ARE NUMBERS IMPORTANT?

ONE MORE TIME FOR THE "T. U. L. I. P. SNIFFERS"

By CHARLES PERKINS, Pastor

GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

POST OFFICE BOX 362

NIXA, MISSOURI 65714

E-Mail: onebookpreacher@yahoo.com

In the year 2000 we printed the following article. Now we are printing it again to remind the readers of the dangers of the heresy of five point Calvinism. This writer calls them T.U.L.I.P sniffers because of Calvin’s false doctrines that begin with each letter. T: Total depravity; U: Unconditional election; L: Limited atonement; I: Irresistible grace; P: Perseverance of the saints.

The T.U.L.I.P. sniffers like to bloviate with phrases like "if Jesus ain’t Lord OF all He ain’t Lord AT all." This kind of rhetoric comes from Calvin’s "I" & "P."

The idea is, if you truly got saved (born again) God" zapped" you with His "Irresistible grace", when it was your time to get it and you will always serve the Lord by "Persevering to the end." (Matthew 24:13) Of course Matthew 24:13 has nothing to do with anyone in the church age but they have not figured that out yet.

If you happen to get involved with some of your old life, after you are saved, or don’t get baptized and join their kind of church or don’t quit smoking or don’t throw out all of your beer right away, or you get divorced and God only knows what else, you did not really get saved according to the T.U.L.I.P sniffers.

Many of these "good" people who believe Christ only died for the elect, like to criticize soul winning churches, altar calls, soul winners, bus routes and churches that talk about NUMBERS.

Sadly, too many churches sit back in their "lukewarm" church houses and take pot shots at the soul winning churches. Usually, these churches find some other emphasis on which to base their ministry, or they invent pet doctrines to ride as their hobby horse.

Since soul winning is the thing the devil hates the most, he fights the hardest against the soul winning churches. He tries to discourage the soul winners from going into the highways and by-ways to reach lost sinners for Christ.

He knows his time is short and he wants all the company he can get to go with him into the lake of fire. Some Calvinistic preachers point at the soul winning churches and cry: "EASY BELIEVISM." Many of these accusers must believe in "HARD BELIEVISM." The accusers say: "you soul winners who do not believe in repentance" are guilty of "EASY BELIEVISM".

I can’t speak for all soul winners but I can tell you this: the soul winners that I know do believe in repentance as a part of salvation. They believe in Bible repentance not "HARD BELIEVISM."

One soul-winning preacher, I know, always tells his soul winners, "NO CONVICTION, NO CONVERSION." This recognizes the Holy Spirit as the person who convicts the sinner through the presentation of the word of God. The power is in the gospel, as it is presented by the soul-winner. (Romans 1:16)

The Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his lost, ungodly condition and he turns his heart from his evil self, toward God, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21)

This is not a gradual process of repenting of all of one’s sins. It is instantaneous when the Sword of the Spirit sticks the lost sinner in the heart of his depravity. As a free moral agent, with a free will, he can say, "yes I will trust Christ" and be saved or "no I will not trust Christ" and go on his way to hell. T.U.L.I.P. sniffers invent ways to stay away from soul winning and the great commission. (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8)

Some churches go into the so-called deeper life movement. These folks pride themselves as being so "spirit led" that they would not dare witness to some poor lost sinner. After all, they might be doing it "in the flesh" and that would be tragic! A bunch of Pharisees is what they are.

Every once in awhile, we hear of some pastor who "gets saved" after being in the ministry for twenty years or so. He thought he got saved at a revival meeting when he was six or seven years old. Then some Bible rejecting, limited atonement preacher comes along and tells him, "if Christ is not Lord of all He is not Lord at all!"

The victim thinks, "oh, my heavens, I can’t remember if I trusted Him only as Saviour or if I trusted Him as Lord and Saviour." "I must not be saved.??" "I’m not sure if I repented or not." Then some night while he is preaching one of his red-hot messages on the blood of Christ, as he has done for twenty years, he gets doubts about his salvation goes to the altar then gets up and tells his congregation, "I just got saved!" Then the guy goes on preaching and stays as pastor, just like he has been doing for twenty years. (Something smells kind of fishy!).

Advocates of "HARD BELIEVISM" mix grace and works by saying the lost person must repent of all his sins (works) and then he can believe on Christ and be saved. This false theology teaches that the sinner cannot believe on Christ until God "zaps" him with Irresistible grace at the predestined time. Thus he can only believe AFTER he is born again!

The sinner’s WILL has nothing to do with it since he was "CHOSEN" Unconditionally by God before the foundation of the world. Having been elected to be saved, he is the recipient of Limited atonement, which means that Christ died ONLY for him and the other lucky "electees." Everybody else in Calvin’s scheme is doomed and could not be saved even if they heard the gospel. I guess the gospel has less power to save than Paul thought!

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

Limited atonement is a despicable doctrine! This false doctrine was hatched by misinterpreted verses and built on a faulty foundation. When Calvin came up with his "Unconditional election" theory, he surmised it was not necessary for Jesus to die for the non-elected. (reprobates). This makes Christ’s atonement Limited only to the elect.

However, such an atrocity breaks in and out of Adam’s bloodline selectively saving some and not others. This, of course, is nonsense and failure to believe the Bible.

Five point Calvinism is just another form of "HARD BELIEVISM" and is designed to excuse a bunch of lazy preachers from going soul winning. It is disobedience to the Lord’s command to His church:

"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)

T.U.L.I.P. theology is an insult to the great commission. Why bother going and telling lost sinners the good news if the predestined elect are going to be saved anyway, since they have no choice in the matter? The truth is:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

"EASY BELIEVISM" is a term used to identify the "one, two, three pray after me" type of "soul winning." There is, no doubt, that kind of salesmanship goes on in the name of soul winning. This is wrong and shows a lack of Holy Spirit leadership on the part of the soul winner. NO CONVICTION, NO CONVERSION.

