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Calvinism is the Non-gospel!
(Unless otherwise stated, all quotes are from The doctrine of God’s effectual call – MacArthur.)
Calvinists love claiming that calvinism is the gospel. They also love to make the preposterous claim that they preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, or similar outlandish statements.
MacArthur says: We plead with sinners. We take the gospel to the ends of the earth and we leave the secret things to the Lord but we follow the responsibility to call sinners to faith, knowing that those who come will have had a full atonement provided for them.
(The Doctrine of Actual Atonement Pt 1)
But which gospel is MacArthur talking about here? The general outward invitation of the gospel which he appears to define as ineffectual, or the effectual call that can only save those whom the calvinist God chose to go to heaven (the elect). See the following:
We’re not talking about what we could call the general call of the gospel, the general outward invitation of the gospel. We’re talking about something that comes only to the predestined and results in justification. And that is why it is called an efficacious call, or an effectual call.
Thus, according to MacArthur, the call of the gospel to the world in general is “the general outward invitation of the gospel” as contrasted with the effectual call which he claims is efficacious. From such statements one can only assume that MacArthur’s gospel is not effectual because it is a general call. So, what would the calvinist call the effectual call? Clearly not the gospel, as it is obviously ineffectual.
Yet MacArthur also appears to be saying that the gospel is what the sinner responds to.
When the gospel comes, the sinner is so eager to respond. ……..
You were chosen to be sanctified by the Spirit, you were chosen to put faith in the truth, and He called you to that through our gospel in order that you might gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So now the gospel is that which God uses to call you? Is this the general, outward, apparently ineffectual, invitation of the gospel, or is it now the effectual gospel call to the elect? Does this now mean that there are two types of calvinist gospel: the general outward call to all people, and the effectual call only to the elect? Do they preach a general gospel to the public in general and an effectual gospel to just the elect? That raises a lot of questions, especially how the calvinist is to know who gets what, so he may avoid preaching the wrong gospel to the wrong people! Maybe the calvinist God chooses whether it is general or specific? But the same point still applies: that somehow it still becomes a general outward call or a specific effectual call. But then the calvinists claim that the same gospel is preached to all and it is God who determines that only the elect should answer the specific effectual call. Obviously the calvinist God has altered that same gospel for the non-elect by changing it from a specific effectual call to a general outward call. It seems that the non-elect do not deserve to have an effectual gospel call!
Clearly it is not the sinner who determines who answers the call, whatever type it may be, because the calvinist God refuses to permit (by his sovereign will) any person to make any decision of any kind that could look like that person responding to the gospel against the calvinist God’s will. The calvinist God has chosen from the beginning of time just who will be saved and go to heaven, and who will not be saved and therefore go to hell. If you are on the list to go to heaven, then the calvinist God has decided that you will hear the gospel and you will respond; you cannot avoid being saved and spending eternity in heaven. If you are not on that list, you will not hear the effectual gospel call and respond; you will not be saved; you will not be going to heaven; you will be going to hell for eternity. The calvinist God has already decided this for all mankind from the beginning, and no-one may be removed nor added to the list of people heading to heaven (or hell!). Wherever you are going, it is your destiny, for all eternity! No-one may choose; only the calvinist God may choose people for heaven (and hell!). This is basic calvinist doctrine: man has no free will to choose his eternal future, either heaven or hell.
Yet MacArthur says: No one was ever saved against their will. No one was ever brought into the Kingdom kicking and screaming, protesting. No one was ever saved who was dragged against the grain of having dug their heels in. That is not what Scripture teaches. No one has ever been saved against his will. No one ever will be. Everybody who is saved is saved because they will to believe the gospel. In fact, they will with all their heart and soul to believe the gospel. No one is ever saved without being willing. It is an act of the will to believe.
So it is an act of the will to believe? Why, then, does MacArthur also teach (in that same document) that no sinner has the capacity to be willing.
No sinner has the capacity to be willing. …..
This is what we mean by “total depravity,” the utter inability of the sinner to be willing.
MacArthur also teaches that the calvinist God will make those unwilling sinners willing (assuming they have been “chosen” for heaven!).
No sinner is ever going to be willing until the power of God comes upon that sinner. There’s nothing in the sinner to make him willing. There’s nothing in the sinner, even under the best of the preacher’s effort. It is only when the power of God makes him willing that he becomes willing. …..
