A Few Thoughts on Hyper Calvinism
James White
The following exchange took place around the year 2000. If I am recalling correctly, an unsolicited e-mail arrived with a large "cc" list of people. As you will see, my initial response was very brief, because I learned long ago that these kinds of impromptu e-mail lists will suck the life right out of you if you let them. False teachers have, seemingly, unlimited time resources. In any case, when the reply came, I did invest a few moments to type out a few thoughts I have had on the subject of the demands of hyper-Calvinists. I hope they are useful to others as well.
******
The person who wrote this (below) does not see the MAIN work of the Devil.The Devil works in FALSE RELIGION. It is his goal to keep people in falsereligious refuges of self-righteousness. The work of the Devil is to keeppeople believing that salvation is conditioned on the sinner in any way toany degree. The work of the Devil is to get people into churches where thefalse gospel is preached. The work of the Devil is to keep people believingthat Jesus Christ died for all persons without exception, thus keeping thembelieving that the difference between heaven and hell is not the work ofChrist alone but is the work of man.The work of the Devil is to keep false religionists focused on fighting theimmorality of the day, such as gambling, abortion, assisted suicide,homosexuality, taking God out of schools (as if He were ever in there tobegin with), drugs, and pornography, thinking that fighting these thingsproves that one is a child of God -- whereas God says that everything thatfalse religionists do (even their morality and sincerity) is an abominationin the sight of God.What is more wicked:(1) Two homosexuals in a gay bar singing homosexual songsor(2) A married Arminian couple (man and wife) who have always been faithfulto each other sitting in an Arminian church singing hymns?Lost religionists have no idea that BOTH of these are an abomination in thesight of God. They do not realize that ALL who are going about to establisha righteousness of their own (which includes ALL Arminians) are lost. Theydo not believe the gospel of salvation conditioned SOLELY on the atoningblood and imputed righteousness of Christ. They are ignorant of therighteousness of God revealed in the gospel (Romans 10:3). They are hatersof God. They are just as filthy and wicked as those who are engaged inopen, gross immorality.Homosexuality, abortion, and pornography are most certainly wicked, but whatdid Jesus say about the moral self-righteous religionists in relation to thewicked immoral sodomites?"BUT I SAY TO YOU, IT WILL BE MORE TOLERABLE FOR THE LAND OF SODOM INJUDGMENT DAY THAN FOR YOU." (Matthew 11:24)While all these self-righteous religionists who believe in salvationconditioned on the sinner are condemning sodomy, they do not realize that itwill be more tolerable for the sodomites in the day of judgment than forthem.Soli Deo Gloria,Marc D. Carpenter
[James White then wrote:]I am reminded by this kind of rhetoric that even God's truth can beprofessed without love and without balance.I feel for anyone who thinks themselves to have such a perfect understandingof all things that they can make the comparison made above. Most of thefolks I know in Reformed churches once stood and sang hymns without a fullknowledge of the doctrines of grace: to compare them to two homosexuals issimply sad.God protect us all from imbalance.....James
[I then wrote:]James White said:<>In the mind of most professing Calvinists who speak peace to Arminians,"love" and "balance" include speaking peace when there is no peace, sayingthat one who is ignorant of righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is abrother in Christ, and saying that those who believe in salvationconditioned on the sinner are saved. This shows that these professingCalvinists do not know what the true gospel is. What they call "love" and"balance" God calls Satanic. Those who defend or excuse God-haters showthemselves to be God-haters. True love will tell the unregenerate that theyare lost and their deeds are evil, in hopes that they will seek the remedy.To promote a lost religionist in his false refuge is actually HATRED and ispromoting his eternal destruction. I am not saying this to be mean orunloving; I say this hoping that both Arminians and tolerant "Calvinists"will believe the true gospel of salvation conditioned on the atoning bloodand imputed righteousness of Christ alone and repent of dead works andidolatry, including repenting of speaking peace to those who worship a godwho cannot save.The gospel is the good news of salvation based on the atoning blood andimputed righteousness of Christ alone. In the gospel, the righteousness ofGod is revealed (Romans 1:17). Anyone who believes that any part ofsalvation isconditioned on the sinner (which includes all Arminians) is lost. Those whodo not believe the gospel (which includes all Arminians) arelost (Mark 16:16). Those who are ignorant of the righteousness of Godrevealed in the gospel (which includes all Arminians) are lost (Romans10:3). This is not saying thatbelieving the true gospel is a prerequisite to salvation; it is saying thatwhen God regenerates someone, He glorifies Himself by causing that person tobelieve the true gospel of salvation based on the blood and imputedrighteousness of Christ. There are not many paths to God; there is only one.And if anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed (Galatians1:8-9). If anyone does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, he does not haveGod (2 John 9). If anyone will speak peace to one who believes a falsegospel, then he, too, is evil (2 John 11). God is glorified in the salvationof sinners when He manifests all His redemptive glory to their hearts. Hewill not have His saved ones spit in the face of His Son and dishonor Hisredemptive glory.I am also willing to correspond with any of you who would like to discussthis.Soli Deo Gloria,Marc
