The Problem with Calvinism

As I've talked with others about the Calvinist understanding of salvation and considered my own thoughts on the subject I've come to a conclusion about one thing that I think is not a problem with Calvinism which has clarified for me where the real problem lies.

The thing that is not the problem is, I think, the place where many people believe there is one. And this problem is the problem of fairness. I think it is ingrained in our American, Western way of thinking that everyone should have the same chance at success, life, etc., etc. The problem comes when this is applied to salvation. If this notion of fairness is applied to salvation and salvation is by God's grace alone and not any inherent quality within ourselves then that would mean that it is God's duty to "give everyone the same chance." But if this is true, grace is no longer grace because God is simply doing his duty in giving everyone the same chance. Grace is no longer grace because people deserve it. Grace by nature is undeserved so those who do not receive grace leading to salvation have not been wronged by God because nothing has been withheld from them which they did deserve. In fact the only thing a sinner deserves is an eternity in hell so any grace from God which would result in any other outcome, that is eternal salvation, should be seen as the abnormal and undeserved outcome. So I think the idea that sinners are in any way deserving of God's grace or the idea that one person receiving grace leading to salvation causes other people to be deserving of the same degree of grace is completely wrong and actually destroys grace.

But even without those philosophical problems I still cannot make the jump to Calvinism. I can't make this jump because of a few, but I think very important, areas of Scripture. Now I'm sure my Calvinist friends have some ingenious explanations for these areas but I can't help but believe that the clear meaning of these verses refutes Calvinism. One of these Scriptures for me is Ezekiel 18:21-32. This is actually one of my favorite parts of Scripture and to paraphrase it says that God is pleased when sinners turn from their evil ways and live and that He does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that they would repent. I think this throws a wrench in most Calvinist thought which seems to say that the reason for hell and damnation is for God's justice to be displayed and that God gets more glory because of this. But if God is receiving more glory because of the "death of wicked" then should this not bring him pleasure? Perhaps my reading is overly simplistic but it seems problematic to me. 1st Timothy 2:3-4 which states, "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," also seems problematic to me. I know that many theologians whom I greatly respect, like Augustine, have interpreted this verse in a way that would fit with Calvinism but I see no reason to stray from the plain meaning of the text - that God does actually desire the salvation of all. We know that not all will be saved though and that is why I remain an Arminian.

Happy Birthday Mr. Calvin

Today was John Calvin's 500th birthday. (I had originally entitled this post "Belated Birthday" as I thought I had missed the day - hopefully this will teach me to do one last wikipedia check before posting stuff in the future)... So back to my post: Calvin is a man I've come to respect more and more in the past three or four years since taking a class on his theology at Asbury Seminary. One aspect of Calvin's theology that I especially appreciate is the purity of his focus on the grace of God and the work of Christ in salvation and the complete rejection of the idea that any good work from ourselves could justify us before God. Here is a quote from the Institutes which touches on this issue:

I admit that the ancient writers of the church commonly used it [the word merit], and would that they had not given posterity occasion for error by their misuse of one little word! Nevertheless, in some passages they also testify that they did not intend to prejudice the truth. For in one such place Augustine speaks thus: "Let human merits, which perished through Adam, here keep silence, and let God's grace reign through Jesus Christ." Again: "The saints attribute nothing to their merits; they will attribute all to thy mercy alone, O God." Again: "And when man sees that all the good he has, he has not from himself but from his God, he sees that all that is praiseworthy in himself arises not from his own merits but from God's mercy." You see that Augustine, when he has denied to man the power of well-doing, also overthrows any worth of merit. Moreover, Chrysostom says: "Our works, if there are any that follow the freely given call of God, are repayment and debt, but God's gifts are grace and beneficence and great generosity."