But it’s not that the sinner comes kicking, and screaming, and protesting, and trying to resist, because when the summons comes, the sinner is made willing. …..
The gospel alone is what God uses to awaken the sinner and He makes him willing, whereas he has never been willing before.
MacArthur uses some rather colourful and imaginative language to describe how God changes Paul from unwilling to willing on the road to Damascus.
He’s a good one to look at for this kind of call because when the call of God came on the life of the apostle Paul, it was a sovereign, divine, gracious, and irresistible summons. He was slammed in to the dirt on the road to Damascus with nothing to do but respond. He is called as an apostle.
and
Paul understood that he was just grabbed by the neck by God and awakened to the glory of Christ and saved and made an apostle.
Well, was Paul brought into the kingdom by an act of his belief, or was he dragged – sorry – slammed into the dirt, grabbed by the neck and made an apostle?
This MacArthur is apparently a very disorganised thinker, such that he doesn’t seem to be able to put ideas together consistently so that they actually lead to a single coherent conclusion. MacArthur seems to be either incompetent or else deliberately trying to deceive the elect. Or, probably, both! The gospel he claims to take to the ends of the earth is both general and ineffectual, and specific and effectual. Those elect people who hear the gospel are not able to be willing to respond, yet the calvinist God makes them willing, all without opposing man’s will which was not able to be willing without being opposed in this way!?? Paul wasn’t dragged in kicking and screaming, yet he is grabbed by the neck and slammed into the dirt. Sounds like a lot of rather forceful persuasion to me! (Unless it was an act of Paul’s will that he be grabbed by the neck and slammed into the dirt?)
The fact of the matter is that the gospel (of the Bible) is totally irrelevant to the calvinist God. He has already decided who will be saved, and he will apparently use the gospel to “save” them after they have already been called and made (against their wills?) to be willing to respond. Thus, to the calvinist, it is not the gospel which “saves” anyone, but the decision of the calvinist God from the start of time as to who would be going to heaven, and who wouldn’t be fortunate enough to go there. The same gospel, then, is general and ineffectual to the vast majority of the lost non-elect, while at the same time being specific and effectual to just those of the elect (the chosen of the calvinist God). Even then, the calvinist God must make them willing to respond before they are able to respond. Thus such a gospel becomes merely a consequence of having already been called to respond; and only those who are on that list of elect going to heaven will be called in order to be made willing to respond to that gospel.
Such a gospel becomes absolutely irrelevant, not being able to save anyone who wasn’t already on the list to be saved in the first place! Therefore, the gospel is only effectual once the calvinist God has decided that the sinner is to be made willing to respond. And this is the gospel that Paul taught was “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16)?! This calvinist gospel should be called the “non-power of the calvinist God unto non-salvation”!
The calvinist gospel is in reality a non-gospel, only able to save those who can never be lost (the elect, or chosen of God), and unable to save those who can never be saved (the non-elect, or the non-chosen of the calvinist God). You can only respond to the gospel after the calvinist God has made you willing to respond, as long as you have already been chosen for heaven. Of course, the Bible does teach that God chooses (elects) a group of people for salvation, but also that this choice is based upon man’s free will decision to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, a choice which is known by God from the beginning according to His foreknowledge of the future.
1 Peter 1:2a – Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
This is called the election conditional upon God’s foreknowledge of man’s response to the gospel. However, calvinists refuse to accept that man is able to make such a decision, even after the light of the gospel of Christ has opened his eyes to the truth.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 – 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Calvinists call their version of the election an “unconditional election”, where the calvinist God chooses his elect without any regard to any condition relating in any way at all to the sinner, hence “unconditional”. However, if the hearing of the gospel is how the calvinist God calls his elect, then that hearing of the gospel must be in itself a condition of response to God’s call. And calvinists cannot teach that salvation is conditional in any way upon the hearing of the gospel, because this would then be a condition of the election and therefore such election could not be unconditional. Thus the calvinist doctrine of salvation has to be unrelated to the gospel of the Bible.
And MacArthur is claimed by so many to be a great teacher and theologian? His logic is greatly flawed and he openly contradicts himself in “The Doctrine of God’s effectual call”. If he were to debate this topic, he would fail to win any points for clear and logical presentation of information. Instead, my comment on his debate is that he has delivered a confused and irrational presentation, using contradictory and fragmented logic. But, this is the non-gospel of the calvinists!
For further reading, try these.
