Can Calvinist and non-Calvinist Baptists work together?

…Something Baptist find increasingly difficult

It depends, some advocates of Reformed theology say, on whether Christians on both sides are willing to tiptoe through the TULIP–the acrostic for five doctrinal points that set apart Calvinists.

TULIP stands for total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. Those five doctrines, delineated by the Synod of Dort in the 17th century, summarize distinctive elements of the theological system taught by John Calvin—particularly as distinguished from the teachings of James Jacobus Arminius.

Proponents of what often is called “five-point Calvinism” emphasize the sovereignty of God and the doctrine of predestination—the teaching that God ordains specific human beings to be saved on the basis of his good pleasure, not on the basis of his advance knowledge of their repentance and belief.

Historically, some prominent Baptists identified themselves as Calvinists, including 19th century British pulpiteer Charles Haddon Spurgeon and James P. Boyce, founding president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. On the other hand, the first Baptists in England—John Smyth and Thomas Helwys—rejected Calvinism.

Calvin’s cool on campus

Calvinism is gaining in popularity in some Baptist circles today. A study by the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board and LifeWay Christian Resources showed about 30 percent of recent Southern Baptist seminary graduates identify themselves as Calvinists, compared to 10 percent of Southern Baptist pastors in general.

John Calvin

Renewed interest in Reformed theology—what Calvinists refer to as “the doctrines of grace”—also is evident among university students, some Baptist college professors have noted. In part, observers attribute the growth of Calvinism on college campuses to the popular Passion conferences, featuring Louie Giglio and Reformed pastor-theologian John Piper.

The Passion movement and related One Day events serve as gateways into Calvinism, said Roger Olson, professor of theology at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

“My experience is that many young Christians swept up by this wave know little about the details of this kind of Calvinism,” Olson said. “Many of them are simply shocked to find out that it entails belief in limited atonement. However, after awhile, many of them gradually accept it lock, stock and barrel because they don’t know any alternative. Southern Baptists—and offshoots—have not been very good at offering young people sound theology.”

Hunger for theology that is “rigorously biblical and satisfies the desire to hear from God in his word” accounts for much of Calvinism’s popularity among students, said Thomas Ascol, executive director of Founders Ministries, an organization that promotes Reformed theology in Southern Baptist life.

“The rising generation is looking for authenticity,” Ascol said. Students read biblical stories about faithful people who suffered martyrdom, and they hunger for “the radicalness of biblical Christianity,” he noted.

“Then they look at the slick and oftentimes superficial Christianity that dominates American evangelicalism, and they wonder why there is a difference. What did those early believers see we don’t see? Part of the answer is they saw the majestic supremacy of God over every sphere of life.”

Dancing to Piper’s tune?

Ascol believes Piper “has been used of God to help cast a vision of radically biblical Christianity to a younger generation of believers.”

“There is no fluff in Piper’s ministry. It is rock-solid Bible teaching that does not shy away from the hard sayings and clear calls of discipleship,” he said. “It is authentic in its devotion to the text of Scripture. That resonates with many in the younger generation who are hungry for truth.”

Critics of resurgent Calvinism, on the other hand, see it as appealing to the desire for clear-cut, black-and-white answers.

John Piper

“The present, new Calvinists claim to know way, way too much about the mind of God,” Olson claimed.

He draws a distinction between the gentle and nuanced Calvinism held by many Christians in Reformed churches and the aggressive new form of Calvinism.

“My experience is that this new wave of Reformed theology—inspired by John Piper who is inspired by Jonathan Edwards—appeals mostly to young men who want to avoid any hint of ambiguity in their theology,” he said.

Divided by doctrine

In part because its adherents hold to its teachings so tenaciously, Calvinism has divided some congregations—particularly when Calvinist pastors have asserted their beliefs in historically non-Calvinist churches. To some degree, division may be inevitable, some Calvinists have asserted.

“Any given doctrine will divide. The gospel itself is a doctrine that divides,” said Jonathan Leeman, director of communications for 9Marks, a ministry founded by Reformed Baptist pastor Mark Dever.

“There has been a renewed emphasis on the doctrines of grace, and that could lead to some level of divisiveness. That’s almost necessarily so, in the same way that an emphasis on inerrancy led to division within the Southern Baptist Convention.”

But other Calvinists believe they have been unjustly tarred with the brush of divisiveness.

