“Let me ask you only this: ‘Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith’”-Galatians 3:2
Have you ever thought it strange that “Hear” was the first of the “Five Steps” taught to so many newcomers to Christ? I always found it was odd. My thought was, “Well, of course you have to hear the gospel to have faith!”
In fact, that was my reaction to the other four steps as well. Believe, repent, confess, and be baptized seemed like the only logical conclusions to reading the clear teachings of the Bible. Many drops of ink were spilled in combat as gospel preachers defended the faith from men who taught the word “only” belonged in the conversation somehow. Arguments for repentance, confession, and baptism as necessary conditions to receive God’s grace occupied much of the teaching within churches of Christ.
But the “hear” step? The teaching on it was limited to a hearty, albeit brief, quotation of Romans 10:17. Then, off we went to destroy the traditions and creeds of man that ignored the importance of immersion (as well we should today). To my surprise, after some much needed study of what underlies my faith-only friends’ doctrine, I found the “hear” step to be the only one I needed to disprove what I had always thought was an argument about baptism.
My faith-only friends were not only wrong about the necessity of baptism, to my surprise, the Achilles heel of their teaching was they didn’t believe you had to hear the gospel to have faith. Calvinism denies the need for hearing to have faith as surely as it denies the need of baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
Calvinism teaches (falsely) that human beings are incapable of doing anything from a right motive. They call this teaching, “Total Hereditary Depravity.” It teaches we are all born in sin and only a miraculous, inner working, of God can create faith in us. This is referred to as the “irresistible grace” act in the TULIP acronym used to describe this idea. Their creeds clearly assert, “although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved1.” Their doctrine is summarized this way. God is sovereign. God is the only one who can decide who goes to heaven or hell. God has made that decision for every person who has ever lived. God’s chosen people are changed from completely damned to completely saved by an irresistible and uncontrollable work of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, in the early 1800’s, many God-fearing parents believed they were only getting in God’s way by taking their children to worship services. The ways they saw it, “God had either predestined their family members to salvation or damnation.” So, why teach a person the gospel if their eternal destiny was in the hands of a God whose partiality was such that a murderer who is set against good was as likely to be saved as a penitent sinner whose knees had worn a mourner’s bench thin?
If this is your first time digging into Calvinism, you are probably thinking, “I don’t see any of that taught in the Bible.” You would be right. The other thing that should come to your mind is this, “I guess the “hear” step really is important. In fact, it is kind of the whole ball of wax.
Is the gospel, “the power of God for salvation.”-Romans 1:16? Wouldn’t I have to hear it to believe in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God and ascended Christ? If those things are true, wouldn’t the word of God reflect our need to hear? Yes! on every count.
Calvinism teaches we are miraculously “zapped” into believing without the aid of hearing. The Bible declares, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”-Romans 10:17. Praise be to God, his mercy gives us the free will to believe in, confess as Lord, and serve a risen Savior whose name is Jesus!
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