Post by Redeemed on Mar 11, 2023 11:27:39 GMT -8
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8
One of the growing trends in popular Christianity is the theological approach better known as Calvinism. This approach, named after its founder John Calvin, asserts that God has already pre-determined who will go to hell and who will go to heaven but has left us in the dark.
Not only does this stance on salvation and the character of God cross the fence of heresy — it spits in the face of the God of the Bible. Here is my in-depth study on Calvinism.
I started a deep dive into the dangers of Calvinism yesterday. Here is a list of the material I'll be using in my study:
1. Against Calvinism / by Roger Olson
2. What is Faith ? / by Calvinist R.C. Sproul
3. Did Jesus Die for Everyone? / Part 2 by Robert Lightner
4. Saved by Grace through Faith or Saved by Decree? / By Geoffrey D. Robinson
5. Free Will / by Robert E. Picirilli
6. Five reasons Calvinism is a false doctrine / by Keith Rivas
7. The Calvinistic Heritage of Dispensationalism / by Thomas D. Ice
8. God's Part and Man's Part in Salvation / by John G. Reisinger
9. Does God Love All or Some? / by Ronnie W. Rogers
10. What Love Is This? / by Dave Hunt
11. The Fruits of Calvinism / by Dr. Ron Comfort
I think I'll start here:
So how did Calvinism come into being?
I can tell you right from the gate that it involved a lot of blood, sweat and tears. What I mean by that is Augustine the originator of John Calvin's theology had a lot of blood on his hands. And Calvin had this to say about him.
Augustine is so much at one with me that, if I wish to write a confession of my faith, it would abundantly satisfy me to quote wholesale from his writings.
That quote comes from “Concerning the eternal predestination of God” written by John Calvin. So now the question is who was Augustine, and what did he believe?
Augustine, lived from 354 till 430 and has sometimes been referred to as, “the father of the Inquisition” because he set the precedent that force and suppression must be used to stop and control those who were deemed heretics: Augustine argued that the emperor,, had the duty of suppressing schism and heresy, and indeed of putting pressure on heretics to oblige them to convert. “Compel them to come in” (Luke 14: 23) was given a new and unsuspected meaning. Augustine had become the father of the Inquisition.
The part in the Bible where Jesus talks about loving your enemies, apparently he didn't adhere to that.
In referring to those he considered heretics, Augustine said:
Why … should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?”
Augustine also held to many beliefs that line up more with Catholicism than with biblical Christianity. With regard to infant baptism, Augustine stated:
So that infants, unless they pass into the number of believers through the sacrament [baptism] which was divinely instituted for this purpose, will undoubtedly remain in this darkness.
Let there be then no eternal salvation promised to infants out of our own opinion, without Christ’s baptism.
… unless this benefit [baptism] has been bestowed upon them [infants], they are manifestly in danger of damnation.
Unbaptized infants not only cannot enter into the kingdom of God, but cannot have everlasting life.
Augustine also said things to suggest he believed Mary was sinless as can be seen in his book On Nature and Grace in chapter 42 titled “The Blessed Virgin Mary May Have Lived Without Sin.”
In addition, he believed in purgatory. Regarding salvation, Augustine said: I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.
He made this statement because he believed the only true church was the Roman Catholic Church. He stated:
The Catholic Church alone is the body of Christ. … Outside this body, the Holy Spirit giveth life to no one.
This is the man of whom John Calvin based his understanding of the Bible. According to Augustine, anyone outside the Catholic church is going to Hell. Did Calvin not realize that would soon have to include him?
Because he left Catholicism and declared himself a Protestant. Shortly after leaving Augustine in the dust he published his famous Institutes of the Christian religion. One thing that's interesting to note and all of his writings you will not find a clear testimony of his salvation experience.
What important thing to note when studying the Bible is if no Christian theologian for the first several centuries of church history taught a particular doctrine, then that particular doctrine is probably fallacious and should be rejected.
Calvinism comes in way late in the game. Calvinism originated with the Reformation in Switzerland when Huldrych Zwingli began preaching what would become the first form of the Reformed doctrine in Zürich in 1519.
