The New Calvinism Considered: A personal and pastoral assessment by Jeremy Walker

Author:Jeremy Walker [Walker, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: [u]
Publisher: Evangelical Press
Published: 2016-09-24T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Conclusions and counsels

What, then, are we to make of all this? How should we respond to the challenges and opportunities, the beauties over which we must rejoice and the confusions over which we might tremble?

My conclusion essentially is this: be Calvinists. Don’t be new Calvinists or any other particular brand or stripe of Calvinists, whatever those distinctions may presently mean, or may come to mean. Fundamentally, I would urge you to live before God rather than before men. This means that we should consider what it means to serve the Lord in our particular circumstances and follow that course humbly and faithfully, individually and corporately, regardless of the pleasures or pains which that course seems to hold out.

With regard to the new Calvinism, we should avoid knee-jerk reactions, thoughtlessly dismissing or embracing something or someone, or everything and everyone, without proper consideration. In addition, we should avoid blanket judgments: the spectrum is too broad and the distinctions along it too fine to tar with the same brush every man or woman who takes or is given the label ‘new Calvinist.’ We need to show discernment as believers. That is true when someone calls themselves Reformed, an evangelical, or indeed a Calvinist—we would graciously ask what they mean by that, seeking to discover how much or how little we have in common, and to what extent we share common aims and might work together toward common goals. In the same way, we should give any man credibly claiming to be a brother in the Lord the opportunity to show his mettle.

So you do not need to capitulate to the immediate and ride the current of the moment. There is no need to join the convoy just because it is going past at speed, glowing with the power of the newest technology and applauded by adoring fans. Neither do you need to panic and send out warning signals, eminently suspicious of everyone who may not be ‘one of us.’ You do not need to shoot on sight, presuming that every vessel from the new Calvinist shipyard is sailing under an enemy flag, or—still worse—the skull-and-crossbones.

Take each case on its merit: we may not always agree with a genuine spiritual brother at all points, and we may have significant disagreement with those whom we love in the Lord. However, we should remember that—until their doctrine or practice prove otherwise—we are to behave with sincere affection and a proper humility toward those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, and should treat them as such in all respects until their doctrine or practice prove that they are otherwise. At that point we should set out to recover them from their errors (2 Timothy 2:24–26) by all appropriate and legitimate means. If they are genuine brothers and sisters with whom we genuinely and sincerely disagree, then we should acknowledge that there is a righteous way to respond in cultivating our own humility and faithfulness, maintaining an appropriate relationship, resisting any confusion and error, and offering direction and encouragement toward the truth.

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