HUMBLE CALVINISM by J. A. Medders (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

Nine years ago I was searching for my first job in pastoral ministry. During the interview process with one local church—the church that would eventually hire me—they asked that I fill out an in-depth questionnaire. It had questions about my family, education, and hobbies. There was also a meaty theological section that began by asking, “How do you associate with Calvinism or Arminianism?”

My full answer was a bit longer, but here’s some of what I wrote:

I think the first thing I’d say to a random Christian asking me about Calvinism or Arminianism, would go something like, “I think I know what I mean by those terms, but what do you mean when you use them?” In my experience people often have a very unsavory connotation of whichever side they do not espouse to the extent that the other position becomes a caricature that proponents do not hold themselves. However, if what you describe in your Teaching Doctrinal Statement is what you believe Calvinism to be, I’m totally on board. . . 

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One of the things that caused me to appreciate this church was not just their theological precision but their humility. Members who joined the church did not have to embrace, or even understand, this thing called Calvinism. It was only the Bible teachers, staff, and elders who needed to agree to teach in concert with the doctrinal statement. And yet, they cared enough to take the time to write everything out so that prospective members (and prospective staff pastors) could know what they were getting into when they joined.

Well, I’m rambling a bit, but this combination of theological precision and humble posture do not go together as often as they should. This is one reason I liked J.A. Medder’s new book, Humble Calvinism: If I Know the Five Points, but Have Not Love . . .  Medders is a pastor in Texas at Redeemer Church. He’s also the author of Gospel Formed and co-author of Rooted. If his name sounds familiar to readers of this blog, perhaps it’s because I’ve written about him a few times. He’s one of the twelve contributors to my recent book Don’t Just Send a Resume, and he hosts Home Row, one of my favorite podcasts about writing.

“We don’t need less Calvinism,” Medder’s writes early in the book, “we need more real Calvinism” (p. 27). I agree. Calvinism, which holds to a high view of God’s sovereignty, especially in salvation, ought to produce the most humble of Christians. You can’t rightly claim you were a wretch when God did everything necessary to save you while simultaneously having a boastful smirk and a cocky swagger. It sometimes does happen, but it shouldn’t happen. In fact, I’m sure several people reading this post have been hurt by Christians who espoused Calvinism but did so with such arrogance that you’ve been turned off the topic ever since. “Many of us who claim to love the ‘doctrines of grace,’” Medders writes, “have not grown in showing grace. We have not become more gracious, kind, tender, and compassionate. And that can only mean one thing: we actually don’t know the doctrines of grace” (p. 17).

But others reading this review might be thinking, “Wait—I don’t really know what Calvinism is. Neither do I know the ‘five points’ mentioned  in the subtitle.” To this, I’ll say that Medders does of faithful job of bringing readers up to speed. After the introduction there is a short section that covers historical background and definition of terms. In the rest of the book, Medders unpacks each of the five points of Calvinism (often identified by the acronym TULIP) and how each point should produce meek not malicious Christians.

As someone who has read a number of books on this topic, let me also say how enjoyable Medders made his book, which is not easy to do when explaining theology; his sentences snap, crackle, and pop. For example, he writes of those who wield their Calvinism like a lead pipe; getting his first whiff of TULIP; making theological taxidermy a hobby; and predestination as the prequel of our faith in Christ (pp. 19, 43, 45, and 77).

Humble Calvinism is a helpful book for those trying for the first time to understand the Calvinistic view of God’s sovereignty in salvation. And it’s also a convicting book for pastors like me who need to be reminded that if our understanding of Calvinism—or any other doctrine—produces in us arrogance, then we haven’t learned the doctrine as we ought.

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THE JOY PROJECT by Tony Reinke: Updated and Expanded

Last fall I wrote about how much I liked Tony Reinke’s book The Joy Project. The book tells the story of what God has done to bring us joy—forever.

The Joy Project was recently re-released. Tony Reinke, Desiring God, and Cruciform Press teamed up to improve the book. It now has a new subtitle (“An Introduction to Calvinism”), a foreword by John Piper, expanded and clarified content, and a new study guide.

