Calvary Chapel Errors #1
On the days that I work late I listen to the local Calvary Chapel radio station for the express purpose of monitoring the teaching of Mike Kestler and friends on "To Every Man An Answer." My best friend, Tom, sometimes wonders why I put myself through this aggravation, because I usually call him during the broadcast and say, "You won't believe what I just heard...." Well, a couple of days ago, Wednesday 21 Feb 2007, I heard something that totally illustrates people who are bound to their traditions at the expense of what the Scriptures say...and what they don't say.
A gentleman called up and asked about being born again. Apparently he had been talking to a Presbyterian friend who told him that being born again was a passive act on the part of man. Just as a baby does not choose to be born, so a person cannot choose to be "born from above." This gentleman asked Mike Kestler and friends to clarify this, and in "clarifying" they threw the Scriptures right out the window.
Kestler said that if that is the proper understanding of being born again then Nicodemus' question about "how to be born again" and Jesus' response in John 3 had no meaning. The problem is that Jesus did not tell Nicodemus how to be born again! He told him "you must be born again." At this point Nicodemus doesn't ask "how can I be born again?", instead he says, "How can a man be born when he is old ? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Basically, he said "I can't believe what I'm hearing."
Jesus then tell Nicodemus that it is not up to him by giving him the wind illustration. Man has no choice about the wind. The wind just happens. Man can't force the wind to blow on him and he cannot tell who the wind will blow on.
At this point Nicodemus realizes that Jesus is telling him he has no choice in the matter and responds with "how can these things be?" If Nicodemus thought Jesus was saying "you need to choose to be born again" wouldn't he have responded with "OK, Jesus, I want to be born again"? That is the end of Nicodemus' interaction with Jesus. There is no indication of a salvific response.
Inserting human choice into this passage is wrong. The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus goes nowhere near that idea. Everything Jesus asserted about seeing the kindom of God was external to and independent of Nicodemus. Sure, you can try to go elsewhere in the Scriptures to try and make a case for libertarian human choice and read it back into John 3, but that violates proper exegesis. It is the immediate context that is superior to all other context.
