Gospel Spin

By Matt Hixson

The tension between God's sovereignty and our choice is illustrated by Peter's steps on the water. Peter realizes Jesus provides the power, but he must contribute his faith. He must walk out to Jesus courageously. Jesus' verdict on Peter's action is that he has a degree of faith but needs to work on doubt. For us to walk on the water and overcome evil, we must make a free-will decision to put our faith in the master. Like a stepping stone in the sea, he will then guide our path.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Harbor Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393540014

Book preview

Gospel_Spin_Large_Front_RGB.jpg

GOSPEL SPIN

GOSPEL SPIN

THE PROBLEM WITH THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

Matt Hixson

New Harbor Press

Copyright © 2020 Matt Hixson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

New Harbor Press

1601 Mt Rushmore Rd, Ste 3288

Rapid City, SD 57701

www.newharborpress.com

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the address above.

Gospel Spin/Hixson —1st ed.

First edition: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Contents

INTRODUCTION:

AUTHOR’S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Chapter 1: DEPRAVED ONES SEEKING TRUTH?

Chapter 2: WORKING OUT THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST

Chapter 3: GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IN THE MURDER OF JESUS

Chapter 4: GOING TO THE CROSS FOR SOME PEOPLE

Chapter 5: BREAKING NEWS THIS JUST IN: EVANGELISM (IRRESISTIBLE GRACE)

Chapter 6: YOU’VE GOT NO CHOICE IN THIS: APOSTACY

Chapter 7: OTHER PRACTICAL ISSUES: Infant Mortality, Dating, Dumb Questions, The Problem of Evil, Exclusivism and Racism, COVID 19 and Reopening Decisions, Limitations on Free Will

Chapter 8: FREE WILL AND THE JUDGMENT

Chapter 9: BACK TO THE FUTURE: CHURCH HISTORY

Chapter 10: DECEPTION IN THE CREEDS

Chapter 11: IMPLICATIONS: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

APPENDIX:

INTRODUCTION:

For years American and Chinese friends have been encouraging me to write a book on my ministry experiences in China. In the context of a larger theme on salvation and the problem of evil, this book accomplishes that goal to some extent, introducing several of those experiences. My larger objective, however, is to encourage the church to look at the problem of evil through the lens of the Reformed Theology debate. This project takes a fresh look at overlooked scriptures, including the Old Testament and the life and ministry of Christ. It also examines overlooked philosophical implications and practical life implications. This book employs other new methodologies including a couple chapters that dive into analysis of the online social media videos of formative Reformed apologists to tackle old questions with fresh but definitive answers. The book’s content also examines the historical context of the free-will debate prior to St. Augustine, and church creeds that arose after Calvin. Through it all, the overarching theme is what kind of theology best addresses man’s responsibility for the problem of evil and God’s solution to the problem of evil.

Reformed Theology, based largely on the doctrines of John Calvin, presents a view of man and salvation sharply different from that espoused in the majority Church. The doctrines are too involved to lay out in an introduction, but in a nutshell, it is a gospel where the role of a person in his or her own salvation, and the salvation of others, is removed, or at least fundamentally diminished. It is also a view of the problem of evil that is unique. For those new to the debate, you may want to begin by reviewing some terminology in the appendix. The first few chapters of the book deal with the life and teachings of Christ and particularly his atonement. Subsequent chapters begin to deal with the practical life implications of Reformed theology.

Reformed theology is making inroads into many congregations where a free-will approach was previously the norm. In extreme opposition to Reformed Theology, however, various views that diminish God’s sovereign role in history and salvation have also crept into some congregations. Though challenging the positions of Reformed Theology, this book is certainly not a defense of Open Theism. It seeks rather to provide biblical answers to soteriological problems that vex the Church as well as provide a balanced view of how God saves and provides assurance of salvation. Finally, the intent is for both sides in the debate to re-evaluate even their longest and deepest held assumptions, drawing closer in theology, but also learning to find unity in the Spirit even where there remains disagreement in doctrine.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

