Questions on Invitations/Commandments

[classicalkev]

Hi friends,

I used to be ingrained in an anti-evangelical, hyper-calvinistic system of theology which decried against exhorting sinners to salvation. The Lord has delivered me from this error, but now I face the task of ensuring that I do not rebel to the opposite extreme and become guilty of Arminian tendencies. This can very well rear it's ugly head if one does not properly understand how to balance the doctrines of God's sovereignty with evangelism. So I need some help with this issue, and have the following questions.

1) Is it better to think of the gospel exhortations to salvation such as Is. 1:18; 55:1-3, Matt. 11:28, etc., as invitations or commandments? What would you say is the difference between the two? And is this an important distinction?

2) A similar question I would ask as well, is what is the difference between Arminian evangelism with its easy-believism tendencies, and proper biblical evangelism?

3) How would I respond to the charge of legalism if I exhort some to repentance and faith?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Bill The Baptist]

As a pastor, God has called you to the task of exhorting sinners to repentance and faith. This is a far cry from the easy-believism that pervades the typical evangelical "invitiation" whereby sinners are induced by emotion to walk down an aisle and simply say a prayer. The unsaved should not be exhorted by manipulation or by playing 15 verses of Just as I am, but rather by confronting them with the reality of their sin and its consequences and their need for genuine repentance. As Paul says in I Corinthians 1:21, what we preach is a folly to Gentiles and a stumbling block to Jews, but it pleases God to save men in this manner. That of course is the point, preaching is a folly and by itself has no power. All the power is in God. If someone responds to your preaching, it is because God convicted their heart and not because of anything in particular that you said. That is the main problem with Arminian, man-centered invitations, they forget that it is God and not them that are bringing people to Christ.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Act 17:30-31 "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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."

Act 16:31 And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

"Believe" is an imperative, a gospel-imperative.

 

[classicalkev]

I didn't really express my second question correctly. What I meant to say is what is the difference between Arminian and biblical evangelism, while in the sermon itself? What are tendencies, expressions, words, that we should avoid when proclaiming the gospel? For instance, there should be presentation of Christ as a weak beggar who desperately wants to come into your heart, as some may apply Rev. 3:20. The phrase 'accept Christ' is deceptive as well in that it conveys the notion that salvation is nothing more than a mental decision. Now the great men of the past may have used this expression or words of similar import, but they certainly did not mean it in the way it is being proclaimed today.

Such things as this brethren. Thanks for your thoughts thus far.

3) How would I respond to the charge of legalism if I exhort some to repentance and faith?

I don't understand. I don't think it's worth responding to at all, because it's silly on its head.

Joshua, some extremists I know feel that if there is any motion on the part of the sinner Godwards, then this is a 'work'. They immediately exclaim 'Legalism! Salvation by Works!' They have carried the idea of salvation by grace to the extreme, and fail to understand that God yet exerts His righteous claims upon his creatures.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Beside the authoritative declaration of objectively: what Christ did and the meaning of it; you should tell the people to trust this--with full faith (knowledge, assent, trust). Tell them to understand and believe the necessary implications of the gospel. Its OK to stand and earnestly plead, not as a beggar, but as one who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 2Cor.5:20 "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Present Christ as Mediator. He is Prophet, Priest, and King. This is a figure worth laying down your life for. Imagine those soldiers who marched into heavy enemy fire, for devotion to their commander, or who "took that hill" for love of their leader. We've read about such things, but its been a long time since the secular world really had an honorable "personality-cult," where people practilcally worshiped the ground a true hero walked on. But Jesus outshines all of them.

And in many churches, it seems the pastors have forgotten how to preach such devotion. We have all the reason in the world--we just need to present Christ, and let people's love for him lead them to obedience, and dying to self. I once wondered how to preach to men, to encourage this love of a Man (that didn't come across as namby-pamby, or worse). I found the answer in the Mediator, the Prophet, Priest and King. The military-hero motif is well suited, and the OT is full of these types of Christ, in Israel's history--all the noble prophets, priests, and judges/kings, who were the leaders of the people. "Follow me!" has a commanding ring, does it not? You will follow what you truly believe. It's our job as ministers, to encourage that belief by every biblically-inspired word at our disposal.

