The Calvinist Evangelist

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Steve Foster

I have to reveal my hand before getting too far into the Calvinist-Arminian debate. I am biased. My first exposure to Calvinism left a bad taste in my mouth and it still remains to this day.

I was a freshman in Bible college. 450 miles from home. In a new city. Rooming with a bunch of strangers. Coming to grips with college life, homesickness, and learning to do my own laundry. A few days after unpacking my belongings, an upperclassman in my dorm felt it necessary to introduce me to predestination and God’s eternal decree. “You do know that God separated the righteous from the damned before the world even began.” I had no idea what he was talking about. I was still trying to figure out how to separate whites, colors, and darks.

I grew up Presbyterian but remember nothing about it except being bored to tears in church. I have vague memories of catechism class. The old pastor tried to teach us basic theology. My buddy George thought the whole affair was pretty funny. I was trying to take it serious. At one point I asked the biggest question on my pre-adolescent mind…”where did God come from?” The pastor didn’t have an answer so I tuned out the rest.

Later, however, through the changed life of my older brother, I came to an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I started attending a Baptist church and growing in my faith. I loved church. I enjoyed studying God’s Word. I sensed the Lord calling me into full-time ministry. Off to Bible college I went….eager, excited, naive.

That’s when I met my first evangelist for Calvinism. What else can I say? He turned me off. More than the doctrine itself, I was repelled by the attitude. He savored the chance to drill the young Bible college student with verses that he knew I had no answer for. I wasn’t sure what his purpose was. To convert me, to humiliate me, or to impress me with his knowledge. But whatever his intent, it had the opposite effect in me. I didn’t know what Calvinism was but I was sure I didn’t want to be one.

The next four years of Bible college I spent debating and discussing Calvinism and Arminianism with other budding young theologians in the dorm. While most college students party all night, Bible college students stay up all night arguing over TULIP. (I’ll define that later for those who think we were arguing over flower arrangements.)

Since most of my roommates were Calvinistic, I argued the other side. I ended most conversations saying, “I was predestined to be Arminian so stop fighting God’s eternal decree.” Not the most effective strategy, but it usually ended the conversation and let me go to bed.

So that’s the story behind my inner bias. Of course, I believe we are all biased and slanted to one degree or another. No one approaches a subject, including theology, from a position of total objectivity. Subjective emotion, experience, personality, and giftedness all enter the picture…as well as our self-focused sinful nature.

Only in the Spirit…and from a position of humility and love…can we ever hope to come close to a clearer view of God and His ways. And only in the Spirit can we teach theology to others with the right attitude and motive.

My next post…when I get there…will define the terms. What do I mean by Calvinism? What is Arminianism? That’s probably where I should have started but if you’ve read this far then you are either already familiar with the terms or so bored that you have nothing else better to do than read a blog that you don’t understand.

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Reflections of a Cal-minian

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Steve Foster

I am not a Calvinist.

I do not make that statement from a position of antagonism against Calvinism. There are many aspects of Calvinism and Reformed doctrine that I admire, love, and embrace. The strong Calvinist is typically insulated from the heresies of humanism by his emphasis on the absolute sovereignty of God. Thus, it is rare to find a liberal Calvinist who denies the authority of Scripture, the reality of sin, and the identity of Christ. If I had to pick a side in the Calvinist-Arminian debate, I would go with the Calvinist side.

I also do not make that statement from a position of ignorance. I received my doctorate degree from a Reformed seminary. My favorite professor was D.A. Carson. I have heard and studied the Reformed position under the teaching of Reformed teachers. There are no straw men in my arguments against Calvinism. It is a beautiful theological system that explains much of Scripture. I don’t hesitate at all to preach its tenets when it is the best understanding of the text at hand. But, in the final analysis, it is a system that can’t explain all of Scripture. There are some passages that simply push against its walls and keep it from being air tight.

