One day my car broke down and so I had to get a ride to and from work the next day. After work I asked this man, I will call Bob, if he would give me a ride back to school. He said, "Sure!" We got in the car and were driving down the freeway. Suddenly, without me prompting this in any way, Bob spoke up and said,

I just want you to know that I am a predestinationist.

The reason he was wanting me to know that was because he knew that I taught a class on Evangelism and that I was involved in aggressive Evangelism. He was wanting me to know that he believed that there were those predestined to be saved and lost and that to bring up the issue would be a waste of his time.

The issue was not his belief but his goals and focus in life to make money which evangelism and the rejection of men would not make possible. The issue was that he did not care about men’s salvation, but only their acceptance to use them for the success of his own selfish self-centered interests and goals. The truth of the matter was that God’s kingdom was not his concern at all. For this reason the teaching of predestination gave him his excuse for focusing on those self-centered interests rather than suffering with the children of God by chancing men’s rejection by bringing to them the message of God’s love and forgiveness through Christ. Because his focus and concern was gaining the world, He did not want to get involved in Evangelism so he justified his passiveness not only in Evangelism but in reaching out and loving people in general.

Because I worked with this man and went to school with him for more than four years, I got to know him very well. During Breaks at work most of his conversation was centered on what was wrong with everybody and all Christians. He was subconsciously passifying his conscious by justifying his lack of concern for them and their salvation by finding fault with them. How is this different from what an unbeliever does with the Gospel?

This my brethren is the fruit of the teaching of predestination and the only reason why it is popular among a larger population of believers than it is not. There is, however, no such thing as a safe and costless Christianity if one is truly living for Christ and the salvation of his fellow men.

Surprisingly this man and I became good friends. I was an undergraduate and this man was completing two Masters in Theology. Along with being fellow students and working at the same job off campus, he had two other businesses of his own going on. One of these businesses I had had myself in the past. He was wanting to drop this particular account because he was over loaded. I told him I was interested in the account, but he was unwilling to recommend me not due to bad work on my part, because he gave me all his extra work knowing it would get done and be done right, but because he was concerned that I might try to influence this man for Christ and that might effect his relationship with him and future business. I know because I confronted him about it. He did not deny it.

What is the Bible’s response to someone who claims to be a Christian but has no time for the Gospel or love for their fellow brethren? Paul and John wrote the following:

"For many walk of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:18-20)

"But whoever has the biological-means-of-life, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." (1 John 3:17- 18)

"By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (1 John 2:3-4)

When someone tells me on the field in Evangelism that he is a Christian but has no interest in Evangelism because he believes God has already predetermined those who will be saved and will be lost, I don’t argue with them, I just ask them which one they are? If they say predestined to be saved, I then explain to them based on their theology, if what they say it true, then according to the Apostle John in 1 John 2:3-4 it will be evidenced by their obedience to Christ and that Christ makes plain in His Word that it is His will that all believers share the Gospel. I then explain that John says if a person claims to be a believer and refuses to obey Christ, that that person is not a believer, but a liar. Paul wrote:

"But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak." (2 Cor 4:13)

Preaching the Gospel does not save us, but John and Paul tell us that if a person is truly saved it will be evidenced by their works and obedience to Christ. If a person claims to be a believer but comes up with every excuse why not to obey, the Bible tells us we have a right to question the legitimacy of their salvation.

When we put self before the Kingdom of God and make ourselves our source rather than Jesus, we must do all kinds of things with God’s word to justify it. However, "let God be found true, though every man be found a liar" (Rom 3:4).

About three years passed and Bob and I were both getting ready to graduate. I was over at his apartment one night during this time and he said to me,

You know Dale, here I am getting ready to graduate with two masters in theology, but you have a relationship with God I do not have. What is it that is different about you? I am better educated than you are and yet I come to you with many of my problems and get answers my education does not teach me. What is it that is different about you as compared to me?

I said in reply,

Bob you believe everything in your life is predestined: your salvation and anything that Jesus has for you, that it does not matter what effort you may try to make, it has all been predetermined. Because you believe this you take no initiative in your relationship with God. I believe that I am saved through Jesus’ death on the cross and that there is nothing that I can do to add to what He has done, but I also believe that I am free to choose whether I want to have relationship with Jesus or not. Yes Jesus died for me, but I had to decide whether to accept it or not through the exercise of my will to ask Jesus to come into my heart. But even though I have accepted Jesus into my life as Savior and Lord, I am still not a robot, Jesus has still given me a free will to choose whether I want to grow in that relationship or not. It is up to me to decide whether or not to stimulate my relationship with Him in order to grow in Him. The end result is that I do not wait for Him to come to me but I take the initiative and seek Him out (Jer 29:11-13). I do not wait for Him to minister to me about my problems, I take my problems to Him and seek Him out until I get an answer.

Paul and Jesus said,

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." (Gal 6:7)

"So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." (Matt 7:20-21)

Consequently, in my study of Church History, I found that wherever the doctrine of Predestination was strong, Evangelism was dead. But I also found that the belief in this doctrine had nothing to do with the true teaching of Scripture so much as it had to do with an accepted tradition of the Church. It was based on the authority and tradition of the Church, not the teaching of the Bible, at least not in context.

