Loveland Protestant Reformed Church
709 East 57th
Street; Loveland, CO 80538
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through August)
Vol. 5, No. 14 Pastor: Rev. G. Van Baren Phone: (970) 667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
CONTENTS:
Conversion could very well be treated in connection with regeneration for that is when conversion begins. Indeed, most Christians when they speak of conversion or ask, "When were you converted?" are referring to that very first work of God's grace in the hearts and lives of His people.
Nevertheless, we prefer to deal with conversion in connection with sanctification and to emphasize the fact that it is an ongoing, daily activity in the lives of Christians. We can see this when remember that conversion means "turning."
The turning referred to is from sin (cf. Ezek. 33:11) and to God (Lk. 1:16). It must be both. There are those who turn from a specific sin, e.g., drunkenness, but do not turn to God. They are not converted. There are also those who claim to have turned to God but do not turn from their sins. They also are not converted.
Turning from sin involves both repentance (Acts 26:20) and the constant fight against sin, Satan and the flesh (Gal. 5:17, I Cor. 9:26-27) - what Scripture calls the putting off of the old man (Col. 3:9). The turning to God involves holiness of life (Acts 16:18) - what Scripture calls the putting on of the new man (Col. 3:10).
So many are mistaken here. They think the raising of a hand in a meeting or a "decision for Christ" are the evidences of conversion and even consider themselves or others "converted" on that basis. Without repentance and holiness conversion is only a sham and people remain far from the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3).
The turning that takes place in conversion begins when God first reveals His sovereign grace in our lives. But it does not end with that. Every day of our lives we must be turning from our sins. Likewise, as long as we sin we must be repenting (I Jn. 1:8-9). And continually we must be perfecting holiness in the fear of God (II Cor. 7:1).
This need for daily conversion must be emphasized. The important question is not really "When . . . converted?" but "Whether now . . . converted?" Decisions for Christ or experiences of many years ago mean nothing in the case of the person who is now living and walking in his old sins. So completely has this been forgotten, that in some circles a new kind of Christian has been invented called a "carnal Christian," that is, someone who has made a profession, but still lives an unchanged and sinful life.
By the same token, it does not matter that some cannot put a date and time to their "conversion." (and there are such people - not all are saved as Paul was; cf. II Tim. 3:15). If they are now by God's wonderful grace living converted lives - lives that have been turned around by the power of God's Holy Spirit - then they are converted persons.
It should be emphasized, however, that conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not that up to this point our salvation is God's work and here we take over - that everything from this point on depends on our decision or choice of will. As the prophet says: "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou are the Lord my God" (Jer. 31:18).
That in mind, we ask: "Are you converted . . . NOW? Rev. Ronald Hanko
(Continued from the previous issue)
God wants the gospel to be preached to far more people than the elect.
He does not want the gospel preached to every single person who ever lived. This is evident from the fact that, throughout the history of the world, countless thousands have lived and died without ever hearing the gospel. If God had wanted them to hear it, He could easily have seen to it that the gospel was brought to them. But, as the Canons of Dort expresses it, the gospel is preached to "whom God out of his good pleasure sends" it (2,5).
But, although God does not want all men to hear the gospel, He does want a whole lot more to hear the gospel than the elect. In fact, it is probably not incorrect to say that more reprobate hear the gospel than elect, because God's people are, after all, always a remnant according to the election of grace.
And, let it be clearly understood, God does not want many non-elect people to hear the gospel just simply in order that it may be said of them that at one time or another, they heard somebody preaching.
A foreigner may, on a visit to London, enter the Parliament buildings and hear a PM hold forth on the EEC. But because he is from Zaire and because the EEC has no interest for him, he may stay and listen, but the speech is of no significance.
That is not the way it is with the gospel.
When anyone (elect or reprobate) hears the gospel, he is confronted with the Christ Who is proclaimed in it. This can never be avoided.
In a way, it is a dangerous thing to pick up the Scriptures and read them; or to come under the preaching of the gospel. It is impossible to read Scripture or to hear the preaching without being confronted with the question, most solemn and most crucial: "What will you do with Christ?" And, indeed, on a man's answer to that question hangs the eternal destiny of his soul.
So it is not only the preacher, who, by the way, is totally unable to tell who in his audience is elect and who is reprobate, who must bring the gospel to many more than the elect; God Himself addresses many more than the elect with the gospel.
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That this is true is clear from many parts of Scripture.
It is evident, in the first place, from every incidence of preaching recorded in God's Word. Always the preaching was brought to a widely diversified audience including both elect and reprobate. And when the command to repent from sin and turn to God came through the preaching, that command came to all who heard. This was true in the Old Testament as well as in the New.
