Whosoever Believes

WHOEVER BELIEVES

Whosoever Will and the Simple Gospel

Every time a person reads the Bible, they bring to the reading their own presuppositions and conclusions. As Rodger Dalhman says “All of us bring things to the evidence that shape both our selection of the evidence and our interpretation of the evidence. None of us can read the biblical text without the blinders of our own culture, our own experiences, and our own beliefs.”[1]Let me share my background to explain.

I live in Hammonton, New Jersey. Hammonton is a very Italian town. Supposedly we have more Italians per capita than any other town in the US.

I was born in 1963, in the era of Lassie, Star Trek, hippies and The Beatles. My father was all Italian and my Mother was all German. I had two brothers and a sister. I was the third child, and had a younger brother. As far as I can ascertain, my Grandfather and Grandmother on my Dads side were both born in America. But their families came from Italy. Let’s start from my Dad’s side for this background. First off, Italian means Catholic. Although my father was not very religious, we were required to go to Church on Sunday. St. Joe’s church is still open today and is a staple Catholic Church in Hammonton. My first religious ideas came from St. Joes, and Father Joe. Father Joe was the kind of priest that you didn’t mess with. He was respected and stern. The Church people seemed to like him, and I put him as the Pastor of St. Joe’s at its zenith. He held a high devotion to Mary, especially in his later years.

Being raised as a Catholic, I was baptized as a baby, got my first holy communion as a child, and had my Confirmation at about age 10 or 11. The best things that I got out of all this was that I believed in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection and the Trinity. I held these concepts as absolutely true, and have never doubted them. Apart from these truths, I really didn’t get much else of value. I do remember after my First Holy Communion at age 8, I went home and told my Mom that I felt like God was in my heart. This similar feeling used to take place when I would lie outside on the grass and look at the stars as a young teenager. I would feel the presence of God. These were the only spiritual times I remember as a youth. I held no ill thoughts about God, The Bible or religious leaders. I was a blank slate. I do remember one time when the Pope was shot, I made an inappropriate comment about it and my Father got mad at me for it – and that seemed odd to me. After my Confirmation ceremony, the feeling in my family was “Ok Church is done now. We didn’t have to go anymore” and I didn’t.

My Mother’s parents came to New York from Germany. They were stoic and quite. They also seemed tall, white, and stern. My mom used to say that they spoke of Hitler often. My mom was raised Lutheran, but she gave in to my dad’s families wishes of raising us catholic. She told me she could remember going to some Holy Roller meetings and being so scared when she heard the preacher speak about Hell or other eschatological topics. But we never spoke about God in our family at all. We valued Work in our family, not spiritual depth. If you went to work, then it was ok, however you lived. I do think a slight disdain was held against anyone who was a preacher or witnessed about Christ. But I held none of these feelings. The interesting thing about the German connection is that from Germany came Martin Luther and a host of German scholars who furthered theological and critical studies. I enjoy these subjects now. I often wonder if there were any preachers or believers in my family line. I may have been the first.

A hunger for learning came after my New Birth. But before this time, I started adopting an ‘anything is ok’ attitude. I also started getting in to metaphysics and the like. I read Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard, and was also reading pamphlets by Emmet Fox. I was being drawn to these ideas. My attitude was “Wow man” This is real…. We’re all connected. There is no absolute. God is Love, God is Light, and God is power… God is an Impersonal force. God is Mind. These were my newest thoughts in 1982.

All that changed when I met a Christian and he shared the gospel with me. I was presented with a simple message. “Ask Jesus into your heart, receive Him as your savior, and you can go to heaven.” This simple message changed my life many years ago.

The Simplicity of Christ

“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)[2]At this point in m paper, I would like to make a point. We should never obscure the plain truths of Scripture with one or two hard to understand verses. It is clearly stated in John that “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:14–16) We can share this information with all people as commanded in Mark 16:15: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15–16)

Another Gospel

“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6–9) The Apostle Paul gives this stinging rebuke to the Galatian church, in which he for moving towards another gospel. He continues “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it wasin vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? — just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him fo righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:1–14) These verses share a marvelous truth that flies in the face on Calvinism. Whoever believes is justified. This is good news. How could I be sure of my salvation if only ‘the elect’ can be saved? Why even preach the gospel to the world? I want to look into these problematic points in a Calvinistic view of salvation.

