Andy Woods - Why I am not a Calvinist: Part I

and people ask me all the time Andy are you a Calvinist and I always sort of bristle at that because what version of Calvinism are you talking about if you'll allow me to define each of these terms I could probably end up being maybe a four-point Calvinist the L limited atonement which I'll explain in a minute mm-hmm I think is unbiblical on its face but the problem is when you go back to what is it and the Synod of dort where they define these original points they mean something very different than the way I use them when they use the word total depravity they mean you can't even believe on your own even if you're under the influence of the spirit as a matter of conviction so therefore God has to believe for you and they call faith a gift and they say regeneration does not follow faith but regeneration what precedes faith now if you want me to sign on to that for tea I can't do that because that's not in the Bible that's a case where a biblical or a a man-made philosophy is taking over the Bible unconditional election I don't have too much of a problem with that one L limited atonement I have a big problem with that one as I'll explain irresistible grace basically what the Synod of dort thou'rt means by that is you're drawn to Christ irresistible because God has already given you the gift of faith and your regeneration has already happened now if that's what you mean by it I have a big problem with that because John 16 12 and 13 talks about the spirits ministry in the unsaved and one of the things matter of fact let's just look at that for a moment John 16 12 and 13 what does the Holy Spirit do in the unsaved Jesus in the upper room saying I'm gonna leave and the spirits gonna come and when he comes he's gonna fulfill certain ministries and he starts to talk about what the Spirit does to the unsaved he says I have John 16:12 I have many more things to say to you but you cannot bear them now but when he the Spirit comes he will guide you into all truth I'm sorry I wanted verse 7 let's go back to verse 7 I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you verse a it's the key verse when he comes he will convict the world of what sin now is sin there singular or plural singular talking about one sin righteousness and judgment now fortunately verse nine goes on in verse 10 to expand verse 11 explains what each of those terms means concerning sin singular because they do not what believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged the Spirit of God is doing three things constantly in the life of the unbeliever he's convicting them of a sin which is what unbelief which is the only sin that can send you into hell he's not trying to fix them in terms of their profanity or their gambling and once they get saved believe me the Spirit of God will start working on maybe some of those other issues but that's not what the Spirit of God does to the unsaved he works on them over and over them convicting them of a sin that they are committing against God which is unbelief he convicts them of righteousness in other words they don't have it on their own they need the what of Christ the imputed righteousness of Christ and he convicts them of the fact that this world is going down in judgment because Lucifer has already been condemned so when you look at these verses it's very clear that the Spirit of God does not believe for people and that's what the Synod of dort is basically saying that grace is irresistible because the Spirit of God comes into you and regenerates you before you even believe so you wake up one day irresistible II not drawn to Christ and Calvinism is a what you have to understand about it is it's a system of logic John Calvin who developed many of these ideas as a very young man in his 20s a brilliant man a lawyer by the way set up a logical syllogism and the logic is only good as it's starting point so the starting point in the Calvinistic system is T total depravity I agree with total depravity but not the way they define it what they mean by it is you're like a rock you have no responsiveness to God at all even if the Spirit of God convicts you it wouldn't do any good so they've overblown the doctrine of total depravity so therefore how do you become a Christian well the you the L the I the P logically follow God unconditionally alexia God didn't die for the whole world just for the elect he irresistible draws you to himself because he regenerates you so that you can believe and then you always have to be persevering in good works so my problem with this is it's a great logical syllogism I just don't find it taught exactly the way they're explaining it in the Bible the Spirit of God does not regenerate people so that they can believe we've saw the verses John 16 12 and 13 the Spirit of God places men and women under conviction constantly and I don't think a person could ever get saved without that conviction but once you're under that conviction whether you respond to that conviction or not is your call and God is not going to override the decision that you make any more than you would want to be married to a person who doesn't want to be married to you have you ever gone through those breakups you know be fine before you find your