Resources that calvinism does not impede missions/evangelism+universal offer?

[thistle93]

Hi! One often hears from Arminians or those who lean in that direction, that believing in the doctrines of grace better known as Calvinism impedes missions/evangelism. It is clear if people looked at history that this is not the case given that not all but the majority of great missionaries/evangelists/street preachers of the past believed in the doctrines of grace and instead of impeding them, these doctrines gave them confidence in fulfilling their task. The same seems to be true today. Why do many Arminians or those who lean in that direction use this argument when many of them are no more and maybe less active then Calvinists who embrace the doctrines of grace in being a missionaries/evangelists or street preachers?

Any books that explain why/how doctrines of grace does not impede missions/evangelism? Plus books that while promoting doctrines of grace emphasis the universal offer of the Gospel? Thank You!




For His Glory-
Matthew

 

[kvanlaan]

Well, there is the fact that Calvin's Geneva trained and subsequently sent out thousands of missionaries over the years, sending them as far as Brazil. From Errol Hulse (a South African, coincidentally):

Thirdly I am inspired by Calvin the missionary.[6]

This is very important and relevant because next year the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation is to convene in Capetown, South Africa. In the publicity, missiologist Christopher Wright criticises the 16th Century Reformation because, ‘it lacked missionary awareness and energy’. This negative line follows an earlier critic, Gustav Warneck, who made the outrageous claim that, ‘We miss in the Reformers not only missionary action, but even the idea of missions.’

The reality is that Calvin’s Geneva became the hub of a vast missionary enterprise. Europe was unevangelised. Ministers trained under Martin Luther at Wittenburg and with effective preaching ministries transformed the religious landscape of Europe. For instance two brothers - Laurentius and Olaus Petri - both powerful preachers, turned Sweden from Catholicism to Lutheranism. Likewise, refugees studied and trained at Geneva and returned as missionaries/church planters - in the Acts 13-14 sense of preachers/church planters - to Italy, the Netherlands, the independent states of the Rhineland, Hungary, Poland, Germany, England and Scotland where John Knox exercised an amazingly effective ministry. The majority of foreign refugees in Geneva came, like Calvin himself, from France. Although now settled in Geneva, Calvin retained a missionary burden for his homeland. And so it was Calvin’s homeland that received a large number of trained preachers/church planters. Robert Kingdon’s research has revealed that 142 missionaries left Geneva for France in 1561 alone. More than one hundred underground churches had been planted in France by 1560 and the number increased to 2150 by 1562, and in the years that followed the number of Protestant believers rose to over two million.

Of these missionaries those who were not already accredited pastors were obliged to conform to rigorous standards set up by Calvin. The moral life of the candidate, his theological integrity and his preaching ability were subject to careful examination. With regard to moral discipline a system was established by which the pastors were responsible to each other. There was an exacting code listing offences that were not to be tolerated in a minister. Offences involving money, dishonesty or sexual misconduct meant instant dismissal. Time and time again I have observed failure in missionary effort today because of neglect of these basic biblical standards.

All Calvin’s students had to be fully proficient in Latin, Hebrew and Greek, in order to be thoroughly proficient in line-by-line exegesis of the Scriptures. They were required to be trained in Church History and Systematic Theology. Character training was paramount. These pastors had to face the reality of martyrdom. Only when Calvin judged a man to possess the necessary fibre and stamina would he be sent into France to preach and plant churches.

John Calvin is the father of Presbyterianism and his missionary zeal has been repeated many times in Presbyterian denominations. One example is the missionary outreach from the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, extending to many tribes across southern Africa, by missionaries who had been converted in a powerful revival in the prisoner-of-war camps in Bermuda and Sri Lanka during the Boer War (1899-1902). Another example is South Korea, the home of the largest and most numerous Presbyterian bodies. Only the USA exceeds South Korea in the number of serving missionaries in the world today.

Leading missiologist David Bosch states: ‘It is absurd to summon the Reformers before the tribunal of the modern missionary movement and find them guilty for not having subscribed to a definition of mission which did not even exist in their time’.[7] John Calvin accepted the principle of Corpus Christianum: the whole of society is nominally ‘Christian’, cemented together by infant baptism, that is all without exception. Roman Catholic baptism was recognised. Evangelisation or mission was to preach for conversion and gather believers into churches and then employ various disciplines to maintain consistent church membership. The difference between the way the apostles practised entrance into the Christian Church by believers’ baptism versus Corpus Christianum will doubtless be re-appraised in the future especially since Western Europe is increasingly no longer even nominally ‘Christian’ but secular.