-John Calvin, Institutes 3.15.2

Zion

With the beginning of my third year of medical school at Loma Linda, this last 4th of July weekend was my last guaranteed three-day weekend of freedom for a long time. I wanted to do something other than just stay in Loma Linda and be lazy so I was glad to find a classmate who didn't have any plans. We decided to head to Zion National Park where we camped for two nights and did some hiking. I had driven through part of Zion once before and had found it to be pretty amazing but this time I was amazed by the beauty of the park as I hiked and got to explore a little more. We arrived on Friday at our reserved campsite at the Watchman Campground and after getting situated grabbed a tour bus into the heart of the park. The only hike we did that day was to Angels Landing, a rocky spire in the middle of canyon with awesome views of the park. On Saturday we headed up a bit earlier to the Temple of Sinawava and began hiking up the Zion Narrows, spending much of the time hiking in the river itself. We hiked about 6 miles up the narrows for a total round trip of 12 miles. The trip was also a great time of Christian fellowship as we spent a lot of time discussing our faith in Christ and also listening to some Matt Chandler sermons on the way too and from Zion.

Zion Narrows - the spectacular effect of a river 

slicing a narrow canyon through solid rock.

The view South from Angels Landing - some thunderstorms went through as we hiked to the top and back down.

Nootka Trail

Last week I backpacked the Nootka Trail with two friends from Battle Ground over four days. The difficulty level was at least that of the Wonderland Trail which I did around Mt. Rainier last summer. We also had to deal with some nasty weather as we were pelted by sideways blowing pouring rain nearly the entire second day of our hike. The hike was a great experience though and it was a good way to end my short summer break before the beginning of my third year of medical school.

After driving about midway up Vancouver Island we reached Gold River, BC where we boarded a pontoon plane to be dropped off at Louie Bay on Nootka Island.

Driftwood provided plentiful fuel for a bonfire with which we entertained ourselves on the first night of the trip. The weather so far had been partly cloudy but perfect for hiking in.
The perfect weather did not last and the second day of our hike nearly everything we had was at least damp, even with the protection of a rain poncho. We made it to Calvin Falls, the largest waterfall along the coast on the second day.
At Calvin Falls we found a makeshift hut which saved us from getting any more soaked the night we arrived. We made a fire and dried out our clothes at Calvin the next morning. I also took advantage of the creek to wash my hair and face.
Along many parts of the trail there are many tide pools with some interesting sea life. Not visible in this picture are the many different species of small crabs we observed on the trip. We also had a wolf run through our campsite on the first morning and saw many bald eagles. We saw a lot of bear tracks on the beach but didn't see any bears.

The third day we hiked from Calvin Falls to Beano Creek in good weather. The fourth day from Beano to the tidal lagoon provided some of the most picturesque views from the tops of sea cliffs we hiked over.

From the tidal lagoon it was a short hike to Yuquot the small village on an Indian reservation on the southern tip of the Island. Yuquot has a lot of interesting history. It was one of the most important ports on the west coast at one time, it was near the site of Spain's most northerly outpost and it was the site of the meeting between Captains Bodega and Cook when Spain ceded what is now British Columbia to the British in 1792. 

Now all that remains at Yuquot are privately owned cabins, a Roman church with many native wood-carvings and a lighthouse. From Friendly Cove at Yuquot we caught a small ferry back to Gold River where we had parked our car to get on the plane.

As with other backpacking and hiking trips I've done, hanging out with friends was the best part. But Nootka offered an amazing amount of natural beauty, wildlife and history. 

For the beauty of the earth

For the glory of the skys,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

-Pierpoint

Freedom!

Well, it's over. I took the test, probably the biggest of my life so far. I was thankful that my parents agreed to drive me down to the testing center in Portland, giving me some last minute studying time. I even got one question right as a result of that time on the drive down. The test itself didn't seem too bad, other than the length - 336 questions, most of which were vignettes of patients with one mystery disease or another. I used a program called USMLE World which has thousands of practice questions with good explanations for the correct answers. Out of any step 1 prep I did, the USMLE World questions were the best. I tried to make a habit of listening to sermons after studying all day most days for the last few weeks. I've become a big fan of Paul Washer lately and some of the best sermons I listened to last week were of Washer preaching on the Song of Songs. I'm headed up to Vancouver Island in Canada tomorrow morning for a backpacking trip on Nootka Island. Expect some pictures next weekend. 