 

[torstar]

3) How would I respond to the charge of legalism if I exhort some to repentance and faith?

I don't understand. I don't think it's worth responding to at all, because it's silly on its head.[/QUOTE]


Thanks Joshua.

I don't think I have ever heard the term "Legalism" used as a bomb by someone I had even the tiniest bit of respect for.

 

[JM]

I don't like the use of "invitation" or "free offer"...proclaiming truth freely to all and commanding repentance, sure.

History of the Free Offer

MINISTERIAL OFFERS OF SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS NOT WARRANTED BY SCRIPTURE
Job Hupton points out that "preaching" or proclaiming is not synonymous with "offer" and cannot be substituted in the scriptures. He offers Isa 61.1 / Luke 4.18 for example, "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Hupton explains,

"The non-elect indeed, many of them, hear the gospel where it is preached. Before them Christ is evidently set forth as crucified, and life and salvation are proclaimed in their ears. They hear of all that Jesus has done and suffered for sinners, and the immense blessings unnumbered which flow from the celestial throne, through his obedience and wounds to the guilty and undone ; of the mighty work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of millions ; and the graces and comforts which arise from his operations in all the saints ; and of the kingdom, perfection, and glory, which God has promised to all that believe. But among all the abundance, and almost endless variety, which they hear, there is not one offer of any thing sent to them from God. To this add, that since the scriptures declare of the non-elect, that they are a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them ; and he that formed them, will shew them no favor; that to them that are wit6ut, it is not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom; and that he who is the Lord of heaven and earth, has hid those things from them ; it is hardly rational only to suppose, that he offers them the favour that he will not shew them, and tenders to them the things which he hides for ever from their eyes.

To say that God designs spiritual blessings for all where he sends the gospel, is to renounce Calvinism and establish Arminianism ; and to say that he never designed spiritual blessings for any but the elect, and yet offers them to all, is to impeach his sincerity, and represent him as deceitful, and as mocking and tantalizing his creatures. Such representations of that Being, whose nature, names, and conduct, are all perfection, is, I must say, highly reprehensible, and quite unworthy the man of God; it is therefore necessary in order to support the character of God, our own reputation, and the honour of his gospel, to abandon offers, tenders and overtures."​

The Lord's Invitation to the Ends of the Earth

Philpot tell us,

"But when, in soul feeling, we are thus at the ends of the earth, we learn lessons there which cannot be taught us in any other place. There we learn what it is to be at a distance from God, with a desire to be brought nigh; there we are brought to know the exceeding sinfullness of sin, and there begin to learn the value of the blood of Christ to purge the conscience; there we become clothed with shame and confusion of face; there we are taught to feel our thorough helplessness and complete inability to bring ourselves spiritually and experimentally nigh, and feel what it is to wander in confusion without being able to get near the source of light, life, and truth, or feel access of soul to God. Thus, to be at "the ends of the earth," is a painful but a profitable place; for there we learn lessons which we could not learn anywhere else, and are taught to feel something of the purity of Jehovah. and of our own defilement before Him. Now, it is to those who thus feel themselves to be at "the ends of the earth," that the Lord speaks in the text. He will never encourage presumptuous professors, those I mean who daringly rush on without His sanction, leadings, or drawings. It is better to tarry at "the ends of the earth" all our lives long, than to rush unbidden into the sanctuary, or advance presumptuously into the presence of the Most High. For there is a day coming when the Lord will "thoroughly purge His floor;" and then how many presumptuous intruders into His sanctuary, how many burners of false fire, and offers of unclean sacrifices, will be detected, and driven out! If the will of God be so, it is better to be poor, condemned criminals at "the ends of the earth," waiting in humility for a smile, pleading in sincerity for a promise, than rush presumptuously on, and claim His gifts as our right and due."​

As Contra Mundum/Rev. Buchanan already posted:

Act 17:30-31 "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:"

jm