I found the above short clip of an interview of Burk Parsons by Nathan W. Bingham of Ligonier Ministries. It is a short clip from a much longer interview, the original of which can be seen here. The title of the clip is, “Why are people so resistant to Reformed theology?” That is the question that is put to Burk Parsons. The question is phrased by Bingham as follows:
“You said that you came kicking and screaming. Why do you think it is that we have such a resistance to Reformed theology? Why do you think many share that similar experience?”
To this Burk Parsons then gives the following reply:
“Having come to Christ not too many years before coming to understand the doctrines of salvation in Scripture [his way of saying ‘Calvinism’], my doctrine of God, the doctrine of God that I had been taught, was a God that did things a certain way, and not another way. And so, having to fight against those presuppositions about God that are not biblical suppositions about God, that is I think one of the reasons. And we have to sort of undo a lot of that bad theology, before we can really understand the right biblical theology.
“I think for many Christians, and there are even some that I know, who really still struggle with the doctrines of grace [his another way of saying ‘Calvinism’]; and in part because I think they are struggling with them academically, and exegetically. They are struggling to understand certain passages and certain verses as I did. That was the big struggle for me. I understood the theology of it, I understood the explanation, I understood the rationale of it; but as a Greek and Hebrew student, and theology student at the time 25 years ago, I was studying certain passages saying, ‘Now, this passage doesn’t seem to line up with this passage;’ and so it really took a right understanding of hermeneutics, of a right method of interpretation, to help me see how all of Scripture fit together, and how one passage of Scripture interpreted another passage of Scripture; one that was more clear, helped to interpret one that was perhaps less clear to me.
“I think there is some still that have an understanding of God who is a loving God; and while they would confess that he is sovereign, and they would believe that he is sovereign, so that they think, they struggle to understand how a loving God could condemn, or how a loving God could not elect everyone. And so the question that they ask, and the question that I asked at that time was, ‘Well, why doesn’t God just save everyone? Why doesn’t God elect everyone?’”
That is an artificial question invented by Calvinists in order to justify giving it the wrong answer. It is not a question that a reasonable minded person (even one unfamiliar with scripture) would normally be inclined to ask. Every rational person, even one who is not terribly religious, or not inclined towards religion, is likely to assume that if there is a God, he is likely to punish the wicked for their wickedness, and reward the righteous for their righteousness. He is not going to condemn the righteous along with the wicked; or do the reverse, condone or approve of the wicked along with the righteous. If he is going to redeem the wicked, the evil-doers, at all; he is going to do so on the basis of their genuine repentance—turning away from wickedness to righteousness. And that of course is exactly what the Bible teaches:
Acts 10:
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 he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
That was said of the Roman centurion Cornelius, who was not even a Christian when he was visited by an angel, who told him that his good deeds and righteous acts were approved and accepted by God, and instructed him to send for Peter. That is what the angel actually told him:
Acts 10:
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.
He was approved of by God for his righteous deeds as a pagan, long before he had become a Christian. And the rest of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, confirm the same thing:
John 5:
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [salvation]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
Matthew 16:
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
2 Corinthians 5:
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Revelation 22:
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Acts 17:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Colossians 3:
25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons [with God].
1 Peter 1:
17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
1 Corinthians 6:
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Luke 6:
47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
Luke 12:
47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Matthew 7:
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 25:
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Romans 2:
6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew [or Christian] first, and also of the Gentile [or pagan];
10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew [or Christian] first, and also to the Gentile [or pagan]:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Galatians 6:
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
James 1:
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Romans 14:
12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Ezekiel 18:
20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.
23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his [evil] ways, and live?
24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.
Ezekiel 33:
10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
12 Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
14 Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16 None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
20 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.
