Calvinism

 

I’ve just finished two other articles on the three main sects available to Christians at this time in which we are living. The First two were number one, Seventh Day Adventism[1] and number two, the Charismatic Church[2] or the Tongues Movement. The first article I posted on Facebook as well however in the face of cowardice because I know and love many Charismatics. I only posted the second article on my blog, Walking by the River.

This article will be a hard one to write as I have many friends in the Calvinist Movement. I’m not sure a lot of people really know what Calvinism is. The movement started with John Calvin who lived around four hundred and fifty years ago. He was born in France and educated in Catholic schools there but because of his reformed beliefs he fled to Switzerland and lived most of the rest of his life in Geneva.

He wrote about many Christian topics but is known for his teachings about Predestination and his Augustinian leanings on that subject. Largely He taught that man is so depraved that he / she cannot decide to accept the redemptive works of Christ Jesus on the Cross without God making he / she do it. The obvious problem with this teaching is that if God pre-selects you for salvation because you cannot make the choice if He doesn’t. Then that means he pre-selects your neighbor for damnation because he / she cannot make the decision to reject Christ Jesus unless God makes them do it. Man is that a can of worms.

Add to this the fact that John Wesley led the English Arminian Movement and that he did as all Arminians do. He conceded the point that mankind is totally depraved and cannot choose salvation for themselves. Rather, he argued that the five points of Calvinism, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints, are wrong.

He suggested another set of parameters based around the idea that mankind is totally depraved but grace enables us to make a choice for or against the gospel. So, we are not predestined but God foresees our willingness to accept or reject salvation and enables us to make our decision when convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit. Rather than never being able to lose salvation he felt you could reject grace later and lose your salvation.

My opinion for what it’s worth is that you can decide to accept or reject salvation as a human being standing before God. Yes, the bible indicates that God predestines us and what ever that means it is the truth because the bible says so. However, to the unbeliever who hears the gospel and comes under conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit. This person has no knowledge of God predestining them or even that they are being convicted of sin. They simply hear the gospel and are compelled to respond to it by saying yes Lord Jesus or no and walking away.

Does this mean that Calvinism doesn’t matter. No, I believe it is an attack on the Protestant Church launched by the Catholics, at the time of the Reformation. and that it was meant to cause strife and confusion which would stop in a large portion the work of those disseminating the gospel. It did this by causing a general malaise and apathy toward preaching the gospel. This is because if God has already chosen who is saved and who is lost. Then there is no point in evangelizing because it doesn’t matter if you preach or don’t preach you cannot make a material difference to who gets saved.

There are group of doctrines which form Calvinist systematic theology that I won’t go into and that only get worse when you dig a little deeper and find that there is another subtle belief at play. Calvinism also holds that the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ had a discussion in the beginning who would be saved and who would be damned based on nothing that the believer or unbeliever had done because they had not lived yet.

The connotations of this belief result in all manner of mayhem. If God predestines the lost, is he responsible for the evil they do. Bear in mind Calvinism entertains the idea that everything we do in life is also predestined by God. A Calvinist friend says that it is all somewhat of a mystery, and I guess I would have to agree. Calvinism is based on scripture but whether that scripture is being interpreted in the right way has always been a point of great contention.

To me the one point that is made again and again in the New Testament is that God so loved the world and all of humanity that He gave His only son, Jesus Christ, to die on the Cross and to pay the sin debt to allow that all who will, may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

My final idea is that there are things in the bible that only God knows the answers too. To enter the Kingdom of Heaven we must be like little children. We need to be innocent of this kind of pointless debate and seek to follow God and to do His will. Focus on scriptures like Luke 22:20 “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.”

and

Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You can believe on Christ Jesus and partake in the New Covenant in His blood and take up your cross as you go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in His name. Arguing about election and predestination is a spiritual no exit road. Just drive right on by.

Finally, a prayer. “Dearest Heavenly Father, please bring all the Adventist Christians, the Charismatic Christians and the Calvinist Christians to a simple faith based around our Lord Jesus. As we go forward into the coming time of judgement give us strength to stand-fast as true saints. Let us read the word and preach the gospel and please pour out the Holy Spirit that the harvest may be great harvest and the new believers will be like grains of sand on the beach. In Jesus name Amen



[1] https://walkingbytheriverl.blogspot.com/2024/01/what-is-seal-of-god_9.html


[2] https://walkingbytheriverl.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-charismatic-christian.html