman Catholicism relate to its teachings on human salvation.  While Romanism does recognize man’s need for Divine grace and the merits of Christ in order to be saved, its teaching on salvation in effect denigrates and denies both the absolute perfection and sufficiency of Christ’s saving work and the grace of God by teaching a doctrine of salvation by Divine grace plus human free will, Christ’s merits plus the (Spirit-wrought) merits of the believer, and justification by faith plus works.

Rome teaches that human salvation is accomplished by human free will cooperating with God’s grace.  But Scripture teaches that God’s election, and thus human salvation, “…depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:16, ESV).

Rome teaches that, while Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is sufficient for human salvation, His sacrifice on Calvary must be continuously re-presented to God the Father by a human priest through the “unbloody sacrifice” of the Roman Mass offered on altars in Roman Catholic churches.  In this way the absolute perfection, completion and efficacy of our Savior’s once-for-all sacrifice is denigrated and blasphemed.  For Scripture says of Christ our great High Priest:  “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12, 14, ESV; emphasis added)

Rome teaches that justification is by faith in Christ plus the grace-wrought works of believers.  But the Bible teaches that we sinners are justified (i.e., declared righteous) before God by His grace alone, through faith in the merits of Christ alone, and apart from works (even grace-wrought works).  “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:4-5, ESV)  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV)  Thus Rome in its official teachings denies the biblical gospel of justification by faith alone, teaching instead a false gospel of justification of faith plus works.  In doing this it has placed itself under the anathema of God (see Galatians 1:8-9).

Add to Rome’s errors in adding to the Scriptures and distorting the biblical message of salvation its idolatry in promoting religious prayers and devotion to Mary and the Saints, the Rosary, its promotion of priestly celibacy (contrary to First Timothy 3:2 which explicitly permits church leaders to be married), its post-Vatican II extension of salvation to nonbelievers (even ethical atheists according to the current pope), and its many other unbiblical teachings and practices, Roman Catholicism is, at a deeper level, profoundly anti-Christian.

So how are we to approach our Roman Catholic friends and neighbors?  Well, we can dialogue with them at the level of those things in which we agree.  We can even cooperate with them on a cultural level in terms of common cultural goals (for example, defending the unborn and promoting religious liberty).  We should reach out in love and friendship as good neighbors.  But at the same time we must “speak the truth in love” by bearing witness to the pure, biblical gospel and by exposing the errors of Romanism.  While Rome officially teaches much that is truly Christian, by mixing its profound errors in with the biblical truths it affirms, it ends up being even more dangerous, for profound truth mixed with profound error results in even more deceptive, alluring, potentially soul-destroying error.

The Bible teaches that fallen, unregenerate humanity is totally depraved.   As I pointed out in a previous post, this does not mean that the human race is as bad as it possibly can be (i.e., utter depravity); rather, it means that the spiritual disease of sin has radically corrupted every part and aspect of our humanity – including our minds, emotions, bodies, and even our wills.  As the Word of God testifies, apart from God’s regenerating grace we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-3), dead to the things of God.  The natural, unregenerate man views the things of the Spirit to be folly (First Corinthians 2:14).  As was true of the wicked in the days of Noah, in God’s eyes and by the lofty standard of God’s holy law, every intention of the thoughts of fallen man’s heart is solely and continually evil (see Genesis 6:5).

How does this total depravity or radical corruption impact the human will and fallen man’s ability to make choices?  Certainly the Scriptures indicate that human beings make choices all the time.  We are not puppets on a string.  Even the unregenerate make choices every day that are unconstrained by external coercion.

However, the Scriptures also indicate that, when it comes to spiritual things (such as trusting Christ as He is offered in the gospel, repenting of sin, and living in newness of life), the human will is not free.  Rather, the human will is in bondage to sin.

What this means is that, while we by nature are capable of making all kinds of choices when it comes to natural things (for example, things such as what career to pursue, whether and whom to marry, what to purchase at the food store, what clothes to wear, etc.), yet because of total depravity and original sin we are incapable of converting ourselves to Christ and living genuinely sanctified lives by our own free choice.  Apart from God’s sovereign grace we possess no genuine inner desire or disposition toward trusting in and living for Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Scriptures or of accepting the truth of His Word.

So, if we cannot convert ourselves or even incline or prepare ourselves for conversion, what then are we to do?  If we cannot by our own free will create saving faith within our hearts and instead rely entirely upon God in sovereign grace to grant us the miracle of the new birth before we can exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance unto life, then what are we to do in the meantime if we find ourselves uncertain with respect to our present spiritual condition?  Are we simply to passively wait upon God to move in our hearts before we take action in spiritual things?  Are we to delay doing anything in terms of spiritual exercises until we somehow feel the Spirit moving upon our souls?  The biblical and reformed answer to such questions is a resounding “No!”  No, God’s Word calls upon us sinners to take vigorous action in pursuing spiritual things, even while it also warns us against trusting in our spiritual actions to somehow merit grace from God or to put God in our debt to show us favor.

While it is true that the unregenerate cannot choose by their own wills to convert themselves to Christ, they can choose to place themselves in a position where God is ordinarily pleased to display His saving grace.  For example, the Bible makes it clear that God uses the preaching of the gospel as His instrument to bring sinners to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17 – “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” ESV).  If you want God to grant you the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, then sit regularly under the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word.  (By the way, if you have a genuine desire to exercise saving faith in Christ, that may very well be an indication that you already possess such faith.)  Find a faithful, orthodox church that believes and confesses the Bible as God’s trustworthy Word, and which features expository preaching and teaching from the Bible, and determine to regularly attend the services of such a church.

In addition, you can read, study and meditate upon the Bible for yourself.  “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2, ESV; emphasis added)  Do you wish to be blessed?  Then meditate on the Word of God continuously throughout the day.  Expose yourself regularly to the Word of God, not only through diligent and faithful attendance upon the public ordinances of God’s worship at a local Bible-believing reformed church, but also through private, prayerful Bible study.

Furthermore, avail yourself of good theological literature.  For example, familiarize yourself with the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, since these are excellent summaries of Bible teaching which can help to ground you in the truths of Divine revelation.

Another important exercise is prayer.  Cry out to God for mercy.  Pray that God would give you the gift of the Holy Spirit and grant you the grace of conversion.  God’s Word promises that whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation will be saved (see Romans 10:8-13).  Call upon the Lord and, through His grace, trust in His promises!