In the second place, Jesus Himself stressed this very truth in more than one place, but nowhere so clearly as in the parable of the wedding feast (Mt. 22:1-14). Many who refused to come were bidden to the feast (vs. 4). When it became clear that they would not come, the call went out to those in the highways (vss. 9,10). Even then one called from the highways was not an elect, for he was expelled because he had no wedding garment on (vss. 11-13). And the whole parable is concluded with the words: "Many are called, but few are chosen" (vs. 14).
Peter's example on Pentecost is the model for all preaching. We are specifically told by the Holy Spirit that Peter preached to all his audience that they were under the solemn obligation to repent and be converted so that their sins might be blotted out (Acts 2:38. See also 3:19, 20).
There can be no question about it that God brings the gospel to many, many more than His people, and, by bringing the gospel to them, confronts them with Christ and the demand to obey.
God wills this for a specific purpose. And that purpose is that sin may be fully revealed as sin, and that when God punishes in everlasting hell, his judgment on the wicked is just and righteous. Prof. Herman Hanko
Is
Repentance Necessary for Salvation?
Our question for this issue is too long to quote in its entirety. Its essence is found in the following extracts: "What I'm concerned with is whether we should tell people to forsake sins and repent to be a Christian. I believe Calvin wrote this: 'Now it ought to be a fact beyond controversy that repentance not only constantly follows faith, but is also born of faith....' But when we preach to nonbelievers, should we be telling a person that to be saved, he has to forsake his sins? Would that not be legalistic?... Faith results in repentance...so logically the call to repentance will be made to a Christian and not a non-Christian. So is it misleading to tell a person to forsake sins or be willing to forsake sins to be saved?... How does repentance fit into our preaching to the unbeliever?" This is followed by another related question: "Isn't following Christ (and faith) the calling of the believer, not the unbeliever?"
There are several issues here. They are: (1) whether repentance follows faith, so that only the believer can be called to repentance, and, closely related (2) whether an unbeliever can be called to repentance and faith without denying the sovereignty of grace, i.e., does not the calling of an unbeliever to repentance and faith imply some ability or free will on his part - that he is able to do these things or chose to do them.
We will take the second question first. It is a very important question and gets at some crucial issues. The answer to this question, for example, separates true Calvinism from what is sometimes called hyper-Calvinism.
Hyper-Calvinism is traditionally identified as the teaching that the unbeliever cannot be called to faith and repentance because that would be a denial of total depravity and would imply that the unbeliever has some natural spiritual ability to do these things. The true hyper-Calvinist, therefore, refuses to issue a general call to faith and repentance in the preaching of the gospel. This is wrong.
It is very clear from Scripture that the call to faith and repentance must be given generally (Acts 17:30). Note, however, that it is a call, not an offer. If it was an offer it would imply that the sinner has some ability to respond. Because it is a call, it does not.
What we must understand is that the call itself is the means by which God gives the grace to respond. By the call to repentance and faith God produces and creates repentance and faith in the hearts of the elect. That is the reason, too, why that call must be heard everywhere and always in the preaching of the gospel.
It is by the call of the gospel, then, that God works in the elect both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). That call is the power of God unto salvation (I Cor. 1:18). By the call of the gospel God says in the heart of the sinner, "Let there be light" and there is light (II Cor. 4:6).
This is something seldom understood about the preaching of the gospel. Preaching is not like other speaking and teaching because in it men here the voice of Christ Himself and are powerfully and irresistibly called to salvation (Jn. 10:27-28; Eph. 2:17). It is the means God has appointed for working by His sovereign grace in the hearts of the sinners.
The call to repentance and faith, therefore, is not a new legalism and a denial of sovereign grace, but part of the doctrine of sovereign grace. Augustine understood that long ago when he insisted that the call was the grace! Rev. R.Hanko
(Calvin comments on I Tim. 2:4): "The other texts adduced are not declarative of the Lord's determination respecting all men in his secret counsel: they only proclaim that pardon is ready for all sinners who sincerely seek it (Ps.145:9). For if they obstinately insist on its being said that God is merciful to all, I will oppose to them, what is elsewhere asserted, that 'our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased' (Ps. 115:3). This text, then, must be explained in a manner consistent with another, where God says, 'I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy' (Ex. 33:19). He who makes a selection of objects for the exercise of his mercy, does not import that mercy to all. But as it clearly appears that Paul is there speaking, not of individuals, but orders of men, I shall forbear any further argument...."
(Calvin's Institutes, Book III, Chap. 24, XVI)