Friend and fellow Southern Baptist Joshua Breland has responded to Jerry Vines’ recent comments that Calvinism is one of the biggest challenges confronting the Southern Baptist Convention in his article: Maybe the Mayan Calendar Was Marking the End of the Southern Baptist Convention.
One of the claims Joshua addresses is Vines’ charge that a move toward five-point Calvinism would be a move away from the gospel. If this claim is correct, then there are a lot of Southern Baptists serving the Lord who are further away from the gospel than those non-Calvinists with whom they serve. (I suppose that’s what Vines means about moving away from the gospel.) Can those Calvinists who are allegedly further from the gospel than Vines actually be used by God to bring someone to repentance and faith? If one has moved away from the gospel can they still be a Christian? What exactly are Calvinist Southern Baptists calling people to if they have moved away from the gospel? The rhetorical questions could go on since there is not a clear explanation of what it means for Calvinism to move Christians away from the gospel. I digress.
It is odd for a leader in the SBC to claim that the theology that had a strong standing in beginning the SBC for the purpose of spreading the gospel is actually a move away from the gospel.
Anyway, check out Joshua’s article.
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