The Word of God indicates that God is ordinarily pleased to grant His elect the gifts of faith and repentance within the context of the diligent use of the means of grace (primarily the Word and Sacraments, secondarily and responsively through prayer).  Our diligence in using these means of grace are not good deeds we perform that somehow merit or constrain God’s favor.  Instead they are God-ordained instruments or means by which God is pleased to work in the hearts and lives of His elect, bringing them to faith and nurturing and preserving them in that faith.

I remember a professor I once had in seminary who shared a story about a skeptical acquaintance of his.  As I recall the story, this acquaintance had many questions and doubts about the Christian faith, but nevertheless, in spite of his doubts, he decided to attend services at a local, Bible-believing church.  Gradually, over time, as he sat week after week under the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word and involved himself in the life of the Christian fellowship, this doubter eventually became a firmly-convinced believer.  As he allowed himself to be exposed over time to the gospel message, the Holy Spirit did a work in his heart and drew him decisively to faith in Christ and into the Body of Christ.  From what I recall my professor saying, this was a gradual, almost imperceptible process, not a dramatic, crisis conversion.  Nevertheless, it is a perfect illustration of what I am trying to say in this post.  Whether the Spirit converts a man suddenly and dramatically after only one hearing of the gospel, or gradually over time after much exposure to the Word of God, the results are the same.

Apart from Christ we are spiritually dead and totally depraved.  Our wills are in bondage to sin, and we can do nothing of ourselves to convert ourselves or to “choose Christ” apart from the intervention of His sovereign grace.  But we can “choose” to expose ourselves to the gospel message and to diligently use those God-ordained means that the Holy Spirit has appointed for bringing His people to faith in Christ and for nurturing, confirming and preserving them in that faith – namely, the Word and the Sacraments, along with prayer and in the context of the Christian fellowship of the visible church.  Dear listener, whatever may be the present condition of your soul before God, are you choosing to diligently avail yourself of the means of grace that God offers to you through His visible church?  If so, may God in His sovereign mercy make those means effective for your salvation.  If not, understand that you will have only yourself to blame on Judgment Day for neglecting those means by which God offers His grace to you.  “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Psalm 95:7b-8a, ESV).

What does your baptism mean to you?  If you are a baptized Christian, having received the sacrament of Holy Baptism, either as an infant or as a professing believer, in (or “into”) the Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) in a Christian Church, what is the ongoing significance of your baptism to your life as a follower of Jesus Christ?

As I look out onto the landscape of contemporary American Christianity, it seems to me that many professing believers give little, if any, thought to the significance of their baptism.  This is alarming, and not a good sign for the spiritual health of the contemporary church, since the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are solemn practices that Christ clearly commanded as perpetual observances in His church.

Saturated with extreme individualism and under the sway of revivalist influences, much of contemporary Christianity places such a strong emphasis on the believer’s “personal relationship with Jesus” and on the presence of God allegedly being mediated through the well-staged, highly emotional “worship experience” of contemporary praise & worship music, that the sacraments which the very Son of God instituted for perpetual observance in His church tend to get marginalized into a category of secondary importance in the life of the church.(1)

From the standpoint of the Holy Scriptures and the Reformed Confessions, what, then, is the significance of Holy Baptism in our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ?  Many things could be said in response to this question, but in this article I want to focus on just three aspects of our baptism which should make a powerful impact upon our Christian lives.

1. Your Baptism is a Divine Pledge of Grace

Due to the prevalence of Baptistic theology within contemporary evangelicalism, many Christians today view Holy Baptism as primarily an outward and public affirmation of their personal commitment to Jesus Christ.  In other words, for them Baptism means “I have decided to follow Jesus.”  In their view it is not primarily about what Jesus does for them, but about what they do for Jesus in committing their lives to Him.

Now, certainly, in the case of a missionary Baptism, where a previously-unbaptized adult from a non-Christian background is converted to faith in Christ, such a Baptism does indeed include the idea of a public testimony to their confession of faith in Christ.  In the case of such adult converts their baptisms are accompanied by a public profession of faith.  We see this, for example, in the Book of Acts, which provides a record of the missionary activity of the early apostolic church.  However, from a broader biblical and confessional standpoint this is not the primary or central meaning of Baptism.  Instead, as a sign and seal of God’s covenant of grace in Christ (like its old covenant counterpart in the sacrament of circumcision – Romans 4:11-12), your baptism is not primarily about your commitment to Jesus, but about Jesus’ commitment to you!

Instead of meaning “I have decided to follow Jesus!”, your baptism is a symbolic declaration of the gospel (“good news”) of Christ to you personally.  It is a “visible sermon” wherein the risen Lord Jesus Christ in essence says to you as a believer, “I wash you clean of yours sins by My blood, I renew you by My Holy Spirit.”  In other words, it is an outward Divine pledge and promise in symbol form.  It is the gospel message in sacramental form.  Saving faith believes the good news conveyed by this Divine pledge in Baptism, while unbelief rejects the good news or replaces it with an emphasis on human works or human decision.

Of course, the act of Baptism does not in itself necessarily convey the grace that it signifies.  The Holy Spirit must bless the use of this means of grace, and the baptized person must embrace the grace pledged in Baptism with a heart of true faith in Christ and repentance unto life, leading to a life of discipleship wherein the baptized believer walks in “newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4) as a committed follower of Jesus.  However, the point here is that our Baptism does not picture us ascending to God by our own act of public commitment to Christ (a view that essentially turns Baptism into an act of works-righteousness); rather, it depicts God descending to us by His amazing grace in Christ and pledging His saving and renewing grace to the baptized person who (through grace) believes in Christ.

2.  Your Baptism is a Mark of God’s Ownership

Right before His ascension into heaven our risen Lord Jesus Christ commanded His church (represented by the Apostles whom He addressed) to baptize the nations “into (eis in the Greek) the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).  To be baptized “into” the Divine Name of the Triune God involves (among other things) being formally and officially brought under the sovereign Lordship and Authority of God.  In other words, Baptism is a mark of God’s special ownership of the baptized.

