Chapter
4
Conclusion
In conclusion, may I begin by quoting Dr.
John Gerstner again, who wrote that the well-meant offer of salvation, as
supported and promoted by Murray and Stonehouse and the churches they
represent, “does incalculable damage to the cause of Jesus Christ and the
proclamation of His gospel.”
So what can we do now?
A. Preach the Gospel Zealously and Issue the
Serious Call Faithfully
The darkness of the false gospel is best
dispelled by the light of the true. Churches must be well versed in the
doctrines of grace and be unashamed to promote them by all means, especially in
the preaching at worship services. Believers should stop worrying about
offending people when they are exalting their God in what they testify.
Preaching must always come with the call to
repentance 0f sins and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. It does not matter whether
the hearers are within or outside of the covenant. This call is natural and
universal. In this way, as Christ is also pointed out, there is proclaimed the
particular promise of God of His grace towards those who believe.
As the way of the cross is not without trials
and temptation, we must guard against discouragement and unfaithfulness in the course
of our labor. We must also learn how to encourage one another in the cause of
Christ.
B. Expose the Evil Tendency of the Well-Meant Offer
The well-meant offer is man-centered in approach,
in that it seeks to get man to make a decision—to accept the offer. As such there
is a tendency to water down the content of the gospel or to sweeten it and make
it more acceptable to the hearers. It is God’s truth that saves. It kills and
makes alive. The truth about man must be told. The truth about the end of the
world and the coming of Christ in judgment must be proclaimed courageously.
God’s people must be warned against the
serious error of maintaining that God has two irreconcilable, conflicting
wills. The advocates of the well-meant offer rush in where even the Arminians
fear to tread. The Arminians were at pain to point in one of their Opinions
that “... we do not here, as some say, acknowledge in God a holy simulation, or
a double person.”1 Today the supporters of the well-meant offer,
with false piety and humility, claim that their minds are too puny to
understand the conflicting mind of God, thus in effect making God “a double
person.” Suggesting two conflicting wills in God would ultimately rob God’s
people of their assurance of salvation.
Finally, about their belief in antinomy and
its result in the careless handling of God’s Word, we should listen to Robert Reymond:
... the proffered
definition of “paradox” (or antinomy) as two truths which are both unmistakably
taught in the Word of God but which also cannot possibly be reconciled before
the bar of human reason is itself inherently problematical, for the one who so
defines the term is suggesting by implication that either he knows by means of an
omniscience that is not normally in human possession that no one is capable of
reconciling the truths in question or he has somehow universally polled
everyone who has ever lived, is living now, and will live in the future and has
discovered that not one has been able, is able, or will be able to reconcile
the truths. But it goes without saying that neither of these conditions is or
can be true. Therefore, the very assertion that there are paradoxes, so
defined, in Scripture is seriously flawed by the terms of the definition
itself. There is no way to know if such a phenomenon is present in Scripture.
Merely because any number of scholars have failed to reconcile to their
satisfaction two given truths of Scripture is no proof that the truths cannot
be harmonized. And if just one scholar claims to have reconciled the truths to
his or her own satisfaction, this ipso
facto renders the definition both gratuitous and suspect.2
C. Point Out the Good Effect of the Serious Gospel Call
upon Christian Life and Worship
The serious gospel call addresses the
conscience of fallen man, which is how the Law brings one to Christ. When our
Lord was on earth He spoke as one with authority, unlike the Pharisees and
Scribes. Today in that pervasive well-meant offer the preaching is robbed of
its essential authority. God’s people need to be assured by the commands of
God, not an offer.
When our salvation is fully in the hands of
God, would we not be humble before Him and find our complete trust and reliance
upon Him? To whom shall we go? He has the words of life. The serious call of
the gospel promotes the healthy sense of complete and utter reliance upon God
alone for salvation.
Knowing that the immutable God saves in the
way of our repentance of sins and faith in His Son. Jesus Christ, helps us to
be more focused in our lives. We must deal with sins in our lives. And dealing
with sins we must come humbly to the cross. Knowing our infinite debt we seek
to live our thankful life.
Having a constant sense of God’s greatness
and of our total dependence upon Him sets for us the proper atmosphere for true
worship. The proper serious gospel call calls us to the true and joyful worship
of the God of our salvation. Amen.
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FOOTNOTES
1. Peter Y. De Jong, Crisis in the Reformed Churches, p. 227.
2. Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian
Faith (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers), p. 105.
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