"BibleHelp.org" on Calvinism

on't ask me how I got there, but I bounced into Michael and Janet Bronson's biblehelp.org web ministry. I was on a page entitled "What is Selective Salvation?" They have apparently created sixty-six chapters discussing selective salvation, aka. election or predestination. This first one gave a summary of the doctrine and actually started fairly well.

In summary, selective salvation is the belief God has chosen to send certain people to Heaven and the remainder to Hell. This selection (which was made long before the universe was created) was not based on any qualities of the person being selected. It was not based on the person’s heart or their future love for God. It was not based on God’s foreknowledge of who will eventually choose to accept Him as their Savior. It was not based on their future humility and repentance.

All of that is better stated than someone like Dave Hunt would care to attempt. I would not say God sent "the remainder to Hell," like "I'll save you and you. The rest, blah, whatever." God made the choice both ways; that's double predestination or reprobation. That may not sound good and nice, as if all doctrines are supposed to fit into the little box most people create for God; then they hung a little sign on the outside that reads, "My God box." Notice the qualities being denied to have any relationship to God's choosing: the person's heart, their future love for God, accepting the Savior, humility and repentance. That is correct. God does not choose someone based on that person's personal characteristics or choices in life. You have to remember where election begins: man is incapable of coming to God by their own will. As Christ put it: "No man is able to come (δυναται ελθειν, dunatai elthein) to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (Jo. vi.44, personal translation).

I said the article started well. The unspoken being at some point things began to go downhill. Here is where gravity starts to take over.

This selection was purely random and arbitrary. The people selected to go to Hell (such as Hitler) could just as easily have been selected to go to Heaven.

This is a popular idea, but I have no clue why it permeates so intensely the minds of the non-Reformed. Article seven in the First Head of Doctrine of the Canons of Dordt states the following:

Election is the unchangeable purpose of God whereby, before the foundation of the world, out of the whole human race, which had fallen by its own fault out of its original integrity into sin and perdition, He has, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His will, out of mere grace, chosen in Christ to salvation a definite number of persons, neither better nor more worthy than others, but with them involved in a common misery.

God did not randomly choose anyone.¹ His choice is perfect and purposeful. The case of Paul is one of the greatest Biblical examples of God's election and sovereignty over man's free will. Paul, by his own will, sought to destroy Christ's Church. God stopped him at His appointed time and turned his heart to the gospel of Christ. Was Paul going to convert his heart and ways while on the road to Damascus had Christ not intervened upon Paul's will? Choosing Christ was not Paul's idea, but Christ's. God's choice is by His good pleasure and grace.

Nobody has a say in the matter. The person selected to go to Hell literally has no hope.

No one wants a say. They want to live their lives for themselves. Unless God saves an individual, that individual has no hope. It seems Michael Bronson has forgotten about sin and the depravity of man. These two sentences are designed to pull at the emotion; it does not matter what Calvinists would say about this, only the opinion-based conclusion that most people will not bother to verify. Also of concern is that it appears he has not studied or read the writings (or heard the sermons/teachings) of actual Calvinists. This could be another case like with Jack Graham and his sermon on grace and Calvinism a few weeks ago; he obviously did not read about Calvinism from Calvinists, only from Dave Hunt, Norman Geisler, and the like. If people would take the time to listen to us, not having to necessarily agree with us, they would at least not fall on their faces and present false, misleading information about Calvinists.

Although he may desire to go to Heaven and is seeking deliverance, he has no chance of salvation.

Once again, here is a statement (I can only assume) made out of ignorance to the actual teachings of Calvinists. Who will desire to go to Heaven? Who seeks deliverance? If someone is coming to God, Christ will never cast them out. Let's look at John vi.35-44 once again:

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. But I told you that you have seen me and still do not believe. Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. Now this is the will of the one who sent me--that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father--for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began complaining about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Isn't this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus replied, "Do not complain about me to one another. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Jesus did not indicate that men could come to God, or believe, unless God takes action. Who desires to go to Heaven? Who seeks deliverance? Jesus answers, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." And if someone actually desires entrance into Heaven and redemption? Jesus said, "Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away." That is the message of Calvinism in a nutshell. In those few verses you have the doctrines of grace pragmatically explained (as a side note, see also Rom. iii.9-18 for an excellent proclamation of man's total depravity before God). Keep in mind the words of C. H. Spurgeon: "If you will have Jesus, He has you already."² Those who are actually seeking the Father will not fail to find Him because God will not allow His declaration to come back void. He said those He draws will come, and those who come will not be cast out. Those He does not draw will not come. They will not desire redemption, just as they do not desire redemption now.

Even the person selected to go to Heaven has no say in the matter, he is forced to "love" God.

How foolish a statement, to be honest. Again, written to pull at the emotions, this is entirely misleading. When the heart of man is turned, man will follow and love his Lord. When the dead in spirit is given life, that new life looks and sees the kingdom of God (Jo. iii.3). Only after regeneration can we love God at all. He does not force that action on you. That is entirely yours to do. He saved you; why would you not love Him?

Does the Bible teach this belief system? I don’t believe it does, but you need to search the Bible yourself and come to your own conclusion. Although you can use these 64 chapters to help you in your studies, make sure you use the Bible as your final authority. Don’t assume that what I’m saying is correct.

These are the sorts of statements I appreciate. Sadly, many times anti-Calvinists will simply tell you the (false) teachings we hold to, how they are unbiblical, and even how we cannot be saved if we believe these doctrines.³ I wish they include a statement like, "You can see in their own words what they teach here..." or something to that nature. Why not direct readers to Calvinist writings or sources? That way you can check real Calvinism against the Bible. What does R. C. Sproul say? Or James White? What about others: Spurgeon, Pink, Piper, Owen, Edwards, Ryle, Warfield, Boettner, Hendryx? What do Calvinists teach as Calvinism? Let's try and get away from the strawmen, and get to the truth regardless of that may be. I am willing to be rid of any false doctrines I hold to if I can be shown they are false.

Here is Michael's final statement regarding the summary of "selective salvation":

Think about it; if you really believed everyone who is supposed to go to Heaven will make it there, would you give and live sacrificially to help reach the world for Christ?

Yes, I would. One of the biggest fallacies anti-Calvinists may commit, but not all of them, is lumping all of Calvinism into the abhorent Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism is basically fatalism. Do nothing because God will do everything. We do not know who the elect are. God has chosen the presentation of the gospel as the means by which men may listen, learn and believe. We Christians have been given the commission to go and tell all men about this gospel. Do you know of any Calvinists who do not share the gospel of Jesus Christ or believe they must not share because God will save those who He will save no matter what he or she does? If so, please send them my way. I will be more than happy to show Hyper-Calvinists the horrendous errors in their ways. Just do not try to present their heretical practices and teachings as Calvinist in general.

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¹ One of the other chapters at the site contains a most offensive comparison's to God's election I have ever seen. If you really want to read it, click here.

² Charles Haddon Spurgeon, All of Grace; The complete text can be found at the Spurgeon Archive.

³ In the September edition of The Berean Call Newsletter, Dave Hunt responded to a question about Calvinists and made this conclusion: "Could someone who believes this false gospel of Calvinism be truly saved? Fortunately, many Calvinists (you among them) were saved before becoming Calvinists. They now malign God by saying that He is pleased to damn multitudes though He could save all—and that He predestines multitudes to the Lake of Fire before they are even born. But having believed the gospel before becoming Calvinists, they 'shall not come into condemnation, but [have] passed from death unto life' (Jn 5:24). Those who only know the false gospel of Calvinism are not saved, while those who are saved and ought to know better but teach these heresies will be judged for doing so."