Book Review: The Joy of Calvinism by Greg Forster

Calvinism has always been viewed negatively among some evangelicals. Some Christians will look at Calvinism as a belief that God is mean and cruel while others embrace it saying it is the only theological system that works. There have been many books written on Calvinism, but all of them have seem to be geared toward more academic audiences. The Joy of Calvinism is geared toward all Christians who are wanting to know more about the teachings of Calvinism.

Forster begins to teach that Calvinism is about joy. The joy is knowing that our salvation is solely based on God and not ourselves. This book also addresses what what Calvinism does not teach:

1. Calvinism does not deny that we have free will
2. Calvinism does not say we are saved against our wills
3. Calvinism does not say we are totally depraved
4. Calvinism does not deny that God loves the lost
5. Calvinism is not primarily concerned with the sovereignty of God or predestination

The book addresses four teachings of Calvinism into four chapters:

1. God loves you personally
2. God loves you unconditionally
3. God loves you irresistibly
4. God loves you unbreakably

What amazed me about this book is the depth of the teaching of Calvinism presented in user friendly style so any Christian whether they are new to the faith or have been a Christian for years can pick up and read. The appendix of the book answers some basic questions on Calvinism including who is John Calvin. The Joy of Calvinism is a book that all reformed, and even non-reformed, reformed evangelicals can read and hopefully will come to embrace Calvinism because Calvinism teaches us to enjoy God.

Thanks Crossway for letting me review this book.

What is New Calvinism?

Back in 2009, Time Magazine called New Calvinism one of the 10 ideas changing the world. Many think Calvinism is something that is a new concept but what many don't realize that it has been around for many years. It was not until recently gained new supporters.

So what exactly is New Calvinism? Josh Buice wrote:

First of all, the New Calvinism isn’t all that new. This is a movement that’s relatively young in terms of church history, but it’s not a new movement in recent years. In 2008, Collin Hansen published a book titled: Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinistsand in doing so, coined the phrase Young, Restless, Reformed. In the following year, Time Magazine published a series of articles beneath the umbrella of “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.” The third article in the series was written by David Van Biema titled, “The New Calvinism.” In his article, Biema writes:

Calvinism is back, and not just musically. John Calvin’s 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism’s buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism’s latest success story, complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination’s logical consequence, predestination: the belief that before time’s dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not), unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.

In terms of the movement – the New Calvinism is very fluid and difficult to fully define. It’s hard to get your hands around the entire movement, especially since the group is no longer explicitly young and not completely restless. Although a difficult task, it is my goal to provide a working definition of the New Calvinism that goes beyond the mere descriptive cliché that’s often thrown around in blogs, books, and sermons.

You can read the entire post here.

Josh also did an interview with the Regular Reformed Guys on New Calvinism that I invite you to check out.

Also Tim Challies gave us 12 features of new Calvinism:

1. The New Calvinism, in its allegiance to the inerrancy of the Bible, embraces the biblical truths behind the five points of Calvinism (TULIP), while having an aversion to using the acronym (or any other systematic packaging) along with a sometimes-qualified embrace of Limited Atonement. The focus is on Calvinistic soteriology but not to the exclusion or the appreciation of the broader scope of Calvin’s vision.

2. The New Calvinism embraces the sovereignty of God in salvation and all the affairs of life and history, including evil and suffering.

3. The New Calvinism has a strong complementarian flavor (as opposed to egalitarian) with an emphasis on the flourishing of men and women in relationships where men embrace a call to robust, humble, Christ-like servant-leadership.

4. The New Calvinism leans toward being culture-affirming, as opposed to culture-denying, while holding fast to some very culturally-alien positions on issues like same-sex practice and abortion.

5. The New Calvinism embraces the essential place of the local church: it is led mainly by pastors; it has a vibrant church-planting bent; it produces widely-sung worship music; and it exalts the preached Word as central to the work of God both locally and globally.

6. The New Calvinism is aggressively mission-driven, including missional impact on social evils, evangelistic impact on personal networks, and missionary impact on the unreached peoples of the world.

7. The New Calvinism is inter-denominational, with a strong (some would say oxymoronic) Baptistic element.

8. The New Calvinism includes both charismatics and non-charismatics.

9. The New Calvinism places a priority on pietism or piety in the Puritan vein, with an emphasis on the essential role of the affections in Christian living, while esteeming the life of the mind and being very productive in it, and embracing the value of serious scholarship.

10. The New Calvinism is vibrantly engaged in publishing books, and, even more remarkably, in the world of the Internet, with hundreds of energetic bloggers and social media activists, with Twitter as the increasingly-default way of signalling things new and old that should be noticed and read.