Timothy George

“What I have discovered is that Calvinism is blamed far more often for dividing churches or associations than is actually the case,” Ascol said. “Closer investigation has often revealed that Calvinism is often the tail on which the donkey is pinned. I know of more cases where the real issue behind a controversy is biblical Christianity—what is a Christian and how does a person become one—not Calvinism.”

Missions and evangelism

Ascol also believes Calvinists often have been unfairly stereotyped as anti-missionary.

“Look at who has been going as career missionaries over the last few years. A significant percentage would classify themselves as Reformed,” he said.

Olson acknowledged the current wave of Calvinism—which he calls “Piperism”—is characterized by fervent missionary spirit.

“However, I think those who follow it out to its logical conclusion may eventually decide that there is no point in evangelism or missions,” he said.

“If you are told that your evangelism and missionary work is nothing more than a ‘foreordained means to a foreordained end,’ and it cannot alter what God has already decided, you might conclude that there is no urgency.”

Leeman frames the impetus for sharing faith in terms familiar to most evangelicals, whether Calvinist or non-Calvinist—love and obedience.

Roger Olson

“Being that Christ is my greatest love, I will want to share him with others,” he said, adding that Jesus commanded his followers to share the gospel. “The call to repentance and obedience is not optional.”

But concern about Calvinism’s impact on fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission is a valid concern, even if it’s not well founded, Leeman added.

“The primary cause of division over the issue (of Calvinism) is concern on the part of the non-Reformed crowd that it will hurt evangelism and missions, and those of us who are Reformed need to be entirely sympathetic to that concern,” he said.

“At the same time, instead of debating issues with us, I would like to see the non-Reformed crowd give us the benefit of the doubt. Accept that a Reformed congregation means what it says when it affirms evangelism and missions.”

Show some grace

Ironically, the debate over the doctrines of grace often has been characterized by a lack of grace by proponents on both sides, and much of the division caused by Calvinism could be avoided if Christians treated each other a bit more graciously, some Calvinists and non-Calvinists agreed.

“I love my Calvinist friends and students,” Olson said. “I have no quarrel with them; it is only with their theology I have a quarrel. And I do not attempt to convert my Calvinist students to non-Calvinism. I only ask them to study all the options and make sure they are thinking biblically and logically.”

Shared belief about Jesus Christ and biblical authority should be sufficient ground for Calvinists and non-Calvinists to share the same pews peacefully, Ascol said.

“Our church has Calvinists and non-Calvinists joyfully laboring together for the gospel, and I know of many other churches that do, too,” he said.

“We do that by focusing on the gospel—who Jesus is, what he has done and why that matters. We may not agree on every detail of how the gospel works—such as election, predestination, effectual calling and particular redemption—but we are all committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and his supremacy over all of life.”

Leeman acknowledged some Calvinists are so adamant about their position that they have failed to show “pastoral wisdom” in making distinctive Reformed doctrines a test of fellowship.

“A wiser course is to avoid the language of theology and use the language of the Bible instead,” he suggested. “It’s not so much about Calvinism. It’s not so much about the doctrines of grace. Just preach the Bible.

Theologians past and present have used a bouquet of initials and analogies to describe Calvinist doctrine.

Historically, the Reformed Synod of Dort in the Netherlands delineated the differences between Calvinism and the teachings of James Jacobus Arminius. For the sake of simplicity—and playing on an association with the best-known Dutch flower—those teachings have been summarized through the TULIP acrostic.

• Total depravity. Human beings are dead in their sins, and they stand justly condemned before God, unable to do anything to save themselves.

• Unconditional election. From eternity, God in his sovereignty chose specific human beings to be saved. That salvation was determined entirely by God, not simply God’s foreknowledge of who would respond to his offer of grace.

• Limited atonement. Also known as “particular redemption,” the doctrine teaches the death of Jesus Christ was intended for the remission of the sins of elect human beings only; in other words, the intention of the atonement and its effects are the same.

• Irresistible grace. Many Calvinists prefer the term “effectual calling” to express this idea—God’s call to salvation will not fail to bring about the repentance and faith of the elect.

• Perseverance of the saints. This doctrine teaches all true believers in Christ will be saved because God grants them faith to persist to the end of life, and God will keep them safe.

Timothy George, founding dean of Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School, has proposed an alternative floral acrostic. George, a Reformed theologian, recommended a change in terminology from TULIP to ROSES—radical depravity, overcoming grace, sovereign election, eternal life and singular redemption.

James Leo Garrett, emeritus distinguished professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has noted Dortian Calvinists and early Arminians may not have differed on total depravity. Rather, he said, the key difference may have been whether faith and repentance were gifts from God—as the Calvinists taught—or human duties—as the Arminians insisted.

