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 Continuing
our review of PRESENT TRUTH tract, Way of Salvation, we see a
seeming contradiction. On p.19, the writer asks, "How does
the Holy Spirit bring as faith'?" and answers, "riding
in the glorious chariot of the gospel. And he comes in no other
way." Sounds good, doesn't it? But he cites Acts 10:
(miraculous outpouring upon Cornelius,) as "an excellent
example of how the Holy Spirit comes." P. 21,
"Therefore we must conclude that it is the Word of the
gospel -- the message of Christ and Him crucified -that brings
the Holy Spirit to us. 'The Holy Spirit, in turn, brings as
faith to believe that message." What a mixture! On p. 14,
he had said only believers could receive the Spirit, and
now he says the word brings the Spirit-- to an unbeliever?? An
objective reader sees only confusion here.
A
Calvinist must give "faith" a most peculiar
definition. From p. 25: "It is true that faith is a gift of
God, brought to us by the Holy Spirit through the message of the
gospel. But the Holy Spirit does not do the believing for us...
Faith is God's gift, but it is ours to exercise. So when
the Spirit works in our hearts to create faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ.... the only right response to make is to act on the
conviction... The writer has man responding to, or
exercising a faith that God gives. He does not see that God
gives faith only by the metonymy of effect for cause. The
"delivered faith" or "revealed" faith (Jude
1:3; Gal. 3:23) is the gospel message which produces
faith. God gives the evidence, but we do the believing.
Literally, there is no faith until man believes.
The
writer himself says, "Faith, therefore, is a response of
the heart. It is a volitional
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act" (p. 26). But he also says,
"At the point of giving us the gospel…" (Is he
talking about Pentecost, or when God "gives faith" Is
an individual’?) "God gives us the freedom to act. Like
the prodigal son we are able to say, I will
arise..." "6e are able!" Barely perceptible yet
essential to the whole theme, is the concept of total depravity.
'The gospel, delivered by the Holy Spirit to the apostles and
prophets of the N.T. is not enough. It must be accompanied
by an additional operation of the Holy Spirit which enables (the
elect?) to respond. If this is not what the tract teaches, I am
at a loss to know why he consistently used passages re. miraculous
operation of the Spirit in his proof texts. Put this element
into the tract and we can at least rationalize his
contradictions. Incidentally, he says (p.29), "— but four
year-old boys can be great sinners!"
We
believe the Holy Spirit did His work well when he delivered
"all truth" to the apostles and prophets of the New
'Testament. The message was intended to produce faith, and it
does so (Eph. 3:2-5; Jn. 20:30-31). The inspired word is
the instruments of the spirit, "living and active"
(Heb. 4:12), and is no "dead letter." It is God's
power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16) and needs no "accompanying
power" to do what it was intended to do. It is intended as
God's "call" to "all men," and
"who-so-ever will" may come. We must not allow the
confused writings of Calvin-oriented theologians to lead us away
from the fundamental truths of God's Way of Salvation.
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