Of course, as the Creator and providential King over all, God “owns” everything and everyone.  However, by virtue of their Christian Baptism, the baptized belong to the Triune God in a special way.  If you have been baptized with valid, Trinitarian Baptism, then you have been formally brought into special covenant relationship to God.  God in Christ and by His Spirit is your covenant Lord and King, and you are a covenant subject.  This means that your baptism places a special covenantal obligation upon you to repent of sin, trust in Christ alone for your salvation, and walk in newness of life according to God’s Word.  If you break this baptismal covenant through persistent impenitence and unbelief, the fact that you were baptized will not help you on the Day of Judgment; instead, your baptism is a sign testifying that you will be drowned in the judgment of God (just as the impenitent in the days of Noah were drowned in the great flood – see First Peter 3:18-22).  But if, by God’s sovereign grace, you respond positively to God’s baptismal covenant with you through trust in Christ and repentance from sin, then your baptism testified that you belong to God, both now and forevermore, and that He will never leave you nor forsake you!  Dear reader, do you believe this good news signified by your baptism?

3.  Your Baptism is a Summons to a Life of Discipleship in the Fellowship of Christ’s Church

For the vast majority of Christians throughout most of church history, Holy Baptism was viewed as the beginning of the Christian life and the gateway to discipleship.  Baptism was a sign of initiation into Christ and His church, and thus of initiation into the life of discipleship.(2)  That Christian life was further nurtured and strengthened through the ordinary ministry of the Word and the Holy Supper, and through spiritual disciplines such as prayer.  In the words of The Westminster Confession of Faith:  “Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life.  Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world.” (Chapter 28.1; emphasis added)  This confessional teaching is clearly based upon the truths revealed in the Scriptures (for example, Acts 2:38-39, 42; Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:11-14; etc.).

But in much of contemporary Christianity the biblical and historic role of Holy Baptism as the formal beginning of the Christian life, and thus as an ongoing summons to a life of discipleship, has been replaced by unbiblical revivalistic traditions such as the “sinner’s prayer” and the “altar call”.

In contemporary revivalist Christianity you become a fully initiated Christian when you make a “decision for Christ” by either going forward at the end of a service when the preacher calls people forward to the front of the auditorium (i.e., the “altar call”), or by praying in private a special formulaic prayer wherein one “invites Jesus into your heart” (i.e., the “sinner’s prayer”), or by a combination of the two.  When a professing believer in the revivalist tradition who has already prayed the sinner’s prayer lapses or backslides in his Christian life, instead of repenting and seeking restoration to the church and comfort at the Lord’s Table, he is directed to express his repentance and receive renewing grace by going forward at the next “altar call” to “rededicate” his life to Christ.  These innovative practices grew out of the Second Great Awakening, and were unknown in the Christian world prior to about the late-1800s.  In essence these contemporary revivalistic practices have become the new sacraments, marginalizing if not replacing the “old” biblical sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Now, of course, I am not denying that we sinners must exercise personal faith in Christ and repent of sin in order to be saved.  We indeed must “decide for Christ”, and we must publicly identify as followers of Christ through a public profession of faith if we expect to be saved (see Romans 10:9).(3)  However, we must recognize that God promises to nourish and strengthen our faith through those means of grace that He has ordained, not through creative innovations of merely human origin.  One of those means of grace is Holy Baptism, and through your baptism God summons you to a daily, renewed, ongoing repentance from sin and faith in Christ.  Your baptism is not only a Divine Pledge of grace to you as a believer; it is also a Divine Summons for you to walk in newness of life as one who has been united to Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5)!  May you and I heed this summons to discipleship!

In conclusion, our baptisms have deep and rich spiritual significance in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.  Whether you were baptized as an infant or received Baptism as a professing believer, your baptism helps to shape and define your identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  You are baptized!  You belong to Jesus, and He belongs to you!  In a contemporary church culture which devalues the importance and significance of the sacraments that Christ has ordained for His church, let us swim against the contemporary anti-sacramental tide by treasuring this important means of grace and by seeking to live out the significance of our baptisms in the context of our daily lives and callings.

_________________

(1) I am given to understand that some contemporary mega-churches exclude the observance of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper from their main Sunday morning services, relegating them instead to either a Sunday evening service or a midweek service.  What this likely means is that many members and attendees of such churches never observance sacraments like the Lord’s Supper.  I understand the practical challenges of trying to administer the Lord’s Supper to a huge assembly of worshipers, but excluding these vital means of grace from the main Lord’s Day worship service sends the message that the sacraments are optional for the believer, and thus that Christians need not take seriously their Lord’s command to “Do this in remembrance of me…”  And for individual professing believers to neglect the sacraments is to live in open rebellion against the Lordship of Christ, who commanded the observance of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as central, ongoing practices in His church.

(2) Likewise, while Holy Baptism was a sign of beginning grace, the Lord’s Supper (also called “Holy Communion” or “The Eucharist”) was viewed as a sign of continuing grace, as spiritual nourishment for the ongoing journey and pilgrimage of the Christian life.

(3) In churches like The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) which practice infant baptism, provision is made for the baptized children of believers to publicly confess their faith in and allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by providing them with an opportunity to publicly confess their faith in Christ before the church.  (Other traditions make provision for this need through the rite of “Confirmation”.)  In the OPC, once a baptized covenant child is judged by the Session to be old enough and sufficiently catechized to make a credible, mature profession of faith in Christ, having been successfully interviewed for communicant membership by the Session, the young person’s profession of faith before the Session is approved and he or she is publicly received into the communicant membership of the church during a regular Lord’s Day worship service through public confession of faith.  Once one is received into the communicant membership of the church, one is granted the right and privilege of receiving the Lord’s Supper, or “Holy Communion” (hence the status of “communicant” membership, “communicant” indicating “able to take communion”).

There are five central doctrines in the Calvinist system of salvation.  These doctrines are unsurprisingly called “the five points of Calvinism”.  They are also known as the “doctrines of grace”.  A common device for memorizing these doctrines is the “TULIP” acrostic, which summarizes these five points as follows:

T = Total Depravity

U = Unconditional Election

L = Limited Atonement

I – Irresistible Grace

P = Perseverance of the Saints

As I hope to show, these five biblical doctrines logically involve each other, and thus they stand and fall together.  If even one of these five doctrines is compromised or denied, the logic of the whole system falls apart.  The “TULIP” stands or falls together!  Together these doctrines highlight the one, ultimately foundational truth of Calvinism, namely, the truth that the salvation of sinners is by God’s sovereign grace, and by God’s sovereign grace alone!

