Uncompromising Evangelism

Monergism vs Synergism

The salvation of a sinner requires God’s effectual call. Note the following from the Westminster Confession:

God effectually calls sinners] by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace

Unless you are effectually called before you die, you will be damned.

Monergism is the belief that regeneration is exclusively and completely a work of God alone, who effectually calls His elect. Synergism, on the other hand, is the belief that the unregenerate contribute in their conversion, thereby affirming the idea that God does not effectually call sinners because His call can be resisted. However, is cooperation possible for one who is totally dead in their tresspasses and sins? Absolutely not. The Bible teaches monergism, as we will see.

The Total Depravity of Man

The Bible declares that salvation belongs to God (Jon 2:9, Ps. 3:8, Rev. 7:10). From beginning to the end, it is a work of God alone (Rm. 8:29-30). We know that the natural man won’t follow God, but he is instead hostile to God and cannot please Him (Rm.8:7-8). The unregenerate man hates God and he hates Christ (Rm. 1:30, Jn. 3:20,7:7). Paul writes that “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14, emphasis added). This is why he needs to be effectually called by God.

Jesus said that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44, emphasis added). Therefore, we know that the lost cannot come to Christ until God draws them. How can we think that an unregenerate child of Satan could have any will to trust in Christ? Certainly Christ didn’t have such a high view of the natural man’s ability, for he said to the unregenerate: “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (Jn.8:43-4, emphasis added). He did not say that these people have a will to do God’s desires, but Satan’s. We know that God’s ‘drawing’ of a sinner is truly effectual because “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (6:37). Every single elect person whom God draws to Christ who will be saved and transformed.

God’s Sovereign Grace

Should the evangelist just give up if it seems that everyone is deaf to the message? By no means, for there are people who will be made able to hear him: “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God” (Jn. 8:47). Who are these that are “of God”? These are the elect that the Father has given to the Son (Jn. 6:37, 10:26-9, 17:9), and every single one of them will trust in Christ when they have been born again by the Holy Spirit (Jn. 1:12-13, 3:3-8). God will cause the elect to be born again when He pleases, and will regenerate the elect alone (Rm. 9:11-24). Do you think that you were the one that caused yourself to be born again? Do you give the credit to your baptism, decision, sinner’s prayer, internet research, or good works? The Bible says that we were born again because of God’s great mercy, grace, and love, not anything in you or anything that we did (1 Pet.1:3, Eph.2:4-5).

When entering into evangelism, we must realize that God alone regenerates and gives faith to His elect; our job is simply to preach the Gospel and to pray that God will convert lost souls. Monergists rightly understand that the outcomes of evangelism are all up to God, not us.

No one is coming to Christ unless God performs the supernatural work of regeneration, and if God brings them to Christ, they will be saved. For the elect, God will indeed “remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez. 36:26). A heart of stone will never believe, so if you do believe, then be sure to give all thanks and glory to God who gave you a heart of flesh, rather than to your own will.

The Evangelistic Benefits of Monergism

Knowing the glorious truth of God’s effectual call, we can fully trust that God’s Word will NOT come back void. For God will send his word out through the preacher, and the Spirit will work through it to regenerate all of God’s elect when He pleases. After Paul preached at Antioch in Pisidia, it is written that “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Their conversion was ultimately not up to Paul, or even to them, but to God alone. A few chapters later “The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (16:14). God encouraged Paul a few chapters later: “I have many in this city who are my people” (18:10). The Lord assured Paul of His sovereignty over salvation. What was Paul’s response to the comfort that the elect are out there? Did he stop evangelizing? NO. The next verse says that Paul “stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (18:11).

When we have deep confidence that the elect will inevitably be effectually called, we can set a course for long-term evangelistic faithfulness and refuse to compromise God’s message just to appeal to the carnal worldly appetites of the lost. Even if we must go for years without seeing the results for which we long. This confidence protects us from hopeless despair if no one seems to be getting saved; for we know that God will save His elect. We are also protected from pride if many get saved, for God gets all the credit. We must vehemently reject the impulse to tamper with the seeds (the message) or manipulate the soil (the hearers), but rather just sow and trust God’s instructions and God’s ability to give the growth. We trust God enough to let him use the preaching of the Gospel to win souls to Himself by His Spirit, without us manipulating people or toning down the message.

Many people will try and get people to “like” the Lord Jesus through how they live their lives, but they never actually share the Gospel. This is misguided. While our lifestyles ought to adorn our actual evangelism, we cannot expect anyone to follow Christ without having heard the Gospel! When an evangelist does not deeply trust that God alone is the One who regenerates the elect —and does so when He pleases— through the Word and the Spirit, this evangelist is more likely to try and compensate for what he thinks is lacking, and he’s more likely to trust in something in addition to the Word and Spirit to give someone a saving faith. Whether this is their eloquent speech, charm, or a more politically correct version (often a perversion) of the Gospel, it is unacceptable.

For we do not trust in our public speaking skills, our niceness, or our ability to entertain. Even our own love for a person, though very important, is insufficient to bring them from spiritual death to life, so we must not trust in our love. We do not preach ‘self-help’, the ‘prosperity gospel’, or the ‘social-justice gospel’, we do not turn on smoke machines, we do not use religious paintings to ‘worship through’, and we do not bring ballerinas on stage! We do not reference secular Op-Ed pieces in every sermon to try and make Jesus seem relevant. Why? THE. GOSPEL. IS. THE. POWER. OF. GOD. FOR. SALVATION. As Cornelius Van Til said, “The Reformed preacher does not tone down his message in order that it may find acceptance with the natural man.” Get the pure Gospel to the lost, and leave the results up to the Omnipotent King.

There are certainly godly evangelists who are not in the same theological camp as me, and many that do a much better job than I do. I am obviously no expert at evangelism, and I have so much room to grow. I love my non-Reformed brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet unity and love does not necessarily mean uniformity, and it certainly does not require us to only ever speak about primary doctrine. The truths of election and effectual calling provide a much healthier framework for the evangelist than any form of synergism, and help protect us from dangerous errors, many of which I addressed in part 1 of this series. Only the Reformed evangelist knows that, ultimately, evangelism has a 100% success rate, given that God will do exactly what He chooses with the preaching, effectually calling His elect, and using it in judgement against the reprobate. Gospel preaching will contribute to the edification of the Church, the salvation of the elect, the condemnation of the wicked, the horrification of the devil, and all true Gospel preaching glorifies the one true God.