That leads me to my primary concern with Calvinism…and to any overriding system of interpretation be it Arminianism, dispensationalism, charismatic theology, or covenant theology. It is too easy for the system to dictate interpretation rather than vice-versa. That is not to say that all theological systems are created equal. Some seem to gel with the whole counsel of God better than others. But it is to say that there are enough “category busters” in every system to keep us humble. If Bible believing Christians who acknowledge the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ, and the gospel of grace can differ on an issue, and do so throughout much of church history, then there is a good chance that the truth lies somewhere above our typical horizontal spectrum.

So my hope in the next few weeks is to share a few thoughts on the Calvinist-Arminian debate that may be helpful. And along the way explain why I believe that leaving certain doctrines in tension, particularly this one, is the preferred place to be.

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Lord of the Sabbath

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Steve Foster

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-8)

We saw at one point the Pharisees approached Jesus’ disciples to criticize Jesus (9:11). Now they approach Jesus to criticize His disciples. The critical heart is never satisfied, rarely approaches the right person, and always finds something to criticize.

In this case, the disciples are walking through a grainfield and they pluck a few heads of grain to eat…on the Sabbath. Uh oh. Big no-no. Pharisaic tradition put a big regulation on “reaping” on the Sabbath and “removing all or part of a plant from its source of growth” was considered reaping.

The Pharisees had taken the command to rest on the Sabbath and turned it into the most burdensome, legalistic command among all the Ten Commandments. You were better off beating someone to a pulp (especially if they were a Samaritan or a Roman) than breaking one of the thousands of regulations surrounding the Sabbath. That’s what legalism does…it majors on the minors. It strains at the gnat and swallows the camel. We get bent out of shape about the minor things…don’t touch that, don’t eat that, don’t do that on that day…and ignore the self-righteous, critical, bitter heart that is developing within us. We put conformity over compassion, rules over relationship, laws over love, minor traditions over the Great Commandment.

Jesus answers the Pharisees with a few biblical category busters.

“Remember David the King? He ate consecrated bread when he was running for his life. Remember the priests? They work on the Sabbath. Remember the prophet Hosea? He condemned all the rituals of Israel because they had forgotten that God desires mercy over sacrifice.”

“Prophet, priest, and king all show that the Sabbath is made for man not man for the Sabbath. And I am the Prophet, Priest, and King. The Messiah. The Lord of the Sabbath.”

This story comes on the heels of Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28-30. Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus is our Sabbath rest. He delivers us from all the guilt, rituals, compulsion, perfectionism, legalism, and self-righteousness that plague religion. And He invites us into a relationship with Himself. He invites us into His rest. It is only our pride, stubbornness, critical heart, and unbelief that keep us from experiencing it.

Lord, thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your rest. May I experience it more today as I seek to follow You.

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The Golden Rule

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Steve Foster

In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12, NAS)

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12, NKJV)

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12, NIV)

Jesus brings this section on God’s righteousness to a close. We think we are righteous, but God’s law evaluates our heart. We think we have obeyed God’s law, but our human relationships show the real condition of our heart.

Relationships…you can’t live without them…but often can’t live with them either. Our biggest joys and heartaches are associated with our relationships.

It is interesting that Jesus started off chapter 7 by talking about our tendency to condemn, criticize, and judge others. It’s in our blood. We watch the news and criticize politicians and the media. We go to a sporting event and criticize the players, coaches, and referees. We get on the road and criticize the drivers in front of us, the road department, and the city of Baton Rouge. We go to the store and criticize the management, the cashiers, and the person in front of us with too many items and an inability to operate the credit card machine. Then we go to church and everything is better! No, we often find ourselves criticizing the music, the preaching, the kids sitting in the pew in front of us, and the person singing off key behind us.

Of course, evaluating things is not wrong. The problem is that we usually go one step further. We set ourselves up as the paragons of normality and expect everyone else to bend to our preferences and perspective. We set ourselves up as the judges and everyone else is on trial before us. That’s when we cross the line.

