Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. [KJV]
Dave Hunt: “And what is this about winning hearts for Jesus if all are predestined either to heaven or hell?” (Debating Calvinism, p.274)
Question: Since the value of any item can be measured by its, 1) replacement cost, 2) comparative cost and 3) what someone is willing to pay for it, what is the value of a soul?
Answer: What someone was willing to pay for your soul was the cost that God the Father paid when sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross of Calvary. Additionally, Jesus appraised the replacement cost and comparative cost of a single human soul as being irreplaceable and valued at more than all of the kingdoms of this world: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
John 9:4: “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”
Calvinist, William MacDonald: “Every soul won to the Lord will be a worshiper of the Lamb of God forever and ever!” (Believer’s Bible Commentary, p.819, emphasis mine)
Question: How can Calvinism allow any room for a soul being truly won to the Lord if they were already won, from eternity past, by being eternally chosen in the Father?
Answer: Arminianism teaches that mankind, apart from faith in Christ, is on the path to Hell (not secretly redeemed, as Calvinism teaches). Jesus states: “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) For someone to believe in Christ, therefore takes him off the road to Hell, and places him on the road to Heaven, and hence in a very real sense, a brother has been won to the Lord.
However, consider what 5-Point Calvinists teach:
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer: “If it is true that Christ died to redeem a specific number of people, namely those whom the Father had given him, it follows that all believers were redeemed at the cross two thousand years ago. They were cleared of all charges then, for God accepted the ransom payment. The certificate of our canceled debt was then given to us when we trusted in Christ. Paul said that the reason no one can bring a charge against the elect is that Christ has died for them (Rom. 8:24).” (The Doctrines That Divide, p.185, emphasis mine)
Question: How can Calvinism allow any room for these to have been won at conversion, if they were secretly redeemed 2,000 years ago?
Also consider what Calvin taught about how certain people were won through Election:
John Calvin: “Since the whole human race is blind and stubborn, those faults remain fixed in our nature until they are corrected by the grace of the Spirit, and that comes only from election. Two people may hear the same teaching together; yet one is willing to learn, and the other persists in his obstinacy. They do not differ in nature, but God illumines one and not the other.” (Acts: Calvin, Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.229, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “When God prefers some to others, choosing some and passing others by, the difference does not depend on human dignity or indignity. It is therefore wrong to say that the reprobate are worthy of eternal destruction.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp.120-121, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “First he points out the eternity of election, and then how we should think of it. Christ says that the elect always belonged to God. God therefore distinguishes them from the reprobate, not by faith, nor by any merit, but by pure grace; for while they are far away from him, he regards them in secret as his own.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.393, emphasis mine)
Question: How can Calvinism allow any room for anyone to have truly been won if God had eternally decided who are “his own”? How can these be deemed lost under any circumstance, in order to become won?
One Calvinist explains: “Do Calvinists secretly believe that God chose them for some reason other than their need for salvation? Would I, as a Christian, believe that God chose me for some other reason than my need for salvation? Yes, I do. God chose me for His glory, for His pleasure, for His purposes. Sure I had a need for salvation. But that is not why He saved me primarily.”
The Calvinist answers: “In the Bible, God does not say He chose us because of our desperate need. He chose us before our need ever arose.”
Question: Therefore, how could Calvinism, in any real sense, account for a soul being won?
Dave Hunt writes concerning Calvinism: “‘He that winneth souls is wise’ (Proverbs 11:30) becomes meaningless; there is no persuading the damned, and the saved are regenerated without believing anything. ‘Come now, and let us reason together’ (Isaiah 1:18) is meaningless for the same reasons. The ‘great white throne’ judgment is also meaningless if God has willed every thought, word, and deed. The Bible’s call of hope for all--‘Choose you this day whom ye will serve’ (Joshua 24:15); ‘Seek ye the LORD while he may be found’ (Isaiah 55:6); ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor’ (Matthew 11:28); ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink’ (John 7:37)--all this and more is made meaningless by Calvinism!” (Debating Calvinism, p.334, emphasis mine)
Arminians and Non-Calvinists simply cannot understand how you can truly win someone for Christ if they were already, eternally won by virtue of Calvinistic, Unconditional Election. However, if someone really was on the path to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, and a Christian shared the Gospel with them, and through its power (Romans 1:16), and the Holy Spirit’s willing involvement in convicting the world of its sin (John 16:8), they repented of their sins and opened the door to Christ to receive Him into their heart (Revelation 3:20), then you could say that this one was truly won. Otherwise, how would all of the joy in heaven among the angels have any meaning if these were already won from eternity past? Jesus states: “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
Calvinists protest that Arminianism ultimately makes man into a soul-Savior, rather than a soul-winner, and thus strips God of His due glory as true Savior, and exalts man as Savior.
The apostle Paul touched on this point, to some degree, when in one instance, he said to the Corinthians, “...for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (1st Corinthians 4:15), while in another sense, he asked the Corinthians: “Paul was not crucified for you, was he?” (1st Corinthians 1:13) Therefore, regardless of what man does in evangelism, Jesus is the ultimate Savior since He is the One who died on the cross, as Paul had professed. Paul also states: “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1st Corinthians 3:4-9) In other words, one waters and another plants, but neither died on the cross. Jesus Christ, the real Savior who died on the cross to bear the sins of mankind (John 1:29), reduces the one who waters and the one who plants to really, not “anything,” and especially so, since God is the one who “causes the growth.” God simply uses His soul-winning “servants through whom you believed” as tools of His own world-wide evangelism, when He, the true Evangelist, seeks (Luke 10:19), draws (John 12:32) and knocks (Revelation 3:20), while the Holy Spirit convicts (John 16:8), pricks (Acts 26:14), pierces (Acts 2:37) and opens hearts to respond to the Gospel. (Acts 16:14)
