Reformation Thesis

I. “You did not choose me …” – John 15:16.

God chooses whom He wishes to save. Man does not choose God, “accept” Jesus Christ nor make a “decision” to follow Him. It is God Almighty, and He alone, who chooses whom He wishes to save and call as a follower of Jesus Christ. The rest he lets remain in their sin and eventually punishes in hell. As it says in Romans 9:16, “So it depends not upon a person’s will or exertion, but upon God, who shows mercy.” It is blasphemy to imply that God somehow places his son, Jesus Christ, in the marketplace of religions and then asks degenerate mankind to choose Him. Jesus is a powerful King! How dare these heretics tell sinners they are to “accept” Him?! The Jesus of the free-will preacher is NOT God, but a pandering politician looking for votes. The Kingdom of God does not work like a rotten Democracy. People who teach that man decides, or that he is in any way sovereign over his own eternal destiny, are heretics in severe danger of judgment, and are called, in the name of Jesus Christ, to stop their unbiblical and unchristian teachings.

By this are condemned all those infamous doctrines of free-will, which come from the pope, universities and monasteries. For all their teaching consists in that we are to begin and lay the first stone. We should, by the power of free will, first seek God, come to him, run after him and acquire his grace. Beware, beware of this poison! It is nothing but the doctrine of devils by which the whole world is betrayed.” — Complete Sermons of Martin Luther (Vol. 1, pg. 25, First Sunday in Advent.)

II. The god that never existed.

The god that “loves everybody” is the god that failed everybody and is the god that never existed. He’s also the god that inspires atheism. People who believe and preach that “God loves everyone” and that “Christ died for everyone” have bought into the greatest lie in the history of man. Does God demonstrate his love for “everyone” by sending a majority of them to hell? For doesn’t the Scripture say in Romans 9:13, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated?” God is not obligated to love “everyone”. Scripture proves and history demonstrates that God does not “love everyone” but only an elect few, and it is for the elect only that Christ died. Christ says in John 10:14, 15, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Christ died only for the sheep, not for “everyone”, and he didn’t come to earth to transform goats into sheep; He came to separate them. Matthew 25:32 states, “… and He will separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” In Matthew 13:47-49 the Kingdom of Heaven is described as a large net cast into the sea, gathering all types of fish, of which “the good fish are gathered into containers and the bad fish are thrown away.”

In Greek the word “love” (Agapao) is translated as “something you find your joy in; something you direct your will towards.” This love is only for the elect people, who love Jesus Christ and have repentance in their lives. God does not love men who remain rebellious and self-righteous until the day they die. He does not love those whom He has never chosen to save. The 11 th century theologian, Anselm, said, “If you die in unbelief, Christ did not die for you.” People who preach the pathetic message of “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” are confused heretics who are cursed according to Galatians 1:8, 9, for preaching another gospel.

III. There are none good.

People who teach that man is “basically good”, whether they be pastors or presidents, are fools who fall on the most lunatic fringe of Liberal mentality. The Bible says in Romans 3:10-12, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Mankind is not good, but instead a selfish, jealous, lust-filled, fornicating rabble that both blasphemes and hates God and wishes no part of His virtuous and glorious kingdom. On top of that, he is a spiritually dead entity who is in total enslavement to money, sex and vain religious rituals. He is blind, dead and lost, and he does not have the ability to make himself see, come alive or be found. He does not love Christ and cannot follow Him. This destitute creature cannot “choose” Christ and is destined to remain depraved unless Christ causes him to be born again. Seeker friendly preachers who water down the Gospel to manipulate sinners to “accept” Christ are false preachers who are either ignorant of Scripture or hate and spurn core Scriptural doctrines. The Bible warns us in II Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.” This is why the subject of sin, hell and God’s wrath are systematically suppressed in most churches. Today’s average pastor is a comedian who tells joke after joke hoping his spiritually dead congregation will like him, and perhaps by liking him, will one day then like his Jesus and “accept” Him.

IV. What is the Gospel?

Good news (Gospel) is only good news to those whom God has chosen to save. The un-elect hate the good news, and they hate it because they are not Christ’s sheep. Jesus said to those who hated him, “…but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me” – John 10:26, 27. The unelect cannot make themselves sheep. Being sheep is something God determined before creation itself.

