Why I am Not a Calvinist; or Why am I Not a Calvinist?
Nicknames can be helpful in some situations and not so helpful in other cases. One would expect John Calvin to have been a Calvinist, but we realize that ideas evolve after people die. Those ideas can be manipulated, and they can morph. The meaning of words can obviously change, too, which is why people in civil discourse will request a definition of terms.
We wrangle with terms and concepts because, in theory, we desire truth. Because ideas have consequences, truth matters.
The truth is that people love darkness because their deeds are evil (Jn 3:19). When a person lies to another person, it is an evil deed (Prv 12:22). It is the truth that sets one free from the sin of lies, liars, and evil doers.
In the matter of theology, we know from revelation that Jesus Christ is truth (Jn 14:6). He is the Word of God incarnate (Jn 1:14). God’s Word, incarnate and written, is true (Ps 119:160) because God is true (Rom 3:4). Jesus is God (Jn 1:1; 10:30), the eternal Son of God, begotten of the Father (Jn 3:16). Jesus is His name because He came into the world to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21).
Jesus’ people are His sheep, the people of His pasture, and He is their Good Shepherd (Ps 23; Jn 10). The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and He laid down His life for them when He was crucified on the cross of Calvary (Jn 10:11, 15). He bore the sins of His people in His body (1 Pet 2:24) so that those sins would be judged in Him, that is, in His substitutionary atonement on their behalf, in their stead, and for their benefit.
In dying for us, He saved us from the just judgment and wrath of God against rebel sinners (Mt 3:11; Lk 3:17; Rom 1:18; 1 Thess 1:10; Tit 3:5). The blood of Jesus was shed for the forgiveness of sins, and indeed, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).
It is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinitarian Godhead, who brings the sinner into union with Christ Jesus, who is in union with God the Father. Through mutual indwelling, the Spirit enters the sinner (Mt 3:11; Acts 2:38; 10:47), and the sinner is transferred into Christ. This is a departure from the world, the domain of darkness, and into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13).
The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the catalyst for change in the sinner (Rom 8:9, 11). The manifestation of the Spirit’s work of sanctification is the evidence of this repositioning and life re-alignment (1 Thess 5:13; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2). Christ’s sheep, God’s chosen people (1 Pet 2:9), by His gracious choice (Rom 11:5) were lost in the world of sin but the Father and the Son sent the Spirit (Jn 14:26; 15:26) to find the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to bring them into Christ’s church (1 Cor 12:13).
The good news is revealed to God’s holy nation (1 Pet 2:9) that not one of those whom the Father predestined to adoption before the foundation of the world, to be His sons (Eph 1:4–5), will be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:35–39). For on the day of judgment, the dead in Christ will be resurrected to life (Jn 5:28–29), in glorified bodies (1 Jn 3:2), to be caught up together with Christ at His glorious appearing (1 Thess 4:16–17).
The assurance of God’s salvation is a product of the Spirit of truth illuminating the Word of truth (Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). The believer in Jesus trusts in the revelation of God because by God’s grace he or she has received the same faith handed down to all the saints (Jude 1:3). This faith, Christian faith, is granted by God to each believer in the measure of His own choosing (Rom 12:3; Phil 1:29), and it is based on the knowledge of Christ which is the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; 2 Pet 3:18).
The deplorable state of humanity is made known to the saint, who is not ashamed of God’s sovereign will and gracious choice to execute so great a salvation for her benefit. Nothing in her warranted God’s writing her name in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; 17:8). The Father giving her to Christ (Jn 17:2, 6, 24) and her belonging to Christ (1 Cor 3:23; Gal 3:29) is made manifest to her when the Spirit of Christ pours out the love of God into her heart (Rom 5:5) and turns on the light of Christ in her (2 Cor 4:6).
When the enemies of John Calvin’s theology attacked his ideas, they played games with the words of Scripture in order to add confusion to the simplicity that salvation belongs to the Lord (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Rev 19:1). In denying this and many other statements of Scripture, they made John Calvin to be the bogeyman. Some wrote their tomes, “Why I am not a Calvinist.” They boasted in the claim that they did not believe in what John Calvin and so many others have clearly seen in Scripture.
