Reformed Pastoral Ministry, Preaching, and Missions — Unit 6: Calvinism and Evangelism: The Free Offer and Urgency

Key Verse

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why the doctrines of grace, rightly understood, give a pastor confidence and urgency in evangelism.

2. State the Reformed teaching of the free offer of the gospel and name places where the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Standards teach it.

3. Describe hyper-Calvinism and explain why the Reformed tradition rejects it.

4. State the Arminian objection fairly and give the Reformed answer.

5. Describe how Reformed preachers and missionaries such as Edwards, Whitefield, Fuller and Carey held God's sovereignty and evangelistic urgency together.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and confessional. When it says "we," it means churches that hold the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God and confess the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, or the Westminster Standards. Other Christians, including our Arminian and Wesleyan brothers and sisters, see these matters differently. We state their views fairly and then give our answer. Course 2 teaches the doctrines themselves. Here we ask a pastor's question: how do they shape the way we bring the gospel to people?

The Charge Against Us

Every Reformed pastor will meet this charge sooner or later: "If God has already chosen who will be saved, why bother to preach? Calvinism kills evangelism."

The charge is not foolish. Some who held the doctrines of grace grew cold toward the lost and used election as an excuse for silence. But the charge fails when we look at Scripture and at the whole history of our churches. The Bible does not set God's sovereignty against preaching. It joins them.

Consider Paul. In Romans 9 he writes about God's electing mercy as strongly as any New Testament writer. In Romans 10, the very next chapter, he writes our key verse. He saw no conflict between the two chapters. God chooses, and God sends preachers. He saves His people through the message they speak.

What the Reformed Confessions Teach

Our confessions do not treat evangelism as an extra. They treat it as the ordinary way God gathers His elect.

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Question 65, teaches that the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel and strengthens it by the sacraments. Faith comes through a means, and the means is preaching.

The Canons of Dort (1619) speak plainly about the offer. In the Second Main Point, Article 5, the synod taught that the promise of the gospel, that whoever believes in Christ crucified will not perish but have eternal life, together with the command to repent and believe, is to be declared to all peoples and persons without distinction, wherever God in His good pleasure sends the gospel. Articles 3 and 4 of the same Main Point teach that Christ's death is of infinite worth, more than enough to pay for the sins of the whole world. In the Third and Fourth Main Points, Article 8, the Canons teach that the call of the gospel is serious and sincere: God truly shows in His Word what is pleasing to Him and truly promises life to all who come. The synod that defended election also commanded that the gospel be preached to everyone.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 7, section 3, teaches that in the covenant of grace the Lord freely offers life and salvation by Jesus Christ to sinners. The Shorter Catechism speaks the same way. Question 31 says that in effectual calling the Spirit persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, "freely offered to us in the gospel." Question 86 describes saving faith as receiving and resting on Christ alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel. Westminster Confession 3.8 adds a pastoral word: the doctrine of predestination must be handled with special prudence and care, so that it produces praise, humility, diligence and comfort, not carelessness.

We call this the free offer of the gospel. It has three parts. First, a promise: everyone who believes in Christ will be saved. Second, a command: God calls every hearer to repent and believe. Third, a ground: the offer rests on the sufficiency of Christ's saving work, which is enough for every sinner who comes to Him.

John Calvin held the same view. In his Institutes (Book 3, chapters 21 to 24) he teaches election firmly. Yet he also teaches that since we cannot see who is chosen, we must address the gospel to all. Election belongs to God's hidden counsel. The pastor works in the open field of the revealed Word. Moses said, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). The preacher is sent to proclaim what is revealed.

How the Doctrines of Grace Strengthen Evangelism

We say that the doctrines of grace do not hinder evangelism but fuel it, for five reasons.

They give confidence. Scripture teaches that people are dead in trespasses (Ephesians 2:1) and that God gives life. When Paul was afraid in Corinth, the Lord said in a vision, "I have many people in this city" (Acts 18:10). Paul then stayed and taught there a year and six months (Acts 18:11). The promise of a harvest kept him in a hard city. Jesus said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37).

They keep us humble. Paul wrote, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). If a person is born again, it is God's work, not the clever method of the preacher. This guards us from manipulation and from pride, and from despair when results are few.

They make prayer central. If only God can open a heart, we must ask Him to do so. Paul asked the churches to pray that a door for the word would be opened (Colossians 4:3).

They keep the message pure. Where grace is truly sovereign, the preacher does not need to trim sin, judgment and repentance to make the message pleasant.

They preserve urgency. The same Bible that teaches election teaches that people perish without Christ. Paul wrote, "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Corinthians 5:11). He told the Athenians that God commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day of judgment (Acts 17:30-31). We do not know who the elect are, and the time is short. Therefore we speak now, to everyone.

The Arminian Objection

Our Arminian and Wesleyan friends raise a serious objection. If Christ did not die in the same way for every person, they say, the offer to all cannot be sincere. How can a preacher say, "Christ invites you," if God never meant that man to be saved? They conclude that only universal atonement and free will can support honest evangelism.

We answer in three steps.

First, we do not offer the gospel by telling each hearer, "Christ died for you in particular," as if we could read the book of life. We offer Christ Himself, with His promise: whoever comes will be received. The offer is sincere because every word of it is true. No one who has come in faith has ever been turned away.

Second, the failure to come is never God's fault. Scripture places the guilt on the sinner, who "will not come" (John 5:40, paraphrased). The Canons of Dort teach in the Third and Fourth Main Points that those who do not come refuse the call by their own fault, even though only grace can overcome their unwillingness.

