Sunday, April 15, 2007

imma heretic

Yep - I've gone full circle. Randy no-blog, in spite of my tongue-talking, promoted me from "heretic" to "in-error" to "misguided". But now Dr. Jerry Falwell, has placed me among Bunyan, Owen, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Carey, Boyce, Mell, Dagg and Lloyd-Jones ... oh, and Randy no-blog.

In his chapel message at Liberty University this past Friday, Falwell said, "We are not into particular love or limited atonement. As a matter of fact we consider it heresy."

Phil Johnson (a fellow heretic), wrote eight articles explaining Why I Am a Calvinist. The series is worth reading if you are at all confused and open to hearing some Scripture that might "offend" you comfort zone. Here's his summary.
You might be one of those people who doesn’t want to be referred to as a Calvinist or an Arminian. But the fact is, if you are a Christian at all, you do already affirm the fundamental principle in every one of those truths. You already know in your heart of hearts that you weren’t born again because you were morally superior to your unbelieving neighbors. You were worthy of God’s wrath just like them (Eph. 2:1 3). According to Ephesians 2:4-6, it was God who quickened you and showed you a special mercy—and that is why you are a believer. You already know that in your heart. You don’t really believe you summoned faith and came to Christ in your own power and by your own unaided free will. You don’t actually believe you are morally superior to people who don’t believe. You therefore must see, somewhere in your soul, that God has given you special grace that He has not necessarily shown everyone.

You also believe God is absolutely sovereign over all things. I know you do, because you lean on the promise of Romans 8:28. And that promise would mean nothing if God were not in control of every detail of everything that happens. If He is not in control of all things, how could He work all things together for good?

Furthermore, you pray for the lost, which means in your heart, you believe God is sovereign over their salvation. If you didn’t really believe He was sovereign in saving sinners, you’d quit praying for the lost and start doing everything you could to buttonhole people into the kingdom by hook or by crook, instead. But you know that would be folly. And you pray about other things, too, don’t you? You pray that God will change this person’s heart, or alter the circumstances of that problem. That’s pure Calvinism. When we go to God in prayer, we’re expressing faith in His sovereignty over the circumstances of our lives.

You even believe God operates sovereignly in the administration of all His providence. You say things like, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:15)—because in your heart you believe that God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11), and nothing happens apart from His will.

Nothing is more biblical than these doctrines that are commonly labeled Calvinism. In a way, it is a shame they have been given an extrabiblical name, because these truths are the very essence of what Scripture teaches. The very gist of Calvinism is nowhere more clearly stated than in the simple words of our verse: “We love Him, because He first loved us.”

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Rick,

i wouldn't call you a heretic unless you have renounced Jesus for Who He is...

Scot Mcknight just did a great series over at Jesus Creed on the proper usage of the word heretic...

Now, do i agree with Calvinism.... nope... I disagree very strongly... I think one has to totally misread Romans chapter 9 to justify Calvinism... I see that if one reads that chapter in context all the way until the first few verses in chapter 10 in make sense that God wanted not a new separation of Jew and Church but One Man out of the two... Calvinism teaches that Jew and Gentile are still separate and that in effect (without realizing it) that Israel will be restored but we are taught gentiles are en-grafted on to Israel...

I think that these besides that the idea of God fitting into a "system" negates God being sovereign... then the "system" becomes sovereign... that takes some time to sink in...

Paul was a task theologian.. not a systematic theologian... Romans is a letter of introduction so that Paul could visit to receive money so that he could go to Spain... yet it seems he never made it... Romans is not a book of systematic theology... if read that way one misses so much.

I appreciate Calvin and do hold some of his views... such as eternal security... yet as I dug deeper into his theology, I found more and more Platonist/dualism and less and less real biblical theology... Augustine was heavily influence by Plato... who was named by Iraenius as a heretic... and the father of Gnosticism....

Now that does not mean Calvinism is Gnostic... but it is influenced by the same ideas...

Anyway, you do not have to agree... and i hold you in great respect and see you as a friend and brother in Christ.

Blessings,
iggy

ricki said...

Iggy - as always, thanks.

reftagger