Advocates for “Reformed Theology” many times –and for a long time- have been accused of practicing a kind of soteriological fatalism; in other words, Christians worshipping at more conservative Presbyterian, (certain) Baptist, Christian Reform, Reformed churches and the like have often been told by adherents of opposing traditions that they don’t care enough about the souls of the Lost –the eternal destiny of the Unregenerate.  

Historically and sadly, this charge has been in large part fair in the levying.   The criticized argument has gone something like this: God chooses the men and women He will save and those men and women have nothing to do with God’s choice of them; neither does any man or woman have any control over God’s choice of any other man or woman.   Therefore, there is no reason to evangelize.   God will rescue the souls He wants to rescue and damn the rest.   In fact, there is no reason to pray, even for a loved one: to pray for anything contrary to God’s choice, or will, is rebellion.   (This, by the way, is the very argument Charles Spurgeon so tenaciously battled against in 1800’s England -his fight against “hyper-Calvinism”.)

However, Richard Baxter, in his classic book, The Reformed Pastor, wrote in 1656: “The work of conversion is the first and great thing we must drive at; after this we must labor with all our might.   Alas! the misery of the unconverted is so great, that it calleth loudest to us for compassion (Puritan Paperbacks, page 94).”   He goes on: “I am frequently forced to neglect that which should tend to the further increase of knowledge in the godly, because of the lamentable necessity of the unconverted.   Who is able to talk of controversies, or of nice unnecessary points, or even of truths of a lower degree of necessity, how excellent soever, while he seeth a company of ignorant, carnal, miserable sinners before his eyes, who must be changed or damned (page 95)?”

So, should members of Reformed traditions reach out to their neighbors, not only with sporadic acts of kindness, but with a deliberate and well-articulated reason for their love?   I believe so.   The one true God offers everlasting deliverance –from our sin and into His presence- through the man, Jesus Christ!   This message promises relationship, abundant life, that starts right now!   These days, in our North American culture, perhaps fatalism is no longer much of an issue: no one is “ignorant” in a culture that allows each member to construct his own truth; no one is “carnal” in a culture that allows each member to define her own morality; and no one (should be) “miserable” in a culture that allows each member all the “freedom” he/she desires, so long as others aren’t harmed.   Holiness –the need for purification- is no longer a virtue.   In fact, there exists a decreasing fear of damnation –some “evangelicals” don’t even believe in Hell anymore…or at least that is the word on the street!

So where do you stand?   Will you love your neighbor enough to communicate God’s love for them to them?   Heaven literally knows they need you…because they do need the God who wants them!