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And because The Joy Project now has its own study guide, I retired the study guide that I wrote for the book. It’s no longer available for purchase. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy and found it helpful.

I feel prividgled that Reinke included my endorsement with the new print version, which goes like this:

The Joy Project is a celebration of reformed theology, and in this way it’s more in keeping with the Bible’s treatment of the subject—behold the beauty before bemoaning the controversies. We cover this topic briefly in our church membership class, and for those who want to pursue it further, this book, for its accessibility and warmth, is the one I’ll recommend first.

If you’d like to pick up the book, you can do so on Amazon.

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TULIP: Quick Reference Q&A

A few weeks ago I posted a short introduction to what is called Reformed theology. In that post, I mentioned I would come back with a longer post about what are often called “the five points of Calvinism” or “the doctrines of grace.”

These doctrines are a way to talk about the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, especially in salvation. These points are frequently explained using the acronym TULIP, which stands for:

Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the saints

No one knows when the acronym was first used, but the grouping of these ideas first occurred in the early 1600s. The story goes like this. A group of ministers heavily influenced by the teachings of Jacob Arminius drafted a theological document called the Remonstrance, which had five points. (It’s from Jacob Arminius that we get the name Arminian, just as we get Calvinist from the name John Calvin.) The five points of the Remonstrance were actually a critique of Calvinistic teachings. Several years later, another group of ministers drafted a Calvinistic response to the Remonstrance, which also had five points. This Calvinistic response is known as The Canons of Dort. For the most part, TULIP uses different vocabulary than the five points of The Canons of Dort, but the ideas are the same.

What follows in the rest of this post is a “quick reference” guide to each of the five points. My intention is to bring clarity to the topic, without being laborious.

(Note: all sentences in the second question labeled “Piper & Reinke” come from page 6 of the first edition of The Joy Project by Tony Reinke.)

T in TULIP

1. What does “T” stand for?
   Total Depravity.
   

2. Other helpful names?
   Pervasive or radical depravity; affectional atheism (per Piper).
   

3. What does total depravity mean?
   Everything about us has been touched by, indeed corrupted by, the fall. When the Bible speaks of us as being spiritually dead, it means we are unable to come to God on our own and that nothing we do can earn his love.
   
   Piper & Reinke: “Total depravity is not just badness, but blindness to beauty and deadness to joy.”
   

4. What does it not mean?
   Total depravity does not mean we are as “bad” as we possibly could be. “Total” doesn’t mean we do every evil we could.
   

5. Why is it controversial?
   It’s controversial because the concept of deadness seems too radical. By asserting our inability to perfect ourselves and earn God’s love, total depravity assaults our pride. It’s also controversial because people sometimes misunderstand the doctrine to mean that people cannot do anything good.
   

6. Why is it precious to us?
   If apart from Christ we are really, truly spiritually dead and unable to come to God on our own, then it means when God does make us alive—when he does save us—our salvation is a free gift! In short, if salvation depends upon God, not man, then that’s a good place to rest our hopes. Also, a robust view of human depravity allows us to not be perpetually frustrated by the failures of humans to perfect ourselves. We do bad things because we are sinners.
   

7. Key verses?
   Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 3:20–21; Romans 3:9–18, 14:23; and Ephesians 2:1–3.

U in TULIP

1. What does “U” stand for?
   Unconditional election.
   

2. Other helpful names?
   God’s predestination or choosing of his people.
   

3. What does it mean?
   Before birth, God chose people to be his children, regardless of anything they would do for him.
   
   Piper & Reinke: “Unconditional election is how God planned, before we existed, to complete our joy in Christ.”
   

4. What does it not mean?
   Unconditional election doesn’t mean we should give up all hopes of sharing the gospel with people because everything has already been decided.
   

5. Why is it controversial?
   Unconditional election is controversial because it leads some people to believe that our actions in this life do not matter. This is a wrong understanding, however, and not at all what the Bible teaches.
   

