Theological Term of the Week

hyper-Calvinism
A perversion of Calvinism in which the universal offer of the gospel is denied, as well as the obligation of the unregenerate person to repent and believe the gospel.

• Scripture that refutes hyper-Calvinism:
  

  The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent…  (Acts 17:30 ESV) 

  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)
  

• From a hyper-Calvinistic confession, the Gospel Standard Articles of Faith:

  XXVI We deny duty faith and duty repentance - these terms signifying that it is every man’s duty spiritually and savingly to repent and believe. We deny also that there is any capability in man by nature to any spiritual good whatever. So that we reject the doctrine that men in a state of nature should be exhorted to believe in or turn to God;

  XXXIII Therefore, that for ministers in the present day to address unconverted persons, or indiscriminately all in a mixed congregation, calling upon them savingly to repent, believe, and receive Christ, or perform any other acts dependent upon the new creative power of the Holy Ghost, is, on the one hand, to imply creature power, and, on the other, to deny the doctrine of special redemption.

• From the Canons of Dordt, The Second Main Point of Doctrine

  Article 5: The Mandate to Proclaim the Gospel to All

  Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.

• From Duty-Faith by Arthur Pink:

  In like manner, we must turn from the vain reasonings (as in the above Articles of Faith) of the hyper-Calvinist, and while holding fast to the total depravity and the spiritual inability of the natural man, we must also believe in his moral responsibility and accountability to God. It is the bounden duty of God’s servants to tell the unregenerate that the reason why they cannot repent evangelically is because their hearts are so wedded to their lusts; that the reason why they cannot come to Christ is because their sins have fettered and chained them; that the reason why they hate the Light is because they love the darkness. But so far from this excusing them, it only adds to their guilt; that so far from rendering them objects of pity it exposes them as doubly deserving of damnation. It is the preacher’s business to show wherein spiritual inability consists: not in the lack of soul faculties, but in the absence of any love for Him who is infinitely lovely. Far be it from us to extenuate the wicked unbelief of the unregenerate!

Learn more:

1. Sam Storms: What Is Hyper-Calvinism?
2. Jim Ellis: What Is Hyper-Calvinism?
3. Colin Maxwell: A comparison chart of Arminianism, Calvinism, and hyper-Calvinism
4. Founders Journal: Calvinism, Hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism
5. Phil Johnson: A Primer on Hyper-Calvinism
6. Fred Zaspel: Hyper-Calvinism and the Free Offer, Part 1, Part 2
7. Erroll Hulse: Adding to the Church: The Puritan Approach to Persuading Souls
8. Tom Ascol with Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron: Hyper-Calvinism vs. Calvinism (mp3)
9. Curt Daniel: Hyper-Calvinism (mp3)

Related terms:

• external call
• compatibilism

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

hell
The place of eternal punishment for the wicked.

• From scripture:
  

  I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:11-12 ESV) 

  Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ (Mark 9:42-48 ESV)

• From A Baptist Catechism (Spurgeon’s Catechism):

  38. What shall be done to the wicked at their death?
  
  The souls of the wicked shall at their death be cast into the torments of hell (Lu 16:22-24), and their bodies lie in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day (Ps 49:14).

  39. What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment?
  
  At the day of judgment the bodies of the wicked being raised out of their graves, shall be sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels for ever (Da 12:2 Joh 5:28,29 2Th 1:9 Mt 25:41).

• From Concise Theology by J. I. Packer:

  The sentimental secularism of modern Western culture, with its exalted optimism about human nature, its shrunken idea of God, and its skepticism as to whether personal morality really matters — in other words, its decay of conscience — makes it hard for Christians to take the reality of hell seriously. The revelation of hell in Scripture assumes a depth of insight into divine holiness and human and demonic sinfulness that most of us do not have. However, the doctrine of hell appears in the New Testament as a Christian essential, and we are called to try to understand it as Jesus and his apostles did. …
  

  The purpose of Bible teaching about hell is to make us appreciate, thankfully embrace, and rationally prefer the grace of Christ that saves us from it (Matt. 5:29-30; 13:4850). It is really a mercy to mankind that God in Scripture is so explicit about hell. We cannot now say that we have not been warned.