One frequent charge people make in a discussion of the salvation debate relates to fairly representing one another’s positions. I have attempted to limit mischaracterizations of Reformed theology in a few ways. First, the appendix is drawn from a Reformed Theology source, and I try to use those terms as they are stated. Second, major portions of the book articulate positions of Reformed Theology in the very words of its adherents-in their published books, websites, and youtube videos. Third, while not overlooking biblical texts traditionally related to the debate, I cover a breadth of new scriptures to deal with the problem. Much of the Bible’s narrative text, parables, and didactic content are overlooked as a repository of information, and I attempt to rectify that. It should also be noted here that tenets which are generally held among Reformed theologians may not be held by all. This work attempts to provide voices from various spheres of Reformed theology to see both the continuity and discontinuity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to many in the spiritual journey that led to my completion of this book. My first pastor had just returned from ten years of service in Africa to preach in Greensburg, PA about the time my family first came to the church. I was only seven, but David Kalb’s messages grounded me in God’s word and provided a living reflection of Christ’s love, grace, and wisdom. David’s ability to speak into my life was not an anomaly at our church as our youth pastor, and even volunteers in the church rooted me in the truth of the gospel and a passion to serve God from a young age.

My parents, who developed a ministry to the deaf in our community and several area churches, introduced me to crossing cultural and linguistic barriers. I am grateful for those Bible college professors and classmates who would later deepen my knowledge of scripture and how to correctly apply it to the challenge of reaching the lost for God’s Kingdom. I’m especially indebted to my cross-culture communications professors who acclimated me to the tools by which I could assimilate in a foreign culture to reach those who had never heard the gospel.

Finally I am grateful, that at a small Bible college, God prepared a soulmate for me, one named Hope and who had been to China a year before I even met her. In the last couple of months as I’ve been writing, she has often endured little more than grunts for answers and has also added to her responsibilities in order that I might complete this project. To God be the greatest glory as it is he in which we live and move and have our being.

Chapter 1

DEPRAVED ONES SEEKING TRUTH?

HOW DEPRAVED ARE WE?

A reformed pastor asks a rhetorical question, In light of the scriptures that declare man’s true nature as being utterly lost and incapable, how is it possible for anyone to choose or desire God? ¹ His answer is, He cannot desire God. He has no capacity to desire God. Therefore God must predestine some to salvation and some to damnation. The pastor provides no clarity on why God would predestine people to contradictory roles in his universe, or why living has any significance in a choiceness world. If God is in control of everything, the pastor must find God’s purpose and meaning not just in the righteous actions of the faithful but also in the evil of society and all self centered and sinful human actions.

People are indeed depraved and God is indeed sovereign, but in what sense is man depraved and how does God actually exercise His sovereignty?

A recurring scene plays out in living rooms across the country, and indeed in most every culture. A family visits friends whose children are in middle school. They bring their toddler who rambles around the unprepared house looking for forbiddens. She grabs for that antique piece of China, tries to open the door to see the doggie outside, tears books, topples knick knacks, and refuses to hear no. But even at the age of toddlerdome, most little people are aware of the will’s of others, especially parents, which are in conflict with their own. It’s true some toddlers are indulged to a much greater extent than others. But even if, by way of over-indulging parents, they manage to always get what they want and escape conflict for a couple years, they are eventually socialized into relationships with other toddlers who have desires, parents who tire of their selfishness, neighbors who scowl, and teachers who confront.

At some point they experience conflict, discipline, or harm that provides opportunity to reflect on the will, on justice, and right and wrong. They are not depraved beyond recognition, though some may sear their own conscience over time. Those without Christ are entirely lost, but not entirely depraved. God has endowed them with conscience and put the contradictory contemplations of death and eternity in their hearts. God is sovereignly seeking all of us who have wandered off from the innocence of infancy, but neither man’s fall nor God’s sovereign work diminishes man’s image of God based aptitude to seek God. Indeed He commands this course of searching for the life of each human, and provides the aptitude for each to follow through. This is not to say man is left to seek God on his own but that God demands the participation of men and women.

