(A dialogue from Facebook)
I wanted to say something. (pretend you saw the movie Shrek and see the donkey jumping up and down shouting “pick me, pick me”)
WARNING, IF YOU ARE PRONE TO FALLING ASLEEP DURING LONG POSTS THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. ALSO, **BEWARE, THIS ARTICLE MAY UPSET BOTH SIDES OF THE CAMP AND RUFFLE THE FEATHERS OF SOME.**
WHILE IT MAY BE OUTRIGHT AGAINST ARMINIAN’S, I WILL ALSO ADDRESS THOSE WHO ARE UNDER THE TITLE CALVINIST’S.
I agree with Ron W that Calvin’s greatest desire may have been to glorify God, but in the meantime and at the same time, Calvin maintained Roman Catholic doctrines that were opposed to the Scriptures.
I have said it again and again that i consider the majority of Calvinists my family. I say many because John Piper and Douglas Wilson are not my family and they lay claim to the title Calvinist. I do not approve of any person taking the title “Calvinist”. Paul told us to follow him as he followed the Messiah. Do we also follow Calvin as he followed Rome? More on that later.
If it is our intent to glorify God, then it begins with theology. If we say we love God and yet, are maintaining a position contrary to revealed revelation, then this is problematic and also defiant. We often times say let us look at fruit. You quoted Matthew 7. These are works brought to God. But, were these works, in and of themselves bad? Is it bad to prophecy? Is it bad to cast out demons? Is it bad to do miracles? Well, that all depends upon foundations.
We forget the passage begins with the tree. A good tree bears good fruit. Fruit is not the test, the tree is the test. I have said it before and I will say it again, fruit is abundant in our day and age because it can be counterfeited. The Jews had good works. Paul said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews and as to the Law he was perfect. You cannot get much better fruit than that. But, what did Paul believe? What did his tree say?
As the Devil duplicates miracles, he can equally duplicate what appear to be “good works” This is why we must look at the doctrine. Doctrine determines the relationship with God and not the fruit. The fruit can often times point out the tree, but in our day and age and culture, we simply cannot rest upon fruit alone. The Messiah will know who knows him and who does not know him on the day of judgment.
To further make the point consider the passage that says;
1Corinthians 12:3; Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by God’s Spirit can say, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit”.
No one can say Jesus is Lord? The Mormons call him Lord, the Hindu’s call him Lord, the Arminians call him Lord, etc, etc. Again, it goes back to the tree. What does the person believe before you consider the works that he or she does.
Sorry to ramble. Arminiansm is heresy, but they have good works right? I would say many do. Whose work’s are they if they deny the sovereignty of God?
I just wanted to say that I did not come from Arminianism. I came from a Jewish background. I have Jewish foundations. I believe these Jewish foundations were used by God to keep me from the eternal ignorance of a system created by a man.
Biblical Jews do not follow men.
Christians do not follow men.
Men follow men!
Because of this, I was spared many potential pains while He dragged me to His Son.
To the Arminian who says “you know nothing about us”!
One does not have to be a Mormon to speak against Moronism. With that said, I was introduced to Arminianism by grandpa Chuck Smith, one of the last of the freewill dinasours in our time! I attend Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa for almost ten years. I was saturated in a theology that says God loves everyone. I was there in ignorance. CCCM was popular with 12000 attendees and so I thought there would be some truth there. I saw, what I thought was good fruit. How could 12,000 be a bad thing?
Had the Lord’s hand not been upon me and if I were left to a humanist driven conversion, I would have embraced a terrible theology that stood against the sovereignty of God, and all that I was raised to believe as a Jew.
O sure, I was sitting under the late Dr. Walter Martin while attending CCCM, and I was an apologetical madman. I boasted that I worked at CRI. I debated a pastor from the Iglesio Ni Christo Church. I took on Mormon Bishops, and took on Elders from the Local Kingdom Hall. I was asked to speak for a group at UCLA on the cults. But, had you asked me to define the doctrine of justification my head would have spinned. I was so driven by apologetics that I left the gospel behind in the wind.
