The "Sincere Offer" of the Gospel, Part 2
Continuing from the previous segment…
It follows that, when preaching the gospel (when we are dealing with the grace that saves), we should not tell our hearers that God loves all of them, but we should boldly declare that God loves only the elect and desires (and thus has decreed) their salvation, and that he hates the reprobates and desires (and thus has decreed) their damnation (Romans 9:13).
Now let me summarize the biblical understanding and approach of evangelism.
We are duty-bound to indiscriminately preach the gospel to all men for at least three reasons: 1. God commands us to preach the gospel to every person, 2. We do not know and should not try to discover beforehand who are the elect and who are the reprobates, and 3. The purpose of preaching the gospel is not only to summon the elect, but also to harden the reprobates.
It is right and proper to announce that God desires to save only the elect and has chosen only them for salvation, and that he will grant faith only to them, so that only they can believe. And it is right and proper to announce that God desires to damn the reprobates and has chosen them for damnation, and that he will not only withhold faith from them, but that he will also actively harden their minds against the gospel, making it impossible for them to believe.
Just as we should not and could not discover beforehand who are the elect and who are the reprobates, neither must our hearers try to determine for themselves whether they are among the elect or the reprobates, and then make that the basis as to whether they should call on God for salvation. In other words, upon hearing the gospel, one should not say to himself, "God saves only the elect, and I am probably among the reprobates anyway, so I should not even try to seek God for salvation." Now, one who stubbornly thinks this way even when confronted with a clear explanation of the gospel of sovereign grace might indeed be one of the reprobates, and God has chosen to confirm this person in his damnation by means of this persistent deception.
Rather than concealing or misrepresenting the eternal decree of God to our hearers, when preaching the gospel, we should explain to them the truths that has immediate relevance to sin and grace, and to election and reprobation. But more than that, we should present to them the whole system of biblical doctrines, as clearly and comprehensively as we can manage and as time allows (Acts 17:23-31; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 14:27-33). Then, we must admonish our hearers to sincerely and ernestly seek God for salvation through Christ by the means of grace, such as prayer, listening to sermons, and reading the Bible.
Since it would be impossible to sincerely seek or call upon God unless his power is already at work within a person's heart, those who indeed sincerely obey and call out to God to save them through Christ are surely among the elect, in whom God has already started his sovereign work of conversion. But those who insincerely or superficially obey, and who after a while fall away, or those who refuse to obey at all, are among the non-elect, whose minds God has hardened even more by the preaching of the gospel (2 Corinthians 2:15-16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8).
Therefore, in rejecting the so-called "sincere offer" of the gospel, the preaching of the gospel is neither diminished nor rendered narrow and selective. Instead, the above is a consistent and necessary application of the explicit and implicit teachings of Scripture concerning the sovereignty of God, election and reprobation, and the preaching of the gospel. It is a biblical and coherent view that values the preaching of the gospel, and indeed the propagation of the whole system of biblical doctrines, to all men everywhere. Moreover, it acknowledges what Scripture explicitly teaches about the purpose and the effect of the indiscriminate preaching of the gospel, that is, to summon the elect and to harden the reprobates.
(end of series)
Recommended:
Vincent Cheung, Presuppositional Confrontations, chapter 2.
Vincent Cheung, Commentary on Ephesians
Vincent Cheung, Systematic Theology
Vincent Cheung, Ultimate Questions
(See www.rmiweb.org)
Herman Hoeksema, The Clark-Van Til Controversy
(See www.trinityfoundation.org)
David Engelsma, Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of the Gospel
David Engelsma, Common Grace Revisited
Herman Hoeksema and Henry Danhof, Sin and Grace
(See www.rfpa.org)
Solomon Stoddard, A Guide to Christ
Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm
William C. Nichols, The Narrow Way
William C. Nichols, Seeking God
Jonathan Edwards, The Manner in Which the Salvation of the Soul is to be Sought
David Engelsma, Is Denial of the "Well-Meant Offer" Hyper-Calvinism?
David Engelsma, He Shines in All That's Fair
Herman Hanko, Is the Denial of the "Well-meant Offer" of the Gospel "Hyper-Calvinism"?