The Baptist, C.H. Spurgeon, famously wrote, “It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.” The Gospel of God is itself a nickname for the whole Bible. It is the Bible that reveals the total depravity of man (Gen 6:5; Is 64:6; 65:12; Jer 13:23; 17:9; Ps 51:5; Jn 14:17; Rom 3:10–12, 23; 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14; Eph 2:1–3, 12; Titus 1:15).
It the Bible that reveals the unconditional election of man by God (Ex 6:7; Dt 7:6; Ps 65:4; Is 43:20–21; 49:7; Mal 3:16; Mt 12:18; 22:14; 22:22, 24, 31; Mk 13:20, 22, 27; Lk 9:35; 12:32; 18:7; 23:35; Jn 6:37, 70; 13:18; 15:16; Acts 1:2, 24; 9:15; 10:41; 13:48; 15:18; Rom 8:29–30, 33; 9:11–13, 15–18; 11:5–7, 28; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:4–5, 11; Col 3:12; 1 Thess 1:4; 5:9; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Tim 5:21; 2 Tim 2:10; Titus 1:1–2; Jas 2:5; 1 Pet 1:1–2, 20; 2:4, 6–9; 5:13; 2 Pet 1:3–4, 10; 2 Jn 1:1; Rev 13:8; 17:8).
It is the Bible that reveals Christ’s particular redemption (Is 53:5, 12; Mt 1:21; 8:17; Lk 1:68; John 10:11, 15; Acts 13:23; 20:28; Rom 3:24; 5:8, 12; 14:15; 1 Cor 15:3; 2 Cor 5:14–15; Gal 1:3–5; 2:20; 3:13; Eph 1:7; 5:2, 23, 25; Col 1:13–14; 1 Thess 5:9–10; 1 Tim 2:5–6; Titus 2:13–14; Heb 9:12, 15; 1 Pet 1:18–19; 2:24; 3:18; 1 Jn 1:7; 2:1–2; 3:16; Rev 1:5 ).
It is the Bible that reveals the irresistible grace of God (Ps 65:4; Is 55:11; Ezek 36:26–27; Jn 5:21; 6:37–39, 44, 65; Acts 18:27; Rom 8:30; 11:5–6; Gal 1:15–16; Eph 2:4–5, 8–9; Phil 1:6, 29; 2 Tim 1:9–10; Heb 9:15).
It is the Bible that reveals the blessed assurance of the saint’s eternal preservation by God (Ps 121:7–8; Prv 2:21; Jer 32:40; Jn 5:24; 6:38–39; 10:26–30; Rom 8:16–17, 24–25, 28–30, 35–39; 9:11, 23; 11:29; 1 Cor 1:8; 2 Cor 1:21–22; 4:14; Eph 1:4, 13; 4:30; 5:27; Phil 1:6; 3:20–21; Col 1:22; 3:4; 2 Tim 1:8–9, 12; 2:10, 19; 4:18 1 Thess 5:23; Heb 10:39; 1 Pet 1:3–5; 2:25; 5:10; 1 Jn 3:2–3; 5:13; Jude 1:1, 24–25; Rev 1:9).
It was these passages in the Bible that John Calvin and many others believed and celebrated in writing their works of theology that drew such ire from their opponents. My dear reader, has someone taught you to dismiss John Calvin, even as a heretic, for his love of the sovereignty of God in salvation, which he found clearly revealed on the pages of the Bible? Do you ignorantly and arrogantly boast, “Not a Calvinist!”? Have you even read John Calvin’s works?
Instead of championing the cause of man-centered theology in its seemingly endless deviant variations (ie. Arianism; Saballenism; Pelagianism; Arminianism; etc.) consider John Calvin’s report of what he saw in Holy Writ. In doing so, you may be surprised by John Calvin following the apostles’ teaching, even as they followed Christ and His teaching.
In this, you will likely marvel at the total depravity of humanity, experience comfort in God’s sovereign choice in election, revel in Christ’s redemptive love for His bride, His church, the Israel of God. You will be filled with gratitude that God draws His people to Christ in a way that cannot be thwarted by the devil or his world system. Finally, you will finally rest in knowing that God completes what He starts.
These are the things John Calvin loved and the very ideas later attacked by the Remonstrants. In taking my suggestion, you may happen upon a better question than the title statement with which we began. “Why I am not a Calvinist” should be reconsidered as a question, “Why am I not a Calvinist?” You probably would be if you read John Calvin and the Bible, he delighted in.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
September 5, 2021
