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How Calvinism Can Destroy Churches and Evangelism, unless...
- Timothy Smith
- May 8
- 6 min read
Where it is true that there are some growing Calvinistic churches and some wonderful, God fearing Bible teachers who are Reformed in their doctrine, evangelistic and cooperative are not descriptions that most would attribute to many Calvinists. Obviously, I am not a Calvinist, and I believe their form of soteriology is saturated with error after error. Not just the five points of Calvinism, but their eschatology, their replacement theology, covenant theology and more is so far off that I am amazed they believe what they do and that they can get others to believe it as well. But there are many Calvinists that I respect and much of my library is made up of writers who lean Calvinistic. I need to also point out, at the outset, that there is a huge difference between the older traditional SBC Calvinists and the neo-Calvinists of today. In years past, each side of the Calvinism debate respected boundaries and endeavored to understand each other and evangelized together. That is not the case today. Younger, neo-Calvinists of today strive to develop "street cred" by being much more radical, reformative, relentless and rude than their predecessors. This is causing a resurgence of conflict between Calvinist and non-Calvinist brethren. There is no place this is seen more than online, on social sites and podcasts. As Calvinism continues to rear it's head, non-Calvinists have to counter their error by teaching what the Bible says about the topics Calvinists teach. The impact of Calvinism on evangelism is devastating and the impact it is having on sound Biblical understanding is incomprehensible. The SBC is experiencing this new reformation effort in it's own ranks. Many of the neo-Calvinists of today see their duty as that of reforming the SBC back to, in their words, the "good old days" when the SBC was "founded" by mostly Calvinists. This is not unlike the Protestant Reformers who endeavored to reform the Roman Catholic Church or the Church of England in their time. It seems that modern day Calvinists are trying to "one up" their forefathers in a "righteous reformation of the Evangelical church."
As is the case in the Southern Baptist Convention, so is the case in the local churches. We witness time and time again neo-Calvinists working hard to reform both the SBC and it's churches. We see their efforts to replace the current Baptist Faith And Message and we see time and time again where a once thriving non-Calvinistic SBC church is taken over by neo-Calvinists with the result of splitting and many times closing or relocating a church under a different name. With the majority of SBC churches traditional in their soteriology and the majority of our seminary graduates Calvinist, we are seeing the devastating impact upon the SBC. Church planting is down, baptisms are down and there are fewer full time evangelists in the SBC than at anytime in modern history. It was only as recently as last year that the SBC saw a slight spike in baptisms. Certainly an anomaly compared to the last couple of decades.
This year we will see again an effort to alter, re-write and/or replace the BFM. With the SBC in more chaos than normal (and that is saying something), it is now prime picking for a continuing downward spiral into what many consider to be false teachings on soteriology.
I have no issue with a Calvinistic church calling a Calvinist as pastor, or as most Calvinists term it "elder". But I do have an enormous issue with Calvinistic ministers taking a non-Calvinistic church disguising their soteriology and ecclesiology and "righting the ship" and converting these churches into Calvinistic churches once they are hired. This is unethical and sinful. I am attaching an article as an example (and there are many) that represents what I am speaking of. Where this particular episode happened several years ago, it is typical of the stories I hear over and over again that occur today. (And let me say, it is just as unethical for a non-Calvinist to seek out a Calvinistic church in clandestine ways. I have yet to hear of that scenario happening however).
There are a few suggestions I would give for the protection of churches from just such a takeover. Number one, educate our churches on Calvinism. There should be an in-depth series of teaching sessions on the difference between Calvinism and Traditional Southern Baptist soteriology and ecclesiology conducted in every church. Number two, all pulpit committees should be given resources to interview and weed out those who do not agree with the churches position on soteriology. This can often be given by the outgoing pastor, instructing his congregation on what to be on guard for in the days ahead. Number three, our seminaries should be teaching both Calvinistic and non-Calvinistic views of soteriology based on the historical positions of the SBC churches since the founding of the SBC. Calvinism should not be the only thing taught, nor should it be presented as the one "true" soteriological position. Once the student is educated on all sides of the debate, it should be left up to the student as to which side of the debate he falls on. I am a big believer in studying as many sides of an issue as possible to more fully understand the subject at hand. Indoctrination is not the same as education. Number four, it would be advantageous for churches to educate themselves on how "closet Calvinists" take over churches and strive to prevent just such a thing from happening in their church. Five, it would be advisable to maintain a "Lead Pastor" or "Senior Pastor" model of church leadership with a deacon body and staff ministers vs. the false "elder board" ruled churches. Baptists are not Presbyterian and a congregationally led church with a senior pastor is what Baptists have historically believed to be Biblical. This also makes it more difficult for undercover Calvinists to take over churches. One of the first things an undercover Calvinist pastor will do is start teaching on church discipline and then on the role of elders in a church. Not just elders, but an elder board (plurality of elders) with most leadership powers exclusively bestowed upon them. This way they place everyone on notice that the elders may call you in front of the church should you ever "sin" by going against their God given leadership decisions or teachings. They will gladly weed out the bad, unruly, sinful, under-educated, biblically illiterate members in order to establish a unified and "biblical" church.
If a church is Reformed, then hire a Reformed pastor. If you are a Reformed minister, seek only Reformed churches. God is not calling you to destroy churches by clandestine means.
For those in the convention who wish to "Clarify" the BFM or re-write it or add a creed to it, do that in your own church. There is nothing in the BFM that needs your input or opinions. If you are a Southern Baptist, then you should have no problem with the BFM. If you don't agree with the BFM, then maybe a Southern Baptist you are not. We Traditional Southern Baptists are not going anywhere and we are not asking Calvinists to go anywhere either. What we are going to pray for is your return to the ways of many of your Calvinistic predecessors and grow up. It's time to be the adult in the room. Start preaching the gospel more than you do the Westminster Confession of Faith. Start sharing Christ more than you do Calvin.
With a balanced approach in our colleges and seminaries on the doctrines of soteriology, an ethical pastoral candidate practice, an educated church body and a civil dialogue, we can still debate the issues surrounding soteriology and other items just like we always have while still focusing the majority of our efforts on winning the lost to Christ. Where Calvinists and non-Calvinists will never agree on certain doctrinal points, if we are going to co-exist in the SBC, we must respectfully dialogue, rigorously debate, responsibly disciple and relentlessly declare for the glory of God and the furtherance of the kingdom. However, completely reform SBC doctrine you will not. At least, not without destroying the convention and it's churches at the same time. Time will tell. Following are a couple of recent articles and an older article relating to this blog post.
In His Grace,
Pastor Tim
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