In Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed, Austin Fischer tells his own story about why he became a Calvinist and why he left Calvinism. Because it’s written as a story, the book moves quickly and is engaging to read. It’s definitely not dry theology. And at only 109 pages, it’s not a long book. As such, it’s a quick read unveiling several major problems with Calvinism and offering a better alternative: “I believe we best say yes to God’s glory and sovereignty by saying no to Calvinism” (p. 2, emphasis in the original).
Summary
The story begins in chapters 1-2 with Fischer’s journey into Calvinism during his late teen years. He was hungering for more in his faith and found it in Calvinism when his youth pastor suggested they go together through Desiring God by John Piper. He began studying and reading more Calvinist authors, and despite some initial difficulties with it, he soon concluded Calvinism was true because “I didn’t feel as though the Bible left me any option” (p. 11).
The Calvinist vision of God as One determined to display his own glory became the organizing center of his theology and life.
In chapters 3-4, the story turns to the crisis of faith that proved to be the catalyst for abandoning Calvinism, namely, hell. Consistent Calvinism entails that God created most people to be damned to hell; indeed, he ordained this for his own glory. Taking a long, hard look at this fact made God and the Bible impossible for Fischer. And before long, he no longer knew what he believed. He just knew he wasn’t a Calvinist anymore.
The rest of the book invites us to go along with Fischer as he rebuilds his theology, the starting point of which was now the glory of God in the face of Christ. Whoever God is, he must be like Jesus as revealed in the scriptures. Building off that foundation, he wrestles with what the essence of God’s glory actually is and how the nature of God’s sovereignty relates to human beings who seem to have free will. He also addresses the difficulties and problems of both Calvinism and non-Calvinism, difficulties which he describes as “monsters in the basement” of our theology.
“The rest of the book invites us to go along with Fischer as he rebuilds his theology.”
The final three chapters of the book briefly address a few more topics: the nature and certainty of theology knowledge (ch. 9), the difference our theology makes on the gospel and discipleship (ch. 10), and whether Romans 9 teaches Calvinistic predestination (ch. 11).
How this Book Can Serve You and Your Ministry
We live in a day and age with ease of access to all sorts of ideas and information. YouTube, podcasts, and blogs are literally at our fingertips just a few clicks away. So when it comes to theology, more people are being exposed to a variety of ideas than ever before. That means there’s a lot more theological cross-pollination than there used to be.
And one of the theological systems whose influence has spread because of this is Calvinism. If your church is from an Arminian or non-Calvinist background, don’t be surprised to find even influential members of your church with a Calvinist understanding of Scripture and God.
That’s where this book can be helpful.
To be sure, Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed will not provide a thorough or systematic summary of Calvinist theology. No one is going to learn the ins and outs of T.U.L.I.P. here. For that you will need to look elsewhere (in fact, Bobby Harrington and I are putting together a list of helpful books you can use for examining Calvinism).
“If your church is from an Arminian or non-Calvinist background, don’t be surprised to find even influential members of your church with a Calvinist understanding of Scripture and God.”
This book is best used in conversation with someone who is already familiar with Calvinist theology. It can be used with someone who either considers themselves a Calvinist or is thinking about adopting Calvinism. Either way, this book will help them see its weaknesses and think through a more Christ-centered, glorious vision of God. Its short, personal nature is more winsome than a heavy, dogmatic theology book.
A Few Key Ideas
First, Calvinism teaches that God ordains everything that happens in the world. In fact, even evil is ultimately ordained by God. In addition, this means that God ordained who would be saved and who would be damned and did so in order to display his glory. Fischer realized that if God created people and ordained their damnation, then in what sense is God good and loving? He describes the impact this had on him: “The lights went out and I was left sitting in the dark in an absurd universe with an enigmatic deity of naked power” (p. 34).
Second, Fischer highlights the centrality of Jesus to our understanding of God. He writes that you either “find God on Jesus’ terms or you find something that isn’t God” (p. 40). Jesus’ character sets the standard for God’s character.
Rather than making God’s glory synonymous with his supremacy and power, the glory of God we meet in Jesus powerfully shows us the glory of love. In other words, God pursues his glory by pouring out himself in love. “And so when God opens his heart to us and we get a glimpse of what makes it beat (Jesus Christ crucified), we see a desire to love at all costs, not glorify himself at all costs” (p. 58).
“Fischer highlights the centrality of Jesus to our understanding of God.”
Third, God is the one who gets to define what his sovereignty means, and God is so sovereign that he can make room for human free will and still achieve his purposes. “Apparently, God’s sovereignty makes room for human freedom so that God and humans can have a personal, and not merely causal, relationship” (p. 67).
One Critique
In chapter 9, Fischer offers his perspective on certainty. I appreciate the emphasis on the need for humility; this is terribly important. But his approach to what we know and how we know it was a little too weak for my taste. It’s true that absolute certainty in most cases is impossible, but some of the way Fischer described knowledge veered into sounding so personal as to be purely subjective. If this is what he intended to communicate, I think his understanding of how we know what we know could use some improvement.
Conclusion
Despite that one critique, I think that Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed is a helpful tool for guiding people from Calvinism into a more Christ-centered and faithful reading of Scripture. And I think this matters because the Calvinist vision of God is not nearly as good or as great as the God we meet in the person of Jesus.