While under a so-called congregation that upheld the system of Arminiansim I ask myself, was I saved? I do not believe I was. I had an academic understanding of the Scriptures and nothing more. Multitudes have an academic understanding. Religious people simply force the Scriptures to fit into their worldviews, but not without stepping on the toes of other Scriptures.
This is why Arminians do not just come to us with only one heresy. They always have several because the sovereignty of God is foundational. Once you attack or redefine the sovereignty of God, the system designed by the Lord begins to crumble.
The gospel becomes a man centered gospel instead of a God centered gospel
I was enlightened by literature, but was not born from above in my opinion. I went for ten years being ignorant and hanging out with ignorant people. O how very sad it was to run around telling people I was a Christian. I was smart and very knowledgable about the Bible, and could dance around a cult member. But, I was only a religious person. Not a Christian
Yet, during this time, I never…NEVER, believed I chose God and so, I was trying to make a circle fit into a square by staying at CCCM. I was trying to maintain God’s sovereignty at the same time hang out with multitudes who did not. During my ten years at CCCM, I kept argument free with others if I kept my mouth shut. I would go along to get along. If you knew me, that is not an easy thing for me to do. It is not in my spiritual nature to go with the flow to keep things running smoothly. Earthly things perhaps. Doctrinal things, no way Jose!
Moving forward, as a Jewish convert, I did not know about many “reformed” congregations. Many, which taught and maintained the doctrines of grace. Which, btw, are very few upon further investigation.
Funny thing was, I had no idea what an Arminian or a Calvinist was. Their book store sold Dave Hunt in ons section and charles Spurgeon in another section. Besides, as a Jew I was not interested in following after a man. Jews followed the Scriptures. Christians should be following the Scriptures.
Why are men and women attaching titles to the heels of Christianity?
“Hello, how do you do. I am a Calvinist”. What???
How about I am just a Christian?
Now to my point; anyone who has picked up the Old Testament as literature can read that the Jews were God’s “chosen” people. An honest person can see the history of the Jews as they were used to destroy the pagan Nations.
Just ask most atheists, deists or non believers what they read about the God of the Old Testament and you will hear that he was an angry God or a meanie! Obviously, they were correct when they read the Old Testament. He was a meanine WHEN it came to idolatry. But they reject the love he displayed to HIS people. Most understood the literature of the Scriptures. But, because they were not or are not born from above they reject His hatred of idolatry and His jealousy.
Arminians do not see the jealousy of God and that is why they entertain an old man sitting in a wheelchair on the wood porch with a blanket over his knees passing out candy to anyone who comes to his porch.
An Arminian who does not see these foundations as they were communicated to us from the Old Testament will not see it in the New Testament.
God’s nature has not changed. His covenants may change, but his person and nature never change. Malachi 3 and Numbers 23 both say; he does not change.
He does not change so the Arminian is forced to change Him. Therefore, they are guilty of the accusation in Romans 1. They suppress the truth.
Romans 1:18-19; For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
Hmmm, what freewill did that give the heathen? God did not say I love all of you. He said, I am going to destroy all the Goyim, using my chosen people. Thus, the Jews were called the exterminators of idolatry. The Arminian says God so loved “the world”, but, someone forgot to define “world” for them. When they come to John 3:16 they must ignore the foundations from the Old Testament in order to make a “love song” god who is up there singing “we are the world”.
If an Arminian picks up the Old Testament and reads it, if they are honest, they will read (even if they read it as literature) God chose!
If they have the Spirit of God, they will read God chose! Deuteronomy 7 is what we call a passage of full mention.
When I learned that there were people on this planet who held to the sovereignty of God as taught in both the Old and the New Testaments, (a foundational belief for all who believe in the Lord God) I began attending places calling themselves reformed. In the midst of these reformed churches there were Calvinists by the truck loads. I was excited to see other like minded believers concerning God’s sovereignty.
