But today we will continue reading Rev. Louis de Boer's book, God's Great Salvation, Chapter 11, Evangelism. Arminians frequently express the opinion that the doctrines of total inability and of divine election are disincentives to evangelism. Why bother, they say, if man cannot respond, and if God is going to redeem his elect and them only irrespective of our efforts. However, Calvinists historically have been very diligent in evangelism. What is the Calvinist motive for diligence in evangelism? It is threefold. First of all, Calvinists evangelize because it is commanded. Ever since that point in time that Israel rejected Christ as their Messiah, God has clearly and consistently given the command to proclaim the truth of His Son throughout the whole world, to preach the gospel to every creature. As Paul stated it in Romans chapter 11 verses 11 and 12, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not, but through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches of the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. Christ before his ascension gave his church the Great Commission. It states in Romans chapter 28 verses 19 and 20, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Or as Mark renders it, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Chapter 15 verse 16 Paul confirms this when he states that he is under a command, under a requirement, to preach the gospel. God confronted him on Damascus Road and gave him a charge, a commission, that he faithfully fulfilled until he had run his race and finished his course. 1 Corinthians 9.16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." As the old adage goes, duty belongs to us, outcome belongs to God. We have the duty to go to the ends of the earth as faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ. However, the results, the outcome of our proclamation of the gospel, is totally in God's sovereign hands. Secondly, Calvinists evangelize because they believe in the sovereignty of God. They believe that God is sovereign not only over the end, over who is saved, but also over the means. And the means that God has chosen to call out His elect is through the preaching of the gospel. As Paul states it in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 21, 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. And as he taught elsewhere in Romans chapter 10 verses 13 through 15, 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. Also Romans 10 verse 17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Calvinists do not evangelize in spite of God's sovereignty in salvation, but because of it. They believe that this is the appointed means whereby God will call out from every tribe and tongue and nation that innumerable multitude that will praise Him for a future eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. They realize that they are preaching to men who are spiritually dead, that they are proclaiming the gospel to hearts of stone. If it were not for their convictions of God's sovereignty over the process, they would have to view it as an exercise in futility. But they persevere because they are encouraged. God will work through their puny, sinful efforts to work his eternal purposes. His word will not go forth in vain, as Isaiah taught but will prosper in the thing unto which he is sending it. God will through these means call out his elect, build his church, and glorify his name. Because these are God's appointed means, Calvinists have great zeal to use them, believing that he will work by his Spirit, by his almighty power, to use these means to accomplish great things. Thirdly, Calvinists evangelize because it is an incredible privilege to do so. God does not need us. He certainly is not dependent upon the weak and sinful efforts of men to accomplish His holy and eternal will. Yet God, in His goodness and wisdom, has determined to use our efforts in the working out of His plan of salvation. He has chosen to call His saints to be co-laborers with Him in the calling out of his elect, in implementing of his great plan of salvation. This is a great condescension on God's part, and an inestimable privilege on our part. Paul states it of himself, Ephesians 3.8, Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace giving, that I should among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. To be used of God in such a glorious and great work is indeed a great blessing. To be called to be God's instruments in the salvation of his people is a calling that is to be highly esteemed. Calvinists have a zeal for evangelism because it is a high calling and a great privilege. However, the real issue before us is How do the respective views of God's way of salvation affect how each side in this controversy conducts their evangelistic efforts? To start off, let us examine how we ought to conduct our evangelistic efforts. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 and 2, Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. God's ministers, the preachers of the gospel, are required to be, above all, faithful. They are stewards of the mysteries of God. They are entrusted with the doctrines of Scripture. They are to faithfully proclaim, teach, and preserve them. The faithful presentation of God's truth is what is required of ministers of Christ. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 4 through 6. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, not a cloak of covetousness God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others. when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. Here Paul states that he was put in trust with the gospel. The gospel was not something he could play around with. It was not something he could modulate in an attempt to make it more palatable or more effectual. He was entrusted with it as with a treasure that he was duty-bound to protect and preserve. He did not attempt to make the gospel more appealing by adding to it flattering words. He preached the plain unvarnished truth of the gospel with which he was entrusted. Galatians 1.10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Here Paul gives the key to faithful preaching. the faithful presentation of the gospel. He does not seek to please men as he preaches to them. He does not seek to minimize the offense of the gospel. He does not seek to avoid those hard truths that unregenerate men find so unacceptable. He is a servant of Christ. He is an ambassador of Christ. He seeks to please Christ by faithfully preaching his words. That was the key to Paul's ministry, so that toward the end of his ministry, as he prepared to go into imprisonment in Jerusalem for the sake of the gospel, he could declare. Acts 20, 26, 27. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the gospel of God. Paul refers to the offense of the Gospel, and Peter speaks of the offense of Christ. Galatians 5.11 and 1 Peter 2.8. What were they speaking about? What offense is there to what passes as Gospel preaching today? What offense is there to the Arminian Gospel? The Arminian Gospel proclaims that God loves you and wants to save you, and will you please allow him to let Jesus into your heart and by making the decision for Christ? There is little offense to that. A more extreme version declares God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life and invites you to give God's plan a chance. What offense is there in that? The real gospel starts with the bad news. It informs sinners that God is angry with the wicked every day, that He hates all the workers of iniquity. It warns them that God indeed has a plan for them if they persevere in their wickedness and in their rebellion against Him, and it is an eternity under His wrath in the lake of fire. It calls them to turn from their wicked ways, to repent of their sins, and to flee to Jesus Christ as the only refuge from the wrath of God to come. It tells them that even what they consider their best works are an abomination in the sight of a thrice holy God, of pure eyes and to behold evil, and to trust in them is folly of the highest degree. It bluntly informs them that there is nothing they can do to save themselves except to cast themselves on God's mercy in Jesus Christ who has provided everything necessary for the salvation of sinners. Now let us apply all this to the Arminian-Calvinist controversy. Let us examine how their different views of man's salvation would influence the manner in which they present the gospel. First of all, let us examine the tendency of each system. Arminians believe that evangelism is an exercise in influencing the free wills of unregenerate men. They are seeking to persuade such men to make a decision for Christ. They are therefore tempted to minimize the offense of the gospel. Why turn people off, they think? They are prone to present the gospel as positively as possible and sometimes shorn of its harsher reality. They are prone to speak too much of God's love and too little of his wrath. They are prone to minimize the bad news of man's guilt and awful state before God and of his wrath on sinners and the realities of his eternal punishment. They are prone to minimize the presentation of man's sinfulness, of how a holy God views him and that they are an abomination in his sight. That, however, it may work out for individual cases is the tendency of the system. Now let us examine the tendencies of the Calvinist system. The Calvinist believes that he is preaching the gospel as a duty. He believes that nothing that he says can really save a man. He believes that God must regenerate man and take away his heart of stone before he can respond. He believes that the faithful preaching of God's word is the God-appointed means of calling out God's elect. So the entire tendency of the system is to proclaim the gospel, as Paul did, to proclaim it in all its power, with all its offense, and accompanied by all the bad news that makes the gospel the good news. The question that we need to ask is, Are we salesmen trying to make a sales pitch to men, or are we ambassadors of Christ bearing his message to those who are in rebellion against him? The tendency of the Calvinist system of salvation is to make men outspoken preachers of the gospel, trusting that God will use that testimony according to his will to call out his elect. That was certainly the case during the Great Awakening, which was an exercise in Calvinist evangelism. Now we have to be fair. We are speaking here of the tendencies of each system. There are undoubtedly many Arminian churches that resist these tendencies and try to preach the gospel as faithfully as they can. However, even when they do so, the gospel they are preaching is already shorn of much of its offense, and there are also undoubtedly some Calvinist churches that fall into the temptation to minimize the harshness of the bad news and make the gospel a little more palatable to unregenerate men. However, the tendencies of the two systems are remarkably different, and as we shall see, have had a marked impact on the history of the church. Much of the damage to the Church of Jesus Christ in North America, if not elsewhere in the world, can be attributed to the effects of mass Arminian evangelism. One can go all the way back to the labors of Charles Finney to see the destructiveness of this type of evangelism. Finney was not just an Arminian, a semi-Pelagian. He was a full-blown Pelagian. He believed in perfectionism. He believed that men could, by the exercise of their free wills, lead perfect and sinless lives. Although he was a Presbyterian, he rejected the doctrines of Presbyterianism, especially its soteriology. He invented many of the techniques of modern mass evangelism. The idea that one could come to Christ by walking an aisle or lifting up one's hand rather than by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of God probably originates with Finney. These physical acts were to Finney signs that a man had made a decision, a decision for Christ, that his will had been effected. The