Random Update #4

The last few weeks have been a sort of blogging hiatus for me as I've put most of my time and energy into preparing for the Step 1 USMLE, otherwise known as the medical board exam. Many would say that this is the single most important test that a future physician will ever take. This test does a lot to determine a medical student's competitiveness for various residencies after med school. I'm taking the test on June 20th in Portland, Ore., and I'm attempting to spend 8-10 hours studying each day up until then. I'm very happy to be back in Battle Ground, Washington where I've mostly been hanging out at a local coffee shop to study.

One of the big events during my "break" this year was the wedding of one of my best friends. My friend Josh and his bride, Lacie, tied the knot at Vancouver Apostolic Lutheran Church on Saturday. I was honored to be a groomsman in the wedding which was the best I had ever been to. The wedding was very focused on how the marital covenant finds its definition in Scripture and the officiant gave a short message where the traditional, Scriptural view of the complimentary roles of the man and woman in marriage were presented. He also talked about the way in which the marriage relationship reflects the relationship between Christ and the Church. But above the message and the presence of friends, it was the powerful and blessed presence of the Holy Spirit which truly made this wedding a wonderful experience. 

Pentecost: Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Holy Spirit Baptism

What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Now there are some, as we have seen, who say that there is really no difficulty about this at all. They say it is simply a reference to regeneration and nothing else. It is what happens to people when they are regenerated and incorporated into Christ, as Paul teaches in 1st Corinthians 12:13: 'By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body' . . . Therefore, they say, this baptism of the Holy Spirit is simply regeneration.

But for myself, I simply cannot accept that explanation, and this is where we come directly to grips with the difficulty. I cannot accept that because if I were to believe that, I should have to believe that the disciples and the apostles were not regenerate until the Day of Pentecost---a supposition which seems to me to be quite untenable. In the same way, of course, you would have to say that not a single Old Testament saint had eternal life or was a child of God. . . .

. . . A definition, therefore, which I would put to your consideration is something like this: the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the initial experience of glory and the reality and the love of the Father and of the Son. Yes, you may have many further experiences of that, but the first experience, I would suggest, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The saintly John Fletcher of Madeley put it like this: 'Every Christian should have his Pentecost.'

'This is life eternal,' our Lord prayed, 'that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent' (John 17:3). And it is only the Spirit who can enable us to know that. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, then is the difference between believing these things, accepting the teaching, exercising faith----- that is something that we all know, and without the Holy Spirit we cannot even do that, as we have seen-----and having a consciousness and experience of these truths in a striking and signal manner. The first experience of that, I am suggesting, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit falling on you, or receiving the Spirit. It is this remarkable and unusual experience which is described so frequently in the book of Acts and which, as we see clearly from the epistles, must have been the possession of the members of the early Christian Church.

-Martin Lloyd Jones, Great Doctrines of the Bible

H/T: Adrian Warnock

Auto-genocide

. . . [I]t has become abundantly clear in the second half of the twentieth century that Western Man has decided to abolish himself. Having wearied of the struggle to be himself, he has created

his own boredom out of his own affluence,

his own impotence out of his own erotomania,

his own vulnerability out of his own strength;

himself blowing the trumpet that brings the walls of his own city tumbling down, and, in a process of auto-genocide, convincing himself that he is too numerous, and labouring accordingly with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer in order to be an easier prey for his enemies; until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keels over a weary, battered old brontosaurus and becomes extinct.

-Malcolm Muggeridge, from his essay, "Jesus: The Man Who Lives”

H/T: Between Two Worlds

Aldersgate

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death...