What is the sum of all this confusing writing? On the one hand I do believe many Calvinists are my family because they believe in the sovereignty of God. On the other hand I cannot accept nor associate with anyone who pushes the sovereignty of man. These are the two issues when all is said and done.
Either man is God or the Lord is God.
Either man controls salvation or the Lord controls salvation.
To push it to its logical conclusion, either man is god or the Lord is God.
Sadly, and in conclusion, most agree that Hermonson was a heretic and his theology was condemned by the Synod. Thus, Arminian’s who believe in this man’s heresies equally share in his heresies.
However, this is equally true of any man calling themself a Calvinist. Taking the term Calvinist is problematic in my opinion for a couple of reasons.
Men do not follow other men. We may agree with their theology, but we follow the Lord. It is for this very reason that Paul addressed the same issue back then. We imitate godly men who have gone before us, but we do not compromise and give into them when they teach contrary doctrines. We, especially, do not call ourselves by their name.
1Corinthians 1:10-13; Brothers, I urge all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be in agreement and not to have divisions among you, so that you may be perfectly united in your understanding and opinions. My brothers, some members of Chloe’s family have made it clear to me that there are quarrels among you. This is what I mean: Each of you is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he? You weren’t baptized in Paul’s name, were you?…….
1Corinthians 1:30-31; It is because of him that you are in union with Christ Jesus, who for us has become wisdom from God, as well as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, “The person who boasts must boast in the Lord.”
It is because of Him that you are in union with the Messiah and not Calvin. I would not be able to unite with Calvin in the light of the passage above. “Brothers, I urge all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be in agreement and not to have divisions among you, so that you may be perfectly united in your understanding and opinions.
Calvin did not get his doctrine of Mary from Paul. Nor did he get his doctrine of sprinkling by Paul.
I am not comparing Arminius to Calvin because they are worlds apart in their theology. But the Scripture says salvation is from the Jews and not Calvin. We adhere to Jewish beliefs and not Calvinistic beliefs. Our Messiah was a Jew and his disciples were Jews. If you call yourself a Calvinist then I believe you are doing the very thing Paul said not to do above. Besides, that means you follow ALL of Calvin’s teachings and not some, right?
I alluded to a couple of them above. That means you accept his teaching that Mary’s womb was forever closed to any man and she remained a virgin. You hold to the perpetual virginity of Mary.
That means that you also accept Roman Catholic baptism as valid and therefore, you believe Roman Catholic babies who are sprinkled are in the Covenant with us. Calvin refused to be immersed because he believed his Romish baptism was valid. This is a problem for me.
Most Calvinists would say “NO WE DON”T BELIEVE THOSE TWO DOCTRINES” Then stop calling yourselves Calvinists and remain loyal to only one person, and that is the Lord. Men will always have problems and we must never put a man in an elevated position. Hus fought Rome long before Calvin and Luther. If you are going to have devotion why not get closer to where it all began and call yourself a Hussite? You say that is silly! Yes it is silly.
As a Jew, the issue of election does not, and cannot rest upon a man or a movement from the dark ages. Calvin had heresies, Luther had heresies and when all is said and done, the only people we can trust to say “yay or nay” on issues are the men who spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
We must not allow the Arminians to call us Calvinists. Calvin MUST NOT get any credit for the doctrine of election or predestination. These are biblical terms maintained long before Calvin arrived on planet earth. They were suppressed by the wicked Roman Church. If Calvin resurrected the creation account would we call ourselves Calvinists if we believed in Creation? I dont think so.
If we are to be a problem to the goats of the world and the heathen, let it be the Scriptures that create the problem and not a man who had problems like all of us. Calvin was used for his time and that is where it must remain. We have better tools, better archeology, we have the dead sea scrolls, we have MUCH more than Calvin and so we must press on using the tools God gave us in our day and stop going backwards. Yes, we read these men, but we read them in the light of their generations. We can have a reformation. We can be as the Puritans if we like, but we can be better because we can learn by their mistakes.
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