Some More Hyper-Calvinist Logic

Fresco of the Apostle Paul at Ephesus

It's interesting (and sad) reading the statements of Hyper-Calvinists from time to time while trying to follow their logic.  Here's a sample I recently read off of Facebook: "Those who place gospel ministry in the critical path to eternal salvation make themselves every bit as much the savior as the Christ whose unfinished work they hope to complete."  In other words, the claim is that they are committing idolatry who argue that believing in Jesus through the preaching of the gospel brings one to eternal life.  The claim is that they are putting themselves in the place of Christ.  That's a strong claim.  I believe that we should reject it.  Why?  For the following reasons.  

First, no man is placing gospel ministry in the critical path to eternal salvation.  God is the one who is doing that.  Don't believe me?  Well, consider the following verses in the Bible.  "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Rom. 10:13-15).  Of course, they claim that this is not eternal salvation.  But the context is about believing unto righteousness, and Christ as the end of the law for righteousness to every one who believes (vv. 3-10).  That's justification and justification is certainly necessary for eternal salvation.  Yes, God puts hearing the gospel in the critical path to eternal salvation.  

Or consider 2 Thess. 2:13-14, where Paul writes, "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Let's see, election to salvation - that's eternal salvation, right?  How does God so elect?  He does so through sanctification and belief of the truth - God puts these things together, not me - and God calls us to this belief by the gospel.  

Or consider 2 Tim. 2:8-10: "Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."  Paul is telling Timothy to preach the gospel and then sets himself as an example who for the word of God's sake was imprisoned.  But he was not discouraged for he knew that through his gospel labors the elect would obtain "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Paul even goes out of his way to describe this salvation - it's salvation with eternal glory!  You can't get more eternal than that.

Or consider Mk. 16:15-16, and though I know that many do not consider the longer ending of Mark to be authentic, most of these Hyper-Calvinists that I know do embrace it as such.  Here is what Jesus says there: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."  Interestingly, here is what Sylvester Hassell, a Primitive Baptist pastor and author of the History of the Church of God, wrote: "The language of Christ in Mark 16:16, 'He that believeth not shall be damned,' shows with perfect clearness that not want of water baptism, but want of faith, is the cause of damnation; and the grace of faith is 'the gift of God' (Eph :19; 2:8; Gal 5:22; Phil 1:29; Heb 12:2), it is as easy for Omnipotence to bestow it upon a dying infant as it is upon a living adult."  The fact that he introduces the case of infants dying in infancy shows that he does not understand the Lord to be talking about some sort of "time salvation" but rather that that he is talking about eternal salvation.  This is again Jesus our Lord (not man, not me, not anyone else) putting the gospel in the critical path of salvation.  

Or consider Rom. 1:16-17, where the apostle Paul writes, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."  Now one of the dumb things I hear from time to time is that since Paul says that the gospel is the power of God to those who believe, that they must already be believers before the gospel can be the power unto salvation to them.  But this is clearly not what the apostle is saying.  The most straightforward reading of this text is that the gospel becomes the power of God so that those who believe it are saved.  Again, this salvation is the just justification of the unjust through faith in Christ.  Again, this is eternal salvation.  

This is also the point of 1 Cor. 1:18-21 - "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."  The apostle is not saying that the gospel saves those who were already believers before they heard the gospel.  He is saying that those who believe its message are saved.  And this salvation is eternal salvation, not just some temporal blessing, for it is connected to the effectual call of God, as the immediately following verses show: "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (22-24).

I could go on and on, but this ought to be enough to demonstrate the clear fact that God has purposed that men and women should hear the gospel, and by hearing it, be saved.

Second, no one who believes what the Bible actually says about the gospel and its role in eternal salvation need believe that the work of Christ is made incomplete thereby.  It is frankly very frustrating to me when I read people say stuff like that.  It's just a non sequitur; it doesn't follow.  The same logic would demand that the election of the Father is compromised by saying that Christ had to die in order for the elect to be saved.  The point is that if God has purposed to apply the redemption accomplished by Christ to the elect by hearing with faith, then the redemption of our Lord is neither unfinished or in danger of failing to be applied.  For we know that what God pleases, he does, on the earth and in heaven and in all deep places.  

No one is hoping to complete the work of Christ by the preaching of the gospel.  How can they?  For the preacher is totally dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit in applying the word.  No one is robbing Christ of his glory or taking his work from him.  No, we are simply trying to do what Paul himself did when he wrote, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

Our Lord himself put it this way: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (Jn. 17:20-21).  It is the will of Christ that his elect hear the word of the apostles and believe it, and in believing it "they may be one in us" which is just another way of describing eternal salvation, the essence of which is union and communion with the Holy Trinity (cf. ver. 3).  Those who preach the way Christ commands us to - as ambassadors of Christ calling men to be reconciled to God, are not completing the work of Christ but simply doing his will!

To sum up, the fact of the matter is that there is no idolatry in doing what God has commanded to be done.  On the contrary, to fail to preach the gospel in such a way as to call sinners to repent of their sins and to believe on Christ for eternal life is to disobey God and to mangle the message which has been committed to us.