A recent visitor to our outpost here took the time to share some of his opinions concerning Calvinism and Calvinists. We will break down his comments and try to do so honestly and not misrepresent his statements. Here is the comment in its entirety:
“Calvinism is appealing to those who do not want to be held accountable for his/her own actions. In certain ways it mirrors one of the largest growing religions, Atheism. In similar fashion Atheists love their religion because they are not accountable for what they do and there is no penalty. They only need to abide in man’s law and finding loopholes is OK. Also they can break man’s law, and that is fine as long as they don’t get caught, again because there is no penalty. OSAS is a feel good teaching that will lead many to destruction. Once you are “saved”, you can do as you please. This philosophy is in direct line with the Satanist Aleister Crowley’s, “Do What Thou Wilst”.”
Well, well. I would assume our friend here doesn’t have his iPod loaded with John Piper sermons, eh?
Let’s look at his first sentence – “Calvinism is appealing to those who do not want to be held accountable for his/her own actions.” His source for this statement is……? Let’s look at what the 1689 London Baptist Confession says about man’s responsibility for his actions:
Chapter 6, 3: “The family of man is rooted in the first human pair. As Adam and Eve stood in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of their sin was reckoned by God’s appointment to the account of all their posterity, who also from birth derived from them a polluted nature. Conceived in sin and by nature children subject to God’s anger, the servants of sin and the subjects of death, all men are now given up to unspeakable miseries, spiritual, temporal and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus Christ sets them free.”
Chapter 13, 1: “THOSE who are united to Christ, effectually called, and regenerated, have a new heart and a new spirit created in them; and by His Word and Spirit dwelling within them, this personal work of sanctification is indeed carried further.All these blessings accrue to them by reason of the merits of Christ’s death and resurrection.Sin’s mastery over them is completely broken; the evil desires to which it gives birth are increasingly weakened and dealt their death-blow; and saving graces in them are increasingly enlivened and strengthened. The practice of all true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, is thus promoted.”
Chapter 13, 3: In the war of flesh versus Spirit, sin’s corrupt remnants may for a time gain the upper hand, yet the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ enables man as a new creature to gain the victory.And so the saints grow in grace, moving on towards a fullness of holiness in the fear of God. They earnestly endeavor to live according to heaven’s laws, and to render gospel obedience to all the commands which Christ, as their head and king, has laid down for them in His Word.”
Chapter 15, 3: “The repentance that leads on to salvation is a gospel grace by means of which a person who is caused by the Holy Spirit to feel the manifold evils of sin is also caused by faith in Christ to humble himself on account of sin. This humiliation is characterized by godly sorrow, a detestation of the sin, and self-loathing. It is accompanied by prayer for pardon and strength of grace, and also by a purpose and endeavor, in the power supplied by the Spirit, to conduct himself in the sight of God with the consistency of life that pleases Him.”
Chapter 15, 4: “The repentance that leads on to salvation is a gospel grace by means of which a person who is caused by the Holy Spirit to feel the manifold evils of sin is also caused by faith in Christ to humble himself on account of sin. This humiliation is characterized by godly sorrow, a detestation of the sin, and self-loathing. It is accompanied by prayer for pardon and strength of grace, and also by a purpose and endeavor, in the power supplied by the Spirit, to conduct himself in the sight of God with the consistency of life that pleases Him.”
Chapter 17, 3: “In various ways-the temptations of Satan and of the world, the striving of indwelling sin to get the upper hand, the neglect of the means appointed for their preservation-saints may fall into fearful sins, and may even continue in them for a time. In this way they incur God’s displeasure, grieve His Holy Spirit, do injury to their graces, diminish their comforts, experience hardness of heart and accusations of conscience, hurt and scandalize others, and bring God’s chastisements on themselves. Yet being saints their repentance will be renewed, and through faith they will be preserved in Christ Jesus to the end.”
How one can infer from these statements that Calvinists “do not want to be held accountable for their actions” is beyond me. One would only have to look at the Puritans as an example of people who certainly believed in accountability for one’s actions and most of the Puritans were Calvinists.
If we were to read the text of sermons/essays/books by men such as John Calvin, George Whitefield, John Owen, John Gill, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, J. Gresham Machen, B.B. Warfield, Herman Bavinck, Louis Berkhof, James Montgomery Boice, John MacArthur, John Piper, Paul Washer, Mark Dever and James White – to name a few, and Calvinists all – we would see that they would be in line with classic Calvinism, which certainly stresses personal holiness and accountability for one’s decisions/actions.
We will examine more of our friend’s statement in our next installment.
I dare say this individual has not read a single work by a Calvinistic writer. His mis-characterization of Calvinism is almost as bad as saying “Joel Olsteen is a verse-by-verse expository preacher who borders on legalism”.