Then he adds:
“And while that is a fair question, it is really not an appropriately biblical question, …”
It is not a “fair question,” it is an artificial, invented, loaded question which no reasonable person would normally be inclined to ask. It is a leading question invented by the Calvinists in order to justify giving it the wrong answer. So he continues:
“… because if we understand the fall of man, if we understand that we are at enmity with God, that we are in opposition to Him, that we ran from Him, that we hid from Him, that when He came down and took on flesh that we killed him … ”
That makes it sound like everybody killed him, which of course is not the case. There were lots of people who didn’t kill him, or wanted him to be killed. Even Pilate didn’t want to kill him. As the official Roman executioner, he did so reluctantly at the behest of the Jews. But he did his best to avoid having to do it. According to Jesus, the people of Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh, or the “queen of the south” etc., wouldn’t have killed him either. They would have believed and repented of their sins if they had seen his great miracles (Matt. 11:20–21; 12:41–42; Luke 10:13; Luke 11:31–32). There were lots of people who didn’t kill him, or wouldn’t have killed him if they had the chance. He then continues:
“… it is only when we grasp that we are all deserving of hell and death, that we can really begin to ask the more appropriate biblical question as to why does God save anyone?”
That is the Calvinistic false presupposition designed to justify giving it the false Calvinistic answer. The Bible doesn’t teach that everybody is evil and wicked, and deserving of hell. That idea is derived from a few misconstrued passages of Paul. The rest of the Bible teaches something different. I have already discussed that subject, with lots of scripture references, in this post (the list of quotes will be found at the end of the post); therefore there is no need to repeat them here. If 99% of the Bible says one thing, and 1% appears to say something different, we go by the 99%, and interpret the 1% to conform with the 99%, not the other way. We build our theology on the 99%, not the 1%. Calvinism does it backwards. It builds its theology on 1% of the Bible, and turns a blind eye to 99% which teaches something different. Then he continues:
“Why does God elect anybody?”
The Bible tells you:
Acts 10:
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 he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Nothing could be clearer, more obvious, and easier to understand than that—with lots more scriptures to add to it, as shown above. Then he continues:
“And then we begin to really understand the grace of God, and then we begin to say, ‘Why me?’”
Phrased incorrectly. Then we begin to really understand what an abominable heresy and perversion of the gospel Calvinism is. It is the most damnable heresy, and corruption and perversion of the gospel that has ever been invented since Christianity came into existence.
Then as I searched the Internet, I discovered that others have tried to comment on the same video clip, which is also interesting to watch, which can be seen here:
Start watching at 11.20 minutes into the video to avoid the initial introductory remarks. It is a long-winded video, and digresses quite a bit, but interesting to watch nevertheless. They also make some theological errors themselves. “Election” in biblical terms is not just “corporate”. It is used in the Bible with more than one meaning. In one sense of the term, it is “corporate”—God “electing” Israel nationally, or corporately, among all other nations, to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. That doesn’t mean that every single Israelite would be saved. But there is also individual “election’ to salvation—God “electing” certain individuals to be saved. But it doesn’t work like it does in Calvinism. The Arminians have got that bit of theology right. God “elects” those whom he foresees in his foreknowledge will accept the gospel and obey God. They also throw a barb at Mormonism towards the end! But that is okay, they can be forgive for that. Anybody who opposes the heresy of Calvinism still has my support.
Then as I searched more, I discovered that the same question had been brought up in a much earlier panel discussion in which the late R. C. Sproul, Steve Lawson, and John MacArthur were participating. This is also a short clip from a much longer video, the original of which can be seen here. (The clip is taken starting from 45:57 minutes into the original video.) The clip is appropriately titled, “Why are so many against reformed theology?” It can be seen here:
The exact question, as posed by Chris Larson acting as host, was as follows:
“Reformed theology and Calvinism most certainly are considered a minority viewpoint. Why are most Christians against, and actively against these concepts?”
To this Steve Lawson promptly gives this reply:
“They don’t know the Bible. It is not because they know too much of the Bible that they have come to this position, it is because they know too little of the Bible that they have come to this Conclusion …”
Followed by a lengthy discourse which is unnecessary to quote. The “doctrines of grace” that he keeps talking about is the fanciful way of masquerading and sugar-coating TULIP, the heresy of Calvinism. The truth of course is that he is the one who doesn’t know his Bible. I have demonstrated that the Bible teaches nothing of the kind. The Bible is diametrically opposed to Calvinism, and to so-called “Reformed” theology. It is heretical and false all the way through, from start to finish, from the beginning to the end.
