Greg Welty on Calvinism and the Bene Esse of the Gospel; with John MacArthur’s Explanation of Spurgeon’s “Calvinism is the gospel” Quote

To my fellow Calvinists, I’m going to be a bit more blunt (as is my right; I’ve just defended our distinctive views!). There is a distinction between esse and bene esse. There’s a difference between a doctrine being part of the essence of the gospel (its esse), and a doctrine being part of the well-being of the gospel (its bene esse). In light of this, I find the popular Spurgeon quote to be unhelpful, that “Calvinism is the gospel.” I understand what Spurgeon was trying to say [see MacArthur’s contextual explanation below], but I think it can be both misleading and unhelpful, to the extent that I never use that quote myself. It’s just not worth it, for it usually generates more heat than light. Surely we don’t want to get someone to think that he has to believe in all the traditional points of Calvinism if he is going to believe the gospel, and yet that is exactly what that quote can convey if it is tossed around loosely. Most of the evangelical non-Calvinists I know may not believe in the five points of Calvinism, but they do believe in the five solas of the Reformation, and even if you think that is inconsistent, God never sent a man to hell for being inconsistent, but only for his sins.

Far better to simply give the arguments for Calvinism as best you can, and pray that the Lord blesses your efforts. So I would counsel my fellow Calvinists in the SBC not to say, “Arminianism denies the essence of the gospel,” but rather, “Calvinism promotes the well-being of the gospel, by bringing out for God’s people all the more clearly how grace is really grace.” Non-Calvinists may disagree even with this latter statement, but at least they’ll know what our motives are: to magnify the greatness of God’s grace, not to draw the circle of fellowship more narrowly than Christ himself has drawn it.

Greg Welty, “Election and Calling: A Biblical Theological Study,” in Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue, ed. E. Ray Clendenen & Brad J. Waggoner (Nashville: B&H, 2008), 243.

Also in his lecture on "Election and Calling: A Biblical/Theological Study," from the Building Bridges Conference: Southern Baptists and Calvinism, November 2007

John MacArthur recently explained what Spurgeon meant by saying “Calvinism is the gospel.” He wrote:

But what did Spurgeon mean when he wrote, “Calvinism is the gospel”? He was not suggesting, of course, that the gospel is a message about John Calvin. Nor was he saying there is no true believers except those who have mastered and embraced Calvinism as a system. Spurgeon himself had numerous Arminian friends whom he counted as dear brethren in Christ and spiritual allies in his battle against modernism. He could not have been suggesting that saving faith entails wholehearted embrace of the five points. In fact, later in that same piece, Spurgeon said this:

There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer — I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it. But far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views (Susannah Spurgeon and Joseph Harrald, The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon: Compiled from His Diary, Letters, and Records, 4 vols. [London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1899], 1:176).

So why did he write, “Calvinism is the gospel”? Spurgeon was making a simple but profound point — namely, that the core of all gospel truth is the same principle that lies at the root of Calvinism. And it is this: Salvation is the Lord’s work, not the sinner’s.

Indeed, Spurgeon’s meaning is made crystal clear in the immediate context of those controversial three sentences. At the beginning of that same paragraph, he quotes Jonah 2:9 and comments on the truth of it:

“Salvation is of the Lord.” That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, “He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord.” I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, “God is my rock and my salvation” (Spurgeon and Harrold, Autobiography, 1:172).

That truth is the very essence of the gospel, and it is also the heart and the linchpin of Calvinist doctrine. It is why I am convinced that more than any other doctrinal study we might even undertake, a sound and faithful understanding of the doctrines of grace will instruct and help anyone who is seeking to articulate the gospel with clarity and accuracy.

John MacArthur, “Foreword,” in Curt Daniel’s The History and Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Co Durham, UK: Evangelical Press, 2019), 20–21.

See also Martyn Lloyd-Jones on John Wesley and Doctrinal Regeneration (click).