Monthly Archives: December 2010

Understanding 1 Timothy 4:10

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Question: Pastor John, I appreciate your blog very much but I do have a question. Please could you explain 1 Timothy 4:10 which says, “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”

Answer: I am pleased to know that you are enjoying the blog and thank you for your question.

This verse has had many interpretations. Here are a few of them:

(1) Universalism – The idea that “God is the Savior of all men” means that all will be saved. This of course is contrary to all sound doctrine and in fact, has always been viewed as heresy by the Church. The proponents of this idea emphasize the love of God as God’s chief and most important attribute, to the exclusion of all others, such as His holiness and His justice. This heresy is very easily refuted because the Bible makes it very clear that some people will end up in hell, forever (Rev. 14: 9-11; 20:15; Matt. 5: 21-22, 27-30; 23: 15, 33; 25: 41, 46).

If the phrase “the Savior of all men” was seeking to teach universalism, the rest of the verse would have no meaning when it says “especially of believers.” Continue reading →

Calvinism v. Arminianism

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I guess the secret is out. I am a Calvinist.

Actually, I do not think it was much of a secret, yet I hesitate to use the term Calvinist because it seems to mean many different things to different people. There are so many straw men built in the minds of people as to what it means, that I think its often best to not use the term at all. Many have been taught some very erroneous things in this regard.

Its unfortunate that a man’s name is associated with the doctrines that came out of the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin was not the first to articulate these truths, but merely was the chief systematizer of such doctrines. There was actually nothing in Calvin that was not first seen in Martin Luther, and much of Luther was first found in Augustine. Luther was an Augustinian monk, of course. We would also naturally affirm that there was nothing in any of these men that was not first found in Paul, Peter and John in the New Testament, and Jesus Himself.

So having laid my theology bare, so to speak, I would quickly add that I have no desire to be a Calvinist in the Corinthian sense of the word – a follower of John Calvin, per se. Though I believe Calvin was a tremendous expositor of the Scriptures and had many great insights, I am not someone who believes he was in any way infallible. I am with C. H. Spurgeon (the man known as the Prince of Preachers) who declared:

“There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer – I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it.” (C. H. Spurgeon, a Defense of Calvinism)

The issues involved in the Calvinism v. Arminian controversy are important – I think far more than people realise. They speak to the very character of God, His Sovereignty and His glory in saving sinners and go to the heart of the gospel itself and the nature of God’s grace. To be sure, these are not trivial issues. God will not share His glory with another. Yet although the Arminian and I may strongly disagree on some vital issues, we do not have to be strongly disagreeable. We can engage in conversation in a Christ-like spirit as brothers and sisters in Christ. Continue reading →

Total Depravity

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“The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind…” – Jer. 17:9-10

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;” – Romans 7:18

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.” – Psalm 58:3

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” – Psalm 51:5

Every child comes into the world with an alarming capacity for evil. Does that shock you? Did you think I was going to end the sentence differently? Scripture teaches us that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the heart. That’s true of us even before we are born.

The theological term for this is “total depravity.” It means that the depravity of man, including all the babies born into our world, is total.

Does this mean that people are as depraved as is possible for them to be? Does total depravity mean utter depravity?

No, for even the very worst amongst us can still be looked upon as having the capacity to be even worse than they are.

How’s that? Well, remember, Adolf Hitler? As bad as he was, he did not kill his mother! As strange as it may seem, we can conceive of Hitler being even worse than he actually was, of committing more crimes, and killing more people.

What total depravity means then is that every area of man has been affected by the Fall: man’s entire body, soul and spirit has suffered a radical corruption. This does not mean that man is without a conscience or any sense of right or wrong, nor that every sinner is devoid of all the qualities that are both pleasing to men and useful to society, when those qualities are judged only by human standards. In addition, this does not mean that every sinner is prone to every form of sin. Continue reading →