In this brief article I want to consider the first point of the Calvinist system, the doctrine that goes by the name of “total depravity”.  Actually, this particular doctrine is not itself a doctrine of grace.  Instead, it is a doctrine which demonstrates why our salvation can only be – indeed, must be – by God’s sovereign grace in Christ alone, apart from human works or merits or human free will.  It is a doctrine which highlights mankind’s total ruin and corruption in sin, and hence man’s total inability to pull himself out of a state of sin or to contribute anything whatsoever toward his own salvation.

What, then, is this doctrine of “total depravity”?  Like the other five points of Calvinism, this doctrine has often been misunderstood and misrepresented.  So let me first of all explain what this doctrine does not mean.

First of all, total depravity does not mean that we sinners are, by our fall in Adam, as utterly and entirely wicked as we possibly can be.  The total in total depravity does not mean absolute depravity.  The devil and his demons are absolutely depraved.  They are absolutely as evil as they possibly could be, with no residual remnants of good remaining within them.  But that is not the case with fallen man.  The Scriptures indicate that even fallen, unregenerate sinners still bear the remnants of the image of God (see, for example, Genesis 9:6; James 3:9).

In addition, and closely related to the above, total depravity does not mean that unbelievers are incapable of performing outwardly good deeds, deeds which are beneficial both to themselves and to others.  (Theologians describe the good deeds of unbelievers as “civil righteousness”, meaning deeds that are outwardly in conformity to God’s Law, even though they lack the inward motivation of love for God produced by the Holy Spirit’s regeneration.)

So what, then, is “total depravity”?  It is the biblical teaching that, because of humanity’s fall into a state of sin in Adam, all people are born with a sin nature (which theologians call “original sin”).  This sin nature impacts the totality of our being.  Our minds, emotions, hearts and wills are radically twisted and corrupted by sin, so much so that we are totally corrupted, spiritually-speaking, and thus totally incapable of converting ourselves or making ourselves pleasing to God.

Speaking of Adam’s and Eve’s sin in eating the forbidden fruit, the Westminster Confession of Faith describes humanity’s total depravity as follows:  “By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.” (Chapter 6, Section 2; emphasis added)

Because of original sin and total depravity, all human beings are turned away from their Creator and turned in upon themselves.  As a result the human heart has become a factory of idols (as John Calvin once said).  Our natural, fallen inner disposition is to hate the God of the Bible – the true and living God who created us – and to replace Him with gods (or “concepts of god”) more to our liking.  Only a supernatural, spiritual rebirth from above can renew the hearts of totally depraved sinners and convert them to faith in Christ and repentance unto life.

This doctrine of man’s total depravity is clearly revealed in the Bible.  For example, Genesis 6:5 contains God’s assessment of the people who lived in the days of Noah before the great Flood:  “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (ESV)  Notice that not just “some”, not just “many”, not just “most”, but “every” intention of man’s heart was “only” (not “somewhat” or “mostly”, but “only”) evil “continually”!  Or consider Paul’s description of the spiritual condition prior to their conversion of the Christians he writes to in Ephesians, as recorded in Ephesians 2:1-2a – “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…” (ESV; emphasis added)  Not just “sick” in sin; not just “wounded” by sin; not just “damaged” by sin; but dead in sin – and thus dead to God and to the things of God!

This biblical truth of total depravity is foundational to the whole Calvinist system, because it shows how incapable we are of saving ourselves or contributing in even the slightest way to our salvation.  And therefore it shows how desperately we sinners need for God to intervene in sovereign grace to rescue us from our desperate condition of sin and misery, and from the condemnation we deserve because of our sins.  In brief, total depravity underscores the truth that we are sinners who desperately need to be rescued from our condition, and who thus desperately need a Divine Savior suitable to the task.

Dear Members, Friends and Prayer Partners of Lake OPC,

Thank you for your prayer support for the life, fellowship and outreach of Lake Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Mentor, Ohio! In the mystery of Divine Providence God uses the prayers of his people to build his church and further his Kingdom.

(1) Lake OPC Visitors and Guests: Since I last reported we have been blessed with a number of visitors. These include a single man who found out about Lake OPC through our new mover mailer program, who has been worshipping with us regularly for a number of weeks; and a family with a young daughter who visited with us before and had returned to worship with us again. Please pray that God would grant these recent visitors a desire to continue their involvement with Lake OPC, and pray that God would enable Lake OPC to better enfold our guests into the life and fellowship of the church. Also, please pray that additional new visitors would be drawn to visit Lake OPC, especially families with children. While we are grateful for the guests who have worshipped with us recently, due to various factors such as sickness, weather and other circumstances our member attendance has been quite low in the last several months. Please pray that attendance patterns would improve in the upcoming months, especially since low attendance can be a significant factor leading visitors to decide not to return.

(2) Lake OPC Outreach: Even during these winter months, when things tend to slow down a bit, Lake OPC has continued to be active in seeking to reach out with the good news of Jesus and in seeking to make Lake OPC known in our area. Some of these avenues for outreach are as follows:

– Radio Advertisement: For about a two-month period, from early December through early February, Lake OPC ran a 30 second radio ad on a major local Christian radio station (AM 1220, “The Word”). The ad ran three times a day, often during peak hours (for example, rush hour), from Monday through Friday. While we have not gotten any direct results yet from this advertising campaign, this is one of the means that Lake OPC has used during this winter season to raise awareness in our area of the existence and fellowship of Lake OPC.

– Church website: The Lake OPC church website (www.lakeopc.net) is an ongoing, 24/7 witness for Christ and outreach avenue for the church. Our website manager (Jim Parr) does an excellent job keeping the site updated, uploading new sermons and updated announcements on a regular basis. In addition, I continue to add new content to the “Pastor’s Blog” section of our website periodically through new blog articles. A recent report we received from Sermon Audio on the number and geographical location of the “hits” the sermon page link gets indicates that Lake OPC’s witness to God’s Word extends far beyond the boundaries of our small congregation. Hundreds of sermons from our Sermon Audio page have been uploaded from all over the country, indeed, from all over the world! For example, not only have listeners tuned in from Ohio and from other places within the United States, but this recent report indicated that listeners have been tuning in even from such far-away places as Qatar and Iceland! Please pray that God would use the Lake OPC church website to lead many to Christ and into a Reformed understanding of the Faith, and pray that it would also be an effective instrument to draw visitors who live locally into the life and fellowship of the church.

