Calvinism and Evangelism
All scripture quotations are from the King James Bible
By Dr. Ken Matto
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature.
(Mark 16:15)
Another false accusation levied against the “Calvinists”
is that there is no urgency in getting the gospel out to the world.
They think that because we believe in the doctrines of election and
predestination, then there is no need to send forth the gospel to the world
because if God has already chosen those he is going to save, then why bother
going to the streets and evangelize.
Quite frankly there are many who are called
hyper-Calvinists who believe this and have done nothing to send forth the gospel
to the world. William Carey
(8/17/1761-6/9/1834) was a missionary to India who faced that particular mindset
when he had a desire to go to India.
He became associated with a group of particular Baptists and acquainted
with men like Andrew Fuller and John Ryland.
Carey had a burning desire for the souls of men and wanted to go to India
to spread the gospel.
He argued that Jesus' Great
Commission applied to all Christians of all times, and he castigated fellow
believers of his day for ignoring it: “Multitudes sit at ease and give
themselves no concern about the far greater part of their fellow sinners, who to
this day, are lost in ignorance and idolatry.”
When Carey submitted the
subject of world missions for discussion at a ministers' meeting, “Whether the
command given to the apostles to teach all nations was not obligatory on all
succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying
promise was of equal extent.” Dr.
Ryland shouted, "Young man, sit down: when God pleases to covert the heathen, He
will do it without your aid or mine."
So you see that even in
the 1700’s there was opposition to world missions.
That must never be the attitude of any Christian who holds to the
Doctrines of Grace. God has set up
certain responsibilities for the Christian and one of them is to go forth with
the gospel to all nations as we read in Mark 16:15 above.
God has determined to save his people by means of the preaching of the
gospel.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. (Romans
10:17) It does not matter if a
person holds to election and predestination because the Great Commission is for
all Christians.
Since we do not know who
the Elect of God are we are to go out to the streets or give to missions and
hand out tracts or preach the gospel to every creature as the Bible commands us
to. We may hand out 100 tracts and
there may only be 3 Elect within that group.
It does not matter, our responsibility is to go forth with the gospel and
it is God’s responsibility to save those he has named before the foundation of
the world and he will.
The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
(2 Peter 3:9) 2 Peter
3:9 has to do with the Elect of God and not the entire world.
God names the believers in eternity, he then predestines them, and then
he saves them. The last seven words
in that verse deals with repentance.
God is the one who grants repentance because it is not in a person who is
spiritually dead to repent.
In meekness instructing those that oppose
themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth; (2 Timothy 2:25)
If God is the one who grants repentance, then it is not done out of a
person’s will because before salvation a person is spiritually dead but after
salvation they are alive.
The next time you meet a person who holds to the Calvinist doctrines and believes they do not have to do world evangelism, then remind them the command came from the Lord and they are living in rebellion when they are shirking their spiritual responsibilities. Now you may not be able to go to the mission field but you can sure help those who can go or are sending forth the gospel by various methods. You can even go out the streets yourself and hand out tracts and Bibles. I am sure there are places in your town where people gather and you would be able to evangelize. So the bottom line is that those who hold to the doctrines of election and predestination are not exempt from the command to go forth with the gospel.