I used to be at Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge a few years in the past, standing earlier than a life-size Millennium Falcon with Storm Troopers patrolling close by. The menacing breathiness of Darth Vader could possibly be heard as he marched in behind them. I used to be a mid-50s fanboy completely captivated.
As I regarded round, I seen that the youngsters current had been targeted on the portals of infinite allurement within the palms of their arms. Youngsters at this time are display slaves, and adults are usually not a lot completely different. As quickly as we get up, we examine texts, emails, and alerts. We can’t dwell with out our telephones, but, our social anxiousness solely will increase the extra time we spend evaluating ourselves to others and absorbing the toxicity of social media.
We’re extra related than ever, but by no means have we felt so remoted. In truth, in 2018 the U.Ok. established the Ministry of Loneliness, with Tracey Crouch as its head. In line with an article in Time, Crouch was to sort out the “unhappy actuality of recent life” as “international locations around the globe are more and more inspecting loneliness—sometimes outlined as the sensation of missing or dropping companionship—as a public well being concern.”
Anti-anxiety medicine is a multi-billion greenback business with no indicators of abating. By no means have we consumed extra drugs, but by no means has anxiousness had such a grip on our lives. We now have fears in regards to the current and considerations in regards to the future. As an alternative of liberating us, expertise appears to solely amplify the problems.
Anxiousness is rooted in an unfounded concern of the long run. In our time, now we have skilled individuals to consider that there is no such thing as a sovereign creator, and that creation has no objective to which it’s being directed and ruled. It’s simple to grasp why such a worldview breeds anxiousness. The world is impersonal, and the long run is unknowable.
Calvinism is controversial as a result of it makes a declare that appears radical: we are able to have assurance that God loves us now and can love us for all eternity. It’s what Christians typically discuss with as everlasting safety.
Once we consider the Calvinism and Arminianism debates, now we have to contemplate that Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) was solely 4 years outdated when John Calvin (1509-64) died. After Arminius’ demise, a gaggle of his disciples sought to popularize and propagate their grasp’s theology. When it got here to the “perseverance of the saints,” they taught that man may, certainly, lose his salvation. A century later, John Wesley reiterated that man may backslide to such a grievous level that he would forfeit his salvation.
The Biblical Witness
Can now we have assurance of God’s love for us? The brief reply is that the Christian can no extra lose his salvation than the Savior can lose the saved. Jesus mentioned, “You’re held in my hand and the hand of the Father, nobody will snatch you away” (John 10:28-29). Paul reiterated this level, “And I’m positive of this, that he who started a very good work in you’ll convey it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
God causes our salvation, carries our salvation, and completes our salvation. His dedication to the achievement of the covenant of grace can’t and won’t permit a real believer to fail to persevere. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ as a result of God gained’t allow it.
We’re known as to persevere (2 Peter 1:10) whereas we’re additionally being preserved. We now have been made new by God’s sovereign energy and his work can’t be undone. As J.I. Packer as soon as noticed, “This sovereign regenerative work can’t be reversed, as if a believer could be regenerated, solely later to have their union with Christ terminated. Ezekiel’s heart-of-stone-turned-heart-of-flesh, can’t be turned again once more to its rock-hard useless religious existence.”
The Bible gives excellent news to our anxious age. There’s a God who has made himself identified and has despatched his Son as a sacrifice for sin. Due to Jesus, we could be sure in regards to the future. Jesus saves us to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). He has destroyed him who holds the facility of demise, that’s the satan, and delivers us from our concern of demise, which held us in lifelong bondage (Hebrews 2:10-18).
We will solid all our anxieties upon him as a result of he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). All issues – the glad issues and the arduous issues – will work collectively for our good for many who love God and are known as in response to his function (Romans 8:28). Even struggling doesn’t have the proper to go away us heaving with anxiousness, for our struggling makes us extra just like the Struggling Servant (Romans 8:29). This means of sanctification and the perseverance it requires is so sure that Paul speaks of our glorification as if it has already occurred (Romans 8:30).
A Calvinistic Calm within the Storm
Years in the past when my son Luke was round 6 years outdated, we put him into swimming classes. In the future, a pair invited my household to take pleasure in a day of their fabulous pool. I jumped into the deep finish whereas Luke remained on the shallow finish the place his toes may contact the underside of the pool. I known as for him to swim right down to the deep finish to point out everybody what he had discovered in his swim class. He promptly knowledgeable me he was not coming right down to the deep finish. I swam right down to the place he was, grabbed him gently, and commenced working my method backward towards the deep finish. Along with his trembling arms holding onto my forearms, he declared once more, “Daddy, I don’t wish to go to the deep finish of the pool!”
His anxiousness made the pool seem to him an unlimited, bottomless ocean. I requested him, “Son, why don’t you wish to go to the deep finish of the pool?” He mentioned, “Daddy, as a result of I don’t have a very good grip on you!” I assured him, “Son, that’s okay, as a result of Daddy has a very good grip on you.” At that second, his tense little physique melted into the energy of my capacity to maintain maintain of him. And collectively we swam to the deep finish of the pool. He swam as I held him up. He actually swam. And I actually held him up.
Equally, we persevere and mature as disciples of Christ as a result of our Father securely holds us by the facility of the Spirit.
A number of years in the past, I taught a two-year expositional research by means of Calvin’s “Institutes.” We went line-by-line by means of all 4 books. A pricey sister introduced snacks each Tuesday night, which we missed for a brief season as she recovered from most cancers therapies. She healed rapidly and we welcomed her and her brownies again to our research of Calvin with open arms. The most cancers returned six weeks later, and I started a rhythm of visiting her at her house. She would ask me to learn to her from the Bible and Calvin’s “Institutes.”
When the time got here for her funeral, I used to be not shocked to see that she had chosen the following passage to be printed in her funeral service bulletin:
But, when that gentle of divine windfall has as soon as shone upon a godly man, he’s then relieved and let loose not solely from the acute anxiousness and concern that had been urgent him earlier than, however from each care. For as he justly dreads fortune, so he fearlessly dares commit himself to God. His solace, I say, is to know that his Heavenly Father so holds all issues in his energy, so guidelines by his authority and can, so governs by his knowledge, that nothing can befall besides he decide it.
Good theology is like cool water on sore toes. When our hearts are full of considerations in regards to the future, we’d like somewhat remedy session with Zacharias Ursinus, creator of the “Heidelberg Catechism.”
Q. What’s your solely consolation in life and in demise?
A. That I’m not my very own, however belong—physique and soul, in life and in demise—to my devoted Savior, Jesus Christ. He has absolutely paid for all my sins together with his valuable blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the satan. He additionally watches over me in such a method that not a hair can fall from my head with out the desire of my Father in heaven; the truth is, all issues should work collectively for my salvation. As a result of I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of everlasting life and makes me wholeheartedly prepared and prepared any more to dwell for him.
Into our noise-filled, anxiety-riddled tradition, we hear the voice of the Shepherd, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I offers you relaxation. Take my yoke upon you, and study from me, for I’m mild and lowly in coronary heart, and you can find relaxation in your souls. For my yoke is simple, and my burden is gentle” (Matthew 11:28-29).
Relaxation. Who wouldn’t wish to get in on that?
David Filson is interim senior pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and the president’s professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary.
Learn the opposite articles in our Calvinism for a New Technology sequence right here:
Irresistible Grace in an Age of Individualism
Limited Atonement in an Age of Shamelessness
Unconditional Election in an Age of Inclusivity
