He is right to oppose Calvinism; but he is going about it the wrong way. He is expelling Calvinism out of one door, while letting it back in through another door. Consider the following remarks, commencing at 4:23 minutes into the video (emphasis added):
“In fact the Bible declares many people righteous: Abel, Job, Noah, lot, Joseph, Cornelius, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, the list could go on. So was Paul wrong to say that no one was righteous, when clearly the Bible declares several people righteous, including Abraham, whom he mentions himself in the very next chapter? Of course we don’t believe there is any contradiction in Paul’s teaching; he only meant that no one is righteous by means of the law. All have sinned, even Abraham, Enoch, Job, and all the people that are listed as righteous. They are righteous by faith, not through the works of the law. … Those who trust in Christ are graciously imputed with his righteousness, they are not earning their own.”
That is not what the scripture says. It says that they were righteous because they were acting as such. They acted righteously before God, and that is why they were considered righteous and approved. This is what the scripture says about Abraham:
Genesis 22:
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Genesis 26:
5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
James 2:
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Abraham was found righteous because he acted as such. Now this does not mean that Abraham never committed any sins, or did anything wrong in his life. But if he did, he repented of them, and kept the commandments of God as far as he knew it, and that is why he was found righteous, and approved of God. That is what the scripture says. He was found righteous because that is how he behaved. “Imputation” had nothing to do with it, and is nowhere mentioned or implied. The same goes for the rest of them. This is how Noah was found righteous:
Genesis 6:
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
2 Peter 2:
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Noah was righteous, and the rest of the world were ungodly, and that is how he was approved, and the rest condemned. No “imputation,” or anything of that kind is mentioned or implied. The same goes for Job:
Job 1:
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
• • •
8 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job was approved by God for his righteousness because that is what he was. No “imputation” is mentioned or implied anywhere.
Acts 10:
1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.
3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.
4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
• • •
34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
35 But in every nation [and religion] he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Cornelius was approved of God, and commended for his righteousness long before he had “believed” in Jesus, hence could have had anything “imputed” to him. He believed in God according to his own pagan tradition, and acted righteously according to that tradition. He was approved by God for his righteousness because that is how he acted. He was a righteous man like the others mentioned, and that is how he was approved—even though he adhered to a pagan religion, as Peter later testifies.
Luke 2:
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
Luke 1:
5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
How can these be construed to mean anything other than what they actually say? Now repenting and keeping God’s commandments is not the same as “earning your own salvation”. It is not the same as “climbing a rope to get to heaven”. It simply means doing what is good and right in the sight of God, and avoiding evil—and thus gaining his approval. That is how Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the ancient Patriarchs, prophets, and saints gained God’s approval. They chose good, and abstained from evil. And if we do sin, we have an “advocate with the Father” who will forgive us our sins on condition of repentance. That is the one word that Evangelicals, Calvinists, and Reformed theologians don’t like to hear, and avoid mentioning as much as they possibly can! It is anathema to their theology, and central to biblical doctrine.
You cannot defeat Calvinism by driving it out of the front door, and let it in by the back door. You can’t defeat it half-and-half. You can only defeat it all the way, not partway.
An interesting question that arises from this discussion is, What happens when we find a genuine contradiction in the biblical text, such as these:
Romans 4:
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
James 2:
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
These two statements are manifestly contradictory; so which is right, and how do we determine that? The Calvinist answer is to ignore the rest of the Bible, and go by what Calvinism says. The biblical way is to “search the scriptures” (John 5:39; Acts 17:11). And when we do, and discover that 99% of the Bible agrees with James, and 1% agrees with Paul, we go by the 99%, and harmonize the 1% to agree with the 99%, not the other way.