...After my return home, I was much buffeted with temptations; but cried out, and they fled away. They returned again and again. I as often lifted up my eyes, and he sent me help from his holy place. And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well as under grace; but then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered: now I was always conqueror.

-John Wesley, May 24th 1738

Teaching Exclusivity

I've mentioned in a previous post that I, along with a classmate here at Loma Linda, have begun leading a Bible study with some kids we met through a tutoring program. Usually we'll take them out to eat at a place like McDonald's and go through a short passage. We've tried to keep the messages fairly simple for these boys who haven't yet committed their lives to Christ and we've focused on some basics like the Creation, the Fall and its consequences and the nature of Christ, His mission, and our need for Him. These kids have short attention spans so the last couple of weeks we've just looked at one or two verses. This week our verse was John 14:6, "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

After reading the verse we asked them if they thought all religions were equally true or if they thought all religions might lead to God. I was surprised that their answers were strongly negative considering the post-modern world they're growing up in. Today it also struck me that this was one of the most counter-cultural messages we've given. Sure, evolutionists would probably disagree with the way we taught about Creation, materialists wouldn't like the way we've talked about the miracles of Christ and liberals would be angered by the penal substitution view of the atonement we continually present but this message could probably inspire the most vehement disagreement, even from those claiming to be Christians. 

After they affirmed that not all religions were equally true and they don't all lead to God I asked them why it is that we should believe that. I didn't get a quick answer so I explained that the reason was because Christ himself taught that. When we affirm that other religions could be equally true or could give any merit before God in coming to salvation we dishonor Christ. His is the only merit in the universe by which man can be saved. Peter affirmed this truth before the rulers, elders and scribes in Jerusalem when he said, "This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved(Acts 4:11-12)."

Divine Healing

A great post on supernatural (and natural) healing from Mark Driscoll. Read it here.

"Thou art my brother"

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has grasped the words of Ps 22,23 and taken them well to heart, when he says of Christ: "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise." Heb 2,11-12. If any worldly lord were to condescend so low as to say to a thief, or a murderer or to a low French character, Thou art my brother; that would be a great thing and everyone would be amazed at it; but that this King, who in his glory sits at the right hand of God, his Father, says to a poor sinner: Thou art my brother, that no one takes to heart, no one receives it in earnest, and yet on that hangs our highest comfort and courage against sin, death, Satan, hell, law, and against all misfortune, both of the body and of the soul.

-Martin Luther, from his Easter sermon in 1525

My Lord And My God

One of my favorite themes in Scripture is that of the Incarnation. The truth that Jesus is eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. This truth is affirmed in many ways, some poetic and and others very straight-forward throughout the New Testament. But one of my favorite affirmations of Christ's deity comes from the Gospel of John, the 20th chapter. Here we read of Christ's disciple Thomas, who had not been with the other disciples when the resurrected Jesus had appeared to them previously. Thomas doubted the word of the his friends, the other disciples, when they told him, "We have seen the Lord." Thomas said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." 

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

When I was in seminary I read an essay by CS Lewis on the nature of Christian belief in the claims of Scripture especially in reference to Christ. And I liked Lewis' take although I certainly would not make the claim that it is the only way to interpret Christ's words to Thomas. Christ said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." I think many take this statement as evidence that the Christian is called to believe the incredible claims made by Scripture on blind faith without rationale to back up those beliefs. But Lewis put Christ's interaction with Thomas in context and his take on this story made a strong impression on me. Lewis pointed out that Thomas had spent years with the other disciples, his friends, his co-workers in the ministry. These friends, co-workers and fellow followers of Christ told Thomas that they had seen Christ risen and yet Thomas disbelieved them. More important than this are the statements Christ made about himself that all of the disciples either did not understand or doubted. In Matthew we read, "From this time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised (16:21)." So Thomas had heard of the resurrection not only from the other disciples but from Christ Himself before the crucifixion. In Lewis' view Thomas was not scolded for not having blind faith. He was scolded because he had every reason to believe in the Resurrection and yet he doubted. And is not this the natural pull of the flesh to doubt God and His power even when we have the testimony of Scripture, the testimonies of many Christians who have gone before us and oftentimes our own testimony of what God has done and what He is like. I know I have this tendency to doubt God when I have every reason to believe Him. And yet with Thomas I will joyfully affirm as my only hope, "my Lord and my God," Jesus Christ.

