Against HyperCalvinism

2 Timothy 3:1–9 (ESV): But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. 

On The Decalogue

On the one hand: 

I do not believe the ten commandments are the rule for the believer’s conduct for the following three reasons: 

On the other: 

The covenant of works is governed by the heart-law; the Mosaic covenant is governed by the Mosaic law; the covenant of grace is governed by the gospel law. These are three separate covenants, made with different persons, under different circumstances, for different reasons and with different laws. 

The heart-law, under the covenant of works, is a twofold law inscribed upon the heart—(1) to love God supremely; (2) to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. 

The Bible states otherwise. 

Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV): But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 

Romans 13:8–10 (ESV): Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

James 2:10–13 (ESV): For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. 

If the Decalogue isn’t the standard by which believers conduct is to be lived, then why are we told that the Two-Fold Principle summarizes the First & Second Tables of the Law? 

On the Mosaic Covenant…

The Mosaic covenant was given to the children of Israel as a nation and therefore only the Jewish people who belonged to that nation were under its authority and jurisdiction.

On the one hand, the Decalogue is not the rule for believers’ conduct, & on the other the Decalogue is part of the Mosaic Covenant, the temporal & spiritual scope of the covenant being limited to the Jewish people in a particular time & place.  

The Bible

The Bible itself gives no clues to these two principles being a mere outworking of the Covenant of Works administered by God via the Law of Conscience (Romans 2).  If the content of this Law of Conscience does not contain the Decalogue then what does it contain.   To sin just once, especially in the Garden is to break the whole Law & Law in Romans & James includes the Decalogue  One wonders if Mr. Smith realizes that by consigning the Decalogue to the Mosaic Covenant & limiting its moral domain to the Jews in a particular nation & time, he is also claiming that the Decalogue’s moral domain excludes not only regenerate people but also unregenerate people. 

On Calvin & Calvinism

 On the one hand: “Hyper-Calvinism is any teaching which goes beyond that of Calvin himself.”

On the other: “Accordingly, Hyper-Calvinism emerged in two waves. The first began with the publication of Calvin’s Institutes in 1536, culminating in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith. This may be regarded as 17th century Hyper-Calvinism. The second began with the publication of two sermons preached by Benjamin Keach in the year 1692, culminating in John Gill’s Body of Divinity in the year 1770. This may be regarded as 18th century Hyper-Calvinism…”

I can hear R.Scott Clark & Roger Olsen reading those two statements and wondering if Mr. Smith realizes that he both confined the definition of Calvinism to what Calvin taught & then identified the temporal & epistemological beginning of Hyper-Calvinism in the 17th Century as a period beginning with the publication of Calvin’s Institutes.  Steve Hays would remind us all that John Calvin does not define Calvinism for us the way that Luther (and Melancthon) define Lutheranism. 

On Duty Faith & the Free Offer of the Gospel

“Second, the unregenerate sinner is not authorized to receive the gospel. So long as the sinner remains in an unregenerate condition, he/she is under the authority and jurisdiction of the covenant of works, not the covenant of grace. Therefore he/she has no warrant to receive the gift of God unto salvation.

Third, the unregenerate sinner is not able to receive the gospel. So long as the sinner remains in an unregenerate condition, he/she cannot stretch out a hand, as it were, in the receiving of God’s gift. That gift, by its very nature, must be freely imparted to the soul by the gracious and efficacious power of the Holy Spirit, through the experience of the new birth. This renders the free offer null and void. “

The Bible…

Acts 17:29–31 (ESV): Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 

What was Paul doing at the time if not engaging in a call for his heaters to repent & believe not just facts about God & Who God is but also the need for them (not just the Elect) to lay down their works righteousness not just their theological errors?

I would add, anecdotally, that from time to time, you might hear a Calvinist (or about a Calvinist) who has decided that Non-Calvinists are unregenerate.  That’s the sort of thing the Reformation Charlotte or Westboro Baptists might argue or assert.   Such people come across as the sort of heresy hunters who eventually devour their own & lack mercy (James 2, I John 4).   All I will say to this is that the cure for itching ears & other severe ills both within the covenant community & outside isn’t a / another strong dose of Historical Theology &/or Calvinism - particularly in the age in which we are now living.  According to 2 Timothy, the answer is the broad spectrum medicament known as the Word of God itself, correctly exegeted, exposited, understood, & applied. 

2 Timothy 3:10–17 (ESV): You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.