CHOOSING
A THEOLOGY
Whether we like it or not, as Christians
we all adhere to some form of theological thinking.
Our theology should not rule the Bible; the Bible should rule our
theology.
The Importance of
Theology
Have you ever wondered how there can be so many denominations when we all read the same Bible? Have you ever been frustrated by your inability to be able to explain to others what you believe and why you disagree with them? Well, the reason in most cases is that you are working from a different theology.
If we can be
so far apart on some key issues, it is apparent that one of us is using a faulty
theology, or even worse, we are both using flawed theology.
I have not met a Christian that did not want to be Biblically right in
their thinking. It is natural for
us to want to know the truth. Now,
if two are in a disagreement, then both cannot be right.
At least one of the two is wrong Biblically.
The source of their error is usually based upon their theological presuppositions, and not upon their desire to know the truth.
Everyone has a Theology
Many people
are blinded to the fact that they believe in any form of theology at all.
They are under the impression that they
just “believe the Bible.” The
Bible is the only place to start and finish our theology, but whether we like it
or not , we are all given theological presuppositions immediately after our
salvation. This is natural since in
the earliest stage of questioning the new believer is fed this theology through
friends, family and clergy.
Theology is
the framework in which we are able to understand what we find in the Bible,
without it we would reel in confusion.
The bottom
line is, our first theology is chosen for us by whoever gets to influence us
first. We can choose to change our
theological thinking, but we must be determined and open enough to think outside
of the theological box that we are in.
Laws of Bible Interpretation
The Biblical
laws of interpretation demand that we make Scripture agree with Scripture.
We all realize that a perfect, all knowing, holy God could never lie or
contradict Himself. So if we cannot
reconcile two or more verses of Scripture, it is not that the Scripture is in
error, but it is because we are not interpreting it right.
For our thinking to be correct, we must find a way to understand these
alleged contradictions so that they harmonize with the whole of Scripture. Any
interpretation of Scripture that which contradicts the Bible at any other point
cannot be of God.
Theology is
the basis of how we see Scripture, God, and the plan of salvation.
If we are wrong in our theology we are wrong about God’s plan for us,
and we are potentially wrong to the point of missing the saving grace of God
altogether. We should all see the gravity of the importance of this issue!
If Scripture
cannot contradict Scripture and still be of God, then our theology cannot
contradict itself and truly be of God. Although
many sincere Christians attempt to be true to the Bible, they have been
unwittingly misled by faulty and inconsistent theological
thinking. As much as we would like
to believe that theology has nothing to do with our interpretation, we must
realize that we do have a theological bias which enables us to understand
Scripture only in the way that our bias allows us to.
In the next
section I will be covering the three
most prevalent types of theology
today. You may be surprised to find
that almost every Protestant theology known to man is based upon just two
systems of thought. Now some pick
and choose bits and pieces from each, but as I will explain, this can only lead
to error.
Theological Systems
CALVINISM
ARMINIANISM
Perseverance of the Saints
Perseverance of the Saints
(proof
of salvation is contingent upon the perseverance
of the believer to the end of life)
(The Elect will unfailingly continue to persevere) /
(They are Elect only as they persevere)
Imputed
Righteousness
Imparted Righteousness
Irresistible
Grace
Resistible Grace
Limited Atonement
Unlimited Atonement
Predestination
Whosoever Will
(God’s
decree ensures the fate of all - to heaven or hell/ His choice)
BAPTIST
Eternal
Security
Imputed Righteousness
Resistible Grace
Unlimited Atonement
Whosoever Will
We must demand that
our theology passes the same scrutiny that our method of Bible
There are only two
systems of theology that can pass the acid test of non-contradiction and
self-consistency, these are pure Calvinism and Arminianism.
All other forms of theology are not consistent within themselves which
give undeniable evidence that they could not have come from God.
To produce a system
that picks and chooses as the Baptist scheme does, seems admirable, but destroys
the self-consistency and cannot support itself, and thus, must be dismissed as
error.