11. The New Calvinism is international in scope, multi-ethnic in expression, and culturally-diverse. There is no single geographic, racial, cultural, governing center. There are no officers, no organization, nor any loose affiliation that would encompass the whole. (As an aside, he adds: I would dare say there are outcroppings of this movement that no one in this room has ever heard of.)

12. The New Calvinism is robustly gospel-centered, cross-centered, with dozens of books rolling off the presses coming at the gospel from every conceivable angle and applying it to all areas of life, with a commitment to seeing the historic doctrine of justification finding its fruit in sanctification both personally and communally.

Recommended Reading:

The Joy of Calvinism by Greg Forster

Killing Calvinism by Greg Dutcher

Resources On The Five Points Of Calvinism

For those not familiar with the five points of Calvinism, they are:

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

These words form the acrostic T.U.L.I.P. There are many resources on the five points of Calvinism. Here are few that I recommend:

Articles by R.C. Sproul:

TULIP and Reformed Theology: An Introduction

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Ireesistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

Books:

Five Points: Towards a Deeper Experience of God's Grace by John Piper

Going Beyond the Five Points: Pursuing a More Comprehensive Reformation

What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace? by Richard D Phillips

Proof: Finding Freedom Through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace by Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones

Sermons:

God Condemns Justly with Joe Thorn

God Saves Sovereignly with Joe Thorn

God Atones Effectively with Joe Thorn

God Calls Irresistibly with Joe Thorn

God Sustains Faithfully with Jim Renihan

Calvinism Debate

This past Wednesday in Chicago, there was a debate on Calvinism which featured Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones who wrote the book,
Proof: Finding Freedom Through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace, who are on the side of Calvinism. While on the side of the issue is Austin Fisher, author of Young, Restless, and No Longer Reformed, and Brian Zahnd, author of Farewell to Mars.

There are two parts to this debate. The first deals with unconditional predestination and the other talks about the cause of faith and repentance.

Book Review: CROSS edited by John Piper and David Mathis

There are many conferences that happen all over the world and especially hear in the United States. Some conferences happen yearly and every other year. We have Passion, Desiring God, Together for the Gospel, and The Gospel Coalition. Some of these conferences will have a certain theme to them but what one conference that was focused on students. Some of you would say, "Isn't what the Passion conference does?" I am talking about one that focuses on students whose hearts are for the nations. Those who desire to do missions.

In December 2013, thousands of student gathered together to be mobilized for missions. To go in places where it is dangerous. To places where it is remote and people don't know who Jesus is. This conference featuring John Piper, Conrad Mbewe, Ricahrd Chin, Mack Stiles, Matt Chandler, Michael Oh, David Platt, Thabiti Anyabwile, Kevin DeYoung, and D.A. Carson is called CROSS, which also happens to be the title of this book.

Each chapter is a general session each preacher did during CROSS. Piper addressed the chief end of missions which is the supremacy of God in the joy of all people. DeYoung's chapter was on the five surprising motivations for mission where he addressed the doctrines of grace also known as T.U.L.I.P. which are the five points of Calvinism. I love Mack Stiles' chapter where he expressed if you are called to be a missionary, you must be inspired by the gospel. It does no good for a missionary to go over seas and not love the gospel as they serve the people.

One thing this book addresses is that not all Christians are called to be missionaries. Some are called to go while some are called to stay. David Platt addressed that in the conclusion of this book. What is most important is your obedience to God on whether or not you should be in the mission field. When I was in college, I heard a lot about missions. I kept thinking if God wanted me to go. I felt the speakers who I heard kept making me feel guilty that I am not a missionary. Praise be to God, this book did not give that impression and I hope those who heard these messages felt the same.

This is great book to give to a student considering missions. I think youth pastors will benefit from it too as well as those in college ministry to equip their people.

Thanks B&H Publishing for letting me review this book.

Happy Reformation Day

Today is not only a day where people can dress up like their favorite superhero or movie monster. Today is Reformation Day which a big day in church history where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church. There have been a few posts today for other websites commemorating Luther's legacy and the importance of this day.

Kevin DeYoung posted on 5 key concepts in the Reformation for understanding the doctrine of Justification:

First, the Christian is simul iustus et peccator.

Second, our right standing with God is based on an alien righteousness.

Third, the righteousness of Christ is ours by imputation, not by impartation.

Fourth, we are justified by faith alone.

Finally, with all this talk about the necessity of faith, the Catechism explains that faith is only an instrumental cause in our salvation.

You can read the entire post here

Justin Holcomb has also a great brief history on the Reformation as well as some recommended readings on the Reformations and Reformers.

Crossway is giving away The Joy of Calvinism (e-book format) for free today. You can also check out my review of the book before you get it.

