Do we preach the doctrines of grace?

Some would say that in order to reach out to unchurched or de-churched, non Christians or young Christians they wouldn't want the offensiveness of calvinism to impede their evangelistic efforts in reaching out to as many as possible. Doctrines such as predestination and limited atonement are often perceived as offensive and objectionable. So do we preach them, or leave them out of our preaching?
In this article I write to support my believe that to make a decision not to preach on the more offensive doctrines of the bible, such as God's particular plan of salvation, is detrimental to faith and repentance and Christ's mission. My reasoning for this is as follows:

1. It restricts the work of the Spirit. The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Rom. 1:16) The gospel is about how God reveals his righteous justice by declaring sinners just on account of his righteous Son through faith alone by grace alone to the glory of God alone. The whole bible points to this truth. This is the central tenancy of evangelical belief. Our theological conviction is the necessity and primacy of the gospel in true faith, theology, church and practice. Scripture alone therefore is our authority on dictating what is preached and not preached. And the Spirit makes his words effectual as he applied Christ saving work to us through his word. Faith comes through hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:14). Every aspect of the word, every part that ultimately points us to Christ is used to create faith and repentance. If we withhold certain aspects we distrust the Spirit who wrote the Word.

2. Calvin recognized that there were many who wished that "every mention of predestination be buried"(Inst. III, 21, 3). Calvin, however, reminds us that predestination is a biblical concept, and that nothing is taught in Scripture "but what is expedient to know"(Inst. III, 21, 3). Calvin warns that to reject the preaching and expounding of predestination on the pretext that it may trouble "weaker souls" is to openly reproach God "as if he had un-advisedly let slip something hurtful to the church"(Inst. III, 21, 4). This doctrine he taught helps the individual to live the Christian life with full assurance and he believed that no Christian could be confident unless he had some sense of his election to salvation. He believed that while Scripture taught this doctrine, it also pointed out that those who refused to believe must be predestined to damnation. It is significant that next to his chapters on predestination in the Institutes Calvin places his magnificent chapter on prayer which emphasize the personal character of God and the sovereignty of God which gives us confidence to appeal to God in all matters as a result of our assurance in Christ.

3. If you remove those doctrines which you deem offensive you ultimately will distort both the attributes of God and the gospel of God. If you only emphasize the mercy of God then people will find the justice of God in judgement offensive. If you only emphasize the will and responsibility of man then people will abhor the sovereign monergistic choice of God in election. If you only emphasize the work of man then people will misunderstand the grace of God which grants faith and repentance.

4. By, removing these doctrine from the pulpit which acts a central part of the weekly diet of the maturity of Christians and one of the primary places where God’s spirit evangelistically builds his church, you are making a decision to allow false teaching/beliefs to exist and remain in the church by not openly and explicitly and continuously refuting that which is false as you proclaim that which is true. By default people live in complete unbelief to every spiritual truth in the bible pertaining to salvation. If you do not use God’s word to explain God’s truth then people will remain in their unbelief in those areas you do not preach on.

5. What you use to get people in, you need to keep using to keep people in. If you preach a message consistently on Sundays that is devoid of these central truths then you must continue to preach a message devoid of these truths, for when you do speak on them people are likely to leave and go to the church down the road or to none at all. We had a family at our church plant that was there for 7 years- since the very beginning. Our minister preached on 1 tim 2 that due to men and women being created complementary to each other – equal but different, men alone are to teach and have authority over the mixed congregation, and the family left because, they said, they had no idea that that is what our church/ the minister believed because he had never articulated this before.

6. The bible is the precedent on all areas of faith and practice. The very first sermon after Jesus’ ascention, after Jesus has given the gift of His Holy Spirit to His church to create and build his church at Pentecost features doctrines that many would consider to be extremely offensive to our secularistic humanistic culture. These include predestination where Jesus is said to be put to death "according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God", and Peter then goes on to say that “you” speaking to the crowd, "crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men". It doesn’t get any more offensive then that. And God saved 3000 people through this sermon.

7. Jesus as revealed through scripture is the ultimate model of all areas of faith and practice. Jesus himself preached on the doctrines of predestination and limited atonement many times to unconverted crowd such as in John 6 where Jesus says “no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”(v 44) and “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life”(v 63) . Many people stopped following Jesus saying "this is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (v60) and this did not deter Jesus from preaching the TRUTH.

8. All those who God has used me to bring to Christ have had questions regarding the sovereignty of God and the role of the will of man in God’s plan. I have shared the plain truths of God’s incomparable grace demonstrated in the doctrines of Grace- God’s mongergistic regenerating work of predestining the elect for faith in Christ. They have embraced this doctrine and have since learned to saver it as the assurance and security of their hope and the only basis of their salvation in spite of their depravity.

