As Cool As the Other Side of a Calvinist

If you know Calvinists, you probably know some bad ones. The stereotypes aren’t fair, but they don’t come out of nowhere. Calvinists are “cold,” “heady,” and “condescending.” They think they have it all figured out and everyone else is blind, slow, or stubborn. They’re so lost in their books, they’re not interested in the needs around them. And they’ve somehow misplaced Christ, but are quite content to follow John Calvin. Unfair, but not uncommon enough either.

But what if there’s another side to Calvinism — a real side, with flesh and love and humility and a living, breathing passion for Jesus? We’re not doubting you’ve had bad experiences with so-called Calvinists, but whether the experiences you’ve had are really examples of true Calvinism. If all your encounters have been bad, or others’ stories so off-putting they’ve kept you away entirely, we ask you to give us just four minutes with this video above. It’s the poet himself reading, with subtitles so you can follow the words carefully. (There is also a version with multiple readers which we released last week.)

The poem is an opportunity to hear from a man, who has lived these truths, and lived by them, for more than forty years. But more importantly it’s an invitation to meet his big, sovereign, gracious God — a God big enough for the hard things you face in this life, big enough to make sense of a long, old, complex book like the Bible, and big enough for everyday life in a broken world.

The Bible is a big, complicated, sometimes downright confusing book. Paul wrote, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7). If we are to understand the divine and eternal words God has given us in Scripture, we need help — God’s help. That says a lot about the kind of book we’re holding. It’s not always easy reading.

But even while dealing with spiritual hurdles, the book itself is unusual and difficult. Sixty-six books, more than three dozen authors, spanning hundreds of years. Countless wars, incredible miracles, massive murders, unthinkable promises. And over it all, an all-knowing, all-powerful, always present One. And he’s made it clear that he has given us this big, complicated, sometimes downright confusing Book in order that we might know him (John 5:39; Psalm 119:2).

So he has to be big enough to create, sustain, reign, and hold together a crazy story and history like Christianity’s. We should ask ourselves, does our understanding of God — his love and wisdom and power — does it leave us embarrassed of God in certain passages of the Bible? Do we feel like we have to explain him out of evil and suffering? If so, maybe we haven’t seen the fullness of who God really is in Scripture.

A lot of people reject the God of Calvinism because they can’t imagine a good God being sovereign over the awful things in their lives. Chronic disease. Loss of a child. Rape. Natural disaster. Abuse. How could a loving Father allow such tragic things to happen to me, my family, or seemingly innocent people around the world?

But what if we have not truly known the sweetness of surviving suffering until we’ve met a God big enough to cause, stop, or deliver you through it all? Too many people want to trade away God’s power to keep him from being culpable for our pain. But he never asks for that in the Bible. He simply asks us to trust that he is carrying it all out for the best, lasting good of those who love him (Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 16:33; Romans 8:28).

With the God of the Bible, none of our suffering is outside of his control, and therefore none of it is meaningless, but it is working real, full, lasting good for us forever. Instead of pretending God’s not available or able to do anything in the tragedy, he wants our weaknesses and pain and questions to lead us to radical dependence on him — on his sovereign power and faithfulness to his promises. He’s not just an EMT that’s first to the scene of the tragedy, but for everyone who believes in him, he’s the life and breath and strength and heartbeat that’s with us and working for us before, during, after, and in the hardship.

If Calvinism isn’t relevant for our life today — even the mundane details of our life — we should reject and ignore it. Sadly, I think most people make that judgment without ever really asking the question. What the Bible and the video above show so beautifully is that the sovereignty of God and his love for sinners relates to absolutely everything we do. Calvinism causes a hopeful, hard-working complete dependence on God and an undivided devotion to his glory in every area of life — marriage, parenting, school, vocation, failure, recreation, even death.

So our prayer with this poem and our ministry is that you would meet a big God, a God who can rule your life and world and leave you with your very last breath saying, “Gain!”

Missions Is Not for Wimpy Women — And Nine Other Lessons from Ethiopia

I’m writing this on my last night of seven in Addis Ababa, the sprawling, higher-than-Denver, capitol of Ethiopia — which just became the second most populous country of Africa.

The international, inter-agency cooperation of missions today is illustrated by the fact that we are staying in a Mission to the World (PCA) guesthouse and speaking at a college sponsored by SIM, whose international leadership just passed from a Scot to a Nigerian based in America. Jason Meyer and I spoke at five different churches, including International Evangelical, Pentecostal, Anglican, and Reformed charismatic.