“That would call for FULIP (for faith) or RULIP (for repentance), not TULIP,” Garret said.

Without benefit of floral reminder, Garrett also has delineated the five points of Hyper-Calvinism:

• Supralapsarianism. God’s decree to elect some human beings for salvation and to damn others eternally is logically the first of God’s eternal decrees.

• Covenant of redemption. An eternal covenant exists among God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the redemption of elect humans through the Son.

• Eternal justification. The elect are justified in eternity without their demonstration of requisite faith in history.

• No offers of grace. Preachers should be discouraged from offering grace indiscriminately to their hearers, who presumably would include both the elect and the damned.

• Antinomianism. Christians are not obligated to obey the moral laws of the Old Testament.

BROWNWOOD—Among Baptist Baby Boomer theologians, at least half of the major authors are committed to Calvinism, an influential Baptist theologian of an earlier generation has noted.

James Leo Garrett Jr., emeritus distinguished professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, examined 10 Baptist theologians of the Baby Boomer generation during a plenary address at Howard Payne University’s Christian doctrines colloquy in Brownwood.

Garrett identified three as “pronounced Calvinists”—John Piper, Thomas J. Nettles and Timothy George. He listed two—Donald A. Carson and Wayne Grudem—as “moderate Calvinists” and one—David Dockery—as “Calminian,” an amalgam of Calvinist and Arminian theology.

Of the remaining theologians Garrett examined, he said three did not position themselves about Calvinism in their writing—Paul Fiddes, Stanley Grenz and Nigel G. Wright. One, Roger Olson, he identified as “the principal Baptist advocate of Arminianism.”

In his presentation at Howard Payne—a condensed version of a chapter from an upcoming book—he dealt most thoroughly with Piper and Nettles.

Jonathan Edwards' Influence

Jonathan Edwards—the 18th century pastor-theologian perhaps best known for his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” hellfire sermon—profoundly shaped Piper’s theology—particularly regarding the doctrine of God, Garrett noted.

“There is a sense in which Piper’s theology consists of only one doctrine—the doctrine of God,” he said. “It’s the supremacy and the glory of God, even more than his sovereignty, that is central to Piper’s theology.”

Garrett noted with interest the controversy that arose in 2005 when Piper advocated that his congregation, Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn., adopt a policy of open baptism—granting membership to Christians who gave evidence of conversion but who were sprinkled as infants.

“John Piper, who has expanding and far-reaching influence as a pastor-theologian in the God-glorifying school of Edwards, has increasingly demonstrated that he is first evangelical and Reformed and second Baptist,” Garrett said.

Nettles—professor of historical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.—simultaneously advanced the causes of inerrancy and Calvinism in Southern Baptist ranks, beginning in the early 1980s, Garrett noted.

Nettles blamed Mullins, Scarborough

“Nettles laid the blame for the demise of Dortian Calvinism among Southern Baptists on E.Y. Mullins for his theological methodology in which experience overshadowed the Scriptures and on L.R. Scarborough for his evangelistic methodology centering on what Nettles called ‘decisional regeneration,’” Garrett said.

Mullins was president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Scarborough was president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, both in the early 20th century.

“Nettles seems to embrace the domino theory,” Garrett observed. “That is, if the doctrines of Dortian Calvinism should be rejected and not be allowed to be the fountainhead of all theology, then theological crises, nonevangelical positions and process theology would be the result.”

Directors of Associated Baptist Press honored the Baptist General Convention of Texas and announced a $100,000 matching-funds challenge from a Texas Baptist family during a meeting in San Antonio. The BGCT has long been one of the major financial supporters of the independent Baptist news service. Executive Editor Greg Warner announced a $100,000 matching-funds challenge from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. The foundation has promised to match all individual donations to the news service, up to $100,000, until the end of 2008. John and Eula Mae Baugh’s granddaughter, Jackie Moore of San Antonio, serves as an ABP director and on the Baugh Foundation board.

Scholarship application deadline soon. The Baptist History & Heritage Society is offering a $1,000 scholarship to a university or seminary student doing research in Baptist studies. Any student interested in applying for the scholarship must submit an application packet postmarked by May 1. It should include the student’s name, address, phone number and e-mail address; the name of the school, course and professor in which the student is engaged in research in Baptist historical studies; and a 250-word description of the research project. The student also must commit to prepare and submit to the Baptist History & Heritage Society, within one year of completing the research, a 3,500-word article for consideration for publication in the society’s journal, Baptist History and Heritage, and/or for placement on the society’s website. The student’s application also must include an endorsement letter from the student’s professor supporting both the student and the research project being conducted by the student.

