Chapman’s Clarification

In his report at the annual Southern Baptist Convention in June, SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman denounced “Calvinism” in no uncertain terms.  Recently (July 15), Chapman released a “Clarification of Intent” on his website.  There he states:

“…My comments have been questioned by a number of individuals who post on the Internet.  I have been accused of creating a caricature or a ‘straw-man’ of Calvinism with the phrase, ‘without a faith response on the part of man.’  It has been said that no Calvinist in the Southern Baptist Convention would affirm the idea as I stated it. . . . Recently, I have heard and read with increasing frequency of the belief that passages such as Ephesians 2:8 teach that ‘faith’ itself is a gift of God – hence, even the response of faith is given by God and is not the free response of the human heart to the saving initiative of God.  Had I spoken with greater technical precision in my report, my words may be expanded this way, ‘The Southern Baptist Convention is experiencing a resurgence in the belief that divine sovereignty alone is at work in salvation in which even the faith response on the part of man is not a response of free human agency, but is a sovereign act of God.  Some are given to explain away the ‘whosoever will’ of John 3:16. How can a Christian come to such a place when Ephesians says, ‘For by grace are you saved through faith’ (Eph. 2:8)?”

Chapman seeks to enlist the written work of Daniel Wallace in defending his position, noting, “the ‘faith’ of Ephesians 2 is not the ‘gift.’”  Wallace observes correctly both ‘grace’ and ‘faith’ in Ephesians 2 are feminine gender nouns while the pronoun ‘that’ (touto) is neuter.  It is an unusual grammatical construction in the Greek, however, leading Wallace to observe the most plausible interpretation of the text is that “touto refers to the concept of grace-by-faith salvation.”  He concludes, “If faith is not meritorious, but is instead the reception of the gift of salvation, then it is not a gift per se.  Such a view does not preclude the notion that for faith to save, the Spirit of God must initiate the conversion process.”

Wallace’s interpretation of Ephesians 2 is not deficient, in fact, I agree with his assessment.  I would add, however, that the concept of grace-by-faith salvation may well include the granting of faith by God.  This is not outside the scope of Ephesians 2, especially in light of verses such as Galatians 5:22, which lists faith (pistis) as part of the fruit of the Spirit; Philippians 1:29, where the Apostle Paul tells the saints in Philippi it has been “granted” to them to believe in Christ; and 2 Timothy 2:25, in which the Apostle Paul tells Timothy how he should conduct himself with opponents of godliness in order that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”

For some reason, Chapman then enlists Iain Murray’s work, Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism, to discuss the matter at hand.  Had Chapman bothered to read either Murray or Spurgeon, he would have known that both affirm that faith is a gift from God and exercised by the individual.  This gift, along with the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, far from negating the free will response of an individual, brings one to freely and fully embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel.

I’m uncertain as to Chapman’s intent, but his clarification lacks the theological precision which should mark those in positions of denominational leadership.  If Chapman intends to classify as hyper-Calvinists those who affirm that faith is a gift, then he need not employ Murray or Spurgeon.  He may also want to re-examine the Baptist Faith & Message (2000), which speaks of the new birth as “a work of God’s grace” and as “a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.” The 1925 BFM declares, “We believe that repentance and faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God.” It does not take a Greek grammarian to understand Southern Baptist confessions to teach that both repentance and faith come about through the work of the Holy Spirit, and that both are a result of God’s grace.

Previously Chapman declared debates about Calvinism belonged, not in the churches, but in the halls of academia. Unfortunately, he continues to bring the issue to the middle of the denomination and therefore to thousands of sanctuaries.  He has the right to go against his own counsel, but he needs to prepare himself better to speak ably about the matter at hand.