Jude 23
Jude 20-23
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
No Calvinist can believe that they were “snatched out of the fire.” That simply goes against the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional, eternal Election. That’s why Calvinists speak of 3 salvations: past, present and future.
John Calvin: “And he uses a neat metaphor: where there is danger of burning, we do not hesitate to take violent hold on a man we want to bring out unhurt; it would not be enough to beckon with a finger, or politely hold out one’s hand, for we must care for their salvation with the thought that, unless they are roughly handled, they will not come to God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. III, James and Jude, p.335, emphasis mine)
Why would they need to be “roughly handled” if they have an irresistible drawing [i.e. Irresistible Grace] which includes a regeneration that completely changes their heart, soul and mind? A Calvinist will insist that this is merely the “predestined means of conversion,” but it also implies that a Calvinist is a lot more Arminian in their thinking than they may realize. It would make a lot more sense to say that we are wrestling with the Unregenerate, rather than the Regenerate, pushing them towards repentance, so that with a repentant state of mind, they will be more receptive to the profundity of the Gospel.
Question: If someone was predetermined for
salvation, before they were born, then in what
way could you be “snatching them out of the
fire”?
Answer: One needs to be on a path to a real fiery
Hell in order to be rescued from a real fiery Hell.
You would have to be headed there, in order to
be rescued from there, which contradicts the
Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Election.
Calvinist, James White: “I just also believe the undisputed and unrefuted fact that I come to Christ daily because the Father, on the sole basis of His mercy and grace, gave me to the Son in eternity past.” (Debating Calvinism, p.306, emphasis mine)
Question: Well then how were you ever lost? How were you ever ‘snatched from the fire’ that Jude speaks of?
Calvinist, John MacArthur: “I’m a Christian today because before the foundation of the world from all eternity past, God chose to set His love on John MacArthur and to give him the faith to believe at the moment that God wanted him to believe. He chose us.” (Understanding Election, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer: “If God from all eternity purposed to save one portion of the human race and not another, the purpose of the cross would be to redeem these chosen ones to himself. We can know whether we belong to that number.” (The Doctrines That Divide, p.187, emphasis mine)
One Calvinist responds: “Do Calvinists secretly believe that God chose them for some reason other than their need for salvation? Would I, as a Christian, believe that God chose me for some other reason than my need for salvation? Yes, I do. God chose me for His glory, for His pleasure, for His purposes. Sure I had a need for salvation. But that is not why He saved me primarily. ... In the Bible, God does not say He chose us because of our desperate need. He chose us before our need ever arose.”
The Calvinist argument is not a denial of a rescue, but rather that the success of the rescue was never in doubt. However, if as Erwin Lutzer states, that the purpose of Calvary was to rescue people before their need for rescue ever arose, then it doesn’t seem like much of a rescue, and the fire spoken of by Jude becomes a bit of a joke. It would be real fire to some, and an illusion to others. This is why it seems that the Bible is more of an obstacle to Calvinism than an exhibit for Calvinism.