Where Credit is Due

You may have noticed that over the last couple of months I've used a lot of art in my posts. I guess Lent kind of put me in the mood to do some more "devotional" type posts and I find that a good painting often goes very well with a more devotional post. So I wanted to give credit to the source of most of the paintings I've put up on my blog and the source is my favorite painter, the great Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn. Rembrandt's art appears in posts from April 10th, 12th, 19th and 26th.

With my admiration of his work one would think that I would have read something about the life of Rembrandt but up until preparing to write this blog post I hadn't. And as with most subjects I want to be quickly educated on, my source was Wikipedia. 

Rembrandt was born in Leiden in the Netherlands and lived from 1606 to 1669. He lost three of his four children to early deaths and also his wife, most likely to tuberculosis. The aspect of Rembrandt's life I was most interested to learn about was his religion. I had expected, with the amazing Biblical scenes he is known for, that Rembrandt's religious side would be explored in the article on Wikipedia but I found that not to be the case. In fact, Rembrandt seems to be a little mysterious spiritually. His father was part of the Dutch Reformed Church and his mother was Roman Catholic. I read one site that speculated that not much was known about Rembrandt spiritually because he didn't want to completely embrace or reject either the faith of his father or mother. Whatever the case may be, I think his paintings have been a spiritual blessing to many people. 

Rembrandt is not the only artist that has shown up on my blog. I also like to occasionally use Gustave Dore's Bible illustrations among many other sources. But lately I've used a lot of Rembrandt so I wanted to focus on him in this post.

Did Not Our Hearts Burn Within Us?

Another favorite Resurrection story of mine comes from the Gospel of Luke where we find two of Jesus' disciples walking to the village of Emmaus when they are joined by the Risen Christ Himself, but do not recognize Him at first. I like this story so much because I think it reveals how some of the disciples might have felt after the crucifixion and after they had heard news of the Resurrection from the women. 

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" - Luke 24:28-32

When the two disciples had reached Emmaus, and were refreshing themselves at the evening meal, the mysterious stranger who had so enchanted them upon the road, took bread and brake it, made himself known to them, and then vanished out of their sight. They had constrained him to abide with them, because the day was far spent; but now, although it was much later, their love was a lamp to their feet, yea, wings also; they forgot the darkness, their weariness was all gone, and forthwith they journeyed back the threescore furlongs to tell the gladsome news of a risen Lord, who had appeared to them by the way. They reached the Christians in Jerusalem, and were received by a burst of joyful news before they could tell their own tale. These early Christians were all on fire to speak of Christ’s resurrection, and to proclaim what they knew of the Lord; they made common property of their experiences. This evening let their example impress us deeply. We too must bear our witness concerning Jesus. John’s account of the sepulchre needed to be supplemented by Peter; and Mary could speak of something further still; combined, we have a full testimony from which nothing can be spared. We have each of us peculiar gifts and special manifestations; but the one object God has in view is the perfecting of the whole body of Christ. We must, therefore, bring our spiritual possessions and lay them at the apostle’s feet, and make distribution unto all of what God has given to us. Keep back no part of the precious truth, but speak what you know, and testify what you have seen. Let not the toil or darkness, or possible unbelief of your friends, weigh one moment in the scale. Up, and be marching to the place of duty, and there tell what great things God has shown to your soul.

-CH Spurgeon, Morning and Evening