How to Lead a Calvinist to the Lord
Originally published June 28, 2013
“What imperils the Calvinist soul is a fundamental anti-biblical view of the law. They must be shown the new way of the Spirit.”
Know Calvin’s Gospel
Calvinism is a false gospel that imperils the soul. The apostle Paul made it clear in Romans that there are only two people groups in the world: those under law, and those under grace (ROM 6:14). The lost and the saved. Calvinists declare themselves to be under law. They try to get around this by saying you can be under law and under grace both, but such is not the case. They say it is ok to be under law and covered by grace if we live by faith alone in sanctification; or, living by the same grace that saved us. The whole, “We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day” is indicative of where they stand on law and grace. According to their other gospel, we need the same grace that saved us every day for one reason and one reason only: we are supposedly still under law. Certainly, all people live under the grace of God whether saved or unsaved—we are addressing the grace that saved us initially.
Calvinists use the book of Galatians in an effort to make the opposite point; supposedly, the Galatians were putting themselves under law by attempting to please God in sanctification by keeping the law. Hence, in the Calvinist mind, attempting to keep the law in sanctification is the same thing as trying to keep the law for our justification—they are still under it accordingly….for justification….IN sanctification. In other words, a demand for perfect obedience to the law in sanctification is still the standard to maintain justification. This was Paul’s actual beef with the Galatians: that the law was still a standard for maintaining their justification. The Galatians were adding law to grace in order to maintain grace. So, instead of the law informing their sanctification, they were putting themselves back under the law to maintain justification. That’s why Paul wrote the following to them:
Galatians 4:21 – Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
Paul continues from there to drive home the point that justification is a settled issue and obligation to the law is separated from it. We are obligated to listen to the law for sanctification, but there is no longer any law obligation to our justification. To say that justification has to be maintained by perfect law-keeping is to be under the law. The Galatians were being taught that rituals such as circumcision completely satisfied the law. But again, being under law is the point here. That is why Paul stated the following:
Galatians 5:2 – Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
The Galatians were being taught that circumcision satisfied all of the requirements of the law for justification. This led to an antinomianism in sanctification because in these systems there is no distinction between hearing and doing the law in sanctification and the laws relationship to justification. For the unbeliever, the law is the standard for justification because unbelievers are under the law. Christians are under grace and not under the law, so the law has no relevance to their justification. Paul was simply telling the Galatians that if they are under the law, they are obligated to keep all of it for justification. Circumcision or any other ritual does not satisfy the law.
Paul states that we are not under law because the old us that was under the law is dead (ROM 7:1-11), and therefore, the law cannot judge the sins of our mortality (Rom 3:19, 7:8,9). But on the other hand, we are enslaved to the law in sanctification (Rom 8:7,8). Even though we cannot keep it perfectly due to our present mortality, we are enslaved to it and nonetheless strive to keep it in our sanctification. The law was never fulfilled to maintain our justification because there is no law in justification. The law is fulfilled through us in sanctification (ROM 8:3,4). Christ’s death separated the law from justification in the same way that a spouse is no longer under a marriage covenant when the other spouse dies (ROM 7:1-3).
This excludes the necessity for perfect law-keeping in sanctification. Christ accomplished this through His death, not keeping the law for us in sanctification. Calvinists call this, “Christ 100% for us.” Christ’s perfect law-keeping is a given by virtue of who He is and not because perfect law-keeping was part of the Abrahamic covenant of promise which occurred 430 years before the law (GAL 3:17,18).
Which Brings Us to Calvin’s Galatian Error
No works salvation system ever promotes a perfect, intelligent obedience to the law. It posits activity on our part that imputes something that counts for a perfect keeping of the law to maintain our salvation. This always leads to antinomianism because a ritual replaces actual law-keeping. Those under grace strive to please God by law-keeping because they are enslaved to the law, but on the other hand, perfection is not the standard because they are hindered by mortality (ROM 8:3,4) and the law can’t judge them because they are no longer under it (ROM 3;19). They are enslaved to it for sanctification, but not under it for justification. Those under grace are enslaved to the law but will not be judged by it; those under law are enslaved to sin and will be judged by the law. The Bible has an awesome way of stating this: those under the law violate it at all points by one sin; those under grace fulfill the law by loving their neighbors and God. The enslavement hindered by the weakness of the flesh fulfills the law in sanctification.
