This blog is for the purpose of explaining my Soteriological journey. Thus, it's for people who are interested in theology and can't help but find these ideas practical. I once was a Calvinist and now... am not. To clarify up front, this is not purely an emotional journey or about life experiences although those obviously play some part. However, if I remained convinced the scriptures taught Calvinism, I would remain one. Ultimately the question is whether or not the scriptures teach such a doctrine. For many approaching the issue, they are persuaded in their minds the Bible teaches it but are reluctant in their hearts to embrace it. In the end, it actually became the opposite for me. I felt I would need to silence my mind in order to continue embracing such a system.
Shall we begin? Many of us who grew up in a Christian culture inherited a theological atmosphere that was perhaps distinctive for ... not being all that distinctive. All I mean to say is that doctrine itself was ultimately not primary, at least anything but the "fundamentals", but certainly not the hard questions. It is notoriously hard to broadly categorize an entire age but nonetheless there are certain characteristics of any age. So, I don't mean to say there were no exceptions. I am generalizing. That generalization also was prone to weaknesses in it's view of Salvation and it's view of God. There are different ways of putting it but essentially the end is all the same, namely; Pop-Evangelicalism, Mambi-Pambi, Chicken soup Christianity, Joel Osteen-ish, easy believism. The seriousness of sin and the gravity of the reality of God has weighed lightly upon the Church that most of us grew up with. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah they have healed the wounds of the people lightly.
I recently heard a theologian parallel the the Calvinistic resurgence with the current political situation. In other words, the Pop-Evangelicalism or Christianity Light many of us have come from, is Hillary. However, the stringent Calvinism that has swept evangelicalism by storm is Donald Trump. I like the analogy because I think it accurately parallel's the unhealthy pendulum swing that has taken place. I also think it exposes some of the rationale in regards to why it has taken place.
Let me end this first post with a few reasons I think the weakness of Pop-Evangelicalism paved the way for the Calvinistic resurgence ...
(1) Reluctance to teach doctrine ... the mind is made to question and seek answers. If you don't give them answers then someone else will. Calvinism gives people all the answers.
(2) Pop-Evangelicalism largely had too low a view of God. This is a serious weakness. The Calvinistic resurgence has attempted to revive a BIG view of God. This is a good thing (more on this in a later post).
(3) Historical Ignorance ... Calvinists like to paint a picture of one Christian after another passing the Calvinistic baton and thus it should be seen as the historically orthodox position. In my opinion this is cherry picking and Calvinists are on the wrong side of history. More on this later...
(4) Weak Opponents. I think this is actually the biggest reason. I think of Dave Hunt and Norman Geisler for example. Both men were primarily philosophers and only secondarily theologians and exegetes. Neither man evinced an actual understanding of reformed theology. When people are seeking truth and one side avoids tough passages and doesn't seem to really understand the opponent it is only natural to think they are in error. James White has said that many people told him Geisler's book Chosen But Free made them a Calvinist. I believe that. What I think is unfortunate is that these people should never have been involved in such a debate and only hurt the cause. I also think it's unfortunate that many are not aware of all the options. They feel bound to be slaves of the word and believe what it says and think that is simply the only way to seriously deal with the text. It is that I will attempt to show is not true. Real scholars do actually read Romans 9, comment on it, and are not Calvinists. Odd ...right?
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