Can a Calvinist such as [Jonathan] Edwards really plead with people to flee hell and cherish heaven? Do not total depravity and unconditional election and irresistible grace make such pleading inconsistent?
Edwards learned his Calvinism from the Bible and therefore was spared many errors into which some other preachers of his day fell. He did not infer that unconditional election or irresistible grace or super-natural regeneration or the inability of the natural man led to the conclusion that the use of pleading was inappropriate. He said, “Sinners… should be earnestly invited to come and accept of a Savior, and yield their hearts unto him, with all the winning, encouraging arguments for them… that the Gospel affords”.
I recall hearing a preacher in the Reformed tradition several years ago preach from I Cor 16, which ends with the fearful threat, “If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (vs22). He alluded to it in passing, but there was no yearning or pleading with the people to love Christ and to escape the terrible curse. I marveled that this could be. There is a tradition of hyper-Calvinism which says that God’s purpose to save the elect gives preachers warrant to invite to Christ only those who give evidence that they are already quickened and drawn by the Spirit. It breeds a kind of preaching that informs but does not plead with sinners to repent. Edwards, as Charles Spurgeon after him, knew that this was not authentic Calvinism; it was contrary to scripture and unworthy of the Reformed tradition… It is a tragedy to see pastors state the facts and sit down. Good preaching pleads with people to respond to the word of God.”
Edwards learned his Calvinism from the Bible and therefore was spared many errors into which some other preachers of his day fell. He did not infer that unconditional election or irresistible grace or super-natural regeneration or the inability of the natural man led to the conclusion that the use of pleading was inappropriate. He said, “Sinners… should be earnestly invited to come and accept of a Savior, and yield their hearts unto him, with all the winning, encouraging arguments for them… that the Gospel affords”.
I recall hearing a preacher in the Reformed tradition several years ago preach from I Cor 16, which ends with the fearful threat, “If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (vs22). He alluded to it in passing, but there was no yearning or pleading with the people to love Christ and to escape the terrible curse. I marveled that this could be. There is a tradition of hyper-Calvinism which says that God’s purpose to save the elect gives preachers warrant to invite to Christ only those who give evidence that they are already quickened and drawn by the Spirit. It breeds a kind of preaching that informs but does not plead with sinners to repent. Edwards, as Charles Spurgeon after him, knew that this was not authentic Calvinism; it was contrary to scripture and unworthy of the Reformed tradition… It is a tragedy to see pastors state the facts and sit down. Good preaching pleads with people to respond to the word of God.”