[James White then wrote:]Greetings:I generally do not participate in massive "cc" e-mails where dozens ofpeople who have not requested the original e-mail, nor the replies, areinvolved. As I look through list of folks, however, I see many I know, manywho are friends and acquaintances. (Indeed, I'm glad to get the e-mails ofa number of you I didn't have before!). So I will make one response to thishyper-Calvinistic presentation simply because I believe it needs to berefuted. Hyper-Calvinism does those of us who are historic Calvinists nogood: indeed, many who will not even talk to us about the sovereignty ofGod's grace do so because hyper-Calvinists have added *perfection ofunderstanding* to the gospel as *the* standard of salvation itself and theyassume that we, likewise, hold such a position.
=====James White said:<>In the mind of most professing Calvinists who speak peace to Arminians,"love" and "balance" include speaking peace when there is no peace, sayingthat one who is ignorant of righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is abrother in Christ, and saying that those who believe in salvationconditioned on the sinner are saved. This shows that these professingCalvinists do not know what the true gospel is. What they call "love" and"balance" God calls Satanic. Those who defend or excuse God-haters showthemselves to be God-haters.=====
Let's consider well what is being said here. If you do not make perfectionof understanding an addition to the gospel, you are "speaking peace" to anArminian. I have no idea how recognizing the simple truth that one does nothave to have perfection of understanding to have eternal life is to beconfused with "speaking peace" to a belief that, from looking at the list,most everyone reading this exchange would admit is in significant error onmany points. I do no speak peace to Arminianism. Anyone who knows me knowsthis. I would not have dedicated the past nine radio programs we producethrough our ministry to a refutation of Norman Geisler's new anti-Reformedbook _Chosen But Free_ if I was "speaking peace" to Arminianism.Recognizing that one can have traditions in their thinking that are notbiblical and still be a Christian is not the same as "speaking peace" tofalsehood. My goodness, do we not *all* have such traditions? Ifperfection is the standard *to be saved,* who of us actually is? Arehyper-Calvinists claiming to have no traditions, to have a perfection ofunderstanding in all matters? I fear those who make such claims.Most on this list I would assume came to understand the doctrines of gracethrough a process: a breaking, difficult process, one that has, for many ofus, cost us dearly. But it was not that PROCESS that saved us. It seemsthat some would have us to believe that God births no children, but onlymature adults, in the kindgom, in the sense that unless you have afull-orbed, perfect understanding of the relationship of all parts of thegospel to each other that you do not, in fact, know Christ. I am sothankful that is transparently false.Seemingly we are likewise being told that the "Arminian" is ignorant of therighteousness of God and trusting in salvation "conditioned" uponthemselves. I suppose a hard-core, convinced Arminian might well believethose things, and I for one would believe that such a faith is not likelygenuine. But I've met very FEW such people. The vast majority of those Imeet who have difficulty with the doctrines of grace do so out of ignorance,not malice or rebellion. And what do we do with them? The previous messagelikened a couple singing hymns in an "Arminian church" to two homosexuals ina bar. Such a concept makes no place for the simple truth of IGNORANCE.How many do you we all know who are simply untaught and unaware, blanketedby layers of evangelical tradition? Are we seriously to call such a persona God-hater? Because they were converted to Christ within an imperfectfellowship (gracious, who is converted to Christ within a perfect one?), arewe to make our OWN understanding and practices an ADDITION to the gospel sothat they remain in their sins, and are, in fact, God-haters?What seems ironic is that our hyper-Calvinistic friends will say theybelieve it takes an act of grace to bring a person to an understanding ofsuch issues as sovereignty, providence, election, and depravity: yet, theywill tell God that He MUST give this grace *on their timetable* and noneelse. The idea that God can bring a person over time to come to understandfully what it means to truly believe "you have not chosen Me, but I havechosen you" has no place in the rigorous, and sadly unloving, world of thehyper-Calvinist.