Our conclusion: Bible-tethered, expository exultation, Christian Hedonism, and Big-God theology resonates across oceans, cultures, languages, and denominations. It bears fruit in every soil. What an amazing thing to do tag-team exposition in Ethiopia with my pastoral successor!

So here are some standout glimpses of missions as I saw it.

1. I was ashamed of President Obama’s policies on so-called gay marriage and abortion. I apologized to one Ethiopian pastor who is often consulted by the national leaders of Ethiopia. He said how difficult it is to persuade his leaders to stand for truth and righteousness when America threatens to tie international aid to the endorsement of these sins. He stood before his church of several thousand after I preached and called them to prayer about this crisis. I told him I thought these policies were wicked. He knelt down beside me and asked me to pray for him.

2. In her emergency medical training here, one of the missionaries from our church in Minneapolis was invited to cut herself and then sew it up so she could actually be sure she knew how to do stitches. She did it. But not to worry, she practiced on cow tongue first. Missions is not for wimpy women.

3. I stood behind a plastic surgeon from Minneapolis and watched him give a new life to an eighteen-month-old boy with a cleft lip who in his poverty would have been an utter outcast. For 45 minutes, he carved and sewed with the skill of a medical artist. The before and after was a stunning picture of rebirth.

4. I heard an illustration of the wisdom of God’s providence in sending missionaries from everywhere to everywhere — not just from the West to the developing world. An Ethiopian Christian missionary was sent to Muslim-dominated Pakistan. When the mayor of the city in Pakistan heard that he was there, he told him that he may do anything he wants in this city. Why? Because 1,400 years ago, Ethiopia gave asylum to the fleeing Mohammed, and we owe Ethiopia this favor. I asked, Did he know he was a Christian missionary? Yes, was the answer, and this is the kind of thing God is doing all over the world.

5. One of our missionaries spoke of the remoteness of her life far from any city: The “toilet” is outside and during the rainy season not only is there the downpour to be endured at night, but snakes and hyenas. Not exactly your average American walk from bedroom to bathroom on dry carpet.

6. One medical missionary corrected a common missionary counsel. He said that we are often told, if you are not an evangelist in America, getting on a plane won’t make you one elsewhere. He said that in his case this was not true. For him, the commitment to leave a lucrative, American medical practice and serve in Ethiopia has given him both opportunities and boldness in witness that he never had in his medical practice in the U.S. This is true, he said, both stateside and on the plane, and in Ethiopia. So let’s be careful about being too absolute in the kind of pronouncements we make.

7. We saw one of the challenges of Muslim contextualization. One of the missionaries teaches a Muslim convert Bible stories, which she travels seven hours to repeat to a nomadic unreached people group. But when she comes back to her hometown, she does not want to associate with the missionaries in public. She does not want to be known as a follower of Jesus. It is too disruptive in her family. The missionary asked me what she should do.

I suggested that she give her helper the benefit of the doubt that perhaps she does not know what Jesus said about this. I suggested she teach her some new stories that include texts like,

Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. . . . For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:35–38)

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37)

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11–12)

8. On our last day, we drove two hours outside of Addis to a magnificent, lush valley, and hiked along the cliffs until we came to what is known as the Portuguese Bridge. This remote, triple-arch bridge was built 400 years ago by the Portuguese out of limestone and ostrich eggs. It is still in use for the farmers with their donkeys, even though in the rainy season the water beneath has rushed against its foundations with four centuries of force. The marvel of this construction, and the beauty of the far-stretching valley, portrayed the craft of God’s image-bearers and the wonder of his own handiwork.

9. I heard the plea again, and I give it here, that young people seriously seek a deep and unshakeable God-given call to giving their lives to an unreached people group. Short-term missions has value. But trying to accomplish long-term goals with short-term commitments is difficult. Most of the peoples left to reach are hard to reach. What is needed is the commitment of a life, not just a year. A language to learn, a culture to know, a people to love, a gospel to speak, a church to plant, leaders to train — this is the pouring out of a life. May God give many of you this high and holy and hard calling.

10. Nevertheless, if you have any life left, dream like you never have. For example, I met a missionary who was a math major in college, spent part of his life in the military, most of it as an aviation engineer, then got a seminary degree, moved to Ethiopia to teach theology, and now, at age 67, is beginning a PhD program in church history while he teaches. Does this inspire any 60-somethings out there?