August 26, 2002
Interpretation of BF&M
highlights Calvinist views
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___LOUISVILLE, Ky.--God has personally chosen who will be saved and predestined them to be among the elect, according to a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor who has written an interpretation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___Tom Nettles, professor of historical theology at the Southern Baptist Convention seminary, wrote a brief commentary on Article 5a of the Baptist Faith & Message for a series that has been published sequentially by Baptist Press. All the articles in the series were written by Southern Seminary faculty.
___Two years ago, a seminary study committee of the Baptist General Convention of Texas criticized Southern Seminary and its president, Al Mohler, for advocating a theological system commonly called five-point Calvinism by its detractors or "the doctrines of grace" by its supporters.
___According to this theological system, God determined before creation who would be saved from hell, thereby also choosing who would not be saved. According to Calvinistic theology, those whom God has predestined for salvation will be irresistibly drawn to God's grace and cannot escape professing faith in Christ.
___These viewpoints are expressed in Nettles' commentary published by Baptist Press, an arm of the SBC Executive Committee. An editors' note introducing the series called it "an educational resource for our churches" to help readers be "better informed and equipped for life, work and ministry."
___Article 5a of the Baptist Faith & Message states: "Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which he regenerates, justifies, sanctifies and glorifies sinners."
___"In pursuance of his gracious purpose, ... God's particular love rests on certain ones to bring them to salvation," Nettles writes, citing Romans 8:29 as evidence. That verse says of God, "Whom he foreknew, he also predestined."
___Election, Nettles contends, "pulsates with the infinite grace of God."
___"God's election cannot fail," Nettles says. "He administers his decree all the way to the glorification of sinners and to the glory of his beloved Son."
___Salvation, Nettles explains, is wholly of God and requires no contribution from the person who is to be saved: "Such a display of sovereign goodness humbles its recipient to the dust and absolutely excludes any synergy in this salvation, and renders boasting of any sort an utter nullity."
___However, election "does not contradict the free agency of man," Nettles contends. "When a person acts, he acts freely--or exactly as he is disposed to act."
___He adds: "The elect person acts freely and in accord with a spiritual sight sovereignly induced by God's Spirit in accordance with God's electing purpose, when God's choice is manifest in the coming of the gospel with power."
___God's choice of some for salvation does not change and cannot fail, Nettles explains. "In that all those eternally given to the Son will come, while not one fails, it is unchangeable."
___To illustrate his point, he quotes F.H. Kerfoot, a Southern Baptist theologian and pastor at the turn of the 20th century: "In Christ, we are elected or chosen, personally or individually, from eternity, saved and called out from the world, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace."
___Nettles' viewpoint was bolstered by a subsequent article in the series written by Hal Ostrander, associate dean of Southern Seminary's Boyce College. Ostrander wrote a commentary on the Baptist Faith & Message's Article 4d, which is about glorification of the believer.
___He interprets Romans 8:28-30 with an illustration from the West Texas oilfields: "It is impossible for those foreknown, predestined, called and justified by Christ's person and his work to ever slip out of the life-flowing pipeline without also finally being glorified."
___While five-point Calvinism carries historical roots in Southern Baptist life, it has been a minority viewpoint since early in the 20th century. However, this theological framework has been gaining adherents within the SBC in recent years.
___Non-Calvinists emphasize instead the free will of every person to accept or reject Jesus Christ as Savior, as evidenced in Scriptures such as John 3:16--"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish."
___Election and predestination, according to non-Calvinists, mean God has made provision for the salvation of all who will believe, not that God has chosen who will believe.
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