6. Why is it precious to us?
   It’s good news that my eternal happiness was planned before I was born and doesn’t depend on me. Additionally, rather than the doctrine of election undercutting our evangelistic zeal, it should give us hope that many will embrace the gospel.
   

7. Key verses?
   Deuteronomy 10:14–15; John 6:35–45, 17:24–26; Romans 9:1–29; Ephesians 1:3–23; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4–5; and 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

L in TULIP

1. What does “L” stand for?
   Limited atonement.
   

2. Other helpful names?
   Particular atonement or definite atonement.
   

3. What does it mean?
   When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the punishment for the sins of all who trust him. As well, Jesus purchases for them the power that makes their salvation not just possible, but actual.
   
   Piper & Reinke: “Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for us by the blood of Jesus.”
   

4. What does it not mean?
   Limited atonement does not mean that God doesn’t love all people or that the benefits of the cross cannot legitimately be offered to non-Christians in an evangelistic way.
   

5. Why is it controversial?
   Limited atonement is controversial because, to be blunt, there are a number of verses that seem to indicate “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Timothy 2:6; Hebrews 2:9; 10:29; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2). Many people understand these verses to teach that Jesus took the punishment for sins for all people, regardless of whether they trust him or not.
   

6. Why is it precious to us?
   It’s a joy to know that Jesus has done something special for his bride.
   

7. Key verses?
   John 6:37–39, 10:11, 17:9; Acts 20:28; Romans 5:8, 10, 8:32–34; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 1:4, 3:13; Ephesians 1:3–4, 7, 2:8, 5:25; 1 Peter 2:24; and Revelation 5:9.

I in TULIP

1. What does “I” stand for?
   Irresistible grace.
   

2. Other helpful names?
   Effectual grace and inward call. Also, closely associated with the cluster of synonyms of new birth, regeneration, and born again.
   

3. What does it mean?
   God’s power to overcome all of our resistance to his love.
   
   Piper & Reinke: “Irresistible grace is the sovereign commitment of God to make sure we hold on to superior delights instead of the false pleasures that will ultimately destroy us.”
   

4. What does it not mean?
   Sometimes people take this to mean that we cannot resist God and his grace. We can do this. We all do it. But what irresistible grace actually means is that God can overcome all of our resistance.
   

5. Why is it controversial?
   Irresistible grace is controversial because it means our wills are not free in an absolute sense. It means, to quote the famous poem “Invictus,” I am not the ultimate “master of my fate . . . the captain of my soul.”
   

6. Why is it precious to us?
   Irresistible grace is precious because it means God can overcome all of my resistance and deadness to true joy.
   

7. Key verses?
   Hosea 2:14; John 6:44, 10:27–29; 12:32; Romans 9:1–29, esp. v. 25; and 1 John 4:19.

P in TULIP

1. What does “P” stand for?
   Perseverance of the saints.
   

2. Other helpful names?
   Preservation of the saints (note the word preservation looks similar to perseverance, but preservation emphasizes God’s sovereign work).
   

3. What does it mean?
   All those who have been genuinely saved will continue believing the gospel until they die.
   
   Piper & Reinke: “Perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God to keep us, through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of pleasures at God’s right hand forever.”
   

4. What does it not mean?
   Some misunderstand the doctrine to mean that whether we keep believing or not, and whether we keep living the Christian life or not, is irrelevant to our final standing before God. This is not what “perseverance of the saints” means. The saying, “once saved, always saved,” doesn’t mean you can “get saved,” but then live a morally bankrupt life, one that is indifferent to God, and then still go to heaven. If they did fall away, perhaps they were never really saved.
   

5. Why is it controversial?
   Perseverance of the saints is controversial because some passages seem to indicate that people can lose their salvation. Plus, we all know people who seemed to have once loved Jesus, but now they don’t.
   

6. Why is it precious to us?
   Is it possible to have legitimate assurance that you’ll wake up a Christian tomorrow morning? Yes it is. God undertakes within Christians everything needed to keep us trusting him.
   

7. Key verses?
   Matthew 13:1–24; Romans 8:18–27; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:3–9; 1 John 2:19; Jude 24–25; and Revelation 2:7.

* Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

What is Reformed Theology? A Short Introduction

When I was in college a guest speaker from Reformed University Fellowship came to speak to our Bible study in the athletic department. After he had been introduced by our leader, someone in the study asked the speaker what it meant to be reformed. It seemed like a good question to ask. His campus ministry, after all, was called Reformed University Fellowship. The pastor looked over at the person who introduced him, shrugged, and then looked back at us. He said something like, “I’d love to explain it, but I’m not sure this is the place to do that well.” At the time, I thought this was a bit odd. Now I understand why he did this. He was nervous that giving a sound-bite answer could do more harm than good. I am too.

What is Reformed Theology?

In his book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, author John Piper claims that he loves Reformed theology the way he might love a picture of his wife. The point Piper makes is that he does not love the picture of his wife in and of itself. He doesn’t love ink on paper or pixels on a screen. Rather, he loves the picture because it is an accurate portrayal of the woman he does love. Similarly, when he says, “I love Reformed theology,” Piper means that it reveals God in that “It’s the best composite, Bible-distilled picture of God that [he] has” (p. 130). In short, he doesn’t love doctrines on paper but the God these doctrines describe.

I think this is a helpful way to talk about any doctrine, but especially the doctrines of Reformed theology. Yet here comes that question again.

What is Reformed theology? What is this “Bible-distilled picture of God” Piper is talking about?

I love to answer this question and yet struggle to answer this question. Explaining Reformed theology takes only a few pages, but it can also take libraries. It can take me 15 minutes to introduce in a Sunday school class, but it might take 15 years for someone to embrace. Part of the reason Reformed theology can be so difficult to grasp is because it’s a topic that requires us to have both a broad understanding of redemptive history as well as familiarity with key Bible passages. Without each of these, it’s hard to make much headway.

Regardless, I still love to try to answer this question because I believe a good understanding of Reformed theology can deepen our joy in God. Even as I say this, I’m aware that the study of Reformed theology can cause a good bit of consternation, especially at first. It sure did for me. Though I didn’t know Reformed theology by its name, when I was first considering what it teaches, I once threw John Piper’s book Future Grace at my bedroom wall in frustration.

So, I won’t attempt to explain Reformed theology exhaustively here, but let me try to introduce it to you under four headings.

1. Appreciative Heirs of the Reformation

Those who embrace Reformed theology see themselves as heirs of church reforms that took place around the 1500s (and beyond). The Reformation began with the growing desire to show the Roman Catholic Church its errors and make it healthier. In fact, as I write this, many Protestants around the world are commemorating the 500th anniversary of The Reformation, which is marked by the date October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Eventually, however, what began as an attempt mainly to reform the existing church led to breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church altogether. This split away from the Roman Catholic Church was the birth of Protestant denominations, a split that has resulted in many splinters. And while the proliferation of Christian denominations is in some ways undesirable, those who embrace Reformed theology deeply appreciate the faithful women and men who lived during the Reformation and who worked to reform the church, often at great personal cost. Martin Luther, like every believer, had deep flaws (see this article), but God used him and many others in a mighty way.

2. The Five Solas

Reformed theology is committed to the five great solas that came out of The Reformation (sola is Latin for “alone”). The five solas are:

Sola Scriptura    Scripture Alone
Solus Christus    Christ Alone
Sola Gratia         Grace Alone
Sola Fide             Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria   To the Glory of God Alone

In the book Bloodlines, Piper weaves the underlying meaning of these individual phrases into one unified meaning with the statement: “God’s justification of sinners is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, on the authority of Scripture alone” (p. 131).

Not everyone, however, gives a hearty “amen” to this statement. The Reformation solas came over and against what we might call “anti-solas.” These anti-solas were the common teaching of the church before the Reformation, and sadly in many places they are still taught, whether directly or indirectly. The anti-solas might go something like this:

Scripture             plus       church dogma
Christ                  plus       his mother, priests, and saints
Grace                  plus       the sacraments
Faith                   plus       doing good deeds
To God’s glory   plus       human ability

Similar to Piper’s statement, let me try to weave together these anti-solas into one unifying sentence: “When we seek God through Scripture and church dogma, we can be made right with God only through Christ, his mother, priests, and saints, by trusting in God’s grace and the sacraments, as long as we do enough good works alongside our faith.”