How is then manifested the particular love of God? It is manifested in that, for a small group of people, God does not give a choice, but saves them despite of their complete spiritual deadness, and causes them to be born again. Christ died for this group of people atoning for their sins and he preserves each one eternally, not losing any that the Father gave him. For this reason it says in I Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again.” Man cannot cause himself to be born again; God causes him to be born again. This is why Jesus said in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes and where it is going; so is everyone born of the Spirit.” Man doesn’t possess the authority to command, or “invite”, the Holy Spirit into his own life, just like he cannot command the wind. It is the Holy Spirit that “blows where it wishes.” Preachers who tell people to make a “decision for Christ” or “invite Jesus” into their hearts are not teaching what Jesus said. Altar calls, “sinner’s prayers” and “decisions” are not Biblical because they give the false impression that man is in control of his salvation.

And what is the heresy of Arminianism [free-will Christianity] but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer. Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the Gospel, and nothing else. I do not think we can preach the Gospel…unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace.” – Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1894).

God’s love is manifested to sinners in that He sought an elect group of them and saved them, apart from their ability to seek and choose Him. The Bible says of the true followers of Christ, and of them only, in Ephesians 1:4, 5, “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” Like a loving father who wouldn’t give his infant son a choice between a cup of milk or a cup of poison, a loving God does not give his elect sons a choice between life or death, heaven or hell.

V. Free-will Christianity ruined Western Civilization.

Free-will, decision-based Christianity ruins families, churches and, ultimately, nations. Those who are taught that man is responsible for his salvation and that God “loves everybody” often grow up weak and worldly Christians who have no true love for God, no true worship of Him and no solid foundation for growth. They remain nominal Christians for most of their lives and often times their children are unsaved and have no interest in godly matters. Free-will Christianity is the reason why a large percentage of young people leave the church after they enter college. Free-will based Christianity ruins churches, where pastors feel like they have to tell emotional stories and jokes to gain their congregation’s acceptance. Since pastors believe that they have to manipulate people to “accept Christ” they continually water down their sermons and avoid controversial passages about predestination, election, sin and hell. They’re even afraid to teach what the Bible says about wives submitting to their husbands and that parents must discipline their children with the rod. Many churches allow women to preach from the pulpit, even though the Scripture plainly teaches in I Corinthians 14:34, “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves…” Many churches ignore this, so the Lord says in I Corinthians 14:38 that they will be ignored by Him. The eventual outcome of such churches is that they become Liberal, permitting adultery, divorce, feminism, homosexuality, and even Socialism. Free-will churches become Liberal churches over a course of time, and Liberalism is the last stage of heresy and apostasy. Free-will Christianity ruins nations in that when the churches become Liberal the nation as a whole becomes Liberal. The reason why America is rushing to affirm Liberalism in all of its institutions is because American churches abandoned the doctrines of grace (i.e. predestination) and slowly shifted towards man-centered, free-will Christianity. The reason why America is the degenerate, adulterous, Godless country that it is now, in the 21 st century, is because of the anti-Biblical teachings of its churches starting in the 1840s and 1920s. Churches that teach that man’s decision is the key to his own salvation reject the sovereignty of God and are largely responsible for America’s decline into Christ-less oblivion.

God Ordained Some to Eternal Life

There is an amazing verse in Acts 13:48 which reads, “…and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.” The Gospel of Jesus Christ is far more powerful than how it has often been preached over the centuries. It excludes any human effort in relation to man’s choice or decision. In short, the good news is that God has chosen to save the most unworthy people by no other motivation than His sovereign grace and will. If there is a passage that summarizes this well it would be Romans 8:29,30 — “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” One famous theologian called this the most significant text in all Scripture. It has also been called “The Golden Chain of Salvation”. It summarizes the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, in that before the world was even created, God set His love upon and predestined a group of people, and them only, to the exclusion of the rest of humanity, to save from sin, spiritual deadness and hell. When Jesus Christ died, he died only for them, securing their salvation as a certainty, not just as a possibility. Throughout history, God effectually calls these “sheep” (John, chp. 10), giving them a new birth, causing them to repent and believe. The new birth (John, chp. 3) makes them children of God, and gives them a faith in Jesus that will endure until the end. All these sheep (elect and chosen of God) have their past and future sins atoned for by the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf, making them pure and justified (forgiven) in the eyes of a holy God. They can never again be separated from the love of God (Romans, chp. 8). Thus having their once darkened and hostile hearts now regenerated by God, they will love and glorify Him for all eternity. The essence of saving faith involves being sorry for past sins (repentance) and trusting only in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for salvation. This saving faith is a work of God’s grace.