Is the gospel that saves Arminian or Calvinistic?
There are a few Calvinists out there who having a zeal without knowledge insist that unless a man understands and believes the gospel in the Calvinist way, why he just can’t be saved. Is this true?
What is the True ‘Gospel’? Here is the Apostles’ definition of it –
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures! [1Cor15:1-4]
This according to the Apostle is the ‘Gospel’! Anyone who tries to read ‘Calvinism’ or ‘Arminianism’ in the above greatly errs and tries to read into it something that is not there!
Again, “Sirs what must I do to be saved”? And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”! [Act 16;30,31]
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. [Rom 10:8-13].
In fact you will not find even a single instance where some Evangelist preached ‘The Five Points of Calvinism’ or ‘Arminianism’ while addressing the lost in the whole of the New Testament! (Search and see).
Now God saved me in 1986 while I was under an Arminian tent. It was not until many years later that God opened my eyes to Reformed Truths. But whenever I share my testimony, there are times I run into some pharisaical Calvinist who gets mad and says, “no way, you just couldn’t have been saved while you were an Arminian!”
But as sure as Jehovah is on the Throne I know I was! I was saved not because I was an Arminian but in spite of it! You see, I was not some moral brother who was saved from his churchianity and self-righteousness. I was saved straight from under Lucifer’s Altar! I know the enmity that arose between me and the demons I had dabbled with! I immediately experienced the ‘Enmity’ prophesied in Genesis 3:15, not to mention my deliverance from my Heroin Addiction, Alcoholism, and Heavy Metal music! But above all this, there arose an unexplainable and unquenchable love for Jesus and Christians whom I had hated with my guts before my conversion! [See 1Jn 3:14].
So is Calvinism ‘the Gospel’? Calvinism ‘explains’ and ‘defines’ the gospel as the truth is in Jesus! And I would question the salvation of any man who does not by and by understand, comprehend and receive this Truth and contend for it; no matter how well read he may be in the scriptures! That is what it means to ‘grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. [2Pet 3:18]. And ‘the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day [Prov 4:18]. For the Spirit leadeth all the Elect into this Truth of the Sovereignty of God and the utter helplessness of man to save himself or keep himself saved! “And when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.” To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them, and they do not have the ‘root of the matter’! God’s Elect will sooner or later cry out with Jonah, “Salvation is of the Lord!” [Jonah 2:9].
So without laboring the point, can a man be saved in an Arminian tent? It is God who saves, and He does so by regenerating and converting His elect wherever He chooses by the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of His Word! And that Word is not the ‘Five point of Calvinism’ or ‘Arminianism’ but the simple truth that Jesus Christ died for sinners, was buried and rose again! If a man has been taught of the Father (as all God’s Elect are [Jn 6:45]) this truth will mean something to him and he will believe it in his heart confess it with his mouth and be saved! Period! Those who deny this greatly err not knowing the Scriptures neither the power of God! Sheep may sit under false teaching for some time, but before long they will go out searching for the Shepherd’s voice, for they know not the voice of strangers! Anyone who claims to be the Lord’s sheep and lives and dies an Arminian even after being exposed to the truths of Sovereign Grace never was one!
When I speak of the Lord’s sheep still trapped in Arminian Churches, I have in mind Christ’s Lambs and babes in Christ. In no way do I mean the ‘theologians’, ‘reverends’, deacons or ‘Elders’ who have studied and rejected the writings of the ‘Puritans’ and ‘Reformers’. Believe me, these have their reward.
The Lord has made the gates of Heaven as narrow as you can make it, even a ‘needles eye’. Let us not labour to make it any narrower and turn the Reformed Faith into a Cult, saying, “unless you are saved under Reformed preaching, you just cannot be saved.”
As a final thought consider this, if the Lord does not have his sheep in Arminian and other false Churches why would He take the pains to say, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” [Rev18:4].