Fleeing for his life from Paris Calvin lived briefly in Poitiers in 1535-1536. In Poitiers he engaged in secret evangelism in homes and held secret services in a cave just outside the city. That missionary mindset never left him and it is significant that the first named Genevan missionary, Jacques I’Anglois was sent to Poitiers.

As pastor/preacher, theologian and missionary, the influence of John Calvin continues world-wide today.

 

[toddpedlar]

Get a copy of Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by Packer. No better short treatment concerning the ridiculous claim that Calvinists cannot evangelize, nor is there any better treatment of the right perspective about doing evangelistic work than this little one.

 

[CharlieJ]

The impact on evangelism of Calvinistic preaching as seen in the ministries of leading figures in the first Great Awakening (Book, 2005) [WorldCat.org]

Calvinism in history : a political, moral and evangelizing force (Book, 2004) [WorldCat.org]

 

[JohnGill]

William Carey, Calvinistic Baptist, is considered the founder of the modern Missions movement. Generally what I find is that those who raise such issues either do not understand the doctrines of grace or they are thinking of hyper-calvinism. One thing I realized when an Arminian is that Arminian writers regularly engage in the fallacy of equivocation when dealing with Calvinists & Hyper-Calvinists. This was another reason I switched to Calvinism. The whole charge is just ludicrous when analyzed logically.

Good article on the subject: Does Calvinism Kill Evangelism? | the Cripplegate

 

[jwithnell]

Another point to consider: many Arminians see evangelism in an extremely narrow perspective, primarily focused upon spreading about passages such as John 3:16.

This overlooks the consistent week-in-week-out preaching of the full counsel of God's word that is the primary means God has used to bring people to faith. It overlooks that older woman who daily immerses herself in God's word and is ready to give Biblical hope to that coworker or niece or neighbor who seeks help. It overlooks those denominations that are bringing churches and seminaries to indigenous peoples. It overlooks the mother who teaches her children along the way.

The 19th and 20th century quick decisionalism is foreign to scripture. Those who deride Calvinism for its lack of evangelism don't understand the church or scriptures at all.

 

[Rich Koster]

Spurgeon - vs - Hypercalvinism by Ian Murray is a good illustration of how Calvinism doesn't impede missions/evangelism+universal offer. The book isn't an apologetic for this directly, but its content will show what a practicing 1689er preached and believed.

 

[Guido's Brother]

I have written a book that deals with this subject: For the Cause of the Son of God.

 

[Apologist4Him]

This month I'll be purchasing (at community price) The Works of A.T. Pierson (42 vol) from Logos, I knew next to nothing of him until I looked his name up on Wikipedia:

"Arthur Tappan Pierson (March 6, 1837 – June 3, 1911) was an American Presbyterian pastor, early fundamentalist leader, and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlantic preaching ministry that made him famous in Scotland and England. He was a consulting editor for the original "Scofield Reference Bible" (1909) for his friend, C. I. Scofield and was also a friend of D. L. Moody, George Müller (whose biography 'George Muller of Bristol' he wrote), Adoniram Judson Gordon, and C. H. Spurgeon, whom he succeeded in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, from 1891 to 1893. Throughout his career, Pierson filled several pulpit positions around the world as an urban pastor who cared passionately for the poor.Pierson was also a pioneer advocate of faith missions who was determined to see the world evangelized in his generation. Prior to 1870, there had been only about 2000 missionaries from the United States in full-time service, roughly ten percent of whom had engaged in work among Native Americans. A great movement of foreign missions began in the 1880s and accelerated into the 20th century, in some measure due to the work of Pierson.[SUP][1][/SUP] He acted as the elder statesman of the student missionary movement and was the leading evangelical advocate of foreign missions in the late 19th century." - Arthur Tappan Pierson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amazing the truths that are hidden and buried by the people of this world.

 

[thbslawson]

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but the burden of proof falls on the person making such a claim. Can he or she show where Calvinism has in any way impeded the work of missions? In fact, the evidence is quite the contrary. The father of modern missions, William Carey was a Calvinist as well as David Brainerd, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor and many others. In the modern era, many solid reformed and calvinist denominations are actively involved in the work of missions. To make such a claim one needs to present evidence that supports it, not merely conjecture.

 

[Curt]

Another point to consider: many Arminians see evangelism in an extremely narrow perspective, primarily focused upon spreading about passages such as John 3:16.

The emphasis seems to be "how many did you get?"

 

[Josh Williamson]

"Physicians of Souls" by Peter Masters makes a good case for evangelistic, calvinistic preaching.