Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Lewis Sperry Chaffer: Calvinists should Never discuss Election and Reprobation with Unbelievers


In a book critiquing Reformed soteriology, Ronnie Rogers provided us with the following footnote:

Regarding unconditional election and selective regeneration, the non-elect really cannot be saved even though they hear “whosoever will may come.” Calvinists often emphasize that it is not something to be talked about with the unsaved. For example, Lewis Sperry Chafer says, “The entire theme concerns those only who are regenerated and should never be presented to, or even discussed in the space of, the unsaved.” Systematic Theology, vol. 3,172. (Ronnie W. Rogers, Does Love All or Some? Comparing Biblical Extensivism and Calvinism's Exclusivism [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2019], 49 n. 23)

In other words, unconditional election and reprobation (regardless of whether it is active or passive in the theology of the Calvinist) is something that, according to Chafer, should not be discussed with a non-believer. Imagine if a Latter-day Saint said such: critics would, as they do with our temple ceremonies, cite such as evidence of the “cultic” nature of “Mormonism.” Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander: such shows the perverse nature of Calvinism and how many of its apologists know, deep down, it is evil.

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