Grace For All Coalition

We are a cross-denominational collaboration of various Evangelical Christian pastors, theologians, scholars, church leaders, and believers from all theological stripes who affirm and teach that God has provided the means of salvation for all people through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. So that all who trust in Jesus Christ are saved by grace through faith.

We believe that the Gospel (εὐαγγέλιον) is asserting that God actually loves the entire world and that God sincerely desires every person to gain eternal life through Jesus Christ. God offers the free gift of salvation to all sinners and invites all humanity to respond in believing faith. The saving grace of God is sincerely offered to every person, not decreed to a preselected few.

We subscribe to the theological affirmations of the Apostles’ Creed, the Lausanne Covenant, and the World Evangelical Alliance.

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Rationale

In recent years, we saw the resurgence of a theology embraced by some of our fellow believers who espouse what they call “Doctrines of Grace” (TULIP). Many in these groups tagged as Neo-Reformed or New Calvinists go from one church to another promoting an exclusively deterministic soteriology and monergistic understanding of salvation. They stir debates by finding issues in theology that are controversial and secondary and then proclaim that their theological system is the only correct answer and all other views are "heretical". They write blog posts, publish books, and hold conferences to convince their recruited followers that they are the sole guardians of true orthodoxy. Any Christian who disagrees with their five-point-perspective they now angrily accuse as unbiblical, unorthodox, and unchristian.

Today, many Evangelical believers are resisting this type of arrogant, divisive, destructive, hurtful, hateful, “Cage Stage” behavior among many Calvinists. Instead of honoring the rich theological range of views within historic Christianity, and appreciating the beauty of a united-yet-diverse body of Christ, these Neo-Reformed or New Calvinists think and insist that they have the monopoly of Christian orthodoxy. They think the only legitimate Christians are those that are Reformed in their theology.

Moreover, these groups claim that God does not really love every person in the world and does not want to save every person in the world. For them, God loves and desires to save only a chosen few, and that Christ did not die for the world but only provided salvation for some preselected individuals before the world began. They teach that these special chosen ones will be compelled to believe because humans do not have the free will to choose at all. They say that the saving grace of God is not for everyone but only for the chosen few; and that God's loving invitation to come to Him is actually not true for all people because only those who are chosen will be granted the ability to actually come. Some of them even argue that their version of divine sovereignty requires that God has tight meticulous control over every event in the world so that God Himself is the One who ultimately authored, decreed, orchestrated, and planned all things including human sin, horrible evil, heinous crimes, and demonic activities in the world.

Most believers honestly disagree with this kind of theology. While all Evangelical Christians embrace the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation ― Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Scriptures Alone, Christ Alone, God's Glory Alone ― however, not all Evangelical Christians are Calvinistic in their soteriology.

Because of this, we have formed the Grace for All Coalition in order to gather all Non-Calvinist Evangelical Christians who mutually agree that “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people” (Titus 2:11). We rally all Christians who are convinced that God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), that the Gospel is to be proclaimed as good news to all people in the world (Matthew 24:14; 28:19; Acts 1:8), and that God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30) implying that the invitation to receive the gift of salvation is issued to all people and not only to a selected few (Matthew 11:28 and Revelation 22:17).

While we disagree with many of the finer points of their theology, we still consider many in the Reformed-Calvinist camp as brothers and sisters in Christ. Hence, we seek to become bearers of grace towards fellow believers who differ from our theological persuasions.

Collaboration

The Grace for All Coalition is a collective pushback against theological groups that are wreaking havoc within the Christian family ― breaking up churches, stirring up hate among fellow believers, and bashing people who disagree with their views. We take a stand against these groups who, instead of promoting “unity in essentials and liberty in non-essentials”, create controversies that confuse weak believers and disrespect various nuances of Christian soteriological systems that have been historically accepted as part of Evangelical theology. We disagree with these people who, instead of winning non-believers, make it their mission to convert fellow believers to their brand of Calvinistic soteriology.

