The Tulip in the Garden: Pruning the Petals of Calvinism

By John S. Connell

Does God want everyone to be saved? Does man really have a choice regarding salvation? These significant questions are among the many John S. Connell, doctor of theology, educator, and Southern Baptist pastor, answers in his new book,The TULIP in the Garden: Pruning the Petals of Calvinism.

Dr. Connell presents his ideas and resolutions regarding the growing popularity of Calvinism in seminary classrooms and Southern Baptist congregations in an accessible, succinct, and flowing style, so everyone (not just Baptists) can understand the impact Calvinism can have on individuals, churches, and denominations.

Dr. Connell addresses the TULIP, an acronym for the five premises of Calvinism, and counters it by setting forth another acronym, ACCESS, a biblical theology demonstrating that Gods love has been, and is, extended to all humankind, not merely a chosen few. Dr. Connell documents his arguments thoroughly with passages from Scripture, as well as other scholarly works.Moreover, his explorations of Calvinisms dangers are applicable to the lives and experiences of all, including pastors and scholars.

By offering alternative paths and a resolution to the current conflict in Southern Baptist congregations over Calvinism, Dr. Connell inspires readers to debate and investigate their beliefs.The TULIP in the Gardennot only encourages theological discovery and affirmation, but also puts forth the concept that everyone can be a theologian merely by thinking about God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490895673

John S. Connell

Dr. John S. Connell has been in Christian ministry for thirty-five years, and he currently serves as a senior pastor in Savannah, Georgia. His master of divinity and doctor of theology degrees were earned from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Connell is also author of Halos of Fire: Enjoying a Life Filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit, published in 2005.

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Copyright © 2015 John S. Connell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

‘Scripture taken from the ‘New American Standard Bible,’ Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission."

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9568-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9567-3 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/05/2015

Table of Contents

Prologue I Do My Fishing in the River

Chapter 1 TULIP Talk

Chapter 2 Planting the TULIP in Contextual Soil

Chapter 3 The Starting Place for Planting

Chapter 4 Connellism and ACCESS

Chapter 5 The Dangers of Calvinism

Chapter 6 Electing Your Election

Chapter 7 Predestination: Acts 4 37624.jpg 1 Corinthians 2 37626.jpg Romans 8

Chapter 8 Predestination: Ephesians 1–3

Chapter 9 Bracing the Dam

Dedication

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For my father, Fred R. Connell, Jr., who never received training in a seminary classroom, but as an ardent student of God’s Word became a theologian of high rank. He perused the pages of the Bible voraciously and served more than thirty years as a persuasive pastor and teacher. A. Leonard Griffith, whose homiletical theory and practice served as the subject of my doctoral dissertation, once said that a preacher should have an encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture. My dad had that kind of knowledge, and he did everything possible to pass his love of Holy Writ to me. As I work to accurately handle the word of truth, I cannot express enough gratitude for the model he established for those who have come behind. Though he is already at home with the Lord, my dad’s influence carries forward with his two preacher sons and his preacher grandson.

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The love of God is extended to all mankind

—not merely a chosen few.

PROLOGUE

I Do My Fishing in the River

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The next great controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention will be Calvinism. That statement was made to me during a conversation that took place at the Georgia Baptist Convention held in November 2000. Frank Page,¹ then pastor of the Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, and author of Trouble with the Tulip: A Closer Examination of the Five Points of Calvinism,² made the comment. Much of Frank’s concern was based on the fact that Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, is a full-fledged Calvinist, and that under his leadership, Southern Seminary was and is graduating many pastoral students who are staunch Calvinists.

At that moment, I wasn’t sure what to think about Frank’s statement. It seemed like the stroke of an immensely broad brush, and if doctoral studies taught me anything, it taught me to be cautious about the use of sweeping statements. In addition, I did not want to believe that Calvinism could or would threaten the spiritual vitality of Southern Seminary or Southern Baptists at large.

REFORMED BAPTIST?

In the summer of 2001, I purchased a book entitled Why I Am a Baptist, edited by Tom J. Nettles and Russell D. Moore,³ both associated with the teaching staff at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In early 2002, I finally got around to reading the book.

As I read, I encountered numerous contributors—one of them a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri—who espoused Calvinism. Many of the writers have a Presbyterian background, and for most of those, the primary reason given for exiting the Presbyterian Church and joining Southern Baptists is their objection to pedobaptism. While I agree with and appreciate their stance opposing the baptism of infants, I can’t help but wonder why none stated an objection to the historical Presbyterian view of election and pre-destination. Paige Patterson, then president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, was the only contributor who noted any reservations about Calvinism, and gratefully, his remarks were explicit.⁴

Wayne Grudem, professor of biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for twenty years, and now research professor of Bible and theology at Phoenix Seminary, also contributed a chapter to the Nettles/Moore book. Since I had heard his name mentioned as the theologian of choice—according to several Southern Baptist leaders—I decided to purchase a copy of his book entitled Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith.⁵ While not agreeing with everything written by Grudem, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention has expressed sympathy with the idea that this particular work is probably the best systematic theology that has been written in the last twenty-five years.⁶

After reading Grudem’s chapter on election, I can say categorically that he is as much a Calvinist as anyone I’ve ever met or read. The only words I can think of to describe his views are Wow! Is this man truly considered to be a leading Southern Baptist theologian? Surely, this can’t be true, can it? He may be brilliant in many ways, but he has really missed the mark on this issue.

Tom Nettles—who has also had an association with Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas—endorsed a book written by Robert B. Selph, entitled Southern Baptists and the Doctrine of Election.⁷ The endorsement appeared on the back cover: We should all express genuine lamentation over the rarity of its presence [the preaching of unconditional election] in Baptist pulpits today.

In the first chapter of the book, Selph referred to unconditional election as a doctrinal heritage to the Southern Baptist Convention that many Baptists are not aware of. He touted unconditional election as the foundation, the heart, and the hub of all Bible truth and called it the backbone of Gospel preaching and missionary endeavor. He also bemoaned the fact that the second petal of the TULIP has been decentralized over the years in Baptist life.⁸

Not long ago, I received an e-mail from a local Savannah man who had some questions about predestination and election. He wrote, I have been studying the ‘Reformed Baptist’ ideas about these words for a long time. They [the Reformed Baptists] have provided booklets, study materials, and resources to help me understand the ‘T.U.L.I.P.’ ideas. They were kind enough to speak to me on many occasions. Upon reading his e-mail,