Richmond seminary announces layoffs. Four full-time professors and at least three administrative staff members at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond will be cut in an effort to reduce costs, said seminary President Ron Crawford, who was elected to his position about a year ago. Though he did not release the names of the professors to be dismissed, Crawford said he has communicated with each one, and the school is offering severance packages that exceed a full year’s salary and full personnel benefits. The 19-year old seminary is burdened with a $6 million debt and faces a significant deficit in its budget this year—about $450,000 out of a $3.6 million budget.

Criswell trustees squelch rumor. Criswell College trustees put to rest a rumor that the college—started by First Baptist Church of Dallas in 1975—would become part of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s undergraduate program. Trustees voted without dissent that the college would not become part of the seminary. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Seminary, served 17 years as president of Criswell College.

Mercer trustees approve strategic plan. Mercer University ’s trustees approved a 10-year strategic plan for the university that calls for more than $1.2 billion in new investments in the institution’s endowment, faculty and staff, facilities and technology, and academic and co-curricular programs over the next decade. The plan will be funded through aggressive expansion of Mercer’s endowment from approximately $200 million today to more than $1 billion by 2018, and by developing new academic programs and other initiatives that generate additional revenue for the institution.

Dickson named dean of Mercer music school. John Dickson of Texas Tech has been appointed dean of Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music. Dickson served previously as professor of conducting and associate dean for doctoral studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s School of Church Music. He is former minister of music and worship at Second Baptist Church in Lubbock

New England Baptists seek expatriates. The Baptist Convention of New England is celebrating 50 years of Southern Baptist work in New England and 25 years as a constituted state convention. The celebration will culminate at the convention’s annual meeting Nov. 13-15 in Marlboro, Mass. As part of the anniversary observance, New England Baptists want to get in touch with Texans who served there in the past. Texas Baptists who served in New England are encouraged to send contact information to bcne25@bcne.net. For more information, visit www.bcne.net.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) —Weary travelers stand alongside a river somewhere in South America’s Amazon Basin.

After three hours of trying to maneuver upstream by motorboat to a remote village, Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries grudgingly accept the realization that the day’s journey has ended.

A metal boat carrying Southern Baptist missionaries cruises up river to a remote village in the Amazon Basin. (Photo/IMB)

Shallow waters, exposed rocks, tree limbs and a rough current that nearly capsized the boat won’t allow them to go any farther.

Score a victory for the Amazon.

Thousands of miles of dense jungle create a daunting wall for Christians who want to take the gospel to this area. For some of the people groups in remote areas, their only hope to hear about Jesus is through faithful Christians praying the gospel message will reach them.

More than 400 people groups—roughly 26 million people—live in the Amazon Basin. Of that number, 270 people groups are less than 2 percent evangelical, with no IMB missionaries living among them.

About 85 of the people groups survive completely isolated, deep in the jungle. Some groups have been spotted only by satellite.

Two key factors keep these groups unreached by the gospel. The government prohibits missionaries from having access to them. And most of these groups live in areas considered too dangerous for outsiders.

Dangers include guerilla fighters, hostile tribes, poor flying conditions, crumbling or nonexistent roads and unpredictable waters.

Over the years, many missionaries have lost their lives attempting to take the gospel to these isolated peoples.

One of the most well-known incidents occurred in 1956—recounted in the 2006 movie, The End of the Spear—when a group of Huaorani Indians in eastern Ecuador killed Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming and their missionary jungle pilot, Nate Saint.

But not all was lost among the Huaorani.

“When (those five missionaries) died, it really raised up a host of prayer warriors (who) began to pray for the Huaorani,” said Russ Bare, an IMB missionary and Texas native who leads work among indigenous people in Ecuador.

“Today, we have many Huaorani believers. There is power when God’s people pray.”

Many Southern Baptists are joining other Christians globally in prayer and fasting for world evangelization on Pentecost Sunday, May 11.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)—Pat Townsend admits she’s living outside her comfort zone.

Between the bugs, mud and freezing showers, Townsend, a missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s Masters Program, admits it could take her awhile to adjust to life in and around the Amazon Basin of South America.