– New Mover Mailers: For several months now Lake OPC has been participating in the new mover mailer program with outreach.com. Well designed and attractive mailers advertising the church are sent to new movers in a chosen geographical area close to the church meeting location. During this time of the year new move-in activity tends to slow down, so in January only about 85 mailers were sent out, due to low mover activity. However, so far we have had one visitor contact us from the new mover mailer he received, and he has been worshipping with us recently. We are currently thinking through ways to improve the message on our mailer so that it is more impactful, and we will be targeting new movers in different areas around Mentor during different months. Please pray that God would bless this new mover mailer program and would use it to draw additional visitors to the church.

– Looking Ahead to Warmer Days: In looking ahead to the warmer months ahead Lake OPC will be considering additional ways to make connections with the community. I recently received the application form for the annual Mentor CityFest, to be held in late August. This is an annual community event which Lake OPC has been participating in for the last four years, and I anticipate we will participate in it again in 2017. We may look into participating in other community day events held in various communities in Lake County as well. Please pray for wisdom as we consider other avenues for outreach.

– Personal Contacts: Ultimately the best, most personal way to draw visitors to the church is by church members and attendees inviting friends, neighbors and co-workers to worship. I strongly encourage members and local friends of the church to tell others about Lake OPC, and to invite them to come and worship with us! For example, I was encouraged recently when a regular attendee of the church (not a member) asked for a supply of church invitation cards and church brochures, which he was planning to post on the message boards of local businesses that he frequents. Let us be excited about what God is doing through Lake OPC, and let us do what we can in our own circle of influence to get the word out!

(3) Community Involvement: One area of weakness in my ministry has been a lack of active involvement in the community outside of the church. Over the last year or so I have been prayerfully and aggressively seeking to overcome this weakness and make more personal connections in the community, in the Name of Christ and as a witness for the church. In all of this God has given me numerous opportunities to talk about our church, and even to share the good news of Jesus! Here are some of the ways God has opened doors for me to be involved:

– Volunteering at Project Hope for the Homeless: I continue to volunteer once or twice per month at the Project Hope for the Homeless in Painesville, OH, a local Christian-based homeless shelter which does an excellent job helping their guests transition out of homelessness into more stable living situations.

– Teaching a monthly Bible Study at Select Medical Hospital: In recent months I have been praying for God to open up doors for me to share the Word with those outside of our local church and to help me make some positive connections for Christ in the broader community. Recently God has wonderfully answered this prayer! One of our members has been undergoing rehab at a local hospital/rehab facility in Cleveland, the Select Medical Hospital. In the process of visiting this member I met the Activities Director of the hospital, who happens to be an enthusiastic and outspoken Christian. When she mentioned that she needed a minister to help teach a Bible Study for the patients there, I offered to do so. As a result I am scheduled to teach a monthly Bible Study there. So far I have taught two conversational Bible Studies, which have been very well received by the patients. In fact, yesterday when I visited this church member and then attended a program being put on for the patients, she asked me if I would think about teaching the study twice per month, and as a result I am scheduled to teach again next Tuesday. While I have been there she has also asked me to visit and pray for a number of patients, which I have gladly done. She has been very encouraging and supportive of my volunteer involvement there, even introducing me yesterday to the CEO/Administrator of the facility. Pray that God would bless me with many opportunities to share the good news of Jesus and bring the encouragement of the Word to the patients there, and would continue to bless my interactions with both the patients and the staff.

– Hospitality: Our son is actively involved in a local Christian public speaking organization for young people. In recent months we have had a number of opportunities to volunteer the use of our home for some of the meetings of this organization. We enjoy having people in our home, and this has helped to connect my family and me to believers who are active in other area churches, and thus to the broader Body of Christ in our area — something that I consider to be very important. In addition, my wife and I hope to reactivate soon our practice of regularly having members and friends of the church over for meals and informal fellowship.

(4) Meeting Location: We continue to meet at the Holiday Inn in Mentor, on most Sundays meeting in the Reynolds Room banquet hall of the hotel. In fact, we have renewed our rental contract with the hotel for 2017, so we anticipate continuing to meet there through this calendar year. However, we are also keeping our eyes open for other meeting place possibilities, especially if a potential new meeting place would be able to provide an atmosphere and ambiance more conducive to a church service than what we currently have in the hotel banquet hall where we meet. For example, we recently became aware of an Assembly of God church building located just over the border of Mentor in Willoughby going on the market, and we are in the process of inquiring with the realtor whether or not this building would be available for a church like ours to rent. (This building is located only about two miles or less from where we currently meet.) While we are not yet ready to take on the responsibilities of owning our own building, we would be open to considering the possibility of renting a church building such as this one, should it be conducive to the needs of our congregation and the growth of the church. Please pray that God would continue to provide for our meeting facility needs as a congregation.

Once again, thank you all for your prayer support for Lake OPC! As you can see, there is much for which to be in prayer. In addition, please be in prayer for our Session (i.e., our leadership council, inclusive of the pastor and elders), that God would give us wisdom and discernment as we seek to guide the congregation into the future. Though we continue at this point in time to be a small and struggling church laboring for Christ in a challenging spiritual environment which appears to have only minimal openness to the Reformed and Presbyterian understanding of the Christian Faith, nevertheless we may stand confident in knowing that our God “…is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20, ESV).

Yours in the service of Christ,

Pastor Willour

When it comes to popular American Christianity today, Christians in America have often been misled by popular contemporary expressions of the Faith with unrealistic, and at times unbiblical, expectations of the local church.

So, what should a Christian expect from a faithful, Bible-believing local church?

First of all, Christians should expect to be spiritually edified by the life and worship of a faithful church.  The faithful preaching of God’s Word, the right administration of the holy sacraments, and the fellowship of believers, are all designed and ordained by God to edify and build up His people in the Faith.

But Christians should not expect to be entertained at church.  While the fellowship and worship that takes place at a faithful local church should certainly not be “boring” and should strive to edify the believer, at the same time the local church was not designed by God to serve as a religious entertainment center.

When we go to such events as musical concerts, sporting events, movies, theatrical shows, and so forth, we rightly expect to be entertained, for that is what such events are designed to do.  But when we go to church, we go to hear the Word preached, to receive the forgiveness of our sins through Christ, and to express our gratitude to God for His grace in our prayers and praises.  Church is about the worship of God and the edification of God’s covenant people.  It is about feeding Christ’s sheep, not about entertaining the devil’s goats (Matt. 25:31-46).  So expect to be encouraged and edified in your faith at a faithful local church, but don’t expect to be coddled, flattered or entertained.

