Theology In The Dugout
By Nicholas Perkins
As a baseball coach (and Little League softball coach), through teaching our hitters good timing and good technique, we desire to help them hit the ball on the “sweet spot” more frequently. Those familiar with this term in baseball and softball know it’s the spot on the bat where a batter can hit the ball and the bat will have the least vibrations. It’s the spot that allows the ball to leave the bat at the greatest speed (exit velocity). Hitters will often “square a ball up” by hitting it on the sweet spot of the bat and talk about how they did not feel the contact. This is easier said than done, as pitchers are attempting to get hitters out by throwing different pitches at different rates of speed and movement, with deceptive pitching motions. The sweet spot on a bat is only inches long and wide.
Moving to the Word of God, that should be sweet to our taste, sweeter than honey to our mouths (Psalm 119:103), I have recently used the phrase sweet spot to describe what I would call the correct understanding between assurance and apostasy, between God keeping His own and those who ultimately prove not to be His own because ultimately, they do not persevere in the faith. It seems many want to fall on one side or the other concerning theological systems such as Arminianism and Calvinism. If one wants to vehemently defend the sovereignty of God concerning God’s predestining of His own to eternal life with Him, they spend more time in passages such as John 10:27-29, Romans 8:29-30, or Ephesians 1:4, 11 (among others). If one wants to highlight passages that highlight believers falling away, they’ll go to the same book of John, but the first 8 verses of the 15th chapter, or Romans 11, the 3rd, 6th, and 10th chapter of Hebrews, the 2nd chapter of James that teaches that faith without works is dead (2:17, 20, 26), or another verse in that same chapter that is cringeworthy or befuddling to many when it says we are justified by works (2:24).
Theological systems, creeds, confessions, catechisms and the like are amazingly helpful, especially for memorizing fundamental truths of our one holy Christian religion. Sometimes they are less helpful when it comes to thinking about situations and circumstances we see in real life. Most of us have known people who truly seemed to love God, were a student of the Word, seemed to possess the fruits of the Spirit, were a strong member of the church, but fell away from the faith. Surely this was more than a mere profession. Surely this was more than the practice of a cold religion!
Wanting to write a short little column, and not wanting to actually use too many Christan Theological Vocabulary Words (although I am a fan), being cut off of the tree (Romans 11), removed from the vine (John 15), being enlightened, having tasted of the heavenly gift, being made partakers of the Holy Ghost (Hebrews 6), surely this is an actual loss of something and not just a profession! I would say something is lost. There was a connection to the church, to Christ, to the Christian faith, to the New Covenant people of God (I have not even mentioned baptism or partaking of the Lord’s Supper). The examples and warnings from God’s Old Covenant people in the 10th chapter of First Corinthians (10:1-12) are real. They are not hypothetical.
However, this is not a viewpoint that dismisses the sovereign, persevering power of God. God does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3, 135:6). All things work after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11b), praise God, including all things for the good of those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Language in Hebrews 10-”Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace” (10:29-beautiful Elizabethan, Shakespearean, King James Version language), that may cause some to get wrinkles in their eyebrows, does not take away from, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
One of the awesome qualities of the Word of God is that it meets people where they are. What do I mean? If a true believer, the kind that goes to Heaven (to borrow from Pastor Doug Wilson), a true Christian, one that ultimately perseveres (because of God’s preserving), needs assurance they truly love God, that they are truly a new creation in Christ, there are verses for that. However, if one is too close to the fire of sin, and is close to being burnt, the warnings are real. The apostasy passages are for them! Take heed lest they fall (1 Corinthians 10:12)!
It’s not one side or the other. It’s not this system or that one. God does indeed keep those who He predestined before the foundation of the world (from this Christmas season, I like to think of believers as “love gifts” from God the Father to God the Son) to eternal life with Him, and there are those who appear to be like these same people who do fall away from the faith, but they are not the same because God gives persevering grace to the ones He placed His special love on. I attempted to stay away from theological vocabulary words because they can, at times, bring unneeded fog to the conversation, and I wanted this to be simple, but if you love God, keep on. If your love for Him is not what it once was, repent now. Get in the Word. Talk to a pastor, an elder, a deacon. Someone! Pray (1 John 1:9).
Unlike the fine line that is a sweet spot of a ball bat, there is Bible comprehension comfort in being able to stay in the middle of the field when it comes to the sovereignty of God in the final spiritual condition of man.
Coach Perkins