Some sources like the Westminster Dictionary (see appendix) separate total depravity and total inability, but since Reformed theologians accept both concepts as valid and mutually supported, I will continue to use the term total depravity for both. John Piper defines the total depravity of man as "sinful corruption so deep and so strong as to make us slaves of sin and morally unable to overcome our own rebellion and blindness. This inability to save ourselves from ourselves is total. We are utterly dependent on God’s grace to overcome our rebellion, give us eyes to see, and effectively draw us to the Savior.² I’m not aware of any singular definition John Calvin (1509-1564) gave for total depravity, but he described it frequently in various terms. There is no man to whom eternal blessedness is not pleasing, yet no man aspires to it except by the impulsion of the Holy Spirit. He asserted that All parts of the soul were possessed by sin after Adam deserted the fountain of righteousness."3 Arminius (1560-1609), however, knew this view of man was actually rooted in Calvin’s disdain for free-will and love for arbitrary election. Arminius’ agreed that man is fallen, but held that he is not so incapacitated by the sinful nature as to be unable to seek and choose God. He also denied the conclusion that such a state of depravity in man necessitated God choose some to be saved and some to be lost and condemned.

Many observers of this theological clash see in these two alternatives-Calvin and Arminius-only that either God chooses us independently of our will, or that we choose God as an event unrelated to His will, influence, or help. Many theological debates such as this are founded on polar opposite choices and un-nuanced conclusions. They derive, in part, in human philosophy. They also arise from the tendency to see one set of scriptures and overlook others, or see certain scriptures through the lens of pre-determined conclusions. For some observers, the Calvin vs. Arminius debate mirrors the Augustine vs. Pelagius debate, but none of these scholars actually held the exact same views, and the juxtaposition of opposites overlooks both early church history, which I will address in chapter 10, and the excluded middle to which we now turn.

BETWEEN THE FRINGES

There is a less traveled third road to understanding God’s sovereignty in relation to man’s will, between a deterministic god and self-determinism. This book, in fact seeks to trek a fresh journey into scripture, modern debate, and church history to address the problem of evil. I pray that those from both ends of the theological spectrum on issues like free-will and God’s sovereignty will approach this book with an open mind full of discernment. I pray to recognize God’s sovereignty as I write. This first chapter deals with man’s capacity to seek God. Other chapters seek to deal creatively and biblically with the issues implicit in the debate over Reformed Theology. This is not just a theological exercise, however, as one’s conclusions have great bearing on how one deals with practical issues.

Sin has mangled man’s will, but admittedly, if God were not simultaneously seeking him, he would not find him. Man’s sin, however, has not rendered him incapable of pursuing justice, truth, and salvation, just incapable of attaining it on his own. God’s act of seeking the lost is indispensable, but whether or not man is willing to seek God, willing to respond to God’s direct prompting, or willing to obey on hearing the gospel lies within his own will. In short, the biblical injunction for people to seek God is not an empty, unreachable command that fall’s on human beings who are devoid of a conscience, intellect, reasoning power, emotional awareness, will, or capacity to comprehend, accept, and obey the gospel. But neither does man get there without God, both in the sense that he has endowed man with the faculties to see God at work and the fact that God is calling all men to faith.

Man was never able to save himself, even before the fall. The tree of life, whether by symbol of obedience or direct conduit to fellowship with God, sustained life. God is the only inherently immortal being. The fall made death the new normal, but as we will see in scripture and practice, it did not destroy the ability of man to seek. Ultimately, those who reject the faith do not do so because God caused or decreed it, but because given the capacity and opportunity, they did not seek. Our choice either submits ourself to God’s will, or rejects it in order to continue in unbelief. Salvation is the outcome God desires for all, not some; it’s the outcome he seeks for all, not some. But God has not decreed the outcome, only foreknown it. He has decreed his plan and the condition for salvation; it is that we must have faith. Salvation is possible for all but actualized by choice, which entails belief, trust, obedience, and faith. All five of these words are biblical and interrelated. As we will see, salvation is found by those who seek and use their ears to hear.

FREE TO SEEK

Scripture teaches us to seek God’s will, to seek His face, to seek first His Kingdom, and to seek His righteousness. We are told to seek the counsel of the Lord, to seek and we will find, to knock and the door will be opened. We are told to seek God’s glory, but in the context of humility and godliness, we are even told it is ethical to seek our own glory, honor, and immortality.4 We are likewise warned about what not to seek. Do not seek revenge; do not seek false gods, omens or spiritists, etc.5 God extends immeasurable grace to those who don’t seek him or live in conditions difficult to seek him. Through evangelists, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and other sovereign interventions, he graciously provides opportunities to receive the gospel beyond the number we seek or