This week a local Christian radio station featured an interview with anti-Calvinist Dave Hunt, one of two authors of Debating Calvinism (the other author is James White, who takes the pro-Calvinist view). This very station hosts radio programs from teachers like R.C. Sproul and John Piper, men who are both thoroughly Reformed (another, better name for Calvinism) in theology. Nonetheless, the interview seemed more of an endorsement than a review of Hunt’s unbiblical perspective. That prompted our Lynn Barton to sit down and quickly write this kind, helpful response. Here it is, basically unedited. – Pastor Dale
Dear [radio host],
Thank you for having Dave Hunt on the show, and for highlighting the book Debating Calvinism. We keep it on the book table here at Bear Creek Church (which is, as you probably know, Reformed, or Calvinist, in theology – see www.bearcreekchurch.org).
I just feel the need to tell you that Dave Hunt misrepresents Calvinism, and clearly does not understand it. His arguments were mostly emotional and amount to his feeling that Calvinism makes God unloving and denies human free will. He had very little scripture to back up his point of view, and ignores the multitude of scriptures that teach the things he dislikes, such as God’s sovereignty in all things, and predestination and election. His problem is not with Calvinists, but with scripture.
The best part of the interview was his mentioning that "something is happening" as more and more people seem to be returning to Calvinism (which is really returning to the doctrines of the Reformation). For me, this is exciting, because the church is weak and sick and perhaps God is indeed pouring out the Holy Spirit to restore the church. We don’t need signs and miracles for revival, we need to return to a passion for God and his glory and holiness above all things, and to learn that God truly rules in the affairs of men.
Calvinism is not some strange unbiblical view. I know Joni Earickson Tada is [a Calvinist]. Spurgeon was a Calvinist. So was Jonathan Edwards, whose preaching launched the Great Awakening if I have my history right. When you know that God is sovereign, you don’t sit back passively thinking, what’s the point, God’s gonna do what he’s gonna do. You understand that God has ordained human means to accomplish his will, and the knowledge of his sovereignty gives confidence that victory is assured. The God of Calvinism is not sovereign in name only, but really and truly ordains all things according to all his holy will.
There is so much I could say to refute Mr. Hunt’s points, but I will limit myself to these:
1. It’s not true that Calvinism denies free will. It does deny unlimited free will. Because we are born in sin, we will freely choose evil, every time. That is why God justly holds us accountable. We have free will, but it is corrupted and unable to choose good. "No one seeks God, not even one." "You did not choose me, but I chose you." "No man can come to me unless the Father draws Him." "Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God." (How can a person respond to the Gospel when he cannot even "see" God’s kingdom unless he is born again? Modern evangelicals have it backwards: we think we "make a decision for Christ" and THEN we are born again. This contradicts scripture.) Jesus said to his critics "you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep." He did NOT say, "you don’t belong to my sheep because you do not believe."
2. All of Romans 9 deals with God’s election of some to salvation, and passing over the rest. God chose to love Jacob and reject Esau, even before they were born and did anything good or bad. Paul anticipates the objections of those just like Dave Hunt who will say that’s not fair…and Paul says, "who are you, O man, to question God?"
Everyone gets either justice or mercy, no one gets injustice. Just because God chooses to save some, he is not obligated to save all, nor is he unjust to refrain from doing so. If we understand how wicked we are ("the heart of man is desperately wicked above all things, who can understand it?"), then we will not be upset that God does not save everyone, but amazed that he saves anyone. Calvinism has a higher view of God, and a lower view of humanity, than most of the evangelical world today, and that accounts for much if not all of the sin and ineffectiveness of the church. We don’t fear God anymore because we don’t know him as Scripture reveals him. To moderns, God is love, and in his love, he sees value in us, that we would someday choose him, so in his foreknowledge he "elected" to choose us, based on some remnant of OUR goodness which would respond to his love. But when we think of salvation this way, we don’t really repent because we don’t think we’re that bad. We accept God’s love as proof of our value, and then presume on his grace. We continue in sin because God is love and will forgive us. We don’t fear God because we don’t understand his righteous holy wrath against all sin. And this view of salvation is not found in scripture.
Romans 9 clearly teaches that when God saves us, it is not because we have some remnant of goodness in us that is able to choose him, but because God chose us for HIS own glory. (Many other scriptures confirm, such as Eph 1: "Long ago, before the foundation of the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ.") Salvation is primarily about God’s passion to display his glory, not about our value. Calvinism is God-centered, while much of evangelical Christianity is man-centered.