I hope it’s clear that these anti-solas amount to what Paul calls a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6ff). The anti-solas don’t offer us the good news of the finished work of Christ for our salvation. Instead they tell us to try hard and do our best, while strapping on ankle weights. The gospel alone makes us right with God.

3. The Doctrines of Grace

Those who embrace Reformed theology see Scripture teaching what is often called “the five points of Calvinism” or “the doctrines of grace.” These doctrines are a way to talk about the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, especially in salvation.

These points are frequently explained using the acronym TULIP, which stands for:

Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the saints

No one knows when the acronym was first used, but the grouping of these ideas first occurred in the early 1600s. The story goes like this. A group of ministers heavily influenced by the teachings of Jacob Arminius drafted a theological document called the Remonstrance, which had five points. (It’s from Jacob Arminius that we get the name Arminian, just as we get Calvinist from the name John Calvin.) The five points of the Remonstrance were actually a critique of Calvinistic teachings. Several years later, another group of ministers drafted a Calvinistic response to the Remonstrance, which also had five points. This Calvinistic response is known as The Canons of Dort. For the most part, TULIP uses different vocabulary than the five points of The Canons of Dort, but the ideas are the same.

In a few weeks, I’ll do a longer post on how TULIP should be understood (here), but I thought it would be helpful in this brief introduction to Reformed theology to simply mention what the acronym stands for and some of its history.

4. Substantial Continuity between the Old and New Testaments?

Timothy Keller and D.A. Carson are the co-founders of The Gospel Coalition, a ministry committed to helping churches faithfully communicate the gospel and train Christian leaders. The ministry considers itself to be “broadly reformed.” In saying they are “broadly reformed,” they are hinting at the differences represented between these two founders, with one being baptistic in his convictions (Carson) and the other Presbyterian (Keller). The same differences are seen in Charles Spurgeon (Baptist) and Jonathan Edwards (Presbyterian). These differences among the broadly reformed illustrate why I put a question mark after the heading for this section; some see a substantial continuity between the Old and New Testaments, and others do not. Let me back up to explain.

Perhaps we could call Christians who embrace Reformed theology in its fullness, “fully Reformed”—that is, those who are Reformed with a capital “R” (Presbyterians might fit into this category). Conversely, we could call those who are not fully reformed, reformed with a lower case “r” (reformed Baptists).

The difference between these two groups has to do with the amount of continuity or discontinuity each group sees between the Old and New Testaments. Presbyterian theology tends to see greater continuity between the testaments (though of course not complete continuity), while reformed Baptist theology tends to see more discontinuity between the testaments (though of course not complete discontinuity). 

One specific area in which this plays out is how much continuity each group sees between the people of God in the Old Testament (Israel) and the people of God in the New Testament (the Church). The slight differences here lead each group to have a different understanding of baptism. You were probably aware of the differences between Baptists and Presbyterians over baptism—Presbyterians practice infant baptism and Baptists baptize only adult believers—but you might not have been aware of some of the background that leads to this difference.

The Joy Project

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There are many helpful books you can read to learn more about Reformed theology. My personal favorite, especially if you're going to focus on TULIP is The Joy Project by Tony Reinke. I like to start people with Reinke's book because of his emphasis on joy. It’s not simply a dry lecture about Reformed theology, but rather a celebration of it, which is more in keeping with the way the biblical authors write about how we are saved—beholding the beauty before bemoaning the controversies.

Reformed theology helps us understand God’s solution to our spiritual deadness (total depravity); that God’s plan for our salvation does not depend upon me and my good works (unconditional election); that on the cross Jesus purchases for me everything I need to be right with him (limited atonement); that God’s grace is so powerful it can overcome all of my rebellion (irresistible grace); and that life with God is worth fighting for every day of our lives, as well as something to which God himself is committed (perseverance of the saints).

