The Ransomed

Nelson Price has written in ChristianIndex.org about how he feels that Calvinism necessarily leads to a smothering of Evangelicalism in Christian churches. I am disappointed by his comments, not only because they smear the work of many men that went before him, men who loved Jesus and His word, such as Charles Spurgeon, John Gill, Jonathan Edwards, Arthur Pink, John Bunyan and many others, but also causes me to question my own passions. I am passionate about learning about God’s word, and God’s plan for my life. I am a Calvinist. I do not call myself a Calvinist instead of a Christian. I call myself a Calvinist because Jesus so obviously formed the tenets of traditional reformed teaching. In John chapter 6, Jesus makes it obvious that anybody that comes to Him must be given Him by the father:

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me– not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
(Joh 6:26-66) (ESV) (Emphasis mine)

Here, Jesus brings corrects his disciples, who were in the exact same frame of mind as my brother Nelson Price. God’s election involves bringing His chosen people to Jesus, who in turn, by this regeneration and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, will then come to Jesus, believe he is the Son of God, the Way, the Truth and the Life, feast only on him, and be raised up on the last day. Jesus repeats this three times!

From the article:
“A graphic understood by many Baptists regarding predestination is illustrated by this. A mass of people are gathered at a bus stop marked “Planet Earth.” Along comes the Celestial Bus marked “Destination Heaven.” It pulls up and stops. The driver, who is God, opens the door, and says, “All destined for heaven get on board.” A number do. A missionary couple who with zeal have served Christ all their lives start on and God says, “Step aside. You haven’t been chosen to ride this bus.” A couple of infants start on and God tells them to step aside. Persons who from youth have loved and ministered in Christ’s name are told to step aside. As the bus is about to depart and the door is closing God says to those not on board, “Catch the next bus.” “No,” they plead, “here comes the next bus and it is driven by Satan and marked ‘Destination Hell.’”

“Sorry,” says God. “I didn’t choose to save you. Your love and commitment to Jesus doesn’t matter.””

I have three gripes with Price’s view of election here.

1. Price’s view of election seems to imply that on the last day, there will be people who love and cherish Jesus who will not be allowed “onto the bus”. This is fundamentally flawed and really shows how much of a straw man Price has been fooled by. The thing that causes love and commitment to Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Nobody who has the indwelling of the Spirit will be forsaken by God, as by giving them the Spirit, God has chosen them as part of His elect.

2. Price’s view of the final day seems to convey that people “getting on God’s bus” will feel like they deserve to be there. Wrong. Nobody will feel like they deserve to be on God’s “bus”. That day will be a day of great mourning of our sin, when we are confronted with the Holy of Holies, the Great God of Israel whose presence we cannot even think of entering. I will not deserve to even stand in line for that “bus”. How will anybody then either feel like they should be with God, and how on Earth will anybody dare question God’s judgement? All the people in line will be waiting for the bus marked “Destination Hell”.

3. Price’s view of our relationship with God seems to rest upon how we feel. If I feel I am good enough for Heaven, it is unfair of God to not let me be there. Not so. God is the only judge by which we will be saved or damned. I am assured of my place with Him, however, as I am assured that Jesus’ blood and righteousness are my glorious dress, not my own pithy and laughable attempts to present myself pure and blameless before Him.

I am dismayed by Price’s article most of all, however, as he seems to think that I am not an Evangelical. He says that I am a walking oxymoron. How is this so? My only strength in this earth is the saving grace of Christ. I received it not as a result of any of my own works, but as a free gift of grace given me by the God who chose me. As did Paul, as did Peter, as did Charles Spurgeon, as did John Bunyan, as did Nelson Price.