In addition, Christians should expect to be warmly welcomed and embraced at a faithful local church.  The church is a congregation of redeemed sinners who have tasted of the Lord’s grace and goodness, and therefore Christians visiting a new church should expect to be warmly welcomed and embraced as brothers and sisters in Christ.  After all, the church is a community of redemption, where all sinners seeking forgiveness in Christ and deliverance from the bondage of sin are warmly welcomed.

But professing Christians should not expect to be affirmed and celebrated if they are living in open, unrepentant sin.  Instead, professing believers who find themselves living unrepentantly in what Scripture identifies as sin should expect a faithful church to lovingly yet firmly call them to repentance and amendment of life, and to earnestly warn them of God’s judgment should they persist impenitent in their sin.

A faithful church is a holy church which strives to maintain the holy standards of God’s moral law revealed in His Word, however imperfectly it does so.  Furthermore, any “church” that lets you live comfortably in unrepentant sin is not a truly loving church, for a faithful church will love you enough to call you out of a life that alienates you from God and will show you the way to be unshackled from the bondage of sin.  Remember the proverb, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

Also, Christians should expect Jesus Christ to be present by His Spirit in the corporate worship services of the church.

Jesus promised to be present in a special way where even two or three are gathered together in His Name (Matthew 18:20), and the Epistle of Hebrews indicates that the gathered assembly of God’s people in worship involves a coming to “Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Heb. 12:22-24, ESV)  In the corporate worship of the church, heaven touches earth and God’s people are drawn by faith into the very heavenly presence of the Triune God Himself.  This is true even if the congregation is small and meets for worship in humble surroundings and with little outward fanfare or “razzle dazzle”.

But Christians should not necessarily expect to have a rousing, powerful, moving worship experience every time they attend church.  God dwells among His people, and Jesus is present with His gathered church whether or not you “feel” His presence.

Again, this is not to say that experiencing a powerful sense of the Lord’s presence during worship is a bad thing.  But it is to remember that the reality of Christ’s presence with His people in corporate worship does not depend upon our own subjective mood or emotional state.  Rather, it depends upon the objective biblical fact of God’s promises.  So instead of looking inside yourself to experience Jesus, look outside yourself at the Word and sacraments.  The Word (read and preached by the minister), water (holy baptism), and the bread & wine (the holy supper) are outward signs of God’s Kingdom and of Christ’s presence.  Where you have a community of faith confessing Christ together, and gathered around the Word and sacraments, there you have Jesus Christ present in saving grace and power.  (Indeed, there you have all three Persons of the Holy Trinity, who come to dwell among God’s people.)

Finally, Christians should not expect perfection from a faithful church.  Since the church is a gathering of redeemed sinners, there continues to be sin among God’s people (though that sin is in principle pardoned and put to death in Christ).  And while Christians do have the right to expect that they will be edified, welcomed and encouraged in a faithful church, even the most faithful churches on earth fall far short of meeting all these expectations to a perfect degree.  So, while this is not an excuse for churches to fall short of living up to their God-given calling, at the same time Christians who expect to find a perfect church this side of glory will find themselves greatly disappointed.

However, for all of its shortcomings and imperfections, Christians should expect a church which strives to be faithful to the Word of God to be striving after the goal of being an edifying, welcoming and encouraging community of faith where Jesus Christ and His gospel are central and where Christ is present by His Spirit in Word and sacraments.

Are your expectations of the local church realistic and biblical?  And are we, as a local congregation of God’s people, striving toward ever greater faithfulness to our God-given calling in this world?

What is “Calvinism”?  Those of us who identify ourselves as Calvinists would assert that Calvinism is simply the most consistent expression of historic, biblical Christianity.  But, then again, many non-Calvinist Christians would claim the same thing for their brand of the Faith.  So obviously more needs to be said in order to identify the essence of what has come to be known as “Calvinism.”

The name itself is unfortunate, since we Calvinists would deny that Calvin himself invented the doctrines that have come to be identified with his name.  Rather, we believe that the doctrines Calvin and his followers taught are taken directly from the Holy Scriptures and can be seen in the teachings of some of the early church fathers (in particular Saint Augustine, whom Calvin often quoted in his writings).

Also unfortunate are the often slanderously-false and misleading caricatures of Calvin himself and of Calvin’s teachings that one can often find in anti-Calvinist literature and among anti-Calvinist preachers.  Calvin is often depicted as a gaunt, stern-looking, nasty little man with a long pointy beard (just add some horns and he would look like the devil himself!), a man who preached a capricious, arbitrary, hate-filled God and who took delight in burning heretics at the stake.  But such a picture is far from the reality of the real, historical John Calvin, who, for all of his faults (and, admittedly, he did have his faults, as we all do), was nevertheless a theological genius and one of the best biblical scholars in all of church history, and who was a devout follower of Christ with a sensitive soul and a pastor’s heart.

In order to help the reader come to a clear idea of what Calvinism is, I will mention a number of characteristics of Calvinism.

First of all, Calvinism emphasizes the absolute sovereignty of God over all things.  While historic Calvinism does not deny genuine human agency or the reality of second causes, it recognizes the biblical truth that all of history is ultimately the outworking of God’s eternal decree, His eternal plan for the ages.  God’s sovereignty over all is especially seen in the salvation of sinners, and biblical Calvinism emphasizes that our salvation is by God’s sovereign grace alone!  The human will, human works and human merit add nothing to the saving work of God in Christ, for God has done it all and Jesus paid it all!  As the Word of God teaches, in Jesus Christ “…we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11, ESV, emphasis added).  Therefore, none of us has any reason to boast before God, for even our faith in Christ is ultimately a sovereignly-bestowed gift of God, not a result of so-called free will (Ephesians 2:8-9).

This sovereignty of God even extends to the reality of evil.  While the Bible is clear that God is holy and that He is neither the author nor the approver of sin, nevertheless Scripture is also clear that God has sovereignly decreed to permit sin and evil for wise and just reasons, to work toward the greater good of His glory and the good of His people in the end.  For example, the crucifixion of the Son of God was the greatest evil ever committed by the human race, yet God decreed the death of His Incarnate Son on the cross as the very means by which our redemption would be won!

The Calvinist doctrines of salvation by God’s sovereign grace alone are sometimes called “the doctrines of grace.”  These doctrines of grace are often summarized by the acrostic TULIP, which stands for the following:

T = “Total Depravity”

U = “Unconditional Election”

L = “Limited Atonement”*

I = “Irresistible Grace”

P = “Perseverance of the Saints”

In future articles I will explain these doctrines of grace and how they fit together in the Calvinist system.