Zondervan is having a Reformation e-book sale until November 5th.

Tweeted about a post from Liberate on the Reformation earlier today that had this video at the end. This video is so good, I had to watch it more than once and even put it on my blog. Hope you enjoy it:




One more thing: Remember that Reformation Day is all about Jesus. If make much of Martin Luther, then the Reformation was a waste of time.

What Opened My Eyes to Reformed Theology

It seems more and more Christians are coming out as reformed or Calvinistic. I am not sure if some do because it's the trend or other reasons. Others have become reformed because their eyes were opened to the doctrines of grace as they study the Bible.

Before I became reformed, I knew very little about Calvinism. The only thing I knew was that Calvinists believe God chooses those who are saved and their teachings were based on John Calvin.

What opened my eyes to reformed theology was after a six month battle with cancer. On September 11, 2007, of all days, I discovered two lumps on my neck. The next day I went to my doctor and he referred me to a specialist who performed a biopsy to determine what were these masses. Two days later, I was dialogized with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After meeting with my oncologist, it was determined that I was stage two because there were no cells in my bone marrow.

I went through six months of Chemotherapy with no radiation, which is by God's grace. On February 2008, I has a PET scan that showed the cancer was gone. I had to do one more month of chemo followed by monthly appointments. In December 2008, I was given the thumps up from my oncologist to have my infusa-port removed. By God's grace, I surpassed the five year mark in 2013 and have been given a clean bill of health ever since.

Following my last chemo treatment, I began to question my faith. Not questioning God, but what about the things I believed in Christianity. I was a youth pastor at Arrowhead Baptist and have seen students come to Christ, but they were acting like they only got saved for the "fire insurance" (if you are from a Southern Baptist background, you know what I speak of). Then I came across a post by Tim Challies, which I cannot find that exact post, that said Christians cannot live on a diet of Christian Living books. That struck me for some reason, which now I see was the Spirit of God working in me.

I started reading Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology followed by Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion as well as many other theological books that I can find.

One thing that I really needed to grasp more was on suffering. Why do Christians suffer? I thought God was punishing me by giving me cancer which turns out that was not the case. Jesus took my punishment in my place on the cross. God used my cancer to mold me and gave me my own reformation. Regarding election, God used R.C. Sproul's Chosen By God to open my eyes about this tough teaching. Sproul was talking to someone debating the issue of election by stating, do you know you are denying the word of God? The Spirit reminded me of these words told to me years ago, "If there is one thing in the Bible you do not agree with, then you do not believe in the Bible at all." Those words came from my father who died from lung cancer in 2003 and never blamed God for his illness.

This year will mark seven years since my last chemo treatment and seven years since I began my journey into reformed theology. I can tell you it is a joy to be on this journey especially now as I am planting a church in Wichita Falls with two other reformed brothers in Christ. I still have questions and struggles, which is okay. I remember John MacArthur saying he still have questions and struggle over election, which gives me great comfort.

I praise God for the journey He has taken me on. Opening my eyes to reformed theology was not the only thing God used my battle with cancer. He also made me realize how religious I was and not gospel-centered, which will be another post for another time.

"How Did Christianity Lose Its Cultural Influence?"

Author Greg Forster on his book, "Joy for the World" from Crossway on Vimeo.

Books by Greg Forster:

The Joy of Calvinism: Knowing God's Personal, Unconditional, Irresistible, Unbreakable Love

Joy For The World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding it (Cultural Renewal)

Dear Arrogant Calvinists

This video features Mark Mellinger speaking with Greg Dutcher about why he wrote the book, Killing Calvinism: How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Theology from the Inside



Recommended Reading:

The Joy of Calvinism: Knowing God's Personal, Unconditional, Irresistible, Unbreakable Love by Greg Forster

Around The Web-September 12, 2018

Is Social Justice a Gospel Issue? by Kevin DeYoung

The Sufficiency of Scripture with Matt Perman from Equipping You In Grace

What’s Wrong with Woke? by Tom Ascol

Suffering and Sovereignty from the Regular Reformed Guys

John Onwuchekwa on How Prayer Exposes the Illusion of Control

The Gospel Gets the Last Word by Mike Leake

The ESV Expository Commentary: Daniel-Malachi, Ephesians-Philemon, and Hebrews-Revelation (3 Volume Set) is on sale at WTS Books

Other books on sale:

Preparing for Marriage: Help for Christian Couples (Revised & Expanded) by John Piper

Astonished by God: Ten Truths to Turn the World Upside Down by John Piper

The Joy Project: An Introduction to Calvinism by Tony Reinke

Enjoying God: Experience the Power and Love of God in Everyday Life by Tim Chester (Free shipping on your order when you get this one till September 13)