Don't drink the Kool-Aid
One of the growing trends in popular Christianity is the theological approach better known as Calvinism. This approach, named after its founder John Calvin, asserts that God has already pre-determined who will go to hell and who will go to heaven but has left us in the dark.
Not only does this stance on salvation and the character of God cross the fence of heresy — it spits in the face of the God of the Bible. Here is my in-depth study on Calvinism.
I started a deep dive into the dangers of Calvinism yesterday. Here is a list of the material I'll be using in my study:
1. Against Calvinism / by Roger Olson
2. What is Faith ? / by Calvinist R.C. Sproul
3. Did Jesus Die for Everyone? / Part 2 by Robert Lightner
4. Saved by Grace through Faith or Saved by Decree? / By Geoffrey D. Robinson
5. Free Will / by Robert E. Picirilli
6. Five reasons Calvinism is a false doctrine / by Keith Rivas
7. The Calvinistic Heritage of Dispensationalism / by Thomas D. Ice
8. God's Part and Man's Part in Salvation / by John G. Reisinger
9. Does God Love All or Some? / by Ronnie W. Rogers
10. What Love Is This? / by Dave Hunt
11. The Fruits of Calvinism / by Dr. Ron Comfort
I think I'll start here:
So how did Calvinism come into being?
I can tell you right from the gate that it involved a lot of blood, sweat and tears. What I mean by that is Augustine the originator of John Calvin's theology had a lot of blood on his hands. And Calvin had this to say about him.
Augustine is so much at one with me that, if I wish to write a confession of my faith, it would abundantly satisfy me to quote wholesale from his writings.
That quote comes from “Concerning the eternal predestination of God” written by John Calvin. So now the question is who was Augustine, and what did he believe?
Augustine, lived from 354 till 430 and has sometimes been referred to as, “the father of the Inquisition” because he set the precedent that force and suppression must be used to stop and control those who were deemed heretics: Augustine argued that the emperor,, had the duty of suppressing schism and heresy, and indeed of putting pressure on heretics to oblige them to convert. “Compel them to come in” (Luke 14: 23) was given a new and unsuspected meaning. Augustine had become the father of the Inquisition.
The part in the Bible where Jesus talks about loving your enemies, apparently he didn't adhere to that.
In referring to those he considered heretics, Augustine said:
Why … should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?”
Augustine also held to many beliefs that line up more with Catholicism than with biblical Christianity. With regard to infant baptism, Augustine stated:
So that infants, unless they pass into the number of believers through the sacrament [baptism] which was divinely instituted for this purpose, will undoubtedly remain in this darkness.
Let there be then no eternal salvation promised to infants out of our own opinion, without Christ’s baptism.
… unless this benefit [baptism] has been bestowed upon them [infants], they are manifestly in danger of damnation.
Unbaptized infants not only cannot enter into the kingdom of God, but cannot have everlasting life.
Augustine also said things to suggest he believed Mary was sinless as can be seen in his book On Nature and Grace in chapter 42 titled “The Blessed Virgin Mary May Have Lived Without Sin.”
In addition, he believed in purgatory. Regarding salvation, Augustine said: I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.
He made this statement because he believed the only true church was the Roman Catholic Church. He stated:
The Catholic Church alone is the body of Christ. … Outside this body, the Holy Spirit giveth life to no one.
This is the man of whom John Calvin based his understanding of the Bible. According to Augustine, anyone outside the Catholic church is going to Hell. Did Calvin not realize that would soon have to include him?
Because he left Catholicism and declared himself a Protestant. Shortly after leaving Augustine in the dust he published his famous Institutes of the Christian religion. One thing that's interesting to note and all of his writings you will not find a clear testimony of his salvation experience.
What important thing to note when studying the Bible is if no Christian theologian for the first several centuries of church history taught a particular doctrine, then that particular doctrine is probably fallacious and should be rejected.
Calvinism comes in way late in the game. Calvinism originated with the Reformation in Switzerland when Huldrych Zwingli began preaching what would become the first form of the Reformed doctrine in Zürich in 1519.
Don't drink the Kool-Aid