The Grace for All Coalition is a cooperative intellectual resistance against theological systems that portray God as unloving, arbitrary, author of evil, capricious, controlling, manipulative, unfair, and unkind. We contest any teaching which assumes that the central teaching of Scripture should be a God portrayed as one who enjoys divine deterministic meticulous control. We dispute theologies that highly emphasize this brand of God’s sovereignty which disregards or diminishes God’s love, mercy, compassion, kindness, generosity, and God’s gracious open invitation for all sinful humanity to either receive or reject His free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Objectives

We seek to be a safe space for dialogue, cooperation, and equipping in matters of soteriology for all Non-Calvinist Evangelical Christians from all theological stripes including Provisionists, Molinists, Free Grace, Arminians, Freewill Baptists, General Baptists, Wesleyans, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, Mennonite, Brethren, Nazarene, Evangelical Free, and all believers who embrace “Whosoever Will” theologies. [Note: Calvinist Evangelical Christians are welcome to participate and engage in theological discussions as long as they respect the rules of the group].

We desire to be a theological voice against teachings that limit the saving grace of God only to a chosen few, against theologies that teach that Christ did not die for all of humanity, and against doctrines that say that the Gospel is actually good news only to preselected individuals, not for every person.

We take our stand on God’s Word and challenge believers to search the Scriptures to discover what the Bible says about key issues on God’s sovereignty, human responsibility, depravity, election, atonement, salvation, eternal security, among others.

We seek to be a humble but rational voice against the demagoguery and theological bullying by some people in the Reformed-Calvinist circles who bash, condemn, demonize, and accuse other Protestant Evangelicals as “Semi-Pelagians” simply because we object to their theology of meticulous determinism, their version of a God who have no desire to love and save all of humanity, and their horrible belief that God has selected some to save and others to damn before and apart from any free decisions or actions humans make.

We strive to reach out in love, grace, and kindness to Reformed and Calvinist believers especially those who are willing to engage in friendly dialogue and meaningful debates on matters of theology. Thus, we will avoid hurtful speech, ad hominem language, and hateful attitudes that tend to divide the body of Christ.

Affirmations

1) God Sincerely Loves Every Person in the World

The highest expression of God’s love for the whole world (John 3:16) is Christ dying for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ was declared by John the Baptist as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Bible affirms God’s love for all people. His saving love is unrestrictive: the scope is the entire world.

We support teachings which affirm that, because of the fall of Adam, every person inherits a fallen, corrupted, sinful nature and environment inclined toward sin and that every person who is capable of moral action will sin. Each person’s sin alone brings the wrath of a holy God, broken fellowship with Him, ever-worsening selfishness and destructiveness, death, and condemnation to an eternity in hell. But we disagree with theologies which teach that Adam’s sin resulted in the eradication of any person’s free will. While no sinner is remotely capable of achieving salvation through his own effort, we deny that any sinner is saved apart from a free response to the Holy Spirit’s drawing through the Gospel.

We support teachings which affirm that grace is God’s generous decision to provide salvation for any person by taking all of the initiative in providing atonement, in freely offering the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in uniting the believer to Christ through the Holy Spirit by faith. But we disagree with theologies which teach that grace cancels the necessity of a free response of faith or that grace cannot be resisted. We deny that the response of faith is in any way a meritorious work that earns salvation.

2) God Sincerely Desires All Sinners to Be Saved

The New Testament words for “world”, “whosoever”, and “all” are universal in scope implying that Christ died for everyone in the world. 1 John 2:1-2 clearly declares, “Jesus Christ… is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 Timothy 2:6 says that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all” because of God’s unlimited love (John 3:16) and God’s desire to reconcile the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Although Christ died for all people, only those who accept Christ’s death will be saved.

We support teachings which affirm that the death of Christ on the cross is the only available and effective sacrifice for the sins of every person. But we disagree with theologies which teach that this atonement results in salvation without a person’s free response of repentance and faith. We deny that God imposes or withholds this atonement without respect to an act of the person’s free will. We deny that Christ died only for the sins of those who are preselected to be saved.

We support teachings which affirm that, in reference to salvation, divine election speaks of God’s eternal, gracious, and certain plan in Christ to have a people who are His by repentance and faith. Whosoever believes in Christ (the Chosen One) have become part of God’s chosen people (the Church). But we disagree with theologies which teach that election means that, from eternity, God predestined certain people for salvation and others for condemnation.