Jesus turns all that on its head in this one verse. Here is how I understand this verse in its immediate context…

Whatever you criticize others for not doing, you do those things perfectly and consistently for them.
Whatever you get upset about that others do not do for you, you do for them unconditionally with love and joy.

In other words, we focus on the failings of others in the realm of relationships. Instead, we are to focus on our own inability to love others the way that we want to be loved. We don’t even meet our own standard. We fail to listen to others the way we want to be listened to. We fail to meet the emotional needs of others, the way we want our emotional needs met. We frustrate other people as much as they frustrate us. When our eyes are honestly turned inward, we see the weakness, sin, and selfishness of our own hearts.

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3)

The “Golden Rule” is not only a call to love others but also a stinging rebuke of our own hearts. We fall short of perfect love, thus we fall short of God’s righteousness. That’s why we are to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking on the door of heaven, crying out for God to change our hearts, to melt our cynicism and criticism, to fill us with His Spirit, and to give us the power to love others as He has loved us. We can’t love unless God takes out our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, unless He removes our spirit of condemnation and gives us His Spirit of grace.

Lord, I am about to go out and interact with my family, with my wife, with others in this community. Fill me now with Your Spirit! Help me to crucify my flesh, my selfish desires! May Your love shine through me today.

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Do Not Judge

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Steve Foster

1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Do you know that a recent poll concluded that Matthew 7:1 is the most popularly quoted verse from the Bible today? Do not judge lest you be judged. Our culture really likes that verse. Taken alone, and taken out of context, it becomes the ultimate mantra of a tolerant, everything goes, nobody loses society. The implication is that we are never to confront anyone about anything.

That’s not what Jesus is saying.

Do not judge is referring to final judgment, becoming the prosecutor, jury, and judge on the value of someone else’s life or on their eternal destiny. Quite simply, we cannot judge someone else’s heart. That is God’s job alone.

Jesus has been focusing on the heart. We think we obey God’s law but we violate it in our hearts (5:17-48). We think we are doing righteous deeds but we are far away from God in our hearts (6:1-18). We think we love God but our hearts are attached to material things (6:19-24). We think we trust God but our hearts are loaded with worry about all the things that we must control (6:25-34).

What’s our first tendency when we hear all this? “You’re right, Jesus, tell them! That’s exactly what they need to hear! That’s what I have been trying to tell them for all these years! Go get ’em!”

We are masters at applying God’s Word…to other people.

In confronting the heart, Jesus is confronting me. I am to examine my own heart not try to judge the heart of others.

Paul echoes this theme in 1 Corinthians 4:5: Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. And in Romans 14:4: Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Jesus goes on to say…for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

This is a principle repeated several times in Scripture (Ps. 18:25-27, Matt 5:7, 6:14-15, James 2:13). In some way, God judges us with the same standard we use to judge other people. You know what our standard typically is for other people? Perfection. When it comes to how people treat us, we want perfection. We want them to say the right things at all the right times for all the right reasons. We want them never to offend us, never to hurt us, never to disrespect us, never to ignore us. We want them to encourage us, support us, help us, respect us, be there for us at exactly the point we need them.

Now, when I mess up, well, they should understand that I am having a bad day or that they are being too sensitive or they hurt me first. We are tolerant toward ourselves…critical of others. We want mercy and grace for ourselves…perfection and justice for others.

That’s Jesus’ point. He is continuing to expose the hypocrisy and pride of our own hearts.

Only when we have humbly recognized our own sin, seen our own brokenness, and cried out for God’s mercy for our own soul can we even begin to approach other people in the right spirit.

Lord, my heart is so critical of others. I want people to act exactly as I want them to act. I struggle to extend mercy and grace. Remind me of the destitute condition of my own soul. Remind me of the amazing overflow of Your grace. Remind me of the cross. And then empower me to love others as You have loved me.

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