What is Hyper-Calvinism? Hyper-Calvinism is the belief that God will save the elect with little to no help from us. Hyper-Calvinism does not see a need for us to evangelize the lost because God will save the elect with or without our help. This is the only true definition as to what Hyper-Calvinism is, and it is not something that I believe. Such a belief disregards Scripture and the method God employed in order to bring about salvation in the elect:
"WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? . . . So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Rom. 10:13-14, 17
As someone once said, "If the Lord had put a yellow stripe down the backs of the elect, I’d go up and down the street lifting up shirt tails, finding out who had the yellow stripe, and then I’d give them the gospel. But God didn’t do it that way. He told me to preach the gospel to every creature." (This statement has been attributed to Charles Spurgeon, yet that attribution has been contested as being false.) We do not know who the elect are, which is why we are told to preach the Gospel to every man. The preaching of the Gospel is what God uses to convert the soul. You could be in a lunch room, preaching the Gospel to someone sitting at your table, and meanwhile the Holy Spirit is convicting someone sitting two tables over listening to your preaching.
Several websites and individuals attempt to define Hyper-Calvinism as "denying the universal duty of mankind to believe in Christ unto the salvation of their soul." That is not Hyper-Calvinism! That is biblical! Observe:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44
"For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." John 6:65
No one can come to Jesus unless it has been granted to them by the Father. In other words, no one can respond to the Gospel call, exercise faith, and accept Jesus as their Saviour until or unless God the Father has granted it to them. Faith is a gift (Eph. 2:8). We are saved by the grace of God (Eph. 2:5, 8). "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me" (John 6:37). The giving precedes the coming.
Jesus came to "save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Not "all" people! Jesus came to "lay down His life for the sheep" (John 10:11, 15). Not for the goats! Jesus came to "[give] Himself up for [His bride, the church]" (Eph. 5:25). Not for the entire world!
While the false definition of Hyper-Calvinism given by sites like C.A.R.M. and people like Matt Slick would accuse me of being a "Hyper-Calvinist," my beliefs square with the teachings of the whole counsel of the Word of God. There is no responsibility of man in the work of salvation! "Salvation is from the Lord!" (Jonah 2:9). We are saved by grace (Eph. 2:5, 8). Man is not responsible for his faith or lack of faith; man is responsible for his sin (imputed, inherited, and personal), for breaking the law of God. When Jesus and his disciples preached, they used the law to convict their listener of sin, showing them how they have broken God's law. If a person grows up having never heard the Gospel, having never heard about Jesus, he will not go to Hell because he never heard the Gospel or about Jesus. He will go to Hell because he has broken God's law. He is responsible for having broken it.
If there was a "universal duty of mankind to believe in Christ unto the salvation of their soul," then John 6:37 is false. Instead of "all," is should read "some" or "many." If there was a "universal duty of mankind to believe in Christ unto the salvation of their soul," then Romans 8:30 is also false. But the number of those who will be saved will not wane or gain. It will be precise and accurate on the last day. If salvation is up to us to reject or accept, then Jesus cannot say, "Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17:12); He cannot say, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me" (John 6:37).
"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). Until I have heard the Gospel, I cannot exercise faith. I can only exercise faith if that faith has been granted to me by God the Father. If that faith has been granted to me, I will respond to the Gospel by faith because the Holy Spirit will have regenerated me, given me a new heart, and caused me to be born again from above. Until God changes me, I cannot respond to the Gospel. When God changes me, I cannot reject the Gospel. These truths are borne out of Scripture. It is not "Hyper-Calvinism."