significant other those are painful aren't they have you ever gotten this speech from somebody I got this one from a lady that broke up with me praise God because I met Hann after she gave me the speech well I love you but I'm not in love with you you ever gotten that one or maybe you guys have given that to other people maybe in your trail is this broken string of broken hearts well I'm like thinking to myself man I'm glad you told me that because I don't know if I'd want to spend the rest of my life with somebody that I love doesn't love me see so this is this is how it is with the Lord I mean God is God has made you an image bear of him which means as an image bearer you have free what will that's the most awesome thing we have as human beings free will so when God leads you to himself he is not going to coerce you against your will if he were to coerce you against your will he would be overriding how he created you you see that and these ideas are lost in the Calvinistic system so that's what they mean by irresistible grace and then perseverance of the saints what do they mean by that well if you mean by that eternal security hey I'm on board with that but that's typically not what they mean what they mean is if you are really one of the elect who has been given the gift of faith who has been regenerated so that you can believe and have been irresistible drawn to Christ there has to be fruit and a lot of it and if there's not this physical visible tangible fruit in bucket loads in your life then you should second-guess whether you're one of the elect who has ever received the gift of faith and this is why when this doctrine takes hold in Calvinistic circles it leads to this almost ruthless fruit inspecting you know so and so didn't show up to a Tuesday night prayer meeting and maybe they're not one of the elect did you hear about so-and-so their daughter got a tattoo oh man Bible says you're supposed to raise up children got to be godly they may not be one of the elect and the fact of the matter is I could show you many verses in the Bible of people that are saved matter of fact we'll get to some in a minute it had a lot of ups and downs in their Christian life amen David King David being one and there's no doubt that David is saved so you know what I prefer is the expression not perseverance of the saints but the preservation of the Saints God preserves us through the doctrine of eternal security which means that my salvation doesn't rest on my shoulders but on whose shoulders God's so if they want to define P as preservation of the Saints and I guess I'm on board but I'm not really on board the way they're defining the perseverance of the saints you following me so I started looking at these points of Calvinism and I started to see well I agree with that one but I'll tweak it a little bit I agree with this other one but I'll tweak it a little bit and finally I was doing so much tweaking that I really could no longer consistently consider myself a five-point Calvinist I was talked out of five point Calvinism at one point in my life I became a four point and then later on in my Christian life I became a three and a half point Calvinist and I kept getting bartered down three point Calvinist now once I got the two points I'm like saying well why even call myself a Calvinist at all I'm a not a Calvinist but a bib list that's what I am so I don't want to read the Bible through someone else's philosophical lens particularly when their lens might be off and so I have a great respect for what a Calvinistic heritage has accomplished but I'm troubled by some of the points and I'm particularly troubled by the lack of assurance advocates of Calvinism and Arminianism come to Oh most of them steeped in these two systems when they struggle in their Christian life with any issue they think they weren't one of the elect or they think if they go into our minion ism that they lost their what salvation and one of the things that I feel very strongly about I'll just give you some verses in a minute is that one of the rights of the child of God is the assurance of salvation that is your right in Jesus he wants you to know you're saved and he wants you to serve Him not out of fear of your eternal destiny which has already been taken care of because Jesus says it is finished you serve them out of worship and so from a pastoral angle that's why I'm sort of troubled by the dominance of Calvinism and Calvinism is taking off amongst the young people today they call themselves the Neo Calvinists or the new Calvinists and Millennials are completely wrapped up in Calvinism I don't know why it's taken off in that age group the way it has but it's really something you need to be aware of

Channel: Andy Woods' Unofficial Channel

Views: 19,028

Rating: 4.7510729 out of 5

Keywords: andy, andrew, woods, dr, chafer, sugarland, sugar, land, bible, calvinism, calvinist, calvinists, calvin, dordt, synod, synode, dort, dordrecht, five, point, tulip, irresistable, grace, unconditional, election, limited, atonement, unlimited, perseverance, saints, preservation, total, depravity, john, arminians, arminian, armin, arminianism, lost, salvation, lose, losing

Id: ptqimPlFnhA

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 09 2019