Calvinist Flyswatter

Why your next pastor should be a Calvinist

IF YOUR NEXT PASTOR IS A "CALVINIST,"
WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT?

Tom Nettles of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Board member of the Flounders, has an item on the Flounders' website entitlted, "Why Your Next Pastor Should Be a Calvinist."

I first met Tom when he was on the Faculty at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis when I was a guest speaker there in the early 1980s. I have known him ever since and we have exchanged a number of emails in time past. He doesn't contact me any more, evidently due to my disagreement with him over a number of issues related to what he calls "Calvinism."

It is not my purpose to critique Tom's article, but rather to indicate what one might possibly expect if his next pastor is a "Calvinist" according to the modern Pedobaptist "Reformed" version of "Calvinism" represented by the Flounders and Dr. Tom Nettles.

1. If your church has been engaged in aggressive evangelistic efforts, you might expect those efforts to be discouraged and to go into the decline.

2. If your church has used a public invitation to invite sinners to believe and confess Christ as Saviour, you can expect this to at first be minimized, then eventually ceased to be practiced altogether.

3. If your church has been accepting the professions of faith on the part of children and baptizing them, you can expect that to decline as well, probably cease.

4. If your church has been providing Gospel tracts which the new pastor considers to be "Arminian," you can expect not to see them made available anymore for use.

5. You can expect to probably see a number of tracts, booklets and books provided which promote the Pedobaptist Hybrid Calvinist version of "Calvinism."

6. As progress is made in the "reformation" to Hybrid Calvinism, you might expect a "conference" to be held which will major on "the doctrines of grace" according to the Hybrid Calvinist version. Dr. Nettles might even be one of the speakers.

7. You can expect your pastor to perhaps urge the church to become an affiliate of the Flounders as a "Founders Friendly" associate.

8. You can expect your pastor to discountenance certain nomenclature which he brands as "Arminian," such as "accept Christ," "receive Christ," "decision," "the sinner's prayer," "open your heart to Jesus," etc.

9. As your church grows "deeper" in the "grace" of Hybrid Calvinism, you can expect your pastor to refer disparagingly of evangelists and evangelism ("easy believism" and "decisional regeneration," he might call it), D. L. Moody, Charles Finney, Billy Graham, and any others who have had multitudes of professions in their ministries.

10. You can expect your pastor will preach on the "New Birth," and explain to the congregation how "regeneration" must "precede faith."

11. You can expect your pastor to promote the books authored by Hybrid Calvinists, especially the Pedobaptist writers published by the Banner of Truth.

12. You can expect your pastor to encourage adopting the "elder system" of the Pedobaptists.

13. You can expect that any new members added to the church will most likely be proselytes who have "come into the doctrines of grace" after having been originally converted under "Arminian" ministries.

14. Eventually, after the initial enthusiasm and
infatuation for Hybrid Calvinism has settled down, you may see your church begin to decline, and even develope splits and splinters.

15. Then, after perhaps a few years, your church may have dwindled down to a precious few, and stand on the brink of shutting down.

Now, I am not saying this is an absolute pattern, but I have been around "Calvinists" of the "Reformed" DNA for many years, and I have known most of the so-called "revivals" of "Calvinism" and their prominent leaders, and what I have described is from my observation in many, many cases. In our own area, for instance, I could probably cite from six to ten churches which have more or less followed this route and have shut down.

So . . . if you want to risk following Tom's advice and call a "Calvinist" pastor, just remember what "the old man" told you on this blog in November, 2008.

posted by Bob L. Ross @ 2:01 PM