Ten Consequences of Believing in the Five Points of Calvinism

These ten points are my personal testimony to the consequences of believing the five points of Calvinism. I have just finished teaching a seminar on this subject, and the class members asked me to publish these reflections so that they may be available. I am happy to do so. I present them here in the hope that they will encourage others to search, as the Vereans did, to see if the Bible teaches what I call "Calvinism.".

1. These truths bring me to awe of God and lead to deep, genuine, focused worship.

I remember the moment I first saw, while teaching Ephesians at Bethel College in the late 1970s, a three-part statement about the purpose of all of God's creation: "to the praise of the riches of his grace" (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14).

This led me to realize that we cannot make God rich, and therefore His glory shines brightest not when we try to meet His needs, but when we ourselves are satisfied with Him as the essence of our actions. «For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen» (Rom. 11:36). Worship becomes an end in itself.

It made me feel how low and inadequate my feelings are, so the psalms of aspiration enliven and make worship intense.

2. These truths help me avoid taking divine things lightly.

One of the curses of our culture is banality, frivolity, and mediocrity. Television is a major source of our addiction to superficiality and triviality.

Unfortunately, God also falls under this category. Hence, there is a frivolous attitude towards divine things.

Seriousness is not excessive these days. Maybe it once was. And yes, there is an imbalance among certain people who can't relax and talk about the weather.

Robertson Nicol said of Spurgeon: «Evangelism of the humorous type [one might say, church growth of the marketing type] may attract crowds, but it leaves the soul in ashes and destroys the very seeds of religion. Mr. Spurgeon is often considered to have preached with humor, but in fact there was no preacher whose tone was more serious, reverent, and solemn» (Quoted in «The Primacy of God in Preaching,» p. 57).

3. These truths make me excited about my own salvation.

After setting forth the grand, divinely ordained salvation in the first chapter of Ephesians, Paul prays in the last part of the chapter that the result of this theology will be the illumination of our hearts. His purpose is that we will be excited about our hope, the riches of the glory of our inheritance, and the power of God that works in us—the same power that raises the dead.

All grounds for praise are removed. Joy with a broken heart and gratitude overflow.

Jonathan Edwards' piety begins to grow. When God gives us a taste of his own greatness and our sinfulness, then the Christian life becomes something very different from ordinary piety. Edwards describes it beautifully when he says:

«The desires of the saints, even when they are sincere, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is ineffable and full of glory, is a humble, broken joy, and makes the Christian poorer in spirit, more childlike, and more inclined to general modesty in behavior» («Religious Feelings,» New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959, p. 339).

4. These truths make me wary of human-centered substitutes that pose as good news.

In my book Why God Rejoices (2000, pp. 144-145), I show that in 18th-century New England a shift away from the sovereignty of God led to Arminianism, then to Universalism, and from there to Unitarianism. The same thing happened in 19th-century England after Spurgeon.

Ian Murray, in his book Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987, p. 454), documents the same: "Calvinist beliefs faded in North America. In the process of decline that Edwards predicted, those Congregational churches in New England that had embraced Arminianism after the Great Awakening gradually turned to Unitarianism and Universalism, led by Charles Chauncey.".

You can also read about it in J. I. Packer's The Search for a Holy Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990, p. 160), how Richard Baxter abandoned these teachings and how subsequent generations reaped a tough harvest at Baxter's church in Kidderminster.

These doctrines are a bulwark against man-centered teachings in many forms that gradually decompose the church and make it weak from within, while appearing strong or popular.

«The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth» (1 Tim. 3:15).

5. These truths make me groan at the unspeakable sickness of our secular culture that demeans God.

I can barely read a newspaper or see a television commercial or billboard without feeling the weight of God's absence.

When God is the primary reality in the universe and He is treated as an unreality, I tremble with the anger that builds up. I am shocked. So many Christians are lulled into sleep by the same «drug» as the world. But these teachings are a wonderful antidote.

And I pray for awakening and restoration.

I try to preach to create people so saturated with God that they will show and tell about God everywhere and always.

We exist to reaffirm the reality of God and the primacy of God in all life.

6. These truths give me confidence that the work that God has planned and begun, He will complete—both globally and personally.

This is the meaning of Romans 8:28–39:

«We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What shall we say then? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all, will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? God is the justifier! And who shall judge? Jesus Christ, who died and was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, »For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

7. These truths help me see everything in light of God’s sovereign purposes—«For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things! To Him be the glory forever.».

All of life is connected to God. There is no area of life where He is not the most important and the One who gives meaning to everything. As 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, «Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.».

As I see God’s sovereign purpose being accomplished in Scripture, and as I hear Paul say that «He who works all things after the counsel of His will» (Ephesians 1:11), I begin to see the world this way.

8. These truths give me hope that God has the will, the right, and the power to answer prayers for people to change.

The basis for prayer is that God can intervene and change things—including the human heart. He can change the will. When we pray, «Hallowed be thy name,» it means: help people to honor and sanctify your name. And the prayer, «Let your word be spread and glorified,» means: open people’s hearts to the Gospel.

We must embrace the promises of the New Testament and plead with God to fulfill them in our children, our neighbors, and in all the missions of the world.

• «Then I will give you one heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh» (Ezekiel 11:19).
• «The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you may live and love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul» (Deuteronomy 30:6).
• «I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them» (Ezekiel 36:27).
• «If in meekness instruct your opponents, God will grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and their escape from the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will» (2 Timothy 2:25–26).
• «And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul» (Acts 16:14).

9. These truths remind me that evangelism is absolutely necessary for people to come to Christ and be saved, and that there is great hope for success in leading people to faith, but that conversion is ultimately not up to me and is not limited by the hardness of the unbeliever.

This inspires hope for evangelization, especially in difficult places and among peoples where preaching the Gospel is an extremely difficult task.

«I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd» (John 10:16).

This is God's work. Give yourself to it without a trace.

10. These truths confidently assure me that God will prevail in the end.

«Remember the former things of old, that I am God, and there is none like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure» (Isa. 46:9–10).

Putting it all together: God gets the glory and we get the joy.