MacArthur teaches works salvation
The calvinist God created most of mankind for torment in hell
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment Comments and contact page
Comments and replies are recorded on the Comments page.
John 6:44 – Does it really prove calvinist teachings?
Calvinists are quite fond of taking hold of a verse (usually in isolation) and using it, often aggressively, to “prove” that they are right and therefore all others are wrong. They will teach in such a way that makes it difficult at times to oppose them without openly accusing them of heresy. If you have some respect for the person who is pushing his calvinist views largely to the exclusion of other views, it can be uncomfortable to argue without feeling as if you might be offending that person. And many good Christians are reluctant to think that they might have offended another “Christian”.
All too often, calvinists will imply, suggest or even openly state, that to not believe as they do defines the other person as a somewhat lesser Christian, or even, perhaps, lacking spirituality because they are bereft of God’s spiritual guidance. If you disagree, then they will quote their “experts” in books and articles written by calvinist “teachers”, many of whom may be well-known, if not necessarily correct. It can be quite overwhelming, even daunting, for a Christian to be inundated with such a flood of opposing teachings. All too often those Christians will tend to agree in order to avoid an argument, and, if they “agree” as such for long enough, they may even start believing what the calvinists are saying. It’s a mild (or not so mild) form of brainwashing.
(Jehovah’s Witnesses use a similar form of aggressive argument: they are taught to answer most opposition by using suitably impressive references including Bible verses that, in isolation, appear to support their views. Their Watchtower Society constantly trains them for such debate.)
John 6:44 is one of the classic calvinist verses that is used to “prove” that (a) those who come to Christ are the only ones called by the Father, and (b) therefore man has no free will to choose to be saved.
John 6:44 – No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
The calvinist will interpret this verse to say that if the Father draws a person, then that person will come to Christ. They teach that if a person doesn’t come to Christ, then the Father did not draw him. Therefore, says the calvinist, this demonstrates that no-one has the free will to choose for himself, for this verse “proves” that God chooses for all people. (That is, unconditional election or choosing by God alone, rather than an election or choosing conditional upon God’s foreknowledge of future decisions to be saved.)
And, in fact, if this calvinist teaching is presented aggressively, it can appear to be correct, unless you test all things. It is not always easy to oppose views when they are presented so forcefully, even when you feel that such views might not be consistent with what you believed concerning the Bible. When opposing such forceful and aggressive teachings, it is essential to know exactly what you believe and why.
For instance, MacArthur’s church (Grace Community Bible Church, California) states “All whom the Father calls to Himself will come in faith and all who come in faith the Father will receive.” (John 6:44 is one of their supporting verses.) That is, everyone who is called by the Father will come in faith and be received. If you are called, you will come; therefore, if you do not come, you were not called. To the unthinking Christian, this interpretation of John 6:44 can appear correct. But such teaching is actually false. That is not what John 6:44 is saying at all! All it is saying is that every person who comes must have been called by the Father, yet it doesn’t say that every person who is called by the Father must come.
In Jesus’ day, to refuse a gift or invitation was to offend the one who offered it. Even if you didn’t want the gift or invitation, you would usually accept unless you desired to offend the one who offered it. In the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14) many are called but these refuse the invitation, some violently. So, the king punishes them and then calls others to the feast. The passage ends with “For many are called, but few [are] chosen.” (Matthew 22:14) Being invited (or called) to a wedding feast was an important event not to be treated lightly. But you could still refuse that invitation!
You couldn’t attend a wedding feast unless you had an invitation, a calling to be there. (Matthew 22:3 says “bidden” which means to be called or invited by name.) No-one might come unless they had been personally invited by the father of the groom. But getting an invitation did not mean you had to go; you were greatly obligated to go, but you could still refuse the invitation.
Now look at John 6:44 again: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: No man can come to Christ except the Father draw him. But, the calvinists say, the word “draw” means to drag or force. Yes, in many cases it actually means that. But what about John 12:32 where Jesus says “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me.” That is the same word “draw” used here. In order for calvinists to explain this, they are forced to teach that “all” does not mean “all” but perhaps “all the elect” or similar. The word “draw” can mean to use debate to persuade someone, that is, to draw someone to your point of view, or to draw their attention to something.
Take another look at John 6:44 – No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Where does it say that a person cannot refuse or resist the drawing of the Father. The calvinist then says that the grace of God is irresistible and cannot be refused. (This is one of their basic calvinist doctrines.) But that assumes man has no free will to be able to choose to resist. It assumes that God forces the person to come, and that person cannot resist. But does this verse teach such or is it an assumption based upon calvinist heresy?
