God’s Purpose of Grace

[Still praying for a new Reformation Day]

Dr. Tom Nettles has an excellent commentary on Article 5 of the Baptist Faith and Message. The commentary was published by the Baptist Press in 2002. It includes an interesting quote from F. H. Kerfoot, a Southern Baptist theologian and pastor at the turn of the 20th Century, concerning what Baptists believed about the doctrines of grace, also known as Calvinism.

“Nearly all Baptists believe what are usually termed the ‘doctrines of grace’: the absolute sovereignty and foreknowledge of God; His eternal and unchangeable purposes or decrees; that salvation in its beginning, continuance and completion, is God’s free gift; that, in Christ, we are elected or chosen, personally or individually, from eternity, saved and called out from the world, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth; ... Read Rom 8, 9, 10, 11; Acts 13:48; Eph 1:4-5; 2:1-10; 1 Peter 1:2-5; Jude 24; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5.”

How interesting to see that, at least at the turn of the 20th century, Baptists generally did not view Calvinism (doctrines of grace) as a cult, or virus, or worse than Islam. It was the Gospel. The belief in the power of a Sovereign God to change the hardened hearts of wicked men was the life blood of the modern missions movement. William Carey, Adoniram Judson, John G. Paton, Andrew Fuller, and many others had a great passion for the Lamb to receive the reward of His suffering in the salvation of lost sinners. All believed fervently in the doctrines of grace.

It is an indictment against the Church of the West today that we have strayed so far from the teaching of Scripture about God’s electing grace. Through neglect of teaching Church History and the whole counsel of God, our churches at large have stagnated into ritual rather than hearty thankfulness for the measure of mercy those saved by God’s irresistible grace have been shown. We trade members from one established church to another. We slide toward being marginalized in the culture because we only offer a “dehydrated deity” and fail to preach the absolutely Sovereign Lord of the Bible.

Despite the rhetoric from pulpits across the Western Church today, Baptists did not always believe that Jesus died for a mere possibility of salvation. They did not teach that the purposes of God depended on men who had some better natural quality than their neighbor which allowed them to overcome their fallen hearts and choose Christ.

Instead, Baptists believed Christ died to actually save the lost. His mission was sure, and the reward of a chosen people for His suffering was guaranteed by the Father. Likewise, they believed their mission in evangelism was sure. Evangelism for the early Baptists, and the early Church at large from previous centuries, did not depend on slick marketing and hosting breezy services. Consider these statements from former Baptist leaders.

John A. Broadus, former president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “From the divine side, we see that the Scriptures teach an eternal election of men to eternal life simply out of God’s good pleasure.”

B. H. Carroll, founder and first president of the Southwestern Baptist Seminary: “Every one that God chose in Christ is drawn by the Spirit to Christ. Every one predestined is called by the Spirit in time, and justified in time, and will be glorified when the Lord comes.”

James P. Boyce, founder and first president of Southern Baptist Seminary: “God, of His own purpose, has from eternity determined to save a definite number of mankind as individuals, not for or because of any merit or works of theirs, nor of any value of them to Him; but of His own good pleasure.”

W. T. Conner, professor of theology, Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas: “The doctrine of election means that God saves in pursuance of an eternal purpose. This includes all the gospel influence, work of the Spirit and so on, that leads a man to repent of his sins and accept Christ. So far as man’s freedom is concerned, the doctrine of election does not mean that God decrees to save a man irrespective of his will. It rather means that God purposes to lead a man in such a way that he will freely accept the gospel and be saved.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Prince of Preachers, in a sermon delivered on Matthew 24:24 (April 22, 1860): “I do not hesitate to say, that next to the doctrine of the crucifixion and the resurrection of our blessed Lord - no doctrine had such prominence in the early Christian church as the doctrine of the election of Grace.”

W. A. Criswell, in a sermon entitle “The Doctrine of Predestination” (November 20, 1955): “That’s our God. Now, just to turn the page, just to show you how this is interwoven all through the Bible—just turn the page, just one page. In the forty-sixth chapter of Isaiah and beginning at the ninth verse, listen to the Word of the Lord:

For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling unto the ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

That’s our God. Now that’s what you call foreordination. That’s what you call predestination. That’s Calvinism. And I am a Calvinist. That’s good old Bible doctrine. And I believe the Bible. These things are in God’s hands. And ultimately, and finally, He purposed it and executeth all of it.”

Were these men a virus for Baptists? Were they cultists? Were the beliefs they stood for worse than Islam?