Calvin’s error/false gospel merely replaced the ritual of circumcision with daily re-salvation for the atonement of sin and the perpetual imputation of Christ’s perfect law-keeping for sanctification in order to maintain our justification (Calvin Institutes: 3.14.9-11). “We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day” is a ritual that imputes Christ’s perfect obedience to our sanctification in order to maintain our justification. This was also the fatal error of the Pharisees who replaced the law of God with their traditions and thus, “you have made void the law of God” (MATT 15:6 [most translations : “set aside” and “commandments”). The law is void for justification (the dead letter and covenant of death), but not sanctification.
Therefore, Calvinism keeps the “believer” under the law for justification leading to antinomianism in sanctification because Christ is 100% for us and keeps the law for us in sanctification in order to maintain our just standing. This is well exemplified via the following tweet by a well-known Calvinist:
This was the same result at Galatia as well:
Galatians 5:7 – You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
This rejects the believer’s hindered enslavement to the law in sanctification and only leaves one other alternative: under the law. For all practical purposes: lost. Therefore, the Calvinist must be informed that he/she is still under the law and trusting in a false gospel. What imperils the Calvinist soul is a fundamental anti-biblical view of the law. They must be shown the new way of the Spirit.
Let me recommend that you then teach them through the following booklet (Click on images to enlarge if necessary):
It’s Not About Truth and it Never Was.
Paul M. Dohse
TTANC L.L.C.
PO Box 583
Xenia, Ohio 45385
To Dr. Walter Price and the Board of Trustees of Southern Seminary:
Gentlemen,
It is no surprise that truth is of low value in our day; the apostle Paul informed Timothy that in the latter days people would not tolerate sound doctrine, and we are in those days. Hence, there are no expectations in regard to this letter, but nevertheless, it is a duty to proclaim the truth.
Southern Seminary now offers academic credits for attending seminars at conferences sponsored by various organizations connected with the present-day resurgence of authentic Calvinism. Though the traditions of men and antinomianism was of primary concern as stated by Christ during His earthly ministry, the evangelical academia of our day follows the crowds in wholesale acceptance of any doctrinal name brand that sells.
This blitzkrieg of resurgent conferences targets youth specifically. The resurgence seeks to turn a whole generation of youth to this doctrine. This represents the future of the American church. Evangelicals, and its academia in particular, seem indifferent to the gravity of future accountability attached to this reality.
Our organization researches the Calvin Institutes, and the trustees of Southern Seminary would do well in following our example rather than the opinions of men like Albert Mohler. Calvin’s gospel, as stated in the Institutes, is a call to keep ourselves saved through the practice of antinomianism, and has a distinctive Gnostic application. It is works salvation by Christ plus antinomianism, and reduces obedience to only experiencing the imputation of Christ’s perfect obedience to the Christian life. An example of this would be on page 215 in How People Change (2006), a book written by Paul David Tripp, a speaker at the recent Cross Conference endorsed by Southern Seminary. He states the following:
When we think, desire, speak, or act in a right way, it isn’t time to pat ourselves on the back or cross it off our To Do List. Each time we do what is right, we are experiencing what Christ has supplied for us. In Chapter 11, we introduced some of the fruit Christ produces. We will expand the discussion here.
Calvin, as well as Luther, believed that all reality is interpreted through the works of Christ in the gospel, or the “objective” gospel and the imputation of those works are experienced “subjectively” in order to remove our works from sanctification. Hence, “the subjective power of an objective gospel” and other such mantras often heard among evangelicals today. This necessitates, in a manner of speaking, interpreting every verse in the Bible as a justification verse; i.e., “Biblical Theology,” a buzz word at Southern. This way of interpreting the Bible was introduced by Christian mystic Geerhardus Vos circa 1938.
