There is No Plan B
4.5 billion people. It is a staggering number. Dr. Platt appeals to this number of lost people in an attempt to motivate us to go to the nations and proclaim the Gospel. He uses 6 Biblical truths to illustrate his point:
1. All people have knowledge of God
2. All people reject God
3. All people are guilty before God
4. All people are condemned for rejecting God
5. God has made a way of salvation for the lost
6. People cannot come to God apart from faith in Christ
In light of these 6 truths, the message of Paul becomes clearer and the urgency more apparent:
For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
(Romans 10:13-15)
Dr. Platt points out that although God could have chosen another path for the redemption of believers, He did not. He chose the path that commands us to go and make disciples of all men. What a joy and privilege it is to be able to serve God in bringing the Gospel to the nations! As the chapter is aptly titled, there is no Plan B. If we have a desire for the salvation of the lost then we must take the message that can save them, to them.
There is a large part of me that would like to simply give a large thumbs up to this chapter at this point and move on. Unfortunately for me, I could not simply read this chapter and treat it as if I have never heard David Platt preach before. He often preaches about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. One good way of looking at is that salvation is all of God and sin is all of man. I am a firm believer that this is the correct starting point in theology. The problem in formulating a belief system beyond these two truths is maintaining both truths without sacrificing one at the expense of the other.
Perhaps the more common way this is done today is by emphasizing the responsibility of man too heavily. The end result of this is a theology that has man at its center and not God. It is quite possible that this chapter will be viewed by many as along these lines. Dr. Platt repeatedly emphasizes that we should go so that people can hear the Gospel and as a result, be saved. This would give you the impression that he believes that more people might get saved if the Gospel is preached to all nations but this is simply not so. Dr. Platt subscribes to a definite (limited) atonement and to irresistible grace. So why the sense of urgency? If it is really because we are being obedient in extending God’s glory then why appeal to the number of lost at all?
It appears to me that Dr. Platt would like to apply a Great Commission hermeneutic to his radical concept of taking the Gospel to the nations. I am fine with that. I just think that he needs to be consistent in his application. If he truly believes that there will be no impact on the number of those that are saved as a result of the Gospel being preached then don’t use the numbers to justify taking the Gospel to the world. However, if he believes that the Gospel can make a difference in people’s lives then he needs to clarify how this can be so in light of his beliefs in irresistible grace and limited atonement.
On the other extreme, some people emphasize the sovereignty of God to the point of removing the responsibility from man to respond to the Gospel call. The end result of this is causal determinism. For my friends that subscribe to this view I have a simple question. Do you think that you can argue effectively to the point of convincing me that you are correct in your beliefs? If so, is it because your arguments are logically coherent or is it because it has been determined that I will believe you? If it is the former then my believing you is based on logic and not determinism. If it is the latter then truth is defeated and has no real meaning.
Of course at the root of causal determinism is the problem of evil. If God is the ultimate cause of everything then He is ultimately the cause of the fall and sin as well. Some (Vincent Cheung, R. C. Sproul Jr.) have embraced this but I can not help but ask how this can be. This line of thinking leads to questions about the meaning of justice in relation to God and this is a major stumbling block for me. However, the larger problem here is the effect that it has on scripture. If God is the cause of sin then how can we have faith in the words of the Bible? If we must redefine just and impartial then I am left to wonder what other words we must redefine as well. A good friend of mine likes to say the Bible means what it says. If it says that God is just and impartial then I see no reason to redefine those terms.
So how do we maintain a balance between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man? It is a difficult question to address. I think there are a great number of people that desire to err on the side of caution today and as a result unwittingly remove the responsibility from man. I would say to these people that if we truly wish to extend the glory of God then we must be faithful to His words. If the exaltation of one of God’s attributes leads to the denigration of others then perhaps we need to reexamine what we believe. What I find most interesting is that it seems to me that when we try to exalt God’s sovereignty to the exclusion of His other attributes we actually place a limit on what God can do. Is it not possible that God accomplishes all that He desires and still allows for permissive acts? Better still, isn’t that what scripture affirms?
At this point you may be asking yourself how this can be. Although I do have an opinion on the matter, I will leave that for another day and a separate blog dedicated to that purpose. For now I would simply encourage you to affirm all that scripture teaches and not try to make scripture fit your presuppositions.
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