9. Everything we say and do builds a framework of a theological house. We either build a biblically faithful framework that allows all truths to be build upon or we create a biblically inaccurate framework that fundamentally, philosophically and theologically implicitly and/or explicitly rejects the truths of the bible. From my experience in evangelism, one of peoples most basic questions, is why did God allow sin? Suffering? The fall? If we respond with bibilically unfaithful answers or frameworks such as free will or just not directly answering the question then we shoot ourselves in the foot when “we think there ready to finally here God’s truth”.

10. Our ministry philosophy must be based on and build around our theological convictions. The bible is our authority. It speaks truth into worldviews build on lies. It gives light when our culture sheds only darkness. What is our ultimate basis for doing anything as Christians? Due to our natural suppression of the truth revealed through general revelation clearly explained in Romans 1, we cannot rely on ourselves or trust ourselves in our ministry endevours but rather must trust God's word give us wisdom on how to proclaim God's word as God's word is useful for all such things- "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). It is not our elegant use of words or our worldy wisdom that save but the power of God's word alone as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Therefore we expect God's word to be repulsive to those who are perishing but exceedingly sweet to those who are being saved as Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:15-16 "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." Paul does become all things to all people and surrender his rights ( 1 Cor. 9) and does contextualize the gospel to engage with his hearers (Acts 17) but He never removes those parts of the gospel which would have been offensive to reach different groups of people but rather uses such efforts show the foolishness or the flimsiness of the beliefs or cultures and his understanding of them so that He might clearly explain how the gospel as he says in 2 Cor. 10 "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete."

11. All these doctrines serve to do is to show the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ and the boundless riches of His grace. If you want the cross to look glorious then you WILL teach these truths and those God has chosen WILL be effectually and irresistible called to respond with faith in such a beautiful savior.

12. John owen emphasized the need to preach these doctrines to understand the cross when He said “To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect."as did luther who said “If any man doth ascribe of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright. “ -Martin Luther

13. Calvinism is the gospel. Spurgeon said "I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what is nowadays called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel...unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the Cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called." (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1, p. 168).

14. All reformed confessions and catechisms which were to be read and learnt by youths in the reformed churches, including the Heidelberg, the Westminster, the Belgic, the synod of Dort and luthers small catechism etc clearly detail and express mongergistic predestination, regeneration, limited atonement and other “offensive” doctrines. Eg: “I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith.” -Martin Luther on Monergism in his small catechism

15. All the heroes of the reformed faith – Edwards, spurgeon, warfield, calvin, luther, knox, owen etc including the modern day leaders of the reformed movement such as driscoll, piper, sproul, carson, packer and so on preach such doctrines in their sermons and never shy away for any such reason.

17. The role of preaching as is done on Sundays is unique as from the pulpit the word is preached declaratively and authoritatively as the truthful God breathed Words of God. This is where these such doctrines must be preached authoritatively. Bible study and such are discussion based and therefore views and doctrines are put across in a less authoritative manner.

18. Wayne Grudem says the following of what it is like when Pastors refuse to preach on unpopular topics/ doctrines- that they are responsible before God for this: “Another danger of controversy is the temptation to passivity and to avoidance of an important issue that the lord is asking us to deal with in our generation. I have been saddened to hear of churches and institutions that decide not to take any position regarding roles of men and women in marriages and the church. “Its too controversial,” people have told me. But this was not the practice of the apostle Paul. He was the greatest evangelist in the History of the world, but his concern to reach the lost did not lead him to shrink back from declaring unpopular doctrines if they were part of the Word of God. He told the elders of the church at Ephesus. “I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26-27) The implication is that if he had avoided some unpopular teaching in the Word of God, he would have to answer to the Lord for his negligence on the Last Day (2 Corinthians 5:10). There is a parallel today. If a pastor or other ministry leader decides not to teach about [for example] male headship in the home, and if marriages in his church begin to experience the conflict and disintegration that result from the dominant feminist mindset of our secular culture, then he cannot say like Paul, “I am innocent of the blood of all of you.” He cannot say at the end of his life that he has been faithful steward of the responsibility entrusted to him (1 Corinthians 4:1-5). Those who avoid teaching on unpopular topic that are taught in God’s Word have forgotten their accountability before God for their congregations :”They are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give account” (Hebrews 13:17). Churches and institutions that decide not to take any position on this issue are in fact taking a position anyway. They are seeting themselves up for continual leftward movement and continual erosion of their obedience to scripture. A Church or organization that decides to have no policy on this issue will keep ratcheting left one notch at a time; in the direction of the main pressures of the culture." (Evangelical feminism and biblical truth)