Based on the law of
non-contradiction, we are left with only two systems that can possibly come from
God Himself. The problem that faces
us is that the two available choices, Calvinism and Arminianism,
are at two polar ends from each other. This
leaves the student with the question, “which should I choose?”
This question may be answered,
not by just looking at their self-consistency, but by looking to see which of
these theologies are consistent with the Word of God, since a theology that is
not in harmony with the Scriptures is of no use to the believer who desires the
truth over denomination or wishful speculation.
CALVINISM
It is important for us to see
what this system is and how it is consistent within itself.
The foundation of Calvinism is
the Doctrine of predestination. They believe that God is all powerful,
and in His Sovereignty, he has decreed whatever is to come to pass
throughout history and eternity from the foundation of the world.
God decreed what will happen, so it must happen without fail.
God will bring everything to pass as He wills because he has already
determined that it will be that way.
This decree applies to
individuals and salvation. It is
clear that the Scriptures teach that not all shall be saved, so in Calvin’s
mind this must be the will of God to only save some (the Elect) and not all.
No one or any created thing can resist the will of God whether it be to
salvation, or condemnation.
Predestination is the cornerstone of Calvinism.
If only the
chosen ones of God can or will be saved, then God has determined that
Christ would only atone for those that He has willed that He will save.
This is what is meant by a Limited Atonement .
As you can see, a theory of a limited atonement rests on the
assumption that the Calvinistic interpretation of predestination to salvation or
damnation is true. There is no
Bible proof that the atonement is limited, but this is the nature of theology
that it has to support its original premise.
If a man is predestined, and the atonement is limited to only those who shall be saved, how does God ensure that those that he chose will actually decide to follow Him? This is answered by the next step in this theological system, which is the doctrine of Irresistible Grace. This means that God will draw those he pleases to save, and only those, with a calling that they will find themselves unable to resist.
How does a holy God fellowship
with those who are predestined to salvation apart from any ethical
consideration? If it is based upon God's good pleasure and decree, and all our
actions are already predestined, then how can God be one with a
"saved" but sinful creature? Calvin
solves this with the theory of imputed
righteousness. Since
according to this system, God is 100% responsible for everything including the
choice of who will be saved. Mans'
cooperation or cessation from sin is not required because, if man had any input
or power to do anything, then God would not be Sovereign and all powerful. In
their minds, if man had a free will then God would be at the mercy of man in
salvation.
Imputed Righteousness
claims that the holiness of Christ is transferred to the believer and counted as
the believers own. Regardless of the
true nature of the believer, God sees him as pure as the wind-driven snow.
Now, if one is predestined
to salvation, irresistibly drawn to God, and the righteousness of Christ
is Imputed to the believer, then he must persevere to the end
and be infallibly saved. This is so because God has decreed it to be.
Since man has nothing to do with this process, then he cannot undo his
predestination, thus he would be what is called in this day and age,
“eternally secure.” If God can
no longer see the predestined sinners sin because of imputed righteousness,
(which is an impossibility since God is all knowing)
then this makes the Elect person's salvation irrevocable, non-negotiable,
and inevitable.
If we remove any part of this
system because we feel it is untrue, then the entire system falls with it.
If there is no decree of God to salvation or hell, then there is
no cause or support for a fatalistic predestination.
If there is no predestination to heaven or hell, then there is no
need to distort the Scriptures to support a limited atonement to a select
few. If the atonement is not
limited, there is no need to invent a forced grace by a payment for the
"elect" alone, or a need to create a fictional imputed
righteousness to make up for the ethical shortfall of a doctrine of
salvation by fate instead of a conversion of the individual and salvation from
sin.
Calvin’s system meets the need
of self-consistency in a superb manner, but is it Biblical?
ARMINIANISM
Contrary to Calvinism, Arminians believe the Scriptures which declare that whosoever will may receive the grace of God and be saved. Arminians believe God when He said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,“ and that the Atonement of Jesus "is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 Jn. 2:2.