Paul taught that man could indeed resist what God has ordained.
Romans 13:2 – Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
[ordinance = a law set forth by a governmental authority; Merriam Webster says that an ordinance is something ordained by fate or a deity (such as God).]
And Stephen, sitting in the council of the religious leaders, said to them:
Acts 7:51 – Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.
Thus it is scriptural to teach that man has a free will to accept or resist God. Of course, the calvinists then have to teach that God foreordained their acceptance or resistance of Him, because it cannot be by their free will! (And they do teach such!)
So what John 6:44 is really saying is that you cannot come to Christ unless the Father has drawn you. It cannot deny that all have been drawn to Christ (see John 12:32) with many people consequently resisting that drawing.
All who come must have been drawn, but it cannot equate to all that are drawn must come. That’s backward logic, like saying that because a dog is an animal with four legs, then all animals with four legs must be dogs.
John 6:44 does not deny free will to mankind, especially noting that free will to choose between good and evil, between God and the world, is taught consistently throughout the Bible. Therefore, in order for calvinists to demonstrate that John 6:44 “proves” their definition of the election, they must also demonstrate that free will of mankind is consistently denied throughout the Bible. This they cannot do. Only without the existence of free will can calvinists teach that all whom the Father calls must come in faith! Their teachings are based upon false premises and are only as truthful as the lies upon which they are based.
For further reading on the subject of John 6:44, go to John 6:44.
As a postscript, here’s some more questions for calvinists:
1/. Why did Jesus say to His disciples further down, in John 6:72, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” where “chosen” is the verb form of the adjective form used in 1 Peter 1:2 – Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
Why did Jesus choose Judas when He knew Judas would serve satan?
2/. Why did Jesus say to all His disciples in John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit” when Judas was still one of that group? Judas has been chosen, ordained, to bring forth fruit, yet he doesn’t.
3/. Why does Jesus say in John 6:39 say, “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”
Yet, after having chosen a devil (Judas) in John 6:72, and ordained that they should bear fruit (including Judas) in John 15:16, why does Jesus say of His disciples in John 17:12, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
What? Jesus kept them all, none of them is lost, except Judas. If John 6:39 is teaching about all the elect of God being given to Jesus, that He should lose none of them, then how is Judas lost after he has been chosen as per John 6:72? Clearly, to be consistent, calvinists cannot interpret John 6:39 as they do.
4/. If “many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14), then why is the number chosen less than the number called. Why would God call a large number of people to the wedding feast, yet only choose some of them? How can this be explained without the free will of mankind? How does this compare with MacArthur’s church doctrinal statement “All whom the Father calls to Himself will come in faith and all who come in faith the Father will receive.” if in fact not all who are called will be chosen! (Of course, MacArthur says that Matthew 22:14 is “the general call of the gospel, the general outward invitation of the gospel” and that only the elect or chosen of God get the efficacious or effectual call to be saved. (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-296/the-doctrine-of-gods-effectual-call)
Clearly, to the calvinist, the gospel is merely the general outward invitation which, according to MacArthur, will be ineffectual to save!
That brings us to question 5/. Why does God make a general call for all to be saved when calvinism teaches that Jesus only died for the sins of those who will receive the effectual call? Isn’t this deviousness at best from the calvinist God, to invite people when he has no intention of letting them in the door? Truly the calvinist God is no better than a politician who makes many promises but only delivers a few (if any)!
6/. Why does God say (in Jeremiah 32:35), “And they built the high places of Baal, which [are] in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” if He has ordained such decisions from the beginning (as calvinists would have us believe)? God says here that He did not command them to do such things, nor did it even come into His mind (mind; knowledge; thinking; reflection; memory; inclination; resolution; determination of will). How can Judah do such things unless it is by their own free-will rebellion against God?
If calvinism is true doctrine, then why are there so many anomalies in their “explanations”? And why, after having asked such questions many times, has not one calvinist been able to refute these statements from a Biblical viewpoint? In fact, my arguments have been read by many people, some of whom must surely be calvinist, yet not one has been able to refute satisfactorily from the Bible alone any of my challenges to them! Clearly they don’t believe in sola scriptura (the Bible alone)!
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment Comments and contact page
Comments and replies are recorded on the Comments page.