Can believers who have different views on predestination dwell together in unity?
This text is from a transcript of talk given by David Gooding entitled ‘The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God’ (1995).
They can, if they are behaving like good Christians! God's people have been divided on these matters, largely through accepting this or that system of theology.
Somebody asked me in a seminar why I didn't come out and say it was Calvinism that I didn't agree with. Well, to start with, there are many grades of Calvinism; and some good Christians who hold views in common with Calvinists wouldn't like to be called Calvinists, because they don't share everything. Some Calvinists think I am an Arminian, and they think that by putting a label on me it defines exactly what I believe; but I find that the label they put on me doesn't describe me fairly at all. In the end we are better without labels, aren't we? We mustn't say, 'I am of Paul, or, I am of Apollos' (1 Corinthians 1:10–15), and you certainly mustn't say, 'I am of Calvin', or 'I am of Arminius'. We are all believers—Christians, and we must love each other. God blessed Whitefield; God blessed Wesley—mighty men of God that God used for the conversion of thousands.
We must learn to respect each other and be very careful before we call a fellow believer an apostate. We may be moved to speak strongly that some doctrine seems to us to border on blasphemy, but we must observe that our dear brethren who sometimes hold wrong doctrine don't intend thereby to blaspheme the Lord or to dishonour him. They sincerely believe that what they believe does honour him; we need to help each other.
In my little experience the disruptions arise when people become convinced, say, of their Calvinism, or the opposite, and then they push it, and push it, and push it and push it and push it until that disrupts the harmony in the church. Then it becomes in a practical way very difficult for the church to proceed. The elders may say: 'Now look, we've heard what you say. A substantial body of us, with equal zeal and wishing to please the Lord, believe that you are not correct in that. So, now that we have heard what you say, please have enough grace not constantly to push the thing, and we can live in harmony.' When people are not prepared to do that then it can disrupt, and has seriously disrupted, the work of God in more than one mission field. It may be, therefore, that you will feel as Paul felt about Barnabas that when it comes to being a team on the mission field, because Barnabas held rather different views about the suitability of John Mark to be a missionary in Paul's team, Paul said, 'I think we had better go our own ways, dear Barnabas. The world's a big place. You go with what you feel in methods and I will go with what I feel in methods, and we shall love each other in the Lord.'
You may feel that the views I talk about and show to be mine mean that you couldn't work with me as a close partner and preach the gospel, because I might tell unconverted people that Christ died for their sins, and you don't think that's true. So you couldn't work in close collaboration with me in an evangelistic team on the mission field. All right, my brother, I understand it if that's how you feel. I hope you won't cast me out of the church, will you? I hope you will find it in your heart to believe that I hold these views for the time being as sincerely, and in the fear of God, as you hold your views. What I would exhort you to do is in meekness to try and instruct me further. I shall come back at you, and do the same. Then together—and I hope in Christian grace, harmony and tolerance, respecting each other—we may all admit that there are things we don't yet know, and we may move on carefully to discover yet more and more where the full truth of God lies.