However, I do not believe Christ died on the cross for everyone and then said: "I paid the price but I am going to make it HARD (difficult) for you to BELIEVE and get saved." The Bible teaches it is easy to get saved.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Rom 10:9-10)

OKAY NOW FOR THE RE-RUN OF THE ARTICLE:

ARE NUMBERS IMPORTANT?

By Charles Perkins

"And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty.)" (Acts 1:15)

Back in the Sixties and Seventies a great pioneering spirit swept through the hearts of young men who were called to preach and start churches. Some were coming out of Bible colleges and going forth to obey the great commission. Others, with no college experience, were building great, exciting, soul-winning churches. God was blessing their vision to reach the lost.

Occasionally, in their joy and zeal, some preachers like to let it be known how fast their church was growing and how many they had on their bus routes or in Sunday School.

In the fellowship meetings there was an incentive to go forth and do likewise. Many of us attended Dr. Jack Hyles' Pastor's school and came back with a new challenge to increase more and more.

"But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more." (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10)

Then came the gasoline crunch, during the Jimmy Carter years, and many of the smaller churches, located in the harder places, could no longer afford to keep their old broken down pieces of junk, called busses, running. Many pastors spent about as much time under the hood as they did between the pages of their Bible. Some became discouraged because of lack of laborers. After awhile we began to hear the cry: "ARE NUMBERS IMPORTANT?"

We heard more than once some pastor say, "well, I don't think "Hyles" (or whoever) really cares about souls. All he cares about is numbers." I am sure some of these utterances were a matter of envy.

It is always easy to take pot shots at the big churches that are still interested in numbers. The fourth book in the Bible is called Numbers! When a church is no longer interested in NUMBERS they have lost their vision to fulfill the great commission.

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)

"All the world" kind of sounds like numbers to me.

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:18-20)

"All nations" sounds like it might involve numbers.

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

I think some NUMBERS might be involved here.

SOME PASTORS FORGET THAT EACH NUMBER REPRESENTS A SOUL.

God, the Holy Ghost, was concerned enough about NUMBERS to tell us about them in the early formation of His church. Was the Holy Spirit interested in souls or was He only interested in numbers? Some pastors of the larger churches are accused of only being interested in numbers. What about the Holy Spirit? Was He only interested in numbers in the book of Acts? We need to be careful what we accuse others of!

"And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." (Mark 3:14)

"Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." (Acts 2:41)

"Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand." (Acts 4:4)

"And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." (Acts 5:14)

Twelve, three thousand, five thousand, multitudes must have something to do with NUMBERS.

When we start thinking numbers are not important we are on the way down.

But some preacher might say: "Well, to emphasize numbers is ok for the big guys in the big cities but my church is in a little town out in the sticks. Why should I be interested in numbers?" What's wrong with going after the country folks? How about stirring up your town and all of the little towns around you?

About twenty-five years ago a young country preacher went from North Carolina to the little town of Washington, Iowa. His name is Larry Brown: a most unlikely candidate to succeed in a cold, rather stiff community. He started a church. He knocked on doors. He got a bus route started. He preached. He stomped. He yelled. He started another bus route. He got his people excited about reaching everyone in his town, everyone in the surrounding towns and everyone in the county.

The reach for NUMBERS meant more souls going to heaven. Although I have never been to Washington, Iowa, or Brother Brown's church, I am told it is an exciting place. The attendance has reached well over one thousand on a Sunday in "a little town." The presence of God is there.

Some of the brethren criticize the methods of soul winning of some of the great soul winning churches who are out to reach "numbers." They start crying: "easy believism." Some of the brethren criticize the methods of soul winning of some of the great soul winning churches who are out to reach "numbers." They start crying: "easy believism."

The term "easy believism" is used to identify some soul winning tactics that is no more than a sales job. To be sure, we all have occasionally been too hasty to set the hook before the fish has the bait in his mouth. (Under conviction.) I can get a devout catholic to pray a prayer if that is my only purpose. This does not mean he is convicted by the Holy Spirit of his lost condition.

Back in the early days, the old circuit riding Methodist preacher, Peter Cartwright, would knock a man down and sit on him and tell him to trust in Christ or he would hit him again. One could go to all kinds of extremes but this does not produce true conversions.

Some soul winners try to play the Holy Spirit in their presentation to the lost sinner. It is very important that the lost person recognize his lost condition. A sinner cannot repent just because he wants to. Repentance is an attitude of the heart that comes through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit as the word of God is preached. It is not some kind of decision to reform or clean up one's life.

That would be works and not grace. True repentance is a gift from God as the gospel is presented to the lost sinner. "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." (Acts 11:18)

I heard of one young faker who wanted to tell everyone how many he had won to the Lord. His method was to stop people on the street and ask them if they believed in Jesus. If they said yes he would count them as his converts.

However, the danger we must beware of, is not to allow the exceptions to overthrow the rule. This is what the liberal, politically correct crowd likes to do. If we dwell on the crooks in soul winning, we will stop soul winning all together and start criticizing others who are still trying to reach the multitudes.

It does not bother me for churches to publish how many souls were saved or baptized. It does not bother me because some churches advertise as the fastest growing or they had reached their attendance goal in Sunday School. This is good. It should challenge the rest of us to reach for higher numbers. Each number is a soul. Souls are important to God. So are numbers.

"And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost." (Acts 13:52)

"And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed." (Acts 14:1)

LET'S NOT TELL ANYONE, DR. LUKE, THEY MIGHT THINK WE ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN NUMBERS! V