Secondly, Calvinism is also distinctive in that it takes a covenantal approach to Bible interpretation.  Calvinism sees the Bible, God’s Word, as an unfolding drama of God’s plan for the ages to bring about the salvation of His people through a promised Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  The Bible is a unified, unfolding, progressive revelation of God’s covenantal dealings with His people.  Among other things, what this means is that biblical Calvinists reject the common false teaching of dispensationalism, which sees a sharp difference between Israel and the Church.  But Calvinism recognizes that Israel was the church under the old covenant, and the Church is the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) under the new covenant.  The witness of the New Testament is clear that there is only one people of God, namely, the church of Jesus Christ.  This church includes both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus, and it is they – and they alone – who are the true “children of Abraham”, the true Jews, the true people of God (see, for example, Romans 2:28-29; 9:6-8; Galatians 3:7-9; 23-29; Ephesians 2:11-22; First Peter 2:4-10; etc.).

Finally, Calvinism teaches that, because the glory of God is the highest priority, therefore the reformation of worship is the church’s highest calling.  Luther and his followers were content to keep as much of Roman Catholic worship practice as possible, as long as such worship customs did not contradict the gospel or direct commands of Scripture.  But Calvin sought to apply the Reformation principle of sola scriptura (“Scripture Alone”) consistently to the worship practice of the church.  For Calvin and his followers, every element of worship in the church must have positive biblical warrant behind it.  Therefore, Calvinism promotes a simple, reverent, yet joyful form of worship which is centered on the Word of God and which seeks to use only those elements of worship which are revealed in the Word of God.

Much more could be said about Calvinism, but these three characteristics – (1) Emphasis on the absolute sovereignty of God; (2) a covenantal approach to Bible interpretation; and (3) a God-centered, biblical approach to worship, are of the essence of biblical, historic Calvinism.

_________

*”Limited Atonement” is an unfortunate designation for this biblical doctrine, for it gives the false impression that Calvinists believe that the atonement of Christ is limited in its value.  However, Calvinists wholeheartedly affirm that Christ’s atonement is of infinite value, and that it is sufficient for all.  What is “limited” about the atonement is not its value, but those whom it is designed to benefit – namely, the elect, who in God’s time come to trust Christ as their Savior as He is offered in the gospel.  So Calvinists believe that Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient for all, but efficient for the elect (and thus “limited” in its design and extent to benefit them alone).

Recommended Reading:  John Calvin:  Pilgrim and Pastor by W. Robert Godfrey (Wheaton, Illinois:  Crossway Books, copyright 2009)

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV)

There is a tendency in some Christian circles today to make a sharp distinction between Christian doctrine and Christian living.  On the one hand, doctrine tends to be viewed as intellectual, abstract, theoretical, and therefore impractical.  On the other hand, discipleship, or living for Christ, is viewed as the heart and center of what it means to be Christian.

This tendency to see a sharp dichotomy between doctrine and life, believing and doing, can be seen in popular sayings such as, “Deeds, not Creeds!” and “What would Jesus do?”  (Remember the popular fad of wearing “WWJD” – “What Would Jesus Do?” – bracelets?)

This kind of thinking is not new, but goes back about a century to the old mottos of liberal theology:  “Christianity is a life, not a doctrine”, and “Doctrine divides, service unites.”

The problem is that the Bible disagrees with this modern dichotomy between doctrine and life.

Especially to the Apostle Paul such a false dichotomy would have been mystifying, even absurd, for St. Paul in his New Testament letters clearly saw gospel doctrine as eminently practical, just as he saw Christian living as eminently theological.

In other words, from a biblical standpoint doctrine and life, theology and practice, what we believe and how we live, are inextricably intertwined and inseparable.  Like a married couple, the two walk hand-in-hand, and as with marriage, “what God has joined together (in this case, doctrine and life), let man not separate.”

Consider the passage I quoted at the beginning of this article.  This passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippian church is deeply theological, for Paul speaks in the passage of the great mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ – a deep and profound theological truth if there ever was one!  Some Bible scholars believe that Paul is quoting in this passage from an early Christian creed or creedal hymn.  Yet, if you study the context of that passage, Paul mentions this profound theological truth while he is in the process of exhorting the Philippian Christians to love and serve one another in humility in the Body of Christ, the church.  Paul puts forth Christ’s humility in His Incarnation, wherein He emptied Himself of His Divine privileges and prerogatives (though not of His Deity as such) in order to take the form of a Servant that He might die upon the cross for us, as the supreme model and example of humility and self-sacrificing service in the Body of Christ.  In this passage Christian doctrine and theology serve to undergird Christian living and service.

The “Deeds, not Creeds” idea needs to die.  It is profoundly false.  It is deeply unbiblical, and thus dishonoring to God.  The truth is that your creed will lead to deeds, and your deeds are ultimately an expression of your deepest creed.  What you truly believe in your heart-of-hearts (your doctrine) will ultimately shape you as a person and inform the way you behave (your life).  The old liberal motto that says “Christianity is a life, not a doctrine” is utterly false.  Instead, Christianity – true, biblical, historic Christianity – is a doctrine which produces a life in the case of those who embrace it in sincere faith.  And that life is an adventure of lifelong learning known as discipleship.

Theology is deeply practical.  And practice is deeply theological.  Doctrine and life go together.  Are your beliefs and your way of life in harmony with one another?  Do you “walk the talk”, or do you just “talk the walk”?

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever…for his steadfast love endures forever…for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1-3, etc., ESV)

One of the features of historic Reformed worship practice that is likely to stand out to a non-denominational evangelical Christian who visits a typical Reformed worship service is the amount of repetition that takes place within the Reformed liturgy.

For example, at Lake Church we regularly recite either the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed during public worship.  Every Lord’s Day after the prayers of intercession we pray the Lord’s Prayer together in unison as a congregation.  In addition, while we sing a variety of different hymns in our practice of praise, most of our worship song is taken from a standard, church-sanctioned hymn book which includes many hymns that the church has been singing for years, in some cases for multiple centuries.