3) God Sincerely Invites Every Person to Come and Believe

The Bible makes it plain that Christ will draw all people unto Himself (John 12:32). However, every person will make his own decision to trust Christ or to reject Him (John 3:36). Jesus is “the True Light that gives light to everyone…” (John 1:9) that is why every sinner is given opportunity to respond to God through creation (Romans 1:19,20), conscience (Romans 2:11-16), and the preaching of the Gospel (Romans 10:9-15) so every person is without excuse. People go to hell, not because of their inability to come to Christ, but because they choose not to come to Christ (John 5:40).

God gives everyone sufficient grace to enable them to believe in Him. Not only does everyone receive revelation sufficient to lead to salvation if responded to with faith, but at least once in everyone’s life that divine revelation is accompanied by divine enabling that makes a faith response possible, in the sense that people are justly condemned for failing to believe when God is made known to them on that occasion.

Spiritual “death” simply means spiritual “separation” from God. Because the image of God in humanity was not eradicated after the Fall, human will is free to choose the gift of salvation. Yet, although man has a free will, he has no capacity for saving himself. God by His grace, through the convicting and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11; Revelation 22:17), draws people to Himself. People have the responsibility to either accept or resist the prompting of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), thus, no one is ever saved against his will.

We support teachings which affirm that any person who responds to the Gospel with repentance and faith is born again through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is a new creation in Christ and enters, at the moment he believes, into eternal life. But we disagree with theologies which teach that any person is regenerated prior to or apart from hearing and responding to the Gospel.

We support teachings which affirm that the Gospel is the good news that God has made a way of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for any person. This is in keeping with God’s desire for every person to be saved. But we disagree with theologies which teach that only a select few are capable of responding to the Gospel while the rest are predestined to an eternity in hell.

We support teachings which affirm that God’s eternal knowledge of and sovereignty over every person’s salvation or condemnation. But we disagree with theologies which teach that God’s sovereignty and knowledge require Him to cause a person’s acceptance or rejection of faith in Christ.

4) God Sincerely Promises Eternal Life to Whosoever Believes in Christ

God makes the provision of salvation for all people, but it is conditioned by faith. Thus, salvation becomes actual only for those who believe, although it is potential and available to all. Faith is a personal response, apart from our works, whereby we are persuaded that the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, has delivered us from condemnation and guaranteed our eternal life.

Faith in Christ is the requirement before an individual can experience spiritual birth or salvation. The apostle John states that those who “believed” (active voice) has been “born of God” (passive voice). The word “received” is also in the active voice implying human responsibility (John 1:12).

The apostle Paul affirmed the same idea in Acts 16:31, when the Philippian jailer asked him “what must I do to be saved?”. Paul declared that the only way for a person to be saved is to “Believe in the Lord Jesus.” The word “believe” in this passage is in the imperative mood and in the active voice, which means that the person is being commanded to put his faith in Christ. The word “shall be saved”, is in the indicative mood, which stresses certainty. It is also in the future tense with a passive voice, which means that salvation is a guaranteed promise to those who would believe.

We support teachings which affirm that God, as an expression of His sovereignty and initiative of grace, endows each person with actual free will (the ability to choose between two options), which must be exercised in accepting or rejecting God’s gracious call to salvation by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. But we disagree with theologies which teach that the decision of faith is an act of God rather than a response of the person. We deny that there is an “effectual call” for certain people that is different from a “general call” to any person who hears and understands the Gospel.

We support teachings which affirm that when a person responds in faith to the Gospel, God promises to complete the process of salvation in the believer into eternity. This process begins with justification, whereby the sinner is immediately acquitted of all sin and granted peace with God; continues in sanctification, whereby the saved are progressively conformed to the image of Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit; and concludes in glorification, whereby the saint enjoys life with Christ in heaven forever. But we disagree with theologies which teach that this promise of eternal life is exclusively predetermined only to a preselected chosen few even before the world began.

We support teachings which affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned His church to preach the good news of salvation to all people to the ends of the earth. We affirm that the proclamation of the Gospel is God’s means of bringing any person to salvation. But we disagree with theologies which teach that salvation is possible outside of a faith response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Express your agreement to these “Grace for All” affirmations. Let your voice be heard. Collaborate with other like-minded Non-Calvinist Evangelical Christians who embrace the truth that God actually loves the entire world and that God sincerely desires every person to gain eternal life through Jesus Christ. God offers the free gift of salvation to all sinners and invites all humanity to respond in believing faith.

JOIN THE COALITION

Rationale

Collaboration

Objectives

Affirmations

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