I started attending
IFB, King James Only churches after joining the military in 1972 and my eyes were finally opened to the shallowness of evangelism I saw there. In a break between services from the Army to the Marine Corps I went back home and started attending a church affiliated with Highland Park Baptist Church which emphasized going door to door getting people to say a prayer for salvation. I was joined with someone who was supposed to teach me about
“soul winning” and at one stop we knocked a lady with small crying children came to the screen door who obviously had no interest in anything we had to say and told us she didn’t have time to talk. The one “discipling” me on how to win a soul to Christ asked her if he could pray. While he was praying the sinner’s prayer on the porch, on the other side of the screen door she had walked off and so he was praying to himself. He angrily told me as we walked away that if she didn’t want to get saved that was up to her. He had planned on using that sinner’s prayer as another notch on his belt to brag about how many souls he had won on visitation.
It took many years for me to finally break from that brand of Christianity since I had been brainwashed to believe that all the other denominations were compromisers. I remember when
Curtis Hutson took over the Sword of the Lord organization and expunged
“repentance” from all their hymn books, Jack Hyles joined in along with many other anti-Calvinist Baptists who preached that salvation was simply
“believing” with the head while teaching any requirements of
“turning from sin” (which the Bible teaches) was a “works salvation.”
Steven Anderson who supported
Jack Hyles and
Bob Gray in Texas among others actually had a
“Repentance Blacklist” where he condemned everyone to hell from Charles Spurgeon to Billy Graham and everyone else that dared to preach that sinners must
“repent and believe the gospel.”
Calvinists emphasize the
sovereignty of God while the
anti-Calvinists emphasize the
responsibility of man while the Bible teaches
both! The only problem is no one has been able to fully reconcile both these truths with our limited human understanding. Charles Spurgeon acknowledged this problem. Extreme positions on both sides are detrimental to the cause of Christ. No one in church history was more evangelistic than Charles Spurgeon and reading his sermons make that obvious.
One problem I see with Calvinism is their marching orders come from following the
T.U.L.I.P. to the point that any deviation from those points are considered unorthodox. For example, the belief in
limited atonement (Jesus only shed his blood for the elect) was not sufficient for the sins of the entire world when the apostle Peter seems clear that Jesus shed His blood for even false prophets who deny Him (2 Peter 2:1-22). If someone disagrees with
any point whatsoever with what Calvin believed they are
“Arminians.”
For those
anti-Calvinists who are cock-sure they are going to heaven because they “believe” in Jesus, the Bible has frightening warnings to them. In the context of 2 Corinthians 12:21 and the entire book of Corinthians. In chapter 13 verse 5 the apostle Paul warns those who claim to be Christians to
“examine themselves” as to whether they are in the faith lest they be found to be
“reprobates.” See also the dire warnings in 1 John. Jesus also warned that on the day of judgment:
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
