Why I Believe What I Believe…

examineit

When I finally decided to discipline myself and study scripture without any influence from a church or a particular pastor, I found many contradicting teachings within Christianity itself, errors that I too was guilty of committing.

One major error I found was we Christians didn’t seem to have any remorse in the sins we committed. It wasn’t as if we were clueless to our sins, it was just never taught we humans lived in a total corrupt state and without Jesus we were doomed for death. Instead we were programmed with uplifting and positive messages to love ourselves, have positive thoughts and to believe in what we say and by faith it will happen. This led to the idea that as long as we confess our sins we can live however we like – thus producing millions of superficial Christians, I myself included.

The second major error was God’s supremacy. Because we love to be emotionally motivated and yearn to get our ears tickled with encouraging messages, the idea that we were not in charge of our destiny placed a sour taste in our mouths. God being in charge gave the impression that God was mean and unloving. In fact I remember hearing many variations of stories regarding how we were not created as robots and a loving God would not program us to love Him, this is why He gave us “free will.”

However after studying scripture, I read for myself that God is Sovereign, and that He chooses who He please to choose, scripture is clear of this: “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16), “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Nevertheless, although many Christians deny replacing God’s power with their own, truth is things like the Alter Call and Sinner’s Prayer place our salvation in what “we” do and the decisions “we” make and not what God does. And regarding the robots analogy regarding free will? Well although it is correct that God did not create us as robots, our love for Him still lies in what He did first: “We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John  4:19)

And thirdly the misconception of God’s love. While it is true that God’s love is for the entire human race, scripture is very clear that there is a particularly “special” love for believers: “We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” (1 Tim. 4:10) Jesus Himself said: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). So who is the sheep? He goes on to say: “I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (v.14), “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (v.27)

It is obvious by the state this world is in today that not everyone listens to His voice and not everyone follows Him. Truth is Christ’s atonement is efficient only for those who actually “believe.” You may be thinking if only believers will go to Heaven who can be saved? Well let me use an answer from Phil Johnson the Executive Director of Grace to You:

” “Who then can be saved?” Do you remember Jesus’ answer to that question? “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). He does the impossible. His own love for us is such that He purchases us and pursues us and persuades us lovingly to love Him. And in order to make that love possible, He even graciously gives us new hearts that are capable of loving. That’s the promise He makes to His people in Ezekiel 36...”

As I mentioned before in another blog post, these errors were found simply by studying scripture on my own. I emptied everything I was used to hearing, seeing and experiencing within church services and literally read the bible cover to cover.

And though this was way before I even knew what was Calvinism and Arminianism, I came to believe that the 5-points of Calvinism is definitely true doctrine. Like Phil Johnson stated in his blog post, this was exactly what happened to me:

“…the more I studied the Bible, the more it seemed to challenge my ideas about free will and the sovereignty of God. One by one over a period of more than 10 years, the doctrines of election, and God’s sovereignty, and the total depravity of sinners became more and more clear to me from Scripture.”

Like Johnson, saying I’m a 5-point Calvinist does not mean I am pledging allegiance to the man John Calvin, affirming everything he taught, or condoning everything he did. What I am saying is these 5-points: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance is definitely found within scripture.

I pray that those of you who believe otherwise to please take some time and read over this wonderful series of short blog post by Phil Johnson to get the gist of why I believe what I believe:

In Christ,
Marc

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