Apologetics · eccumenism · evangelism · gospel · sharing the gospel · Theology · Uncategorized

Why do Calvinists Evangelize?

Spurgeonevangelism

  1.  God commands it in His word. Mark 16:15 (NASB) 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
  2.  He ordains the ends and the means.
  3.  At that moment in time, it is not apparent to us who is among the elect.  If we share the gospel with a person who is among the elect, but it is not their due time to be regenerated, then they will reject the gospel.  If it is their time, they will respond with repentance and faith, that are also granted by God.  If we share the gospel with a person who is not among the elect, no matter when in their life they hear it, they will never respond with true repentance and faith.  Even a person who is not among the elect could affirm the gospel intellectually, but never be truly converted.

If people would look into the history of modern evangelism, they would see that many of the memorable evangelists have been Calvinists.

Calvinist Evangelists

  1.   The Apostle Paul 🙂
  2.   George Whitefield
  3.   David Brainerd
  4.   William Carey
  5.   Charles Spurgeon
  6.   C.T. Studd
  7.   Jonathan Edwards
  8.   Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones
  9.   Francis Schaeffer
  10.   James White

Just to name a few.  Oh, and before you get all persnickety and claim that some of the people on the list were Pastors, or theologians, remember they also evangelized.  Spurgeon said, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”  While we are at it, we all are sinners.  We have broken God’s laws and are guilty.  Repent from your sins.  Turn from them and obey God’s word.  Believe on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, where He atoned for your sin.  Don’t put your faith in your own efforts or works to save you.  You can never satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness, but Jesus did.  His righteousness can be credited to you if you will repent and trust in Him.

2 thoughts on “Why do Calvinists Evangelize?

  1. The apostle Paul was not a Calvinist. This Predestination teaching began with the catholic Augustine and later, the just leaving Catholicism John Calvin borrowed from him and expounded on this teaching. Calvin had only been a Christian 3 years when he wrote the , “Institutes.” Still very much a baby Christian.

    There are a lot of Calvinists who do NOT witness/evangelize. I tried to have some witness to Mormons with me and they asked; “Why? What good will it do?”

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    1. You’ve made some assertions without evidence. What source can you quote about the teaching of predestination being a doctrine made up by the Roman Catholics? Modern Roman Catholics deny predestination as taught by the Bible. Augustine was not a Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church did not exist as it is now, when he was alive. Augustine of Hippo lived 344-430AD. He was in Northern Africa, at the crumbling edge of the failing Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor Constantine in 313AD issued the Edict of Milan. This was to end the persecution of Christians. For 280 years prior to that, Rome had been killing Christians. Read Foxx’s Book of Martyrs. Constantine hoped to slow the fall of the Roman Empire by using and co-opting the elements of the Christian faith. Just because there were Christians in countries ruled by Rome, doesn’t mean that all the people were Roman Catholic. If you tried to compare Roman Catholicism now to the ways in which people were living their faith across the Empire you would see they don’t resemble each other. There was no unified Roman Catholic Church until centuries later.

      Saying the Apostle Paul was not a Calvinist is just anachronistic. Of course he wasn’t a Calvinist. Paul live long before anyone was called a Calvinist, or Augustinian. Then again, Paul would have agreed with much of Calvin’s and Augustine’s teachings and affirmed them as right and true. Calvin continuously developed, and added to the Institutes over the span of his life as he learned and matured. That is only to be expected.

      I don’t know what, “Calvinists” you are hanging around that won’t evangelize. They are in sin and rebellion against God and His word. Maybe they just didn’t want to go with you? Due to my understanding of ecumenism, there are some people I won’t do public ministry with. I wouldn’t want people to associate Christianity with the false teachings of the other people. I would politely decline, and evangelize on my own.

      Predestination is all over the Bible you are just not recognizing it when you read it. Israel was predestined by God to be His chosen People. Joseph was predestined to save his kin from famine. Paul was chosen by God before he was born. He didn’t ask to become a Christian when he was on the road to Damascus to persecute them. He was told what to do by Christ, and he did it. It is literally all over the Bible if you look for it. God’s sovereign will exercised in Eternity does not negate our experience of personal volition in the material world.

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