I get the Berean Call’s e-mail newsletter/update, and scan through it as time allows to see what comments are made regarding Dave’s anti-Calvinism campaign. I’ve seen some interesting comments. But this one was worth a reply:
Dear Mr. Hunt,
I enjoyed reading Debating Calvinism. I sat in the Calvinist camp for many years….Why don’t Calvinists preach their “doctrines of grace” to the unsaved? Why are they hiding this doctrine they so fervently believe? [They should say] plainly, “If you’re not one of the elect, you will not be saved. There is nothing you can do about it, and you’ll spend eternity in the lake of fire.” They live and breathe this doctrine; they all but condemn Christians who don’t believe in it, yet when it comes time to witness, they say along with Paul and Silas, “believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Stop lying to people and tell them there is nothing they can do! Yet this is a hidden doctrine only for the intellectual….At one time I would have died for the Calvinist doctrine. It eventually divided my family, split friendships and plummeted me into despair….My advice is to pursue Jesus, not Calvinism. It will consume your Christian walk. Let it go. JLG (PA)
Given that this writer repeats all the same canards that Dave Hunt repeats in What Love is This? and Debating Calvinism, one is truly left scratching one’s head as to what kind of “Calvinism” this man claims to have “lived and breathed.” What kind of Reformed church did this man attend that did not clearly, consistently preach the whole counsel of God so as to get past this basic level Arminian confusion? And I have never, ever heard any Reformed person say, “I would die for the Calvinist doctrine.” That is not how we speak. We do not refer to “the Calvinist doctrine.” Well, obviously, I do not believe for a moment this man was a Calvinist. Indeed, he probably doesn’t even know what the term refers to. We preach the gospel knowing that outside of the Spirit’s activity, there is indeed nothing that will come of it of lasting value. But we trust the Spirit to do His work in the hearts of His elect, and hence we preach the gospel boldly to “every creature.” There is no contradiction, and no apostolic example of any other means of preaching. At least we do not have to altar passages such as Acts 13:48 to “fit” our theology into the Bible, as Hunt has had to do, and as all synergists must, in some fashion or another. I would love to get to talk to “JLG from PA” and find out just what “Calvinist doctrine” he was once so dedicated to — if such a person actually even exists.