Third, God's revealed will and His secret will do not conflict. His commands and invitations tell us what He requires and promises. His hidden decree tells us what He will bring to pass. Scripture says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked and calls Israel to turn and live (Ezekiel 33:11). The same God, for reasons He has not revealed, does not give every sinner the grace to turn. We do not claim to explain this fully. We say what Scripture says and stop where Scripture stops.

Some Reformed Christians, called Amyraldians, answer the objection by teaching that Christ died for all in one sense and for the elect in another. Course 2, Unit 9, "Arminian, Wesleyan and Amyraldian Objections Answered," treats that view.

The Worry from the Other Side: Hyper-Calvinism

The danger on our side is real too. Hyper-Calvinism is the name given to a distortion of Reformed teaching. Its teachers, who appeared among some English Particular Baptists and others in the eighteenth century, argued that the gospel should not be offered freely to all, or that unconverted people have no duty to repent and believe because they lack the ability. Historians debate how widespread this view was, and whether certain well-known teachers, such as the Baptist John Gill, belong in this camp. We need not settle that debate to judge the error itself.

Scotland met the same issue. In the early 1700s a controversy arose over a book called The Marrow of Modern Divinity, which the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland condemned in 1720. A group of ministers, among them Thomas Boston, defended the free offer of Christ to all sinners. These "Marrow Men" held that a minister may tell every hearer that Christ is freely offered to him.

In England, the Baptist pastor Andrew Fuller wrote The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785). He argued from Scripture that all who hear the gospel are bound to believe it, because faith is a duty God commands and unbelief is sin. A person's moral inability does not cancel his duty, since the inability comes from his own sinful heart. Fuller was a Particular Baptist. We note him as a Reformed Baptist voice and receive his teaching on the gospel offer with thanks.

Our answer to hyper-Calvinism comes from Scripture. God commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Jesus told a man with a withered hand to stretch it out (Matthew 12:13), though the man could not do it by himself. The Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy to dry bones (Ezekiel 37:4), and the bones lived by the Spirit's breath. The preacher speaks the command and the promise, and God supplies the power. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He said this to a crowd, not to a list of the elect.

Examples from Reformed Preaching and Missions

History shows that sovereign grace and zealous evangelism belong together.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a Congregational pastor in New England, defended God's sovereignty in salvation and also preached for conversions. A revival came to his church in Northampton in 1734 and 1735. His sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741) is a famous example of a pastor warning hearers with urgency.

George Whitefield (1714-1770), a clergyman of the Church of England, held the doctrines of grace and preached out of doors to very large crowds in Britain and the American colonies. John Wesley disagreed with him on predestination, yet when Whitefield died in 1770, Wesley preached a sermon at his funeral.

David Brainerd (died 1747) carried the gospel to Native American peoples in the 1740s and died young. Jonathan Edwards published his life and diary in 1749, and the book has stirred many to missions.

William Carey was a Particular Baptist who held the doctrines of grace. In 1792 he published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. That year the Baptist Missionary Society was founded, with Andrew Fuller as its secretary, and in 1793 Carey sailed for India. Carey and Fuller show that firm belief in election can drive a mission to the ends of the earth. Unit 7 says more about missions.

What This Means for Preaching and Church Life

Preach Christ to all. Close every sermon with a plain call to repent and believe, not only to those you think are unbelievers, since you cannot see hearts.

Speak truth about sin and judgment. A doctrine of grace that does not warn is unfaithful.

Pray for the lost. Keep names before the congregation and before God.

Do not manipulate. Pressure and emotional tricks do not give new birth. Reformed churches differ on whether to give a public invitation at the end of a service. Some do, and others prefer to call all hearers to Christ from the pulpit and meet seekers privately. Either can be done faithfully if the call is honest and the means are the Word and the Spirit.

Include children of the covenant. The children of believers are baptized as members of the covenant community, and they too need to hear the gospel and be called to personal faith. Course 4, Unit 8, "Baptism of Believers and Their Children," treats this.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a small Mexican town has been teaching the doctrines of grace to his elders. One evening an elder says, "Pastor, if God has already chosen his people, why do we knock on doors and spend money on tracts?" A younger man agrees. Their zeal for outreach is cooling.

The pastor does not scold them. First, he asks what they fear, and finds they fear wasted effort. Second, he opens Acts 18 with them: the Lord promised Paul many people in that city, and Paul kept preaching. Third, he shows them Dort II.5 and Shorter Catechism 31, so they see that their own confessions command the gospel to be preached to all. Fourth, he returns to Romans 10:14. Fifth, he asks the session to choose neighbors for prayer and visits. The elders leave with a clearer reason for the work.

Summary

The charge that Calvinism kills evangelism fails against Scripture and the confessions. The Canons of Dort (II.5; III/IV.8) and the Westminster Standards (Confession 7.3; Shorter Catechism 31 and 86) teach the free offer of the gospel: a promise to all who believe, a command to all to repent, and a ground in the sufficiency of Christ. The doctrines of grace give confidence, humility, prayer, a pure message and urgency. The Arminian objection says a sincere offer needs universal atonement and free will. We answer that we offer Christ and His promise, not a claim about each hearer's place in the book of life, that unbelief is the sinner's own fault, and that God's revealed commands and hidden decree do not conflict. Hyper-Calvinism, which would limit the offer or deny the duty to believe, was answered by the Marrow Men in Scotland and by Andrew Fuller in England. Edwards, Whitefield, Brainerd and Carey show that sovereign grace and zeal belong together.

Further Reading

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, chapters 21 to 24 (Beveridge translation, 1845).

• The Canons of Dort (1619), Second and Third/Fourth Main Points.

• The Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1646-47).

• The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Question 65.

• Andrew Fuller, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785).

• William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792).

• Jonathan Edwards, The Life of David Brainerd (1749).

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73).

• C. H. Spurgeon, selected sermons, a Reformed Baptist voice.

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