The Bible says that in order to go from an unbeliever to a Christian, one must be “born again.” When a person is born again, they begin a new life in Christ.
There’s nothing wrong with being a “babe in Christ” soon after the new birth. There is something wrong with being a “babe in Christ” decades into your new life in Christ.
Likewise, there’s nothing wrong with being a kindergarten-level Christian for a time; there is something wrong with being a kindergarten-level Christian your whole life.
There is a brand of Christianity called “Calvinism.” Calvinism generally refers to a particular view of how a person becomes born again. Really, Calvinism is simply a nickname for “Protestant.” All of the Protestant Reformers had Calvinistic views of salvation.
Even before John Calvin, Martin Luther (the first “Protestant”) had a Calvinistic view of salvation. In fact, the doctrine of salvation was one of the main doctrines over which the Protestants broke with the Roman Catholic Church. You really aren’t a Protestant if you don’t have the view of salvation that Martin Luther and John Calvin held to.
Unfortunately, there are many today (in fact, the majority) who call themselves Protestants who are actually quite opposed and even hostile toward Calvinism. The doctrine of salvation is such an important and foundational doctrine, and yet even among Protestants there’s much disagreement over the Protestant view of salvation!
Because of the difficulty surrounding this issue, one might think that the doctrine of salvation would fall into the “college-level” category. In fact, many Calvinists today will stick out their chests and look down on their fellow Christians who haven’t reached their level of doctrinal maturity. But do Calvinists really have bragging rights over their brothers with different views?
While I would affirm the traditional Protestant view of salvation, I would also be quick to note that just being a “Calvinist” doesn’t make you a mature Christian.
Again, salvation is an extremely important and foundational issue. But salvation is only the first step in the Christian life. Taking your first step as a baby was an important milestone in your life, but hopefully, you didn’t stop there.
To use another analogy (borrowed from R. J. Rushdoony), salvation is like the alphabet. In order to engage in higher learning, like going to college, you need the alphabet. You can’t read or write without it. And yet, if a college student spends most of his time reciting his ABC’s, you’d think something was wrong with him.
So it is with salvation. Yes, we need to be constantly thankful to God for saving us. Yes, we need to be eager about telling others how to be saved. Yes, salvation is what makes everything else in the Christian life possible.
But if we focus on the doctrine of salvation to the point that we are minimizing the other hundreds of doctrines in Scripture, we are not mature Christians.
Of course, it’s not only Calvinists who do this. Many, if not most, Arminian churches today are constantly preaching about salvation from their pulpits on Sunday mornings. Members in these churches never mature beyond preschool Christianity. But Calvinist churches are often guilty of the same thing. They may be a little past the preschool level, but not by much.
Did you know that kindergarten Calvinists are actually mentioned in the Bible? In Hebrews 5:12-6:3, the author says that the Hebrew Christians were not maturing as fast as they should have been (5:12-14). They were considered “unskilled” and “babes,” and those aren’t meant to be compliments!
So, what was the evidence that these believers were immature? They weren’t progressing past the “elementary principles of Christ.” They were stuck on the basics, they were laying the “foundation” over and over. And what were these foundational issues? Hebrews 6:1-2 tells us those doctrines being taught over and over were things pertaining to:
“…repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment” (NKJV).
In other words, things pertaining to our salvation!
Many Calvinist preachers seem to think they’re really an elite preacher if the most common themes of their sermons have something to do with the Five Points of Calvinism.
Interestingly enough, Jesus seemed to suggest there was another topic that would mark a teacher as being “great in the kingdom of heaven.” That topic was God’s law/commands (see Matt. 5:17-19). God’s commands pertain to economics, education, government, law, charity, family, and everything else under the sun.
Furthermore, the Great Commission is to teach the nations “to observe all things” Jesus has commanded (Matt. 28:20). As important as teaching the doctrine of salvation is, that in itself is nowhere near adequate for fulfilling Jesus’ plan for the nations.
So, are you a Calvinist (or Arminian for that matter) who thinks maturity is gauged by how much you talk about Calvinism? At the risk of sounding too harsh, please, grow up!