Concern for the souls of men is not prevented by a belief in what we call the Doctrines of Grace

by Mike Ratliff

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10 NASB)

I am in no way backing off of the fact that I am a Calvinist. God is Sovereign. He is perfect. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and immutable. He is Holy, Righteous, and Just. Did I mention that he is Sovereign? Yes, he most certainly is that and if you study, honestly study, Holy Sacred Scripture with the goal of finding God’s truth not an excuse to justify your own belief system, you have to come away from an exclusive, totally exegetical study of it grounded in the presupposition that God is righteous and just and man is His creation to do with as He pleases. Also, any attempt to place the Free Will of man over and above the Sovereign Will of God is an act of rebellion and causes men to interpret scripture from an alien hermeneutic leading them to totally misunderstand God and His will. As I have posted several articles lately about Reformation Theology I have also received many “communications” from certain people who find it “offensive.” I have been doing this a long time and I hope you have noticed that I no longer allow “arguing” of any kind on this blog. Debate and arguing are not the same thing. No one in the offended camp wants to debate…

Many of those who are offended by Reformation Theology claim to be Baptists of some sort and many of those are Southern Baptists. I wonder how surprised they would be to learn that the Southern Baptist Convention was founded by Calvinists. One of them was John A. Broadus who was also one of the founders of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. If you read his writings and sermons you find two things. He was a Calvinist and he was also passionate about the souls of men. He was a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon another Baptist who was a Calvinist with a heart for the lost. I know that many of those in the “offended” camp are scoffing about all that, however, below is an excerpt from one of John A. Broadus’ sermons making my point very clear and those of us who are Calvinists should take what he says to heart. Enjoy and be blessed.

John A. Broadus

“For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.” Romans 9:3

Concern for the salvation of others is not prevented by a belief in what we call the doctrines of grace; is not prevented by believing in divine sovereignty, and predestination and election. Many persons intensely dislike the ideas which are expressed by these phrases. Many persons shrink away from ever accepting them, because those ideas are in their minds associated with the notion of stolid indifference. They say if predestination be true, then it follows that a man cannot do anything for his own salvation; that if he is to be saved he will be saved, and he has nothing to do with it, and need not care, nor need any one else care.

Now, this does not at all follow, and I will prove that it does not follow, by the fact that Paul himself, the great oracle of this doctrine in the Scripture, has uttered these words of burning passionate concern for the salvation of others, so close by the passages in which he has taught the doctrines in question. Look back from the text, run back a few sentences and you will find the very passage upon which many stumble: “Moreover, whom he did predestinate” — there are people who shudder at the very words — “them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

Just a little while after he uttered those words from which men want to infer that the man who believes it need not feel concerned for his salvation or the salvation of others, just a little after, came the passionate words of the text. Nor is that all, for you will find just following the text, where he speaks of Esau and Jacob, that God made a difference between them before they were born, and where he says of Pharaoh that God raised him up that he might show his power in him, and that God’s name might be declared through out all the earth. “Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Some good people fairly shiver at the inference, which seems to them to be inevitable from such language as that. But I say the inference must be wrong, for the inspired man who uttered this language, only a few moments before had uttered these words of the text.

And whenever you find your heart or the heart of your friend inclined to shrink away from these great teachings of divine Scripture concerning sovereignty and predestination, then I pray you make no argument about it, but turn to this language of concern for the salvation of others, so intensely passionate that men wonder and think surely it cannot mean what it says. The trouble is in this and many cases that we draw unwarranted inferences from the teachings of the Bible, and then cast all the odium of those inferences upon the truths from which we draw them. Now, I say that whatever be true, for or against the apostle’s doctrines of predestination and divine sovereignty in salvation, it is not true that they will make a man careless as to his own salvation or that of others; seeing that they had no such effect on Paul himself, but right in between these two great passages come the wonderful words of the text.

[an excerpt from his sermon entitled, “Intense Concern for the Salvation of Others” in Sermons and Addresses (Hodder & Stoughton: New York, 1886)]

Soli Deo Gloria