VIII. The 6th Theological Statement

VIII. The 6th Theological Statement Briefly Examined



‘Standard reformed’: Irresistible grace is the powerful working of the Spirit in gospel preaching to bring the spiritually dead elect to conversion.
1689 Baptist: Irresistible grace is the powerful working of the triune God to bring the spiritually dead elect to eternal life.


The 6th theological statement expressed in your letter is as follows:
“Irresistible Grace – the Spirit works powerfully to bring the elect to conversion. Faith and repentance are God’s gifts, and they cannot resist the Spirit’s work. All of the elect will believe and obey the gospel.”

In March 2004, SDC printed for free distribution a booklet entitled “Salvation by Grace Alone is Salvation by Grace plus Nothing. Grace + Anything = Heresy.” This 22-page booklet contains a few articles downloaded from www.LetGodBeTrue.com. There is a short article on ‘An Examination of TULIP’ on pages 17-18. On those pages a contrast is made between the Irresistible Grace as it is commonly understood by those who call themselves ‘Reformed’ or ‘Calvinist’ and what is actually taught in the Word of God and summarized in the 1689 CoF.

Some have expressed disagreement with the contrast made on that point. I do appreciate the difficulty experienced. I suggest that this difficulty is due chiefly to the fact that one is either unaware of or is confused with the teaching of Scriptures on the Irresistible Grace as has been understood and summarized in the 1689 CoF.

On page 18 of the booklet the article ‘An Examination of TULIP’ puts the contrast like this:
Calvinism: “The Spirit powerfully works to bring the elect to CONVERSION. Faith and repentance are God’s gifts, and they cannot resist the Spirit’s work. All the elect will believe and obey the gospel.”
God’s Truth: “God REGENERATES the elect from death in sins by His power. Man is totally passive in his quickening and cannot resist. The born again child may resist the gospel conversion, but his salvation to heaven is sure. The gospel is for peace and assurance now, not regeneration.”

Your 6th theological statement of faith on ‘Irresistible Grace’ expresses a word-for-word agreement with this ‘Calvinistic’ statement above. By implication you have rejected as error the alternative understanding of ‘irresistible grace’ that I believe to be God’s revealed truth, and the teaching understood and summarized by the early Particular Baptist churches. By God’s grace I intend to show that the Irresistible Grace as articulated by your ‘standard reformed position’ is inconsistent with the Scriptures as summarized in the 1689 CoF.


1. The Irresistible Grace in the Effectual Call

Irresistible grace is also known as efficacious grace. ‘Irresistible’ means ‘that which cannot be resisted.’ ‘Efficacious’ means ‘effectual, producing the effect intended; having power adequate for the purpose.’ The ‘irresistible grace’ espoused and defended by those who hold to the ‘standard reformed position’ is aptly expressed as: “Irresistible Grace – which the Spirit works powerfully to bring the elect to conversion. Faith and repentance are God’s gifts, and they cannot resist the Spirit’s work. All of the elect will believe and obey the gospel.”

The whole emphasis of the above statement on irresistible grace is placed upon the conversion of the elect. Does the Scripture speak of irresistible grace with respect to conversion? What is the context in which the Scriptures speak of irresistible grace? How does the 1689 CoF summarize the teaching of Scriptures of ‘irresistible grace’?

The word ‘call’ is used quite often in the Scriptures. There are various types of call – call to eternal life, call to faith in Christ, call to discipleship, call to service, etc. The adjective ‘effectual’ is meant to distinguish one specific and particular type of call – it designates that powerful and gracious call of God upon a dead sinner to spiritual and eternal life. It is a call that turns a condemned dead child of wrath into a justified living child of God. It is a call that always achieves its goal, and perfectly and completely. In this sense it is uniquely an effectual call.

I have indicated before that irresistible grace which operates in the effectual calling unto eternal life (God exerts His omnipotent power by His free and sovereign grace and turns a condemned dead child of wrath into a justified living child of God) is very often confounded with the gospel call blessed by the Spirit of Christ (gospel preaching made effectual) to the conversion of those whom God has effectually called to eternal life. Such confusion has produced inevitable inconsistencies and contradictions in the ‘standard reformed’ view on irresistible grace. Please see the appendix at the end of Section V where you will see a good example of the inherent inconsistencies and contradictions of the ‘standard reformed’ view concerning the irresistible grace and effectual call unto eternal life.