fact that legions of such conversions turned out to be spurious did not deter Finney in the least. He continued with his new measures. The areas, especially western New York, where his labors were concentrated, were later called the burned over districts. In these areas biblical religion had well nigh disappeared, men's hearts were hardened against the gospel, and irreligion and cults were rampant. Mormonism had its beginnings in western New York. and Joseph Smith got many of his religious ideas from the cult he was exposed to there. Later Finney's ideological heirs invented the doctrine of the carnal Christian to justify the lack of grace in their alleged converts. That was all in the 19th century. It only got worse in the 20th century, as Finney's new measures were refined, honed, and expanded. I remember the case of one Arminian evangelist who was explaining his soul winning techniques. He said that one reason many persons were not being converted when they were brought to an evangelistic meeting was because they knew what was coming. As the service was obviously drawing to a close, they knew the invitation was coming. They knew that influence and pressure would be brought to bear to get them to make a decision for Christ. So they steeled themselves against it and prepared to resist. This evangelist said that what was needed was to bring the service to a climax quickly and unexpectedly. What had to be done was to surprise the person with the invitation before he was expecting it. He thought that many more souls could be won that way. This, of course, the epitome of Arminian evangelism. It is an exercise in men seeking to persuade men. It degenerates into an effort by men to influence the wills of men. Where in all this is there a place for the indispensable work of God's Spirit? There is no place for the work of God in these games. It is human effort seeking to influence human wills. God is on the sidelines until a decision is made. Then God is expected to respond and reward the decision for Christ with regenerating grace by His Spirit. What a travesty of the biblical way of salvation. Another example is the case of Hiles Anderson College. Jack Hiles was the Arminian pastor of the Fundamentalist Baptist megachurch. The college was founded in the early seventies, as I recollect, and was located in Hammond, Indiana, a suburb of the city of Gary. The college was placing large full-page ads in the Sword of the Lord, a popular fundamentalist religious newspaper. The college bragged in these ads that at Hiles Anderson College, soul winning was not an option, it was a requirement. Students would be bused into the city of Gary to conduct street evangelism. To graduate, a student had to chalk up a specific number of decisions for Christ. He or she had to save their quota of souls to obtain the mandatory credit in soul winning to graduate. Here again there was no dependence on the power and spirit of God. It was presumed that sufficient human effort would bring the desired results. Noah, whom the scriptures call a preacher of righteousness, would have flunked out of this college. Jeremiah would have fared no better. They were faithful preachers of God's word, but God chose to make their preaching a saver of death on the death. It is God who is sovereign. It is God who saves, not man. And what does this type of street evangelism consist of? In the Scriptures, objects of evangelism are taught the faith by sound preaching, and when they are converted to Christ by God's power, they are baptized and added to the church. A reasonable understanding of the gospel, of who Christ is, and what he has done, and a credible profession of faith in him are required. They then come under the regular preaching of God's Word and under the discipline of His Church. In this type of Arminian street evangelism, people are asked if they want to go to heaven, if they want to be saved. They are told it is extremely easy. They are told that all they have to do is accept Christ as their Savior. Any explanation of the gospel and who Christ is is minimal. and has to take place in a minute or two. If the victim of this deceptive practice assents, he or she is led to repeat a simple prayer, confessing their sin and asking Jesus to come into their heart. They are then pronounced saved, and typical four-point Arminians will then counsel them that they are permanently saved no matter what happens in the future. After all, once saved, always saved. These persons can continue in their normal sinful lives, can never darken the door of a church, or crack open a Bible, and yet are deluded that they are assured of their salvation. I have observed and witnessed to the victims of this type of evangelism. They are extremely hard to reach with the gospel. They believe that their spiritual needs are all taken care of. They see no need to change their lives or to do anything else. They have been immunized against true evangelism. While there undoubtedly are exceptions, and some actually come to church, hear the word of God, and are actually converted, that cannot justify such unscriptural practices in the light of thousands of deluded souls that are deceived about their true spiritual state. Yet all this is the logical fruit of Arminian principles applied to evangelism. Finally, let us examine the ministry of the greatest evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham. Graham is an Arminian, so his ministry is the best example there is of mass Arminian evangelism. Now the Bible is not only a book of theology, but a book of anthropology. It teaches us not only knowledge of the true God, of his character, attributes and works, but it teaches us about man. It gives us God's view of man, of fallen man, and the picture is not very pretty. Billy Graham teaches little about either. He is extremely careful to avoid offending his audience. He studiously avoids the offense of man's sinfulness, the offense of what God really thinks of sinful man. And while he is careful to spare his listeners any offense, God declares in Isaiah 58-1, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin. And because he avoids the offense of the gospel, he is therefore very well thought of by the world. Most unbelievers in America have a favorable opinion of Billy Graham, as does the mass media. Christ had a word about those whom the world speaks well of. Luke 6, 26. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. The essence of Billy Graham's evangelistic ministry is ecumenism. It is mandatory, if he is to conduct a crusade in any city, that the local organizing committee include Roman Catholics, theological liberals, and charismatics. This is mandatory. He demands it. This, of course, ensures broad acceptance of his ministry and great crowds. He may feel that this is justified because it brings many Roman Catholics an adherence of liberal churches under his preaching. However, there is a steep price to pay for this policy. The messages that he preaches must be tailored to offend none of these constituencies. And then it only gets worse. The counselors who minister to those who respond to his call to accept Christ are also selected from these constituencies, and to ensure that none of these constituencies suffer any harm or offense the converts who come forward or ask about their church background. It is mandated that Catholics are sent to a Catholic counselor, to a priest or a nun. Similarly, those with a background in a liberal church where the gospel is never preached are sent to a counselor from such a church. This way each constituency is ensured that they will not lose members to another. It also ensures that very few Catholics are delivered from the heresies and idolatries of the Church of Rome, and very few victims of theological liberalism are delivered from these apostate churches and come under the true preaching of the Word. Billy Graham is popular. The world loves him. He has been the friend and confidant of every president since Eisenhower. He has blessed their administrations and supported them in spite of their worldliness and corruption, and the fact that many of their policies could not stand the test of the Word of God. When Elvis, a notorious adulterer, died of drugs and alcohol, Graham stated that he was in heaven singing for God. This is what the world loves to hear. There is none of the offense of the gospel. There is none of the sting of God's law. There is not an iota of Elijah or John the Baptist in Graham. So the world loves him. He was a frequent speaker at the World Council of Churches where he embraced those apostates, those blasphemers, and those Christ deniers as brethren. Yet the world loves him. The mystery is why did Christians support him? The answer is because it was all in the name of evangelism. He was saving souls. Who could oppose that? He was achieving decisions for Christ in unprecedented numbers. Who could not support that? Well Calvinists couldn't. They provided most of the opposition to Grant. A few separatist fundamental Arminian churches opposed him, but they were a minuscule minority. The vast majority of Arminian evangelicals supported Graham. They loved him. All his compromises were accepted because he was saving souls. But was he? Many Calvinists didn't think so. They didn't see the work of God in this travesty of evangelism. they saw the epitome, the logical endpoint of Arminian evangelism, of appealing to men's free will and avoiding any offense. Fifty years of this type of evangelism and millions of decisions for Christ later, America is more wicked and corrupt than ever. Legions of alleged converts later, American society and culture are more immoral than ever. Fifty years of this type of ministry and American evangelicalism is more compromised, worldly, shallow, and emasculated of any true zeal for the truth than ever. Is there not something wrong with this picture? Now Billy Graham may profess Arminianism, But considering that the fruit of his ministry has mainly been spurious conversions, alliances with unbelievers, and subversion of the churches by the doctrine of Balaam, we must entertain serious reservations about his spiritual state, as the words of Christ quoted above suggest, he may even be a false prophet. We do not know, the Lord knows, but whatever he is, the fact is inescapable that he could never have accomplished the spiritual destruction he has wrought for over half a century without the support of the Arminian evangelical churches. And why did they support him? They supported Graham because the tendency of the Arminian scheme of salvation is to support that type of evangelism. That has been the consistent historic record from Charles Finney through Billy Graham, therefore they must bear much of the responsibility for the consequences of Graham's ministry. That the barriers between the Lord's people and the Church of Rome, between them and liberal apostates, and between them and the Charismatics, the barriers protecting and defending them from these errors, have been broken down, is largely due to the support of Graham's ministry. Arminians complain that the Calvinist understanding of God's way of salvation undermines zeal for evangelism. This is not supported by the historic record. Many of the great missionary pioneers were Calvinists. When the Great Commission was beginning to be really implemented in the 19th century, as the gospel went out into the third world, it was spearheaded by Calvinists. Calvinists have a much greater right to complain about what Arminianism has done to Evangelism. It has destroyed it until it is dominated by the ministry of such as Billy Graham. It has corrupted it into a vast system for generating spurious conversions apart from the power of God unto salvation, and become the soul-destroying, church-corrupting travesty that Graham and his kind have made it. When it comes to evangelism and the historic record, Calvinists have much less to apologize for. Arminians in their glass houses should not be throwing stones at them. Amen.