TWO DITCHES
Is God in control of all things, or do man’s choices determine what will happen?
And the answer? Yes.
Theologians have tried to harmonize the seemingly contradictory truths of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. To affirm one truth seems to necessarily deny the other. How should a Christian deal with this tension?
As with any truth of God, there are ditches on either side of orthodoxy into which men are apt to fall. Orthodox Christianity seeks to run a course down a valley that lies between man’s free will and God’s sovereignty. Well-adjusted Christians have always asserted that both truths are plainly taught in the Bible and we must live in light of both despite the tension. Over the years I have seen men who live peaceably with both truths. They are ‘warm’ Calvinists[1] and they can be detected quite easily. Such men rest in a sovereign God knowing that God has a plan for their lives and is in control of all events that intrude upon their lives. But their resting in God does not prevent them from a vigorous Christianity. These men yearn for the salvation of sinners and the sanctification of fellow believers and are not ashamed to apply any or all means possible to influence lives. Unfortunately such men are a dying breed in American Evangelicalism. In Reformed circles - the place where the author lives - there is an increasing polarization taking place, much like the politics in our day. Some reformed churches recede so deeply into doctrinal precision, and peering into the deep counsels of God that they become self-consumed, ingrown, and spiritually aloof. They do little work for the Lord. Their mantra is, “We hold to accurate verse by verse exposition of the word of God.” And while in itself this is a good thing, it can often be so emphasized that its adherents begin to sound like a musician who only knows technique, who never seeks any innovation or improvisation. God certainly wants precision but He also wants passion; He wants men to go beyond the letter of the law and invade the culture with risk and vision. Churches who operate like this remind me of the actor who knows his lines perfectly but does not put his heart into them. He will either put people to sleep or get booed off the stage. Either way he won’t inspire. Taking this back to the theological realm, God is sovereign and we must ever rest our weary head on that bedrock truth, but our resting must soon turn to celebration, activity, infiltration. Reformed churches that live only unto God’s sovereignty would do well to pump some oxygen into their spiritual veins by getting out of their comfortable intellectual monasteries and devoting themselves to the things they believe. Let them at once begin to use any means available to expand the kingdom of God. This is one ditch to avoid.
The other ditch lies on the other side and is just as steep and tempting. Churches falling into this ditch choose activity over accuracy, excitement over exegesis. Their tendency is leave theology behind and to run in any and every direction. In these churches the goal is not to rest in the will of God but move the will of man. This they hope to achieve by a steady diet of stimulation. Such churches are easily seduced by growth strategies. They employ techniques that will get spiritual consumers to buy or entice the bored with entertainment. They move sinners by a deceptive energy that comes not from the Spirit. And so converts are made whose faith rests not in the power of God but in the will of man.
Both these movements fall quickly off the map of orthodoxy. How they manifest themselves in this age mirrors how they manifest themselves in any age. Baptist preacher Spurgeon saw churches falling off either side of the cliff in his day,
“I believe that the two great doctrines of human responsibility and divine sovereignty have both been brought out the more prominently in the Christian Church by the fact that there is a class of strong-minded hard-headed men who magnify sovereignty at the expense of responsibility; and another earnest and useful class who uphold and maintain human responsibility oftentimes at the expense of divine sovereignty.”[2]
Both these errors are guilty of this age old problem; they deny one truth at the expense of another; they eclipse one truth behind the substance of another. The problem with the first view called hyper-Calvinism is that it stresses the sovereignty of God to an unhealthy extreme. It promotes a life that is woefully passive, non-involved and which avoids the means of grace. Arminianism, the second view, severely overestimates the ability of man’s will and therefore promotes a Christian life that is fraught with chaos, worldly methods and ecclesiastical frenzy.
Perhaps you have begun to fall into one of these ditches. You know you have when you passively trust in God to the exclusion of action or actively trust in self to the exclusion of faith.
[1] I use the term warm to connote Calvinists who love and use the means that God has ordained to build the church of God. They love people and everything possible for their spiritual good. This is opposed to the ‘frozen chosen’ brand of Calvinists who sit back and passively and sinfully rest on the sovereignty of God and do little with sinners.
[2] Spurgeon, Charles, MTP, Pilgrim Publications, volume 8 pg 181