A
salvation that is offered "for all" must by nature be attainable for
"all."
Instead of the Calvinistic
predestination to eternal life or death, we believe that God’s grace is
offered to the whole world as the Scriptures say, and not just to a lucky
few. We believe
Since God’s provision
for salvation is unlimited, and we also know from the Bible that not all
shall be saved, then we must conclude that God’s grace is resistible. Not
that we can stop grace from being offered, but that we can obey or disobey,
receive or reject the offer of grace. It is never God’s will that any should
perish (2 Peter 3:9) , and God’s will does not lock anyone into or out of
salvation as the fatalistic decreed fate of Calvinism does.
What does the Arminian
system teach about God’s dealing with the sin in believers?
God makes the believer holy (not by Calvinistic imputation– calling
that which is sinful holy, for God cannot lie,) but
by impartation of holiness. Through
the new birth, called regeneration, we have been given a new nature that enables
us not to sin. Prior to regeneration, our sinful nature made desire or
compliance to holiness impossible. Through justification, all our past sins were
erased from the record that was against us, leaving us judicially free from any
charge of sin or wrongdoing. With the slate of offenses that stood against us
being cleared, we are judicially righteous (justified), this is why the believer
can rightfully be called holy. Concomitant with justification and regeneration,
the New-Birth changes our nature so we do not gravitate towards sin, but toward
God. This change in direction is called initial sanctification. After this, the
believer is everywhere exhorted by the Scriptures to holiness and purity, which
is called sanctification. This is not by a Gnostic mysticism, (declaring that
which is sinful as holy,) but is an actual change that is wrought within the
believer as God molds them into His image by actually making them holy. Jesus
came into this world to save his people from their sins (Matt.
1:21,) and to free us from the power of sin, (John 8:36) “ If the Son
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.“ See also 1 Jn. 3:8;
Rom. 6:14-18.
We also believe that only “he that overcometh” shall be saved as the Scriptures teach. True Saints will persevere. We do not question the security of the one who is and remains a believer. Our difficulty is not with the perseverance of the Saints, but with the doctrine of the perseverance of the Sinners.
This system bares the marks of theological and Biblical consistency, and is therefore, the theology of the Bible.
BAPTIST
As has been shown, you
cannot pick and choose from different theologies and still have a system that
could have possibly come from God. Many
Baptist’s are three point Arminian’s, and two point Calvinist’s. The
problem is that you cannot justify eternal security without a mystical
imputed righteousness, and you cannot justify both imputed righteousness and
eternal security without absolute
predestination and a limited atonement!
If by grace God does not hinder
man’s freedom to choose, then there cannot be any guarantees of eternal
security because man would still be free to choose death. Man
does not have freedom before salvation, and somehow loses it after salvation. This
is what a doctrine of Eternal Security suggests. It is a doctrine that
would be much more at home with Calvinistic predestination that it would
with Biblical freedom.
The theory of an ethical transfer of character, so-called Imputed righteousness, is totally without any Scriptural support. This theological fiction is an invention that has been created just to prop up and support another unbiblical doctrine, the Perseverance of the Saints and eternal security. For without the doctrine of fatalistic determinism, called predestination by Calvinism, there is no basis for this transfer called imputation, nor for an unconditional eternal security. The false doctrine of unconditional assurance which is the cornerstone of Baptist doctrine is without a non-contradictory theological support, and thereby, must be discarded as a viable option for the Bible believer.
For a more detailed presentation of the problem of Baptist inconsistency, see A NEW STRATEGY FOR REFUTING ETERNAL SECURITY.
CONCLUSIONS
Choosing a theology is an
extremely important issue which should not be put on the back-burner. If our
theology is wrong, our Biblical interpretation will be wrong.
There is no way around this! To
ignore this truth could be a sign of complacency or
a cover-up for sin!
More information on Calvinism
More information on Arminianism