=====True love will tell the unregenerate that theyare lost and their deeds are evil, in hopes that they will seek theremedy.=====
Of course: but in the hyper-Calvinistic view that assumes that to beregenerated one must have memorized Pink's _Sovereignty of God_ or someother such standard. I was converted to Christ as a youth: a very youngyouth in fact. I wouldn't have understood the terms "reprobation" or"predestination," but I did understand sin, love, and Jesus' dying. Itseems that possibly the hyper-Calvinist confuses the tremendous necessitythat I hope we all feel to honor God by the proclamation of the *entirety*of God's truth (I preached on particular redemption just this morning infact) and the constant effort to bring people to a full understanding ofthese vital issues with the fact that God can, to borrow from one of myfellow elders, draw a straight line with a crooked stick. God is notdependent upon the perfection of OUR understanding in bringing regenerationto the heart: and unless you are ready to say that the Apostles preachedthat the object of saving faith included all five points, in clarity,perfection, and completeness, right from the start, you have a problem. Ido have to wonder why Titus had to teach and preach these truths (Titus2:11-15) if, in fact, every Christian who had saving faith already knew themimplicitly?
=====To promote a lost religionist in his false refuge is actually HATREDand ispromoting his eternal destruction. I am not saying this to be mean orunloving; I say this hoping that both Arminians and tolerant "Calvinists"will believe the true gospel of salvation conditioned on the atoning bloodand imputed righteousness of Christ alone and repent of dead works andidolatry, including repenting of speaking peace to those who worship a godwho cannot save.=====
And it is my hope that our hyper-Calvinist friends will come to realize thatthey need to let God bring His children to a full understanding of His truthin His time, not theirs. I can reject such rhetoric because I am consistenton this point: I do not compromise the Reformed faith in the face ofopposition (anyone who has attended my live, public debates against RomanCatholics on Long Island, for example, knows what I mean): but I likewise donot insist that one of the divine gifts given in regeneration is perfectionof theology. God has, in His wisdom, set certain standards: I do notbelieve that a faith that does not include repentance from sin and trust inChrist as Savior saves. I don't believe faith as propounded by Rome, forexample, saves. But it is a simple matter of imbalance to then fly to theother side and demand *perfection* of faith as the standard. Indeed, Ilearned this week, while preparing for the ministry of the Word, more aboutthe wonderful work of Christ in our behalf: does that mean I had animperfect faith yesterday, and a perfect faith today? Did I "get saved"this week because my understanding is better now than it was before? Idon't believe so.I will close with this: in God's gracious providence I've had theopportunity of writing about the doctrines of grace in a couple of booksthat have, in His will, gotten into the hands of folks all across the world.Just yesterday a fellow called into our radio program from England to talkabout some issues. One of the things he noted was that until he hadencountered our website and my tapes, he had been a garden-variety Arminian.But, though he went through some sleepless nights, he now sees the truth ofthe doctrines of grace. Is someone asking me to believe that when he firstencountered my writings this Englishman, though professing faith in Christ,was an enemy of God, a rebel in his sins, but, once he accepted what I hadto say, he was regenerated? Regenerated men seek out such material and giveit a hearing? You see, if one takes that position (and I can't see how ourhyper-Calvinistic correspondent wouldn't fit in this category), one isforced to assert that in point of fact it was not the gospel message thatconverted this man, but a sudden growth in his understanding of therelationship of certain elements. Such is simply untenable.Balance, my friends. It is a difficult thing to maintain. It takes grace,maturity, experience. May God be pleased to give us all spirits that aresteadfast and balanced, always tempered by love and a recognition that thereis not a single person reading this note who can honestly say that he or shehas a perfect and complete understanding of all there is to know of God'sgrace and truth.
