Conclusion to Refutation

For this conclusion I felt I must deal with some of Dr. Goetsch’s last attempts to defame all Calvinists as he draws a close to his article. As we showed in the start of his article the point was to obviously get the reader to “hate” Calvinists right away when he stated such things as:

Calvinism started with Augustine of the Catholic church.

Calvinism has INFILTRATED many seminaries, colleges, and churches.

It has affected good churches and colleges

Calvinism is an enemy of revival and evangelism

Calvinism has often been explained by using the acrostic TULIP to set forth the distinctives of Calvinism. Even though I have trouble finding "tulips" in the Bible.

Now, Dr. Goetsch ends his article in the same way that he started it. He takes intentional swipes at Calvinism to leave the reader with a heartfelt hatred for those who call themselves Calvinists. Here is the ending of the article, you can judge for yourselves:

I challenge you to get your answers from the Word of God. Calvinism is raising its head. I read recently where someone said it comes around about every forty years. I do not know if that is true, but it definitely is around today. The Calvinist will say it is all about God, but review what God says. I challenge you to look these verses up in the Bible. I challenge you to dig into the Scriptures. I challenge you to find out what God said about how a person gets saved. We have a responsibility as God’s people to know and to share this message.

Finally, for those of us who refute Calvinism, let us not be Calvinistic in practice. If we do not carry Gospel tracts with us, if we do not take opportunities to witness, if we do not go soulwinning this week, we may say we are not Calvinists, but we are practicing Calvinism. If we are not busy about the Lord’s work and reaching people, we are as dead in our service for Christ as those who follow the fatalistic spirit of the Calvinists!

Dr. Goetsch has crossed the line. He takes hateful swipes at many who adhere to the Doctrines of Grace and he will have to give an answer to God for why he would use such strong language against God’s elect. It is obvious that Dr. Goetsch knows very little about Christian history and very little of those he calls Calvinists. For if he did, he would know that the doctrines held so dearly by the Calvinist comes all the way, not only from the Bible itself, but from our early post apostolic fathers like Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Jerome and Augustine, from the reformation with Wycliffe, Hus, Martin Luther and John Calvin. Then from other great men of God throughout the years like Matthew Henry, Richard Baxter, Richard Sibbes, John Owen, John Bunyan, John Knox, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Asahel Nettleton and Charles Spurgeon. Not to mention men of God who have preached the word of God in the 20th and 21st century such as Schaeffer, Machen, Boice, MacArthur, Begg, Mohler, Sproul and many, many others. So to say that Calvinism, “comes about every forty years” couldn’t be further from the truth. The only time that Calvinism or the Doctrines of Grace were not in the forefront was during the great apostasy of the Roman Catholic rule. So to side with history against Calvinism, is to side with the Roman Catholic.

Not only did these great men of the past and present adhere to Calvinism but these great men of God went and preached the gospel to all who would hear. I am not going to go into the great details (you can click on my sidebar for quick bios of most of these men) of all these men but they all fought for the truth of the gospel and shared this message to many nations and with many people. They believed in Calvinism but believed moreso in the proclamation of God’s word to the lost.

I find it very difficult to swallow comments that Dr. Goetsch has put forth that Calvinists don’t share the gospel. What is interesting is that history shows that those who were Calvinists shared the gospel and were the most influential in the spreading of the gospel than any other Christian “movement.” One needs only to look at the reformation and the two great awakenings. All three of these time periods were led and triumphed for the sake of Christ by strong willed Calvinists. Dr. Goestsch should be thanking the Calvinist that he is not a Roman Catholic because who knows what would have happened if God did not use these great men to bring about reformation in the Church.

Dr. Goetsch will not answer my emails but I must ask, “Dr. Goetsch where are you getting your facts?” or better put, “Where are you getting these fallacies?”

It is apparent that Dr. Goetsch did not do his due diligence before writing this article and either knowingly deceived others or just got some bad information. Either way, there must be some sort of recantation. This Calvinist, not to boast but to just put forth facts, is very active in sharing the gospel and I love the lost. Not because I believe that I in myself love the lost, but because God gave me a new heart to love them with the love that He has for them. If you would like to see my evangelistic website you can check it out here.

I pray that those who read the article will somehow find this refutation on the internet and read it with honesty. I am not trying to fight for a cause and leave the gospel behind. But, to take those who love the almighty Trinity and the spread of the Gospel and say that we are fatalistic and not doing the Lord’s work, is an article and statement that must be refuted.

Calvinism and Predestinarianism is not greater than the gospel nor will I ever pretend it to be, but I do believe that the Doctrines of Grace are the most pure way of describing the plan of salvation from the eyes of our Creator. I will end with two quotes from men that I greatly respect, both who are Calvinists and both who love not only the gospel but also their fellow brothers in Christ who disagree with their beliefs in the Calvinistic Doctrines of Grace.

Once one of Whitefield’s followers said to him, "We won’t see John Wesley in the heaven, will we?" To which Whitefield humbly replied, "Yes, you’re right, we won’t see him in heaven. He will be so close to the Throne of God and we will be so far away, that we won’t be able to see him!"

After almost dying and being interviewed by TIME magazine this is how Al Mohler ended his interview:

I want people to know this is not the experience of Al the Calvinist, but Al the Christian. I wasn't reciting Calvinist principles to myself in the hospital bed, but I was very much trusting in the sovereign God any Christian can know and trust.

May we all understand that to divide the kingdom using hateful slurs and downright false accusations does not bring glory to our God but reproach. May we all have the insight that Whitefield had and that is to humble ourselves to everyone we come in contact with and know that God is greater and infinite in wisdom and we are just the fools that He uses to spread His wonderful gospel to a dying world.

I pray that Dr. Goetsch would see the errors that he made against his own brothers in Christ and may he repent and recant these fallacies and remarks that he has made against us.

Until then it is my responsibility to pray the truth to conquer and the lost to be saved by the unfailing gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide