The spread of Calvinism, also known as Predestination or Reformed Theology is taking a toll on Evangelical Protestant Churches. For those unfamiliar with this term it is the belief that before the dawn of time, God looked into the future and chose certain people to be saved. This selection or election was not based on anything that person would do. Instead it is based on God being sovereign and having the right to save who he chooses and condemn who he chooses. Those not chosen before the foundation of the world are simply condemned to an eternal hell with no hope whatsoever of being saved. Condemned even before they are born. Now heres the good part. A person that is chosen cannot do anything to keep themselves from going to heaven and a person not chosen cannot do anything to keep themselves from going to hell. Under this belief system there is no such thing as free will when it comes to salvation. It gets better. You and I as Christians cannot change a persons eternal destiny. Nothing that we do can change Gods will that was pre-ordained before time began. I will give you one guess what this does to missionary efforts.
—-Case in point – Southern Baptist Churches are being infiltrated by this Calvinistic Doctrine otherwise known as Reformed Theology. At the same time giving to missions has fallen to record low levels. Result – In 2016 alone, 1132 missionaries were terminated. Missionaries in the field are now at 1993 levels.—-
So how is this happening? Seminaries have slowly been infiltrated by this false theology and are currently cranking out Neo Calvinist pastors at an alarming rate. To be more specific, about 1 in 3 graduates from Baptist seminaries identify themselves as Calvinists. These young aspiring preachers seek out congregations to indoctrinate with their new found theology, however, they do not always mention that they hold to this false doctrine until they are well established in the church and very difficult to get rid of. Churches that are pushed into this doctrine tend to become less evangelistic, more internally focused and also much smaller. Smaller because most people are not comfortable with this theology.
Make no mistake. This is a different Gospel than the one delivered to us by the apostles. So it is very frustrating to those who understand the teachings of the Bible. As a result, instead of fighting this trend, many people just leave and never go back.