“Be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian in the pulpit.” This has been the counsel to young ministers for many years.
‘Calvinist’ and ‘Arminian’ are shorthand terms that refer to the interplay of God’s will and the human will. To grossly oversimplify, in the matter of our salvation and in preaching, the Calvinist emphasizes the sovereignty of God while the Arminian emphasizes the ultimate responsibility of the human. This is why young ministers are often urged to be Calvinists on their knees (that is, to depend on the sovereignty of God to answer their prayers) and Arminians in the pulpit (that is, to do all they humanly can to connect with their listeners, and to exhort and persuade them to change their lives).
The “Calvinist on knees and Arminian in pulpit” saying appears to take the best from both theological systems, but it insults them both—as if Arminians do not depend upon God in prayer, or as if Calvinists don’t know how to preach challenging sermons.
The saying also tries to combine two incompatible theological systems. Both systems hold to certain truths of the Bible. But you cannot cherrypick bits out of a theological system without creating a new—and, in this case—illogical and unbiblical alternative.
But the real problem for Calvinists (and I write as one) is that we are very tempted to be Arminians in the pulpit because we are insecure about the effectiveness of our preaching.
It is never the aim of a preacher to bore the congregation. How appalling to make the person of Jesus and the word of God boring. If the accusation is true, the boring preacher needs a serious spiritual reconsideration of his ministry. Sometimes, however, the ‘boring’ verdict tells more about the hearer’s willingness to listen to God’s word than the preacher’s ability to teach it. It is important not only for ministers, but also for congregation members, to understand the aims and goals of preaching and preachers.
But Calvinists must never be seduced into Arminian-style preaching in response to the ‘boring’ criticism. For the style of preaching expresses the theology that lies behind it, and Arminian theology is significantly different from Calvinist theology. The Arminian concentration on human responsibility has an immediacy and relevance to the hearer. It is always interesting to hear a sermon about yourself and what you must do. There is no topic more interesting to the human heart than ‘me’.
However, in an attempt to be relevant, lively, challenging, interesting and exciting, Calvinists must not ignore the profound weaknesses in Arminian preaching—weaknesses that have deep pastoral implications.
Arminian preaching constantly underestimates how sinful we are, as well as overestimating the significance of our actions in reconciling us to God and God to us. Arminian sermons paradoxically lighten our sinfulness while adding to our guilt. They tickle the ear in saying how good and spiritual we are, while burdening us with legalistic rules and spiritual exercises to follow, or experiences to have. Sermons on ‘Ten steps to improve your prayer life’ or ‘Six ways to a perfect marriage’ or ‘Raising your children to be Christian’ or ‘Steps to inner peace’, create in us an unrealistic evaluation of ourselves and our potential, while increasing our guilt when we (inevitably) fail.
We do not need the lie that we are really pretty good people (with a little sin problem). Nor do we need more teaching that puts us, instead of Jesus, at the centre of God’s world and plans. Christian preaching must be more than spiritualized self-help. Such sermons promise help, but effectively lock us into our failures and increase our guilt.
What we need is preaching that focuses not on the hearer and his response, but on God in his glorious majesty. We need sermons that are less about what we have to do and more about the wonder of what God has already done for us in Christ Jesus. We need preaching that proclaims our creator, and his wonderful grace and mercy shown in his Son. We need to tell of the victory of Christ in his death, resurrection, ascension and heavenly rule, and to extol God for his amazing love shown on the cross and poured into our hearts by his Spirit.
We need Calvinist preaching, in others words.
Arminian preaching may appear more interesting at first sight, because it addresses our perceived problems with concrete action steps to follow. Yet at best, it addresses the felt symptoms of our dissatisfactions. In reality, it is the burden of death, because it fails to listen to God’s diagnosis of our problems and the remedy of his glorious plan of salvation.
Calvinist preaching focuses our attention on God and Christ Jesus, rather than on us. It applies gospel truth to the heart, and brings life to the soul.
