Pastor Jacob Birch and Work Like an Arminian, Sleep like a Calvinist

This podcast is supposed to be about the difference in attitude to evangelism between Arminians and Calvinists and why Dr. John Piper thinks the Calvinist position is superior.

Pastor John Piper's primary arguments against Arminianism in this podcast fall into the following 2 parts:

That Arminian position on Salvation is Unhelpful and that its position on Evangelism is Misleading according to Scripture.

Let me summarize and try to refute both his arguments below.

1) Unhelpful: 

Pastor John's argument about Arminianism being unhelpful largely revolves around an emotional plea (3:45 especially 4:25) about "people growing up in fear" of losing their salvation. He doesn't argue against Arminianism per se but takes up a  Base Rate Fallacy argument saying that if you believe in Arminianism then you will be afraid of losing your salvation and fear of losing your salvation is bad therefore don't believe in Arminianism because it is wrong to be afraid.

Perceived negative emotional consequences are not an argument against an idea's veracity.

I might be fearful of polar ice cap melting due to an increase in the earth's temperature but that doesn't mean i should therefore say the polar ice cap isn't melting because i don't want to be afraid. Duh?

In the following Scriptures - if anything - Jesus and Paul and other NT authors want their audiences - if not to fear for their salvation - to at the very least not take their salvation SO MUCH for granted that their confidence overcame their desire for holy living.

Matthew 13:21  - 2 of the 4 (weeds and rocks) seeds in Jesus' Parable of the Soils clearly are pictures of people that believed who then fall away.

Romans 11:22 - Clearly - based on the example of God's OT people - Paul warns Christians that they too can be "cut off" from the covenant of grace by their transgressions if they aren't careful.

Hebrews 2:1-4 - The rhetorical question of Hebrews 2:3 is obviously answered "We won't escape if we neglect this great salvation that Christ has purchased for us." And - please look at verse 1 - the people this is addressed to are those who are in danger of "drifting" away from it, not of rejecting it in the 1st place.

With hell very much on the line, the fear of losing one's salvation is only "bad" in so far as that fear is unfounded, which it isn't, based on these verses above.

2) Misleading: 

Battling the idea that Arminians - due to their "fear" of losing their salvation - work harder than Calvinists particularly at evangelism, Pastor John brings out a number of Scripture verses that he uses to show that really it was God's grace at work enabling believer's to work hard for God's glory, not because they are afraid. He doesn't actually make that explicit connection but the emotional tone of his earlier argument carries forward throughout the podcast colouring his presentation of Arminianism and its positions.

Pastor John does say very early in the podcast (1:50) that both Arminians and Calvinists agree that it is God's grace which enables our salvation.

Pastor John wants to argue that it is God who is "decisively" at work in salvation and that Arminian's believe that it is humanity's choice which is decisive. That is a straw man fallacy. Arminian's believe that it is humanity's choice AND God's grace that both play the decisive parts in salvation, just like the Bible teaches.

Pastor John says (loosely quoting him here) "God removes all obstacles so that Christ is decisively embraced based on what the eyes of the heart see" If all obstacles are removed the heart has not still embraced Christ until it ACTUALLY embraces Christ. Even Dr. Piper's formulation of Calvinism contains an implicit form of what the Bible teaches.

That additionally sounds deceptively like Arminius's formulation of "prevenient grace". Is Pastor John really a closet Wesleyean? I hope so.

Anyways here are the verses Pastor John quotes in an attempt to show that what motivates Paul is God's grace at work in him. Which all the verse's do show. But I fail to see how this refutes the Arminian case when both Arminian's and Calvinist's believe - as Pastor John notes - that it is God's grace which saves and works in us.

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

So Pastor John argues from this verse "Look ... Paul saw that it was God's grace that worked in him" to which I say... Bully for God's grace! But note what the verse says which Pastor John doesn't. Look at the part of the verse i have put in bold. Paul says that God's grace to him "was not vain". Does that not imply that God's grace to him COULD have been in vain? In other words God could have extended His grace to someone who did not believe and did not - in turn - work for the gospel? Isn't that the definition of what God's grace being "in vain" would mean? We are to work precisely so that God's grace once poured out in us for salvation is "not in vain" as a result of our dereliction of duty.

Philipans 2:12-13 & 3:12 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Pastor John makes the point in referencing these verses that the "stress is on God's sovereign initiative" (6:55) But I think - and hope - as my highlighting of the verses in context will show, that the Scriptures emphasize (as Arminianism does) BOTH the initiative of God's grace and the responsibility of humanity. Yes it is - as Pastor John says - God who works in us for his good pleasure but nonetheless we are commanded by Paul to "work out our salvation with "fear (the very thing Calvinists are afraid of it seems) and trembling". Once again nothing in Philipians refutes the Arminian emphasis on the balance between human responsibility and God's grace as well the attendant concern we should all have for the state of our souls.