The love of comfort, the cry for peace at any cost, the worship of the sovereign “free” will of man, and the religious zeal for church marketing over a heart for God’s glory in the salvation of the lost are the fruit of the age of a consumer-driven gospel. It is man-centered doctrine that has infected the Church, not the God-honoring truths of Scripture. Truths that were championed and openly embraced by faithful leaders of the past.

Church history is defined by men who drank deeply from the Word of God, thought deeply about doctrine, and, by the grace of God, stood by what they learned from Scripture in the midst of great storms inside and outside the Church. In the same way, it is because the doctrine of election is taught in Scripture that it is worthy of vigorous debate and study. It is dishonoring to the Word of God to skip, ignore, or avoid any doctrine just because some may treat it with disdain.

James L. Sullivan, past president of the Sunday School Board, wrote in the Florida Witness, April 17, 1975:

Baptist doctrines are more important than most of us realize. They not only express our experiences and beliefs, they also determine our directions. They even shape our programs whether local or national. They are to the church essentially what the backbone is to the human body. They give unity and stability; they provide sturdiness enabling us to endure the bumps of opposition, even persecution.

Doctrines are of the utmost importance whether they are oral or written. They systematize our expressions of faith. They express our experiences in written understandable form. They proclaim to others our Christian testimony. They constitute the framework in which we carry on our daily activities.

The church which neglects to teach doctrine weakens its membership, works against its unity, invites instability in its fellowship, lessens conviction among its members and stalemates its future progress. It is impossible for us to exaggerate the importance of doctrine. This truth needs to be stressed constantly before every believer.

Many have made this observation, and I agree with it. Baptists have struggled for many decades over the inerrancy of Scripture. Is the Bible totally true in all areas for all times? At the Convention level, at least, it seems that that struggle is finished and, as Southern Baptists, we will cling to the Word of God as our final authority. The latest debate in the SBC is now what does it say?

Do we hold to the revivalist traditions of the past hundred years, or do we once again commit ourselves to the faithful preaching and teaching of the whole counsel of God, even if some refuse to let go of tradition? Do we shy away from preaching Christ in this hostile culture because of the fear of offending those who are lost? Do we shy away from studying Scriptures that take work, tears and prayer, and that challenge our personal traditions because they may make us feel bad about ourselves? Of course not. We should not refuse to discuss the hard doctrines of Scripture because some do not wish to be confronted by them. Likewise, we should not be lazy in our study of Scripture and avoid doctrines that are hard to understand.

God’s Word trumps our pride and self-esteem. The truths of Scripture trump our traditions. This is the legacy of the Baptist founders, the legacy of the Protestant Reformation, the legacy of the early Church, the legacy of Jesus Christ: Let God be true and every man a liar. We preach and teach His whole counsel simply because He has spoken. He will graciously build His Church as He sees fit. We are to be faithful students of His whole Word, and faithful witnesses to its entire teaching.

As the Spirit has instructed us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17) If all Scripture is profitable for teaching and training, how can any pastor or teacher skip those passages that teach on the purposes of God in election? How can any pastor or teacher withhold from their people teaching on the total inability we have to come to Christ because of the complete and radical depravity of our fallen natures? How can any pastor or teacher avoid teaching on the desparateness of our situation unless we are drawn by the Father?

We just do not get how sinful we are, even after the Holy Spirit has enabled us with saving faith to freely choose Christ. These truths expose the heart and our great need for a Savior. Upon hearing them, some will say, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” and leave. Others will struggle, but continue to search the Word of God like noble Bereans, where even the teachings of an apostle were not above being compared to Scripture.

The point is they diligently searched the Word of God to determine for themselves if Paul was speaking the truth. They did not just blow him off because he taught what was contrary to their traditions. It is my fervent prayer that any debate about these issues will drive people to their Bibles. It is not that all Christians have to be five-point Calvinists. There is benefit in the struggle with the hard sayings of Scripture. Wrestling with the Word of God has eternal value in and of itself. Search the Word eagerly and diligently to determine what Scripture says and believe accordingly. Do not avoid studying the hard doctrines of Scripture because loud and public voices attempt to poison the well with a distortion of Baptist history and mischaracterization of historic Baptist beliefs.

As Dr. Tom Ascol has pointed out, what Southern Baptists have to ask themselves is this: if the beliefs of Charles Spurgeon, John Broadus, James Boyce, B. H. Carroll, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Andrew Fuller, W. A. Criswell, and so many others, were true in their day, are they true now? The Bible has not changed. Truth does not change. God has not changed. The Church has. Honestly study the issue for yourself. Ignore the bomb-throwers. The Holy Spirit inspired Scripture is the final authority for faith and practice, not Calvin or the Caners. What does He say?