Alana L.: 1a (inability), 1b (belief is a work)
This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.: 5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist
Point #1:
A. Alana pointed out how Calvinists say "I could never choose God. I would never choose God. I can't even want God or seek God, so He had to choose me."
When Calvinists say this, there are (at least) two possible things going on:
1. They're repeating what Calvinists have taught them to say and believe, convinced that it's what "humble, God-honoring" Christians believe and what the Bible really teaches. It's part of their doctrine of "total depravity," that humans are so terrible - so "spiritually dead" inside - that they can't do anything on their own, not even think about God, want God, seek God, or believe in God - not unless and until God regenerates them by giving them the Holy Spirit who makes them born-again and injects saving faith into them, causing them to want God, seek God, and believe in God. [If they can find a verse that clearly teaches this, then I'll start to consider it a little more.]
But here's the thing: Total depravity/spiritual death does not mean "inability" or that our brains don't work. That's a presupposition Calvinists read into the Bible and support with out-of-context, misinterpreted verses.
"Death" is about separation. When we're physically dead, our spirits are separated from our bodies. When we're spiritually dead, we're separated from God.
We need to let the Bible tell us what "dead" means, instead of letting Calvinists tell us:
“As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
"But your iniquities have separated you from your God..." (Isaiah 59:2).
Because of our sins, we are "dead." And "dead" means that we are separated from God. Not that we are "unable to think, seek, believe."
[It's funny that Calvinists will compare spiritually-dead people to physically-dead bodies and say that since a physically-dead body can't do anything, then spiritually-dead people can't do anything either, like think about God, want God, seek God, believe in God, or want to do anything truly good... but then they'll go and say that spiritually-dead people desire to sin, choose to sin, choose to do evil, and choose to resist the truth and reject God, etc. Hmm? I didn't know that physically-dead bodies can desire/choose to sin and reject God. Interesting. So... Calvinist zombies!?! I don't think that's a dead body I want to meet.]
Depravity/spiritual death just means that our sins have separated from God spiritually (and if we die physically in that state, we will remain eternally separated from God), and that we cannot work our way to heaven. And so we needed God to make a way for us, which He did by sending Jesus to the cross for our sins, making salvation available to us all and possible for us all. It has nothing to do with being "totally unable" to seek or believe in God.
And so even though we are spiritually dead (separated from God), our brains still work. Our minds are still alive. And God expects us to use our living brains to want Him, seek Him, and find Him.
Acts 17:27: "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."
Look for a moment at Amos 5:4: "Seek me and live ..." and Deuteronomy 30:15,19: "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction... Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."
God says "Seek Me and then you will live... Choose life and then you will live." If they have to seek/choose Him in order to live, it means they are currently "dead," which means that God is telling "dead" people to seek Him and choose Him in order to live. This is the reverse of Calvinism, which says the elect must be brought to life first in order to seek and choose. (Calvinism often uses the same concepts but in reverse order, making it easier to trick people who hear the biblical concepts but don't notice the flip.)
Do you know who else was considered “dead” in the Bible? The prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. And yet he himself “came to his senses” and chose to return to his father - a father who wasn't dragging him back with some big heavenly hook, but who was waiting eagerly for him with arms outstretched, eyes full of love, and a heart full of forgiveness.
Also consider this verse: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life... he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." (John 5:24-25).
Notice that the people get life after hearing and believing, which means that before hearing/believing they are "dead," which means "dead people" can hear and believe. And notice that it's only after they believe that they are brought to life, which contradicts Calvinism's teaching that spiritually-dead people must be brought to life by the Holy Spirit first in order to believe.
[And as best I can tell, considering what Strong's Concordance with Vine's Expository Dictionary says, the first two uses of "hear" in those verses are merely about sensing the words that hit our ears. So "hear and believe" is about sensing the words and then believing them. And "the dead will hear" is about spiritually-dead people sensing the words that hit their ears. Therefore, spiritually-dead people (which we all are at first) can hear the Word and believe.
But the third use of "hear" - "those who hear will live" - is a different kind of "hear." It means to yield obediently to the voice we hear - not just to sense/listen to the words, but to really hear, to take it in, to accept it and abide by it.
So taking all this together, these verses don't mean, as Calvinists think, that only certain "elect" people can sense the voice/call of God (after being brought to life first by the Holy Spirit, of course) and understand the Word and believe in it.
It means that all dead people are able to "hear and believe" the Word, the call of God, and that all who choose to believe it/yield obediently to it will be saved. And only after believing are they brought to life, given eternal life. This contradicts the Calvinist view that dead people cannot hear/believe and that only certain preselected people are brought to life first, before hearing/believing, in order to make them hear/believe.
And these verses confirm that it’s “believe first, then get the Holy Spirit,” and not Calvinism's “get the Holy Spirit first who then causes you to believe”:
Acts 2:38: "... Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Ephesians 1:13: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."]
Contrary to Calvinism, "dead people" can want/seek/choose/believe in God. And God knows this, which is why He's constantly calling to dead people, telling them to seek Him and choose Him. God knows that though our sins have separated us from Him, our brains still work - and He expects us to use our living brains to find Him.
Total depravity/spiritual death does not mean "totally inability," like Calvinists think it does. So don't let them trick you with the bad analogy of "Spiritually dead people are the exact same as physically dead bodies." It's unbiblical.
2. And then there are those who truly believe that they were such hardened, resistant, terrible people before coming to Christ - hopeless cases - that they don't think they ever could have, would have, come to Jesus if God didn't make them do it.
I would say that these people's hearts are in the right place, but they are actually basing their sense of salvation not on Scripture, but on their own feelings. "I feel like I would never, could never, have wanted Christ on my own, so God must have made me do it." And feelings are not the basis for truth. And you can't have much assurance of salvation (of Truth) when it's based on your feelings.
[I think "basing assurance of salvation on feelings" is exactly what John MacArthur teaches when trying to comfort a woman who was doubting her salvation in a video clip I wrote about in "MacArthur on Calvinism's (lack of) Assurance of Salvation".]
B. Alana pointed out how Calvinists say that belief is a work, as though we were working for our salvation or "saved ourselves," something Calvinists accuse us of if we believe God gave us the free-will to choose Jesus.
Unlike Calvinists who use philosophy and presuppositions to build their beliefs, Alana went to the Bible and pointed out how, in Romans 4, God says that belief is the opposite of works:
'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.' Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to a man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:" (Romans 4:3-6)
"A man who does not work but trusts God." Paul is contrasting Abraham's belief/faith/trust in God with those who "work" for their justification and righteousness, who try to earn/work their way to Him. He's saying that "belief/faith" is not the same thing as "working for salvation," and that belief/faith is what we must do to be saved.
In fact, "believing" is the only thing we must do to be saved, the one responsibility God gave us to do to be saved: "Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?' Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent [Jesus].'" John 6:28-29
And yet Calvinists insist that "believing" is something we can't do because that would be "working for salvation," and we can't work for salvation.
But "believing" is not work. It is simply embracing all the work that Jesus did for us to get us into heaven. Accepting the free gift of eternal life that He paid for with His blood and that He freely offers to us is not work... unless you're a Calvinist.
And so I wonder: If Calvinism says that we have no ability to do the one thing God said we must do to be saved, can anyone really be saved through honestly-presented Calvinism?
[The posts in this series will be added to the "Alana L." label as they get published.]
