I made this video last year. With Romney back in the news the views have picked up. Over 4,000 in the past few weeks.

Rob-roy

 

How to Call for a Gospel Response Like a Calvinist

"Think like a Calvinist. Preach like an Arminian."

That is how one preaching professor taught his students to call people to faith in a sermon. He couldn't reconcile a theological system that embraces God's sovereignty in salvation with a plea for sinful people to change. Ultimately, this prof thought Calvinism makes sense biblically and logically, but not practically.

Perhaps you have struggled with this, too. I know I have.

There was a season of my ministry where I didn't call people to believe the gospel. I preached the gospel, of course, but only with the hope that the Spirit would use his word to regenerate spiritually dead teenagers against their will. I merely implied that they must believe the gospel.

But I have turned from this mindset. This is not because my pendulum has swung to a more balanced position between Calvinism and Arminianism---I don't believe there is such a thing. It's because I've grown to understand what Calvinism is and, perhaps more importantly, what it isn't.

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And His Name is Jesus

“He was born in an obscure village the child of a poor peasant.  He grew up in another village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30.  Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.  He never wrote a book, he never held an office, he never had a family or owned a home. He never led an army or traveled 200 miles from where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accomplish greatness. He had no credentials but himself and was 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him.  His friends ran away, one even denied him and he was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves and while he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property he had on earth.  When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend .  Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race.   All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all  the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned put together  have not effected humanity on this earth as much as that one solitary life.” 

--Frank Turek  during a debate with atheist author Christopher Hitchens