Is Irresistible Grace Another Gospel?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:  “Dear Dave and T. A., I know from your newsletter that Dave is close to having his book published which addresses the beliefs of Calvinism.  I’m looking forward to reading it because I have some really good friends who would be ten-pointers if it went that high.  Our discussions related to Calvinism used to get so out of hand that my wife forbids us to bring the subject up in our home.  I told her we like yelling at each other but she doesn’t buy it.  I guess my friends and I will have to move to the garage after I read your book.  Seriously, one of the doctrines that puzzle me most about Calvinism is the belief that they are regenerated by irresistible grace before they believe the gospel.  Is this getting dangerously close to what Paul called in Galatians, another gospel?

Tom: Dave, before you answer that I just want to tell our listeners, when you come into the studio you have no idea what I am going to throw at you, what we are going to be discussing except—

Dave: Or what has come in the mail and people want us to answer.

Tom: Yeah.  The reason I’m saying that is because I don’t want people to think that we’ve organized this.  Some of this—

Dave: Not a set up, you have surprised me totally, Tom.

Tom: Well, some of the statements that you made earlier in our other segments with regard to Calvinism, I don’t want anybody to think we are on this rail here.

Dave: Right, okay.

Tom: But it is a good point and you do have a book coming out, hopefully, it will be out early next year, maybe a little sooner, titled:  What Love is This?  Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God.  So, it’s something that’s going to raise some eyebrows.

Dave: Well Tom, it’s a tough subject and I guess we have said in the past, I was very reluctant to get into it.  Some of my best friends are Calvinists, we’ve had our discussions.

Tom:

You’re the guys that had to go out into the garage and yell at each other.

Dave:

Not exactly, no, we have never gotten to that point, but we just more or less dropped it.  And, this is a controversy that has been going on for 400 and some years, getting close to 500 I guess soon.  And, can I solve that?  No, we can’t do it.  On the other hand, I am very serious about the title, What Love is This? because in Calvinism, not only does God allow billions—well, millions or probably billions—to go to hell that, according to Calvinism, he could rescue.

Tom: Yeah, allows, determines.

Dave: No, no, wait a minute, just let me finish.

Tom: Okay.

Dave:Not only does God allow, perhaps billions to go to hell, that he could save but in fact, he has predestined them to go to hell because it pleases him to do so.  And, I sometimes use the illustration.  If I am in a barge and there are a thousand people drowning in this icy water, they can’t stay alive much longer, and I rescue 25 of them—well let’s say I rescue 975 and just because it’s my good pleasure I let the rest of them drown.  I don’t think that the headlines in the paper would talk about how gracious and loving I am the next day.  I think I would be faulted by any court and by the human conscience for failing to rescue those that I could rescue.  Okay, so that’s the title, What Love is This?  And then, the subtitle, Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God. 

I guess we could talk about this, Tom.  It’s a topic in the Bible and I think we should be free to discuss it amicably with one another.  R. C. Sproul was on the radio frequently promoting Calvinism.  The whole Geneva Study Bible forwarded by R. C. Sproul just promotes Calvinism straight down the line.  They call it Reformed Theology, which upsets me a little bit because John Calvin was 8 years old when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door and how did the Calvinists hijack the Reformation? How did Calvinism become reformed theology?  There was more to the reformation than that.  But anyway, the subtitle, Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God, I believe it’s a misrepresentation of God to say that he doesn’t love everyone enough to want to save everyone or, that man does not have the right of choice and that man cannot even believe the gospel until he has been regenerated.  Peter very clearly says, “We are born again, regenerated by the Word, the Word of God.  This is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 

So, I have to believe the gospel in order to be born again.  Now, the Calvinist emphasizes John:1:13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
See All..., which says, “Which were born again, born not of the flesh or of the will of man but of God.”  But I have read many books by Calvinists and I can’t find one that admits that verse 12 precedes verse 13.  And verse 12 very clearly says, “As many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God, even those that believe on his name.”  So, it is quite clear that receiving Christ and believing on his name, believing the gospel, precedes regeneration.

Tom: But Dave, this question the person asks, is this doing damage to the gospel?

Dave: Boy, Tom, some questions we get from people I wish they hadn’t asked them.  Is this another gospel?  Well, I can say this, that my Calvinist friends do not preach another gospel, they are Christians; they have believed in Christ, they preach the gospel.  Now, you would have to say it doesn’t really make sense even to preach the gospel because a person who is one of the elect doesn’t need to be persuaded.  Why was Paul going around persuading?  And those who are not of the elect, you can’t persuade them, you can’t win them to Christ.  Satan could go on a vacation because he doesn’t need to blind the hearts of anybody.  He can’t blind the hearts of the elect and he doesn’t need to blind those who are not elect because God has damned them to hell already.  Nevertheless, many Calvinists and there are many who say, Well, we are not very zealous for the gospel because of this, they are either predestined to go to heaven or hell.  But I have many Calvinist friends who, although they believe that, I think they are inconsistent in that they are zealous in preaching the gospel because they say, “We don’t know who the elect really are.”  And, they preach the gospel—I don’t know, Calvinist friend that I have who doesn’t preach the gospel.  So, is this another gospel, I don’t know Tom, that’s a tough question.  I think if a person carried it to its logical conclusions, then they would say, “Well, I can’t believe until I have been regenerated so I am waiting for God to regenerate me.”

Tom: You have no choice in it.

Dave: That’s right, you have no choice.  It’s pretty hard to persuade someone to believe when they have been taught that they don’t need to believe or they can’t believe until they have been regenerated.  Furthermore, John Calvin said, “The way to know you are one of the elect is, if you were baptized as a baby even by a godless, unbelieving Catholic priest, if you have faith in your baptism, then you are one of the elect.”  And to know whether you are one of the elect or not is a little bit tough.  So Tom, this is a difficult question.