In short, Reformed theology shows us how we get increasing and expanding joy—forever.

* Photo by Alessandro Valenzano at Unsplash

Books by Benjamin Vrbicek

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Are you struggling with pron? I’d love to help you win the war.

God’s Joy Project: A Small Group Discussion Guide

[Update June 29, 2018: Tony Reinke published an updated edition of The Joy Project with it's own study guide, which means mine is now longer for sale.]

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I’ve written a discussion guide for Tony Reinke’s book The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness, which can be downloaded free of charge in three digital formats at desiringGod.org. Reinke is senior writer for desiringGod.org, host of the popular “Ask Pastor John” podcast, and the author of several books, including 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, which was published in the spring.

My workbook for The Joy Project includes a short introduction to Reformed theology as well as a 7-week discussion guide. This companion guide is ideal for personal study and small group discussion. It provides questions for each chapter of Reinke’s book and discussion questions related to Christian songs that share the themes of each chapter.

We are all looking for joy. The Joy Project, however, is the story of how joy finds us. It’s the story of how God has worked, and is working, to save his people and love them forever.

Reinke tells this story through the theological framework of Calvinism, or more specifically the acronym TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints). In one of my favorite quotes from the book, Reinke writes,

Anticipating unending joy in the presence of Christ changes everything. It means we can relinquish control over our lives. It means we have no fear of the future. It means all our pressing toward personal holiness is not in vain. God elects so that we will be conformed to the image of Christ, in his holiness and in his happiness. It will be done, and we strive and obey in this inescapable hope.

You can download electronic versions of the workbook free of charge here (PDF, Kindle, iBook).

{Special thanks to Ben Bechtel, Stacey Covell, Jason Abbott, and Alexandra Richter for their editorial assistance on the workbook.}

Does Everyone Know Your Theological Hobby Horse?

Recently a friend at church (I’ll call him Jeremiah) asked my views, and the views of our church, regarding God’s sovereignty and salvation. Specifically, he wanted to know how strongly Reformed theology influences my preaching. Because I thought our exchange might help others, I asked and received permission to post an edited version of our correspondence.

[Disclaimer: this post uses a few technical terms and presumes some working knowledge of the issues (things like election, predestination, and free will). If you’d like a primer on Reformed theology, John Piper taught a helpful 9-part video series here and Tony Reinke wrote an excellent book called, The Joy Project.]

*   *   *

Pastor Benjamin,

I am interested in becoming more involved at church, and I was looking over the membership book. In that regard, I wonder if you could answer a few questions for me.

In reviewing your church’s membership book, Each Part Working Properly, there was a section devoted to the beliefs of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), which I am in agreement with. Actually, my only questions revolve around the portion of your book regarding Reformed theology.

It is my understanding that, within the framework of the EFCA, churches have the freedom to express their faith differently as long as they are in line with the main EFCA Statement of Faith.

I suppose an example is the one that you provided in the book about the church that baptized infants. As you say, this would certainly not be the habit of most EFCA churches, but it is not beyond the limits of the Statement of Faith, and thus it is acceptable.

So my questions are . . .

1. How would you handle preaching through certain sections of the Bible, say, one from the book of Romans? Would you explain different views of the passage or only the Reformed view? This is what was done in one E-Free church I attended.
   

2. Are Sunday School groups and other groups taught from a Reformed perspective?
   

3. I guess this last question is more like a summary of the others. Is the “official” view of our church regarding teaching, preaching, etc. a Reformed view?

I think finding a church home is a lot like finding someone to date and subsequently marry. You have to get to know the person/church as you move forward in the relationship.

Hope you can help me out in that process.

Thanks,
Jeremiah

*   *   *

Jeremiah,

Great questions. You’re doing exactly what I would hope people would do: investigating a local church in a thoughtful way. In fact, this is why we wrote that book. We want people to be able to consider the theology of a church before committing.

As for Reformed theology, lots could be said. I’ll try just to mention a few things. Feel free to follow up by email . . . or maybe, if you’re buying, we’ll make another trip to Starbucks.