James
James White
The following exchange took place around the year 2000. If I am recalling correctly, an unsolicited e-mail arrived with a large "cc" list of people. As you will see, my initial response was very brief, because I learned long ago that these kinds of impromptu e-mail lists will suck the life right out of you if you let them. False teachers have, seemingly, unlimited time resources. In any case, when the reply came, I did invest a few moments to type out a few thoughts I have had on the subject of the demands of hyper-Calvinists. I hope they are useful to others as well.
******
The person who wrote this (below) does not see the MAIN work of the Devil.The Devil works in FALSE RELIGION. It is his goal to keep people in falsereligious refuges of self-righteousness. The work of the Devil is to keeppeople believing that salvation is conditioned on the sinner in any way toany degree. The work of the Devil is to get people into churches where thefalse gospel is preached. The work of the Devil is to keep people believingthat Jesus Christ died for all persons without exception, thus keeping thembelieving that the difference between heaven and hell is not the work ofChrist alone but is the work of man.The work of the Devil is to keep false religionists focused on fighting theimmorality of the day, such as gambling, abortion, assisted suicide,homosexuality, taking God out of schools (as if He were ever in there tobegin with), drugs, and pornography, thinking that fighting these thingsproves that one is a child of God -- whereas God says that everything thatfalse religionists do (even their morality and sincerity) is an abominationin the sight of God.What is more wicked:(1) Two homosexuals in a gay bar singing homosexual songsor(2) A married Arminian couple (man and wife) who have always been faithfulto each other sitting in an Arminian church singing hymns?Lost religionists have no idea that BOTH of these are an abomination in thesight of God. They do not realize that ALL who are going about to establisha righteousness of their own (which includes ALL Arminians) are lost. Theydo not believe the gospel of salvation conditioned SOLELY on the atoningblood and imputed righteousness of Christ. They are ignorant of therighteousness of God revealed in the gospel (Romans 10:3). They are hatersof God. They are just as filthy and wicked as those who are engaged inopen, gross immorality.Homosexuality, abortion, and pornography are most certainly wicked, but whatdid Jesus say about the moral self-righteous religionists in relation to thewicked immoral sodomites?"BUT I SAY TO YOU, IT WILL BE MORE TOLERABLE FOR THE LAND OF SODOM INJUDGMENT DAY THAN FOR YOU." (Matthew 11:24)While all these self-righteous religionists who believe in salvationconditioned on the sinner are condemning sodomy, they do not realize that itwill be more tolerable for the sodomites in the day of judgment than forthem.Soli Deo Gloria,Marc D. Carpenter
[James White then wrote:]I am reminded by this kind of rhetoric that even God's truth can beprofessed without love and without balance.I feel for anyone who thinks themselves to have such a perfect understandingof all things that they can make the comparison made above. Most of thefolks I know in Reformed churches once stood and sang hymns without a fullknowledge of the doctrines of grace: to compare them to two homosexuals issimply sad.God protect us all from imbalance.....James
[I then wrote:]James White said:<>In the mind of most professing Calvinists who speak peace to Arminians,"love" and "balance" include speaking peace when there is no peace, sayingthat one who is ignorant of righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is abrother in Christ, and saying that those who believe in salvationconditioned on the sinner are saved. This shows that these professingCalvinists do not know what the true gospel is. What they call "love" and"balance" God calls Satanic. Those who defend or excuse God-haters showthemselves to be God-haters. True love will tell the unregenerate that theyare lost and their deeds are evil, in hopes that they will seek the remedy.To promote a lost religionist in his false refuge is actually HATRED and ispromoting his eternal destruction. I am not saying this to be mean orunloving; I say this hoping that both Arminians and tolerant "Calvinists"will believe the true gospel of salvation conditioned on the atoning bloodand imputed righteousness of Christ alone and repent of dead works andidolatry, including repenting of speaking peace to those who worship a godwho cannot save.The gospel is the good news of salvation based on the atoning blood andimputed righteousness of Christ alone. In the gospel, the righteousness ofGod is revealed (Romans 1:17). Anyone who believes that any part ofsalvation isconditioned on the sinner (which includes all Arminians) is lost. Those whodo not believe the gospel (which includes all Arminians) arelost (Mark 16:16). Those who are ignorant of the righteousness of Godrevealed in the gospel (which includes all Arminians) are lost (Romans10:3). This is not saying thatbelieving the true gospel is a prerequisite to salvation; it is saying thatwhen God regenerates someone, He glorifies Himself by causing that person tobelieve the true gospel of salvation based on the blood and imputedrighteousness of Christ. There are not many paths to God; there is only one.And if anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed (Galatians1:8-9). If anyone does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, he does not haveGod (2 John 9). If anyone will speak peace to one who believes a falsegospel, then he, too, is evil (2 John 11). God is glorified in the salvationof sinners when He manifests all His redemptive glory to their hearts. Hewill not have His saved ones spit in the face of His Son and dishonor Hisredemptive glory.I am also willing to correspond with any of you who would like to discussthis.Soli Deo Gloria,Marc