Salvation Defined

Anchor Bible Dictionary states “Even if it does not always use a formally salvific terminology, the Bible introduces on practically every page the theme of salvation (or its absence). To express the comprehensive nature of salvation, the OT and NT employ a rich variety of terms with different nuances according to their contexts.”[3]

C.I. Scofield states “The Hebrew and Greek words for “salvation” imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness: “Salvation” is the great inclusive word of the Gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: justification, redemption, grace, atonement, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification.[4] We receive all of these benefits by our new birth (John 3:3), even though we don’t deserve them. We receive Christ by faith alone. This is the simple gospel and very good news. Why do we need this? Because mankind is in a terrible predicament. I agree here with the French theologian John Calvin (1509-1664), who stated that man is totally depraved. We are spiritually dead as Paul describes in Ephesians 2. It is almost impossible to comprehend the Grace and Magnitude of God’s offer of ‘salvation’ without understanding man’s condition. We have fallen. We are under Satan’s dominion, helpless and without a covenant with God. We are subject to sin, blind, and in the perishing process. We are also heading to God’s righteous judgment. We are close to eternal separation from God, our Creator. This is a New Testament portrait, made up of many different scriptures.

This is a real and present danger from which God rescues mankind from through Jesus Christ. This glorious Salvation is explained by seven New Testament word Pictures.

· Regeneration - From Death to Life. John 3:1-15

· Reconciliation – From Enemy to Friend. Romans 5:10

· Propitiation – From Wrath to Mercy. 1John 2:2, Romans 5:9

· Sanctification- A Change of Ownership. Acts 20:32, 26:18

· Redemption – From Slavery to Freedom. Eph.1:7,1Cor.6:20

· Justification – From Guilt to Acquittal. Rom.5:1

· Adoption - A Change of Families. Gal.4: 5-7

All these word pictures become your reality when you choose to accept Jesus as God’s give gift of rescue. This would be a Biblical definition of salvation.

Calvinistic Salvation: Predestination and Election

Louis Berkhof states “God has sovereignly determined from all eternity whatsoever will come to pass, and works His sovereign will in His entire creation, both natural and spiritual, according to His predetermined plan.”[5] This theology leads to difficulty in interpreting the plain and simple scriptures that I quoted at the beginning of my paper. Many confusing doctrines arise from this reasoning.

The first doctrines arising from Calvinism are predestination and election. Predestination is the overall subject, defined as: “the counsel of God concerning fallen men, including the sovereign election of some and the righteous reprobation of the rest.”[6]Biblically distinct, election and predestination are often interchangeable terms in theological parlance.[7]To accept these tenets would cause a problem to many Bible scholars, especially those of a Southern Baptist Convention statement of Faith, which I am fond of. The SBC website says “Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.[8]

This would mean that John 3:16 is not valid. According to this view, whoever means ‘whoever God’ chooses. The idea that a Calvinist holds to is that God gets ultimate glory by being in control, and how could a sinful man interrupt God’s plans? While agreeing that God does intervene in mans affairs to complete His plans, He is not ‘deterministic’ in this, controlling every aspect, including evil intentions. The interesting concept of ‘judicial hardening’ as introduced by Leighton Flowers is helpful in understanding God’s involvement in man’s affairs to do His will (not choosing who will come to salvation ahead of time). He states, “Judicial hardening is the Potter’s sinless use of sinful wills. The doctrine of God’s judicial hardening is crucial in rightly understanding much of the biblical teachings regarding election, predestination and salvation. A misunderstanding or lack of clarity regarding this one doctrine will lead to many more serious misapplications of scripture. As a former Calvinist, I can think of no greater point of contention in my struggle over these doctrines than rightly defining God’s active role in judicially hardening Israel from recognizing their own Messiah .” [9]God is not the author of evil. God’s involvement is purely redemptive, and He uses judicial hardening at times to accomplish His promises. It is good to note that anyone who is hardened by God, as to not thwart the Lord’s plan, is the same person that can benefit from this action. In other words, those who crucified the Lord Jesus could later receive salvation. Leighton Flowers also states “God’s intention is only to redeem, save, and restore throughout this entire event, yet to do so he must permit evil men to fulfill their own evil desires. God did not determine the desire; He uses a sinful will to accomplish His will.”[10]

This understanding is crucial to come to the conclusion that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) The New Testament does not show a divine Father shamefully cutting off children before they are even born, but a Father mercifully seeking and even longing for the reconciliation of all. Jesus was elected to receive our punishment. This is Good news. All people can benefit – not just an ‘elect’ group. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die.” (John 12:32–33)

The simple Gospel says “That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.” (Acts 2:21 )

[1] Rodger Dalhman (2013-06-10). Genesis in the Real World: (Kindle Location 2814). . Kindle Edition. [2] Unless otherwise indicated all Bible references in this paper are to the New King James Version (Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002). [3] AYBD, s.v. “SALVATION,” 5:907. [4] The Scofield Study Bible, ed. C.I. Scofield, Accordance electronic ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), n.p. [5] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1949), 100. [6]Berkhof, 109. [7] AYBD, s.v. “ELECTION,” 2:443. [8] http://www.sbc.net/aboutus/basicbeliefs.asp [9] Flowers, Leighton (2015-05-07). The Potter's Promise: A Commentary on Romans 9 (Kindle Locations 424-428). Booktango. Kindle Edition. [10] Flowers (Location 549).