This post follows my announcement Calvinism: Planting My Flag.

Throughout history many Christians have contributed a great deal of time, energy, and even blood to promote and defend the cause of Christ. I don’t want to downplay the important work that has been carried out by many non-Calvinists throughout history but I want to mention a few individuals specifically and some general trends that make me more appreciative of Calvinism.

We often hear people say that Christianity is under attack today. In many ways this is a false statement in that it implies Christianity is facing challenges today that it has not faced in the past. The truth is Christianity – more specifically, Christ – has always been under attack. In our generation some of the attacks of Satan have just become a little more evident than in the previous generation.

Among the attacks Satan has leveled against Christ and his church have been many attempts to undermine Christian trust in the word of God. We are rightly described as people of the book for it is this one Book that guides our faith and practice. Scripture is the God-given revelation of himself which tells us who we are, who he is, and how he wants us to live. In a way it is wrong to speak of the Bible as being our authority since God is our authority, but the Bible is the authoritative word that God has given and preserved for us. If trust in the Bible were undermined then Christianity itself would be undermined. Knowing this, Satan has leveled many attacks against the Bible over the centuries. Today’s attacks generally come from the liberal branches of Christianity and liberal attempts to dismantle the Bible and rebuild it more to their liking.

Against these attacks have stood many faithful Christians but I see Calvinists more than others standing in firm, faithful, and reasonable defense of Scripture. Calvinists and non-Calvinists on the conservative end of the spectrum would agree about the value, importance, and trustworthiness of Scripture but I really appreciate Calvinist attention to Scripture. Calvinist churches tend to be churches that want to teach their people doctrine. They want their people to know the word of God and how God’s word gives one coherent message of God’s work with humanity. I am very sad to say that most of the non-Calvinist churches I am familiar with do not go very deep with the Bible. They have firm commitments to the Word of God as the Word of God but they often do not take their people deep into the Word.

I am grateful especially to John Piper. It was his teaching and preaching that helped me finally understand parts of the Bible that had previously seemed irreconcilable. How in the world can Romans 9 and 2 Peter 3 be in the same Bible and how in the world can we see the consistent message in both? Piper helped me to understand how. Piper’s preaching is thoroughly biblical and if I sometimes disagree with Piper’s interpretation of Scripture I cannot fault his commitment to Scripture. I recently remarked to my wife how different it is to read John Piper versus some of the non-Calvinist writers I have appreciated. Their writings might contain biblical insights but they do not contain much of the Bible itself. With Piper and many other Calvinist writers one cannot go more than a few sentences before coming across direct appeals to Scripture. That is the kind of teaching I pray we see more of.

I am grateful to John MacArthur, even though I disagree with him a bit more often than with Piper. He shares Piper’s commitment with Scripture and has a desire to see Christians apply biblical truth to all of life.

I have a growing appreciation of the Calvinist saints of old. Men like Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards and John Owen. I look forward to reading more of their works and discovering even more saints that time has tried to obscure. These men all share a firm commitment to Scripture and a desire to teach doctrine that comes not from human wit or wisdom but from the word of God. They use human wit and wisdom to help others understand what God has revealed in his word but the Bible remains their foundation. I pray we follow in their example.

I pray that God would continue to raise up saints – Calvinist and non-Calvinist alike – to firmly, faithfully, and lovingly promote and proclaim the Word of God to their churches and to the world. And with my flag now in the Calvinist camp, I pray that God would help my non-Calvinist brothers and sisters understand that Calvinism is not just acceptable, it is biblical. It comes not from the mind of man but from the mind of God. May God find us faithful as we seek to rightly divide the Word of Truth and to rightly apply it to our lives.