[James White then wrote:]Greetings:I generally do not participate in massive "cc" e-mails where dozens ofpeople who have not requested the original e-mail, nor the replies, areinvolved. As I look through list of folks, however, I see many I know, manywho are friends and acquaintances. (Indeed, I'm glad to get the e-mails ofa number of you I didn't have before!). So I will make one response to thishyper-Calvinistic presentation simply because I believe it needs to berefuted. Hyper-Calvinism does those of us who are historic Calvinists nogood: indeed, many who will not even talk to us about the sovereignty ofGod's grace do so because hyper-Calvinists have added *perfection ofunderstanding* to the gospel as *the* standard of salvation itself and theyassume that we, likewise, hold such a position.
=====James White said:<>In the mind of most professing Calvinists who speak peace to Arminians,"love" and "balance" include speaking peace when there is no peace, sayingthat one who is ignorant of righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is abrother in Christ, and saying that those who believe in salvationconditioned on the sinner are saved. This shows that these professingCalvinists do not know what the true gospel is. What they call "love" and"balance" God calls Satanic. Those who defend or excuse God-haters showthemselves to be God-haters.=====
Let's consider well what is being said here. If you do not make perfectionof understanding an addition to the gospel, you are "speaking peace" to anArminian. I have no idea how recognizing the simple truth that one does nothave to have perfection of understanding to have eternal life is to beconfused with "speaking peace" to a belief that, from looking at the list,most everyone reading this exchange would admit is in significant error onmany points. I do no speak peace to Arminianism. Anyone who knows me knowsthis. I would not have dedicated the past nine radio programs we producethrough our ministry to a refutation of Norman Geisler's new anti-Reformedbook _Chosen But Free_ if I was "speaking peace" to Arminianism.Recognizing that one can have traditions in their thinking that are notbiblical and still be a Christian is not the same as "speaking peace" tofalsehood. My goodness, do we not *all* have such traditions? Ifperfection is the standard *to be saved,* who of us actually is? Arehyper-Calvinists claiming to have no traditions, to have a perfection ofunderstanding in all matters? I fear those who make such claims.Most on this list I would assume came to understand the doctrines of gracethrough a process: a breaking, difficult process, one that has, for many ofus, cost us dearly. But it was not that PROCESS that saved us. It seemsthat some would have us to believe that God births no children, but onlymature adults, in the kindgom, in the sense that unless you have afull-orbed, perfect understanding of the relationship of all parts of thegospel to each other that you do not, in fact, know Christ. I am sothankful that is transparently false.Seemingly we are likewise being told that the "Arminian" is ignorant of therighteousness of God and trusting in salvation "conditioned" uponthemselves. I suppose a hard-core, convinced Arminian might well believethose things, and I for one would believe that such a faith is not likelygenuine. But I've met very FEW such people. The vast majority of those Imeet who have difficulty with the doctrines of grace do so out of ignorance,not malice or rebellion. And what do we do with them? The previous messagelikened a couple singing hymns in an "Arminian church" to two homosexuals ina bar. Such a concept makes no place for the simple truth of IGNORANCE.How many do you we all know who are simply untaught and unaware, blanketedby layers of evangelical tradition? Are we seriously to call such a persona God-hater? Because they were converted to Christ within an imperfectfellowship (gracious, who is converted to Christ within a perfect one?), arewe to make our OWN understanding and practices an ADDITION to the gospel sothat they remain in their sins, and are, in fact, God-haters?What seems ironic is that our hyper-Calvinistic friends will say theybelieve it takes an act of grace to bring a person to an understanding ofsuch issues as sovereignty, providence, election, and depravity: yet, theywill tell God that He MUST give this grace *on their timetable* and noneelse. The idea that God can bring a person over time to come to understandfully what it means to truly believe "you have not chosen Me, but I havechosen you" has no place in the rigorous, and sadly unloving, world of thehyper-Calvinist.