If God does not intrude on another person’s rebellion and overcome it, granting him regeneration which gives him a new taste for spiritual things so that at last the person is FREE to commit to Christ (no longer a slave to sin)…what is the point of praying to God for salvation of the lost? In this view, salvation is ultimately by man’s deciding power, not God’s. But this contradicts Romans 9 and all of scripture. All through the new testament you find phrases such as "all whom God chose" or "all whom God appointed to salvation believed", it absolutely permeates the New Testament. (and the Old Testament too, in terms of God’s sovereignty…one example: God hardened Pharoah’s heart, yet Pharoah was still guilty. In some mysterious way, Pharoah freely chose evil, but God had ordained that this should occur, and yet God did not sin, nor did he tempt Pharoah. I don’t understand it, but it’s what the scripture says.
3. In one sense God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32). In another sense, he does (Deuteronomy 28:63 – "the Lord will take delight in destroying you") God’s wrath against evil is a good and just thing, and brings glory to him even as his mercy also glorifies him. Both wrath and mercy display aspects of his righteous holy character and are entirely consistent with who He is; his justice and love do not contradict each other.
4. Election does not steal motivation for preaching the gospel, but grants confidence that our "foolish preaching" will result in salvation. Preaching is the means ordained by God to accomplish his sovereign will. Without election, it’s possible that Christ could have died for nothing. If it depended on our "free choice" then Christ died and merely hoped that some would use their free will to believe. Conceivably, all could have continued to reject him and rendered his suffering useless. This is unthinkable!
5. God ordains ALL that happens, good and evil, and yet he does not sin. "Is it not from the Most High that both calamities and good things come? (Lam 3:38) "I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the Lord, do all these things." (Is 45:7) "all things happen just as he decided long ago" (Eph 1:11) "I will send war, famine and disease…" (Jeremiah 27:11) and Amos 3:6, Amost 4:6-11, Jer. 32:42, Jer 22:10, 1 Sam 2:25, Job 2:10, etc. It is NOT true that God has nothing to do with the evil things that happen, that these are only the deeds of evil men and impersonal forces of nature…that kind of God is not really sovereign and is not the God of scripture. According to scriptural principles, I must conclude that God ordained that the attacks of 911 should happen, and yet all the evil was done by men, not God, yet God allowed it (or ordained it, it means the same thing)because what ultimately will come to pass will redound to greater glory for God (in his righteous wrath and in his mercy), and greater good for his people than if it had never happened. Therefore I can take comfort in God through all the horrors of life on this earth, that these things are part of God’s overall plan and will result ultimately in glory for God and good for his people. I don’t have to walk in fear that something awful outside of God’s will might happen to me, some random thing that happens just because I live in a fallen world. How can I rest in that, where is safety? No, God orchestrates every detail, and if something awful happens it is straight from the hand of my loving God, every detail, and knowing that I can rest and trust in Him.
His thoughts are not our thoughts, and the fact that we don’t understand it does not give us the right to ignore the clear teaching of scripture. This is what Mr. Hunt does, because he emotionally recoils from what "seems" to conflict with the truth that God is love.
Much of this came from notes I have taken from John Piper’s Pleasures of God. He deals with many of the things that bother Mr. Hunt and all of us who struggle with these doctrines (I would guess that even every Calvinist has struggled at first with them, because they are so contrary to the way we normally think. I certainly have.). It is a wonderful book.
I hope that you will invite a Calvinist to come on the show [why not James White, the other author of Debating Calvinism?] and then you can ask those hard questions of someone who actually understands it. With all respect, Mr. Hunt doesn’t. The doctrine of election is hard, and even though I accept it, if I were God I would elect everybody. And yet, there is wonderful comfort and joy in knowing that my salvation depends upon God, not me. And no matter how I feel about it, whether I like or don’t like it, is not the issue. The issue of course is what does the bible teach?
I appreciate very much your willingness to allow the debate. Whether we are Calvinist or Arminian, we are all Christians and see through a glass darkly. On the other hand, division in matters of truth is not an evil, but something which Christ himself affirmed. So we should not shrink from wrestling with these very difficult doctrines which are hard for us to understand in our creatureliness, but to do it in a spirit of love and humility, as you have done. Thank you for that!
Sincerely,
Lynn Barton
Lynn Barton is a graduate of Wellesley College and a former stockbroker. She is married and the mother of two children, whom she homeschools on a small farm in southern Oregon. She attends Bear Creek Church in Medford.
c 2004 by Lynn Barton