Calvinism is often misunderstood, because it is continually under attack from those who are either enemies of the Gospel or ignorant of the gospel. Therefore, many people have misconceptions about this system of theology.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT:
- Calvinism does not teach that God will refuse to save a man because he is not one of the elect even though that man believes in Christ and repents of his sin.
- Calvinism does not teach that Christians do not need to evangelize or do missions because God will sovereignly save the elect.
- Calvinism does not deny man’s responsibilities as defined by Scripture.
- Calvinism does not teach that God is the author of sin, who made people sin so that He could judge them.
- Calvinism does not affirm all of the beliefs of John Calvin.
- Calvinism is not a certain form of church government.
- Calvinism does not teach infant baptism.
- Calvinism is not a sect of Christianity or Gospel that was formulated by John Calvin.
- Calvinism as a system of theology/soteriology did not originate with John Calvin.
- Calvinism is not the same as Stoicism or Pantheism.
Instead, Calvinism is orthodox Christianity, affirming the fundamental doctrines of true Christianity.
Since not all Christians understand every biblical doctrine exactly the same, there are Christians who are not Calvinist. Furthermore, Calvinists do not believe that one must be a Calvinist in order to be a Christian. In fact, that would fly in the face of the Calvinist belief that salvation is the sovereign act of God, not based on any merit of man, including man getting all of his theology correct.
Of course, there are certain types of Christians that are not true Christians at all, denying one or more of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Calvinists do believe that a true Christian cannot be regenerated and at the same time not believe in the fundamentals of the faith.
Unfortunately, like all orthodox teachings there are offshoots of Calvinism, such as Neo-Orthodoxy, that deny certain fundamental Biblical doctrines.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
I will answer your question in a future post so stay tuned. But in the meantime here is something to think about: We have all heard the term “Replacement Theology.” The term was basically made up and used by the Dispensational opponents of Reformed Theology, claiming that Covenant Theologians replace Israel with the Church. Of course, that is untrue because Covenant Theologians believe that the Church is the continuation of God’s Israel, not a replacement.
So I want you guys to consider this: Dispensationalism is the real Replacement Theology for it claims that the Gentile Church has currently replaced Israel and that Israel in the future will replace the Gentile Church. And it is precisely this line of thinking that causes Dispensationalism to be inconsistent with Calvinism.
Stay tuned…