If you recall, previous to the Reformation, the Church emphasized that the Church authority was a higher authority than even the Word of God. Because the teaching of Predestination was so popular, in time it became a strong Church tradition. Unfortunately, when the Reformation came and the reformers were excommunicated from the Church (notice, they did not leave the Church) and then started their own Churches, they carried on this traditional teaching of Predestination.

When I continued my studies through Church History, I was also intrigued to find that when it came to the Anabaptist movement they did not believe in the traditional teaching about Predestination, but they did believe in one-on-one doorto-door aggressive Evangelism. Hubmaier, one of their original founders wrote,

"Therefore he has commanded us to preach the Gospel to every creature, that everyone who receives it, who believes and is baptized may be saved."^81/187

Anabaptists were called Anabaptists because they also did not hold to another tradition of the Catholic Church which the other reformers did and that was infant baptism.^32/47 Infant baptism is all wrapped up in the doctrine of Predestination. It is a first step of grace according to this doctrine. Because God has already predetermined those who will be saved and those who will be lost, infants are baptized at random ahead of time for those who are already chosen. Because the Reformation Churches accepted the doctrine of Predestination, they naturally also carried over the also non-Biblical teaching of infant baptism.

The Anabaptists taught believers baptism.^81/115 In Acts Chapter 8, the Evangelist Philip is told by an angel of the Lord to go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. At this road he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who just happens to be reading Isaiah 53:7 which talks about Jesus being slaughtered for our sins. Philip explains to the Ethiopian that it is talking about Jesus who just died and rose again. He evidently also explained to him that in order to be saved he had to repent and believe on Jesus and then be baptized in water in his name as a first step of obedience because the Eunuch said to Philip, after Philip explained the passage to him, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" Philip states in response, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." The Eunuch states in response, "I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God" (Acts 8:35-37). Only after the Eunuch made this public profession of faith did Philip then allow him to be baptized in the name of Jesus. Acts clearly teaches that only those who have truly believed in their heart are to receive water baptism in Jesus’ name. This is what the Anabaptists taught.^81/116

An infant has not come to the age of reason and has no idea why this strange man is pouring water over him or her and expresses this confusion with loud crying. There is no intelligent decision to receive or reject Jesus as Savior and Lord. This is not a believer’s baptism because the baby has not had time to believe anything. Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may" be baptized.

Consequently, because the Anabaptist did not carry over the doctrine of Predestination, they also did not carry over the doctrine of infant baptism either. Groups today which hold this teaching are groups like the Mennonites and the Free-will Baptists.

You will find through history that the Churches which emphasized one-on-one Evangelism were not the Catholics, Lutherans, Zwinglians, or Calvinists. The Anabaptists were the only ones. The Reformed Churches that do emphasize Evangelism, like the Presbyterians, picked up this emphasis on Evangelism originally from the Anabaptists.

The Anabaptists believed a person came to know Jesus through first knowledge; second, Holy Spirit conviction and then third, through the person making a decision to respond to that knowledge by repenting of one’s sins and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. If a person did this, then and only then was he or she a candidate for water baptism.

Strangely enough the whole emphasis of the Reformation was objective study and research of the Bible in an atmosphere of open free speech debate. Despite this, the Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians along with the Catholics not only openly opposed the Anabaptists and persecuted them, but even put their leaders to death unless they recanted of their doctrinal beliefs against Predestination and infant baptism.^71-47 This was a total contradiction of what the Reformation originally stood for. The Reformers condemned the Catholic Church for killing their forefathers and then turned around and committed the exact same error against a group that did not agree with them.

The emphasis I am trying to make here is that it was the Anabaptists who taught aggressive and one-on-one Evangelism. We can thank not the Reformers, but the Anabaptists for our Evangelical Evangelistic heritage. Unfortunately, I did not discover these truths through the reading of my Church history books. Maybe a paragraph mentioned the Anabaptist movement in passing and that was it and it said nothing about their influence concerning one-on-one Evangelism or anything else. They were completely flossed over. But all the Church history books I read and theology books I read spent more than enough time talking about Predestination and virtually nothing about the importance of Evangelism. The only time Evangelism was mentioned was when a figure of Church history might be involved in it like the Jesuit Priests of the middle ages and beyond, but that was all. It was because they flossed over the Anabaptists that I decided to do my Church history paper on them because I wanted to know something about them. In studying about the Anabaptist movement I came to find out why they were persecuted: because they believed in believers’ baptism which was their motivation for one-on-one aggressive Evangelism.^81/137-142

If one takes the passages that Predestinationists use to support their doctrine out of the Bible and its total context, it seems they have a very strong argument. The Bible, though, is not a passage, it is not a chapter, it is not a book; the Bible is all sixty-six books combined together including the Old and New Testament. A very simple principle of interpretation is that in order to understand the meaning of one passage, it must be taken in the context of the Bible as a whole. Often times when you look at a passage of Scripture by itself it seems to say one thing, but when you read it in the context of the Bible as a whole, it does not say what you thought it said by itself at all.