=====True love will tell the unregenerate that theyare lost and their deeds are evil, in hopes that they will seek theremedy.=====
Of course: but in the hyper-Calvinistic view that assumes that to beregenerated one must have memorized Pink's _Sovereignty of God_ or someother such standard. I was converted to Christ as a youth: a very youngyouth in fact. I wouldn't have understood the terms "reprobation" or"predestination," but I did understand sin, love, and Jesus' dying. Itseems that possibly the hyper-Calvinist confuses the tremendous necessitythat I hope we all feel to honor God by the proclamation of the *entirety*of God's truth (I preached on particular redemption just this morning infact) and the constant effort to bring people to a full understanding ofthese vital issues with the fact that God can, to borrow from one of myfellow elders, draw a straight line with a crooked stick. God is notdependent upon the perfection of OUR understanding in bringing regenerationto the heart: and unless you are ready to say that the Apostles preachedthat the object of saving faith included all five points, in clarity,perfection, and completeness, right from the start, you have a problem. Ido have to wonder why Titus had to teach and preach these truths (Titus2:11-15) if, in fact, every Christian who had saving faith already knew themimplicitly?
=====To promote a lost religionist in his false refuge is actually HATREDand ispromoting his eternal destruction. I am not saying this to be mean orunloving; I say this hoping that both Arminians and tolerant "Calvinists"will believe the true gospel of salvation conditioned on the atoning bloodand imputed righteousness of Christ alone and repent of dead works andidolatry, including repenting of speaking peace to those who worship a godwho cannot save.=====
And it is my hope that our hyper-Calvinist friends will come to realize thatthey need to let God bring His children to a full understanding of His truthin His time, not theirs. I can reject such rhetoric because I am consistenton this point: I do not compromise the Reformed faith in the face ofopposition (anyone who has attended my live, public debates against RomanCatholics on Long Island, for example, knows what I mean): but I likewise donot insist that one of the divine gifts given in regeneration is perfectionof theology. God has, in His wisdom, set certain standards: I do notbelieve that a faith that does not include repentance from sin and trust inChrist as Savior saves. I don't believe faith as propounded by Rome, forexample, saves. But it is a simple matter of imbalance to then fly to theother side and demand *perfection* of faith as the standard. Indeed, Ilearned this week, while preparing for the ministry of the Word, more aboutthe wonderful work of Christ in our behalf: does that mean I had animperfect faith yesterday, and a perfect faith today? Did I "get saved"this week because my understanding is better now than it was before? Idon't believe so.I will close with this: in God's gracious providence I've had theopportunity of writing about the doctrines of grace in a couple of booksthat have, in His will, gotten into the hands of folks all across the world.Just yesterday a fellow called into our radio program from England to talkabout some issues. One of the things he noted was that until he hadencountered our website and my tapes, he had been a garden-variety Arminian.But, though he went through some sleepless nights, he now sees the truth ofthe doctrines of grace. Is someone asking me to believe that when he firstencountered my writings this Englishman, though professing faith in Christ,was an enemy of God, a rebel in his sins, but, once he accepted what I hadto say, he was regenerated? Regenerated men seek out such material and giveit a hearing? You see, if one takes that position (and I can't see how ourhyper-Calvinistic correspondent wouldn't fit in this category), one isforced to assert that in point of fact it was not the gospel message thatconverted this man, but a sudden growth in his understanding of therelationship of certain elements. Such is simply untenable.Balance, my friends. It is a difficult thing to maintain. It takes grace,maturity, experience. May God be pleased to give us all spirits that aresteadfast and balanced, always tempered by love and a recognition that thereis not a single person reading this note who can honestly say that he or shehas a perfect and complete understanding of all there is to know of God'sgrace and truth.
James
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