• From The Eternity of Hell Torments by Jonathan Edwards:

  …[Y]ou may effectually escape these dreadful and awful torments. Be entreated to flee and embrace him who came into the world for the very end of saving sinners from these torments, who has paid the whole debt due to the divine law, and exhausted eternal in temporal sufferings. What great encouragement is it to those of you who are sensible that you are exposed to eternal punishment, that there is a Savior provided, who is able and who freely offers to save you from that punishment, and that in a way which is perfectly consistent with the glory of God: yea, which is more to the glory of God than it would be if you should suffer the eternal punishment of hell. For if you should suffer that punishment you would never pay the whole of the debt. Those who are sent to hell never will have paid the whole of the debt which they owe to God, nor indeed a part which bears any proportion to the whole. They never will have paid a part which bears so great a proportion to the whole, as one mite to ten thousand talents. Justice therefore never can be actually satisfied in your damnation. But it is actually satisfied in Christ. Therefore he is accepted of the Father, and therefore all who believe are accepted and justified in him. Therefore believe in him, come to him, commit your souls to him to be saved by him. In him you shall be safe from the eternal torments of hell. Nor is that all: but through him you shall inherit inconceivable blessedness and glory, which will be of equal duration with the torments of hell. For, as at the last day the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, so shall the righteous, or those who trust in Christ, go into life eternal. 

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: Is Hell Real? Is Hell Eternal?
2. Challies.com: The Essential: Hell
3. Blue Letter Bible: Hell
4. basictheology.com: Hell
5. R. C. Sproul: Hell
6. Todd Pruitt: A list of resources on hell
7. Matt Perman: A Biblical Understanding of Hell
8. Jonathan Edwards: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (mp3) (text)
9. D. A. Carson: How Can God Be Loving and Yet Send People to Hell? (video)

Related terms:

• annihilationism
• universalism
• wrath

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

union with Christ
“A phrase used to summarize several different relationships between believers and Christ, through which Christians receive every benefit of salvation”1; “that intimate, vital, and spiritual union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation”2; also called mystical union.

• From scripture:
  

  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV) 

  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us  for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

  11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee  of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,  to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)

• From The Westminster Larger Catechism:

  Question 66: What is that union which the elect have with Christ?

  Answer: The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God’s grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling.

• From Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray:

  Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation. All to which the people of God have been predestined in the eternal election of Go, all that has been secured and procured for them in the once-for-all accomplishment of redemption, all of which they become the actual partakers in the application of redemption, and all that by God’s grace they will become in the state of consummated bliss is embraced within the compass of union and communion with Christ. …[I]t is adoption into the family of God as sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty that accords to the people of God the apex of blessing an privilege. But we cannot think of adoption apart from union with Christ. It is significant that the election in Christ before the foundation of the world is election unto the adoption of sons. When Paul says that the Father chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the world that they should be holy he also adds that in love he predestined them unto adoption through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:4, 5). Apparently election to holiness is parallel to predestination to adoption—these are two ways of expressing the same great truth. They disclose to us the different facets which belong to the Father’s election. Hence union with Christ and adoption are complementary aspects of this amazing grace Union with Christ reaches its zenith in adoption and adoption has its orbit in union with Christ. The people of God are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). All things are theirs whether life or death or things present or things to come all are theirs, because they are united to him in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and they are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.

Learn more:

1. Justin Taylor: Union with Christ: A Crash Course (This post came through my feed reader just as I was ready to hit the publish button on this post. It that convenient or what?)
2. Jay Wetger: Understanding the doctrine of union with Christ
3. Fisher’s Catechism: How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
4. R. L. Dabney: Union with Christ
5. Thomas Watson: Mystic Union between Christ and the Saints
6. Sinclair Ferguson: Union with Christ in Pastoral Ministry; Union with Christ in Christian (video and audio)

Related terms:

• adoption
• effectual call
• election
• federal head
  
• glorification
• justification
• sanctification

1From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
2From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.