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Normally, when people ask me about Reformed theology, I don’t like to answer until we first have gained a shared understanding of what Reformed theology is (and is not). Often, I find people are not talking about, shall we say, apples and apples. For our sake, I’ll just assume we are talking about the same thing.

First, your understanding of the Evangelical Free Church of America is correct; as a denomination, the issue of Reformed theology is not decided. Rather, the decision is left up to local churches. But even here (in local churches), sometimes the leadership might not be in agreement. If you ask me, I think this is a strength of the EFCA. It gives Christians a chance to have not mere uniformity but true unity.

When we published the book Each Part Working Properly, it was the first time in our church’s history that we formally declared the position of our pastor-elders on this issue. We did this so that potential members could understand where we stand today and where we likely will be in the foreseeable future. In this way, the book is like a weather forecast, though hopefully more reliable!

I’m not sure what percentage of EFCA churches consider themselves Reformed on areas of salvation. A recent study of the theology of the senior pastors in our denomination reported that, on issues of salvation, 38% favor a “Calvinist/Reformed” view, while 35% favor an “Arminian/Wesleyan” view (and 28% did not specify a leaning). It’s interesting that regarding a person losing their salvation, the results were far more one-sided: 94% affirm that someone regenerated by the Holy Spirit cannot lose his or her salvation. My view of things certainly falls in this majority.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that even if a senior pastor is Reformed (or Arminian), there will certainly be many people in his church (maybe even some on the church staff and elder board), who see things differently. That’s not the case on our church fulltime staff and elder board, but it wouldn’t be uncommon in other EFCA churches.

With respect to preaching, I think a good preacher can (and should!) be able to do a whole lot of preaching without people knowing exactly what he thinks about these issues. Don’t hear me wrong. I’m not saying preaching should be deceptive (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:2). I am saying the Bible doesn’t exist to exalt Reformed theology (or Arminian theology) but rather the gospel of God.

In light of that, I also think that over time, what a preacher believes about these issues must inevitably seep into his sermons. Most of the time this will be subtle, but other times it will necessarily be overt. This is a good thing. These issues matter. In my opinion, much of the pleasure a Christian gets in God flows from his or her view of how salvation takes place.

You asked about Romans. If we were preaching through Romans, which we hope to do someday, the issues of election, predestination, free will, and God’s sovereignty would certainly come up. They can come up naturally while preaching through most books of the Bible, though—maybe every book. For example, as we are finishing 1 Samuel this summer, I could see myself saying something like,

It doesn’t seem that King Saul “lost his salvation” but rather that he was never converted.

Now, you’ll be aware that a statement like this is informed by my view of God’s sovereignty in salvation, specifically the Reformed understanding of the perseverance of the saints. I’m not sure if many, or even most, in our church would notice this connection. I’m sure that some would, but whether or not they noticed, my aim would be to explain the passage in such a way that this conclusion is actually shown to be in the text of 1 Samuel—not merely an abstraction from my broader theology.

I’m probably not the best one to evaluate my preaching (I’m too biased!), but my sentiments here reflect what I’m aiming for. I know you’ve been attending for a while. How do you think we’re doing on this issue? I would respect and greatly value your opinion.

In Sunday school, however, there is more opportunity, even a responsibility, to share differing opinions about secondary issues (e.g. creation, end-times, spiritual gifts). In fact, in our adult Sunday school last fall, I taught on the atonement while we were working through Wayne Grudem’s book, Systematic Theology. When I taught, I was sure to present the differing views, both Limited and Unlimited Atonement. In the end, however, I did share which view I hold and why I hold it.

We’d be very open to someone with Arminian theology teaching in Sunday school or a small group, though we would expect a similar approach from him: fairness to both views.

With respect to membership, we never bring this issue up with people in the membership interviews . . . unless of course they want us to! At Community Free Church, we are delighted to have any and all Christians join who have a credible profession of faith, who are excited about this particular church, and who agree with the EFCA Statement of Faith.

Is this helpful? What other questions do you have?

Thanks for emailing,
Benjamin

[Picture by Denys Nevozhai / Unsplash]