Calvin also redefined the new birth as an experience of perpetual rebirth in order to keep ourselves saved by the same gospel that originally saved us. So, the new birth is not a one-time event, it is a perpetual cycle of the same repentance and new birth experience that originally saved us—that’s why we must, “preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” This is the doctrine of mortification and vivification. It is part of Calvin’s systematic theology. This is factually indisputable. The Christian life focuses on our total depravity and repentance only, leading to the experience of vivification, or a joyful experience.
Therein, the human “heart” is redefined as something that is transformed only by its increased ability to experience vivification. This is why John Piper states that joy is essential to the Christian life; if vivification is not being experienced; perpetual rebirth is not taking place:
The pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an ‘extra’ that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your ‘faith’ cannot please God. It is not saving faith (Desiring God: p. 69).
Likewise, Southern Baptist Paul Washer states the following:
This cycle simply repeats itself throughout the Christian life. As the years pass, the Christian sees more of God and more of self, resulting in a greater and deeper brokenness. Yet, all the while, the Christian’s joy grows in equal measure because he is privy to greater and greater revelations of the love, grace, and mercy of God in the person and work of Christ. Not only this, but a greater interchange occurs in that the Christian learns to rest less and less in his own performance and more and more in the perfect work of Christ. Thus, his joy is not only increased, but it also becomes more consistent and stable (Paul Washer:The Gospel Call and True Conversion; Part 1, Chapter 1, heading – The Essential Characteristics Of Genuine Repentance, subheading – Continuing and Deepening Work of Repentance).
The new birth is redefined as a “cycle” rather than a one-time event like our physical birth. It is redefined as a perpetual rebirth experience as we focus on our saintly total depravity. We are only righteous positionally; regeneration is a mere experience of Christ’s perfect obedience to the law. This not only keeps Christians under law, but inadvertently calls for a rejoicing in our own supposed total depravity.
This is why authentic Calvinism dies a social death within Christianity every 100 years or so. God’s people eventually catch on to the fact that it is a false gospel. Lighter forms of it survive the rejection while maintaining the label. We are presently within the fifth resurgence since Calvin’s Geneva, and the trustees of Southern are mindless participants accordingly.
We had the wonderful privilege of meeting many, many young people at the recent Cross Conference where you promoted this false gospel. We realize that there will only be a remnant that loves the truth enough to reject this latest academic novelty. But this is a generation of young people capable of great things, and smart enough to know that they only need God Himself to accomplish His mission. We believe that American Christianity has become a mission field in and of itself; namely, YOUR resurgence movement, a movement that bears your name, and we are seeking to reach that remnant of God that loves His truth. This is our duty and calling. A gospel promoting a justification that is not finished cannot save.
Meanwhile, as stated by the apostle Paul, let those who teach another gospel be accursed whether they be angels or men of renown.
Because only truth saves and sanctifies,
Paul M. Dohse
John 17:17
Matthew 4:4
Paul Washer Video Indicative of Why TANC is Here
In the following video, Paul Washer seemingly makes an ironclad argument for the preselection of those who will be saved and eternally damned to a seminary student searching for the truth. And that’s what is sad, God’s people are poorly equipped to give these guys a run for their money. And that is why we are here.
The way Washer sets the agenda for an assured outcome is classic. Notice how Washer lets this guy assume, for now, that total depravity only pertains to the unsaved. To bring the conversation to the ability or non-ability of the regenerate according to Calvinist orthodoxy would put Washer under a whole other set of lights. I would pay hard cash to see a video where someone asks Washer, “Ok, I get it, but are Christians also totally depraved?”
Also, these guys always get a free pass on making election the gospel. The day will come when someone says: “Let’s talk about your view on justification, and if that passes biblical muster, I will consider your view on election. I would hate to think that your view on election is based on a false gospel.”
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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