Furthermore, we tend to follow a set order of service in our worship practice, so the flow of our worship service is pretty predictable.  Our services begin with a salutation and call to worship taken from Scripture, followed by an opening hymn of praise, prayer of praise, and recitation of a creed.  This is followed by a pastoral prayer of confession of sin and declaration of pardon, Scripture readings, a hymn of faith, prayers of intercession & the Lord’s Prayer, the offering and a hymn of preparation for the sermon.  The final section of a typical service includes the reading and preaching of God’s Word, followed by a hymn of commitment and the benediction.  The service is dismissed with the singing of the doxology.  (The order of service varies slightly on those Lord’s Days when we celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.)

I suspect that for many of our nondenominational evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ this repetition in our worship practice smacks of a dead formalism, perhaps even a quenching of the Holy Spirit.  In the mindset of much of the contemporary church the sign of genuine “authenticity” and of the work of the Holy Spirit in the worship practice of the church is an unscripted spontaneity that just “goes with the flow”.  One suspects that to many of our nondenominational brethren the idea of carefully planning and crafting a worship service, including perhaps even the preparation of pre-planned, written out prayers by the minister and the use of centuries-old hymns sung by long-dead saints, is tantamount to trying to put the Holy Spirit in a box.

Of course, those of us who advocate a more “traditional” form of worship practice would point out that the so-called “spontaneity” of your typical contemporary worship service is anything but authentically spontaneous.  Most likely the worship band has practiced their Sunday song set for hours, carefully planning their worship performance in such a way that it comes across as spontaneous and Spirit-led (and thus “authentic”), when in reality it has been rehearsed down to the very last breathy note sung by the worship leader.  (I might also make the case that much of contemporary worship practice is actually an exercise in the extreme emotional and psychological manipulation of the congregation through an excessive emotionalism in the content and presentation of many contemporary worship songs, but that is perhaps a subject best left to a future blog post.)

But the planned “spontaneity” of contemporary worship practice aside, what should we say to those fellow believers who think that repetition in worship is unspiritual, and that the Holy Spirit only works through that which is spontaneous?

First of all, I would challenge the idea that the Holy Spirit only works through that which is spontaneous and unscripted.  I would argue that the Bible teaches the opposite.  In fact, the Bible contains a whole book of written-out, set-form prayers and hymns, known to us today as the Book of Psalms.  And many of those psalms are filled with repetition.  For example, read Psalm 136.  It is quite possible that this psalm was composed to be sung antiphonally (i.e., responsively) by different segments of the levitical choir for worship in the Temple.  One of the major features of this psalm is the multiple repetition of the phrase, “for his steadfast love endures forever” (ESV).  Now, all Bible-believing Christians believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the words of Psalm 136, just as He inspired the rest of the Scriptures (Second Timothy 3:16-17).  Therefore, in Psalm 136 we have an example of the Holy Spirit inspiring a Scripture passage which is extremely repetitious and which was likely composed for use in a formal worship setting.  One of the things that Psalm 136 teaches us is that the Holy Spirit is not opposed to repetion and formality in worship.

Of course, our Lord Jesus did condemn vain repetition in prayer.  For example, in Matthew 6:7-8 Jesus condemned the practice of heaping up empty phrases and thinking that God is more likely to listen to our prayers if we use lots of words.  But what Jesus condemns in passages like this one is a bad theology of prayer, one which sees prayer as a means of manipulating God into doing what we want Him to do by using empty words and excessive verbosity.  But while vain repetition stands condemned by our Lord, meaningful and biblically-based repetition is actually encouraged (as we see from Psalm 136).

Next, I would point out that the Holy Spirit loves order, not chaos.  It was the Spirit of God who brought order out of chaos at the very beginning of creation (Genesis 1:2).  He inspired the prophets and apostles to write down the Scriptures in orderly, written fashion.  He inspired the Apostle Paul to direct the Corinthian Church, a church where an anarchistic, unedifying form of “spontaneous” worship prevailed, to make sure that everything in their worship assemblies was done “decently and in order” (First Corinthians 14:40, ESV).  The Reformed Liturgy actually seeks to honor the Holy Spirit’s love for decency and order by having a certain formality in our worship practice, including the formality of meaningful repetition.

Finally, a meaningful, biblical repetition in our worship practice can actually help to root and establish us believers in the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints, and can serve as a source of great comfort during times of trial.

When I and my family were preparing to move out to Ohio from New Jersey so that I might take up my pastoral labors here at Lake Church, the sale of our townhouse in New Jersey fell through at the very last minute due to circumstances beyond our control.  The moving truck was coming to pick up our stuff and take us to our new home in Ohio, and we had to leave for our new home not knowing whether or not we would be able to sell our New Jersey home anytime soon.  As you might imagine, this was a tremendously stressful time for me and my family.

As I was driving down the highway in one of our cars (my wife and son being in the other car) on our journey out to Ohio, I remember feeling overwhelmed by the stress, almost to the point of tears, due to the uncertainties that lay ahead.  In my stress the words of the great hymn, “It is well with my soul” came to mind.  I began to sing this hymn.  As I sang out the words of that precious hymn, which I had sung so often in the past in church, began to sink in to the depths of my soul.  The stress began to dissipate, and for the first time in awhile I felt a sense of inner peace and calm settle over me.  Whatever would happen with the sale of our home and whatever I might face in my future service to Lake Church, I knew that God was in control and that He had things sorted, however things might end up working out.  (I am thankful to report that, in God’s kind providence, our realtor was able to sell our townhouse in a timely fashion, so that burden was lifted from our shoulders in relatively short order.)

Without the repetition of singing that precious hymn many times in church, I would not have been able to memorize it.  And without having memorized this hymn through the process of repetition over the years, I would not have had it in my spiritual arsenal as I faced a stressful and trying time in my life.

As we grow older and begin to lose our memory, those things which have been burned into our souls over the years through constant repetition are the things that we will still likely remember.  Elderly believers who start to lose their memory will often still be able to recite Bible verses, hymns and prayers that they have learned.  (I am given to understand that the Lord’s Prayer is one of the last things that is remembered by churchgoers who experience extreme memory loss.)

If everything in church always has to be new; if we are always having to reinvent the wheel of worship in order to supposedly keep our worship practice relevant and appealing; if we must studiously avoid everything that smacks of repetition; then we rob God’s people today of a precious heritage of faith and practice that has stood the test of time and has brought generations of God’s people comfort and hope in the midst of distress.

Let us studiously avoid vain repetition.  But let us always, over and over again, engage in biblical repetition; for the glory of God and for the good of our souls!