A boy peers around the corner of his house in the Amazon Basin. Some children live in isolated areas where outsiders cannot reach them. Their only hope to hear about Jesus is through the prayers of faithful Christians for the gospel to reach their villages. (Photo/IMB)

“The bugs haven’t been as bad as I anticipated,” Townsend, 56, said. “I’ve asked people to pray for me about the bugs.”

Townsend and her husband, Mike, 59, left the comforts of retirement and their home in Mississippi to work among the southern Shuar people for two to three years. Fewer than 2 percent of these 15,000 people are evangelical Christians.

Religion for many southern Shuar blends worshipping spirits with Catholicism. Some Christian workers say that’s an all-too-common practice among indigenous people groups of South America.

“They will take some of the classic religion (Catholicism) and then mix it with their own (animistic) beliefs,” said Russ Bare, who leads indigenous work in Ecuador. “And then you just get a hodgepodge of mixed-up beliefs.”

Couples like the Townsends are a godsend to Bare.

“I think it’s great that people with good health, in this part of their lives, would make themselves available to go to someplace like the Amazon Basin to reach a people like the southern Shuar with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

During their first days among the Shuar, the Townsends explored the territory. They took boat rides up and down the river to nearby villages and they hiked up to one of the waterfalls.

For the Shuar, waterfalls have an unusual purpose.

Evaristo, president of several Shuar villages, noted many of his people go to waterfalls to take hallucinogenic drugs to see visions they believe will reveal more about their god or gods.

Fortunately, the southern Shuar live in areas where missionaries like the Townsends can reveal the God of the Bible to them.

Mike Townsend, however, admits it will take more than a missionary presence to change the hearts of the southern Shuar.

“For anybody to be successful with the Shuar, God will have to work” among them, he said. “The Holy Spirit will have to do some things for them to see and understand he is the true and one God. I trust he will do that.”

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Faced with “worrisome” financial challenges, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond will downsize its faculty and staff, the school’s president announced.

Four full-time professors and at least three administrative staff members will be let go in an effort to reduce costs, said seminary President Ron Crawford, who was elected to his position about a year ago. Though he did not release the names of the professors to be dismissed, Crawford said he has communicated with each one, and the school is offering severance packages that exceed a full year’s salary and full personnel benefits.

The 19-year old seminary is burdened with a $6 million debt and faces a significant deficit in its budget this year—about $450,000 out of an overall budget of $3.6 million, Crawford said in a statement distributed to the school’s alumni and supporters.

“Our immediate fiscal challenge is related to the capital campaign that was completed last summer as I became BTSR’s president,” he said. “The campaign included the purchase of two buildings along with two unanticipated financial challenges: significant debt and a payroll that overreaches annual revenues.”

BTSR, which enrolls about 160 students, currently employs 15 full-time professors and about 16 administrative staff, including the president and dean of the faculty. About 14 visiting and adjunct faculty members also teach classes.

The school’s campus is adjacent to Union Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian institution, and the seminary owns buildings that once housed Union’s Presbyterian School of Christian Education.

At a meeting in mid-March, BTSR’s board of trustees asked Crawford to devise a downsizing plan and present it at a called trustee meeting in late April. The president informed the seminary community of the developments at a March 28 meeting of faculty, staff and students.

“Once the downsizing is complete we will be left with a tenured faculty member in each of the disciplines we have traditionally covered, with the exception of one, where a visiting professor will be employed,” said Crawford. “With nine full-time faculty members, at least three visiting professors and other adjunct faculty members, we will continue to have a profoundly strong faculty.”

Crawford also said that the reduced faculty will have less impact on BTSR than it would on most seminaries. The school is part of the Richmond Theological Consortium, which includes Union Seminary and its School of Christian Education, as well as the school of theology at nearby Virginia Union University, a historically African-American Baptist institution. Students in the consortium’s schools may take courses at any of the institutions for no additional cost.

“On the administrative side, we are losing three and a half positions,” Crawford said. “Our idea is to replace full-time support staff with part-time students. We’ll train the students on the business inner-workings of a nonprofit, church environment. It should be a win-win.”

Founded in 1989, BTSR was one of the first institutions established by moderates who began leaving the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s and 90s. Though a number of other moderate seminaries and divinity schools have sprouted since then, many former Southern Baptists still retain passion for the first one, and Crawford is counting on that to get BTSR through the financial strain.

“I continue to say, ‘The future of BTSR is very bright, the short-term is worrisome,’” he noted. “BTSR will survive and, eventually, thrive. We fully anticipate going through a few very lean years. We will use the time to restructure and refocus our efforts on responding to the challenge of providing theological education in a 21st century world.”