A
Calvinist and a Fundamentalist Walk Into a Bar...
By Tim Challies
http://www.challies.com/articles/a-calvinist-and-a-fundamentalist-walk-into-a-bar#keep-reading
It’s not a joke, you know. As we make our way through this life,
we face some powerful enemies. In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul
describes the pre-Christian past of the people in this church. As he
does that, he tells them that three powerful forces were arrayed against them:
the world, the flesh, and the devil.
These people had a deep inclination toward evil that came from their
inmost parts (“the passions of our flesh”), they faced a powerful opponent from
outside themselves (“the prince of the power of the air”), and all the while
their whole environment was opposed to them (“this world”). They were
outside of fellowship with God and, therefore, were “children of wrath.”
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we
all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest
of mankind.
For some time now, and especially since I read Thomas Brooks’ Precious
Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, I have been pondering the way these forces
were, and in some ways still are, opposed to me. Though through faith in
Jesus Christ I have been delivered from the dominion of these forces, I have not
yet been fully and finally delivered from their influence. Each of them
continues to oppose me, and at times—too many times—I succumb, choosing sin in
place of holiness. No wonder then, that the Anglican Book of Common
Prayer leads Christians in this prayer: “From all the deceits of the world, the
flesh, and the devil: Good Lord deliver us.”
I have a theory about these three influences and the way different
Christians understand them. There are many theological tribes within
Christianity and I believe that each of them has an imperfect balance in their
understanding of the way these forces operate against us. Let me give
just three examples. Each example is imperfect, of course, but I believe there
is a thread of truth in each.
Fundamentalists tend to have a deep suspicion of the world—a world
that is full of sin and adamantly opposed to God and his purposes. In my
experience, Fundamentalists are quick to look to the world and to hold the
world responsible for sin and the temptation to sin; hence, they battle hard
against worldliness and look to worldly pleasures and entertainments with deep
and lasting suspicion. If Fundamentalists are out of balance, it is
toward the evil influence of the world and away from the influence of the flesh
and the devil.
Pentecostals tend to lay the blame for sin and temptation at the door
of the devil and demonic forces. They often have a heightened sense of
demonic activity and influence. When they face the temptation to sin, or
when they feel or discover opposition, they are quick to see the influence of
Satan and to find ways of standing fast in the face of that kind of power.
If they are out of balance, it is toward the evil influence of the devil and
his forces and away from the influence of the world and the flesh.
Calvinists have a deep sense of their own depravity. After all,
Calvinism begins with the T of TULIP—Total Depravity. We believe that
humanity is totally depraved, so that sin extends to our every part. In
his grace God restrains us from becoming as sinful as we could possibly be, but
we are all still sinful to the furthest extent; the heart, the mind, the will,
the desire, the inclination—all of it—is marked by the Fall. As we
consider the enemies of our souls, we tend to focus on the flesh, assuming that
temptation arises from within more than it arises from without. If we
are out of balance, it is toward the influence of the flesh and away from the
influence of the world and the devil.
All of us, I am convinced, need to understand that evil takes many
forms, that it arises from within and from without, that we face enemies
physical and spiritual. To emphasize one at the expense of the others is
to lower our guard. Perhaps the most helpful response is not to diminish
our own emphasis, but to elevate the others. When we understand the vast
array of forces against us, we better understand Christ’s power in conquering
them, we better arm ourselves to resist, and we better anticipate the day of
the Lord’s return when their influence will be finally and completely broken.