Colossians 1:29 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Based on this verse Pastor John says that the hallmark of Calvinism as it relates to human living and serving is: "What we are doing is trusting, resting and being empowered by what God does so that God gets all the glory." (7:50)

Just look at Paul's verbs that i have bolded above and Pastor John's verbs that supposedly are to characterize the Christian. The shift is subtle. The shift appears VERY humble and spiritual. The shift preaches VERY well to lethargic, world-enamoured, bloated North American Christians.

But the shift is a deadly one i think... deadly to the vitality of the individual believer's witness and to the effectiveness of our churches - in the main - over the last 50 years or so of Calvinism's ascendancy in North America.

Pastor John says we are to trust... rest... be empowered. All three of Pastor John's verbs are very passive. Don't believe me? Look them up in the dictionary.

Who can argue against trusting in God? Resting in God? Being Empowered by the Holy Spirit? Well one can't, unless one is talking about evangelism and witnessing (which we are) and unless one is talking about Paul's attitude toward those topics as reflected in his letters to his churches (which we are as well).

Where does Paul ever passively assert ... I am just trusting in God to get the work done through me? He doesn't. Where does Paul ever conservatively opine... I am just resting in God's ability to reach Asia Minor through me and my compatriots? He doesn't.

What does Paul say?

He says he toils.
He says he struggles.
He says he worked harder than anyone.

Pastor John asserts that when we are passive we are so in a way that gives God greater glory than Arminians who are so active. He doesn't actually say that but that is his inference.

On the contrary once again where Calvinists want it to be an either/or... it is actually a both/and. Paul works hard AND gives God all the glory. Working hard yourself doesn't negate the fact that you can and do give God all the glory. Being an Arminian doesn't automatically make one an arrogant idolater. As Pastor John himself has noted, both Arminians and Calvinists agree that it is God's grace, not our effort in evangelism that saves people, so working hard is not antithetical to God receiving the glory.

God receiving the glory is a function of the attitude of the worker, not their theological position.

1 Peter 4:10-11 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I have taken the liberty of including the context for the last verse Pastor John quotes in support of his position. It is bolded above. Yes here again as no one refutes it is God's grace that Peter understands to be at work in us as we live our Christian lives. The question i gather then is one of emphasis. Note verse 10 which Pastor John doesn't quote. Peter tells his churches to be "good stewards of God's varied grace" ESV. This begs the question can one be a "bad steward"? Of course. The Scriptures are full of examples of men and women of faith who were "bad stewards": who presumed upon God's grace and misused it to their own peril. In fact you could argue around 10 of Jesus' 33 parables about just such characters. For example the servant who badly stewards his one talent in Matthew 25.

He was one of the servants of the owner going away (arguably a picture of being a Christian).
He was given a gift. (Like Peter references in 1 Peter 4)
He was called to use that gift effectively. (As Peter also says in chapter 4)
He didn't. He squandered it in his Master's view by being "restful... trusting" to use language from the podcast.
And what happened to that steward?

Matthew 25:30
And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Of course the gifts we have are God's for the giving. Of course the power that works within us is God's power through the Holy Spirit. That - in a sense - IS NOT THE POINT.

The point of all these passages is "How will you be responsible with what God has entrusted to you?" That was the question Jesus was asking his audience in Matthew 25.

Calvinists are afraid of pride and specifically Arminian pride from thinking of humanity as having any role in evangelism in this case or salvation in the larger one. Pride is something to be afraid of. But more often i have seen pride arise in believers from the sense of "entitlement" Calvinism imparts to those who think themselves the "elect" than it ever has in disciples striving with all that is in them day by day "to confirm your calling and election" 2 Peter 1:10.

"restful... trusting... being carried" : these are a necessary but not ultimately a sufficient answer in the Bible's view of our attitude to the work of evangelism.

In the last segment Dr. Piper makes the quick historical assertion that basically the Reformed background of the "Protestant work ethic" built our modern western society without any data provided other than his informed opinion. The fact is that majority of pilgrim immigrants to North American were of Arminian persuasion or their Calvinism was at best a side note to the larger question of their view of church-state relations.

But given he offers no real argument here in favour of his position i will offer little in the way of refutation.

"Work like a Calvinist, Play like a Calvinist, Rest like a Calvinist" ... that would seem from everything else Dr. Piper has said in this podcast to be a pretty slothful, boring and lethargic existence. 3 characteristics of the modern North American church in all sorts of people's estimations.

Not all like the vigorous life of faith envisioned in the NT...

2 Timothy 2 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 3 Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.