If you want to start a fight in a church, start a debate about the doctrine of divine choice If you’re not sure what that means, read how Belgian Confession sums it up:
“We believe that God, when the sin of the first man cast Adam and all his seed into perdition, was shown as it is, namely: merciful and just; merciful, because He frees and saves from perdition those whom He, in his eternal and immutable counsel, alone out of kindness, has chosen our Lord in Jesus Christ, regardless of any of his works. Precisely why do you leave others in the fall and doom, in which they embarked?
- This doctrine has also been hated and loved by many over the centuries.
- Today.
- Young Christians and evangelicals are more likely to have read “The Cabin” than all good historical and doctrinal work.
- Unfortunately.
- The current terms? Doctrine? And.
As a newly converted Christian, I remember giving my testimony in a church and then speaking with a leader. He was giving the usual “free trophy” speech. then he said something that has always marked me. “The problem with these Calvinists is that they kill evangelism and missions. ” Now, he hadn’t been a Christian for a long time and he wasn’t sure what a Calvinist was, but they seemed like a bunch of fools. When I returned to my church and asked the pastor what a Calvinist was, he gave me a wry smile and handed me a book. The title was? A trip to grace? (Editora Fiel) and it was the first (and I think the only) doctrinal novel that I read. The book tells the story of a young man who passes through a Bible college trying to find out if the doctrines of grace (or the 5 points) are true and biblical, and on the way he meets many adversaries and colleagues. researchers as they examine what the Bible actually teaches. I’ve given it to many people over the years telling them that if they are against something, they better fully understand it first. Some read the book and were convinced, others not so much, but they were notably less antagonistic to me and some just rejected it. Is part of my job.
Now there is an evangelist in the UK who loves bad jokes (old / weak / shameful? Ignore what is not applicable) when he goes downtown to hand out flyers. The more the day goes by and the more tired he feels, “the more I become Calvinist,” is his (hilarious) phrase. Imagine the scene. He wrote several articles on the reasons why Calvinism destroys evangelism. The problem with this attitude is that it hides a great ignorance of Church history and a deep misunderstanding (if not a misrepresentation) of what the Bible teaches about the doctrine itself. It is correct, of course, to question how God calls his elect. Do we sit back and let God continue the work (as this evangelist implies)? Is that how it works? The evangelical approach: if they are called, will they come? Because I don’t know a single person deeply convinced of the doctrine of election who understands it that way. No. In fact, it is a shameful caricature of this doctrine. So how does God call his elect? Very simple. Mainly, through the preaching of the gospel and through the operation of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of human beings. In other words, where the doctrine of election is affirmed and received correctly, the gospel must be preached! We cannot stop proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ as we await the prayer that God, by his Holy Spirit, will do his work and lead his chosen to salvation. Then we come to the question of discipleship. Can someone tell me how this is a death blow for evangelism and missions? In any case, it is a great motivation.
When I was first asked about my position here at Niddrie, a member of the congregation at the time asked me if I was “one of those Calvinists. “
? “One of the Calvinists of what kind, ” I asked him
? ? You know. Hats, organs and everything?.
?? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, I’m not one of those Calvinists, but am I one of those Christians?
So I opened up to Ephesians 1 and read verses 3 through 5. He had confused the doctrines of grace with the miseries of Pharise moralists who often hide behind the label of “Calvinists”.
In Yorkshire, when I was little, my friends and I had names for people trying to dress up in fashion with brands like?Lacoste? or “Nike”. They couldn’t afford the original, so they bought fake manifestos to try to fool people. We call them Plastic? (I don’t know why). The question is, the only people who have been fooled by plastics?they were the ones who didn’t know what the real brands were like. Is this how “plastic Calvinists”? act, with their distorted views of the scriptures and their ingrained ecclesiastical traditions. Why did they look for the name once?John Flavel, or have you used a quote from John Bunyan as your Facebook status before (ignore that, Facebook is “not biblical and the devil?), but they really aren’t. They deceive many people who think they are true because our churches are full of doctrinal and biblical illiterate people, who would not know a properly expressed doctrinal position if they were before them in Sunday service.
A true, real, biblical and well-thought-out belief in the doctrines of grace (of which choice is only one), on the other hand, promotes good news, evangelization and happy joy in the great grace, mercy, justice and love of our Almighty God. That is why I can preach the Word, establish churches, and support the doctrine of sovereign divine choice without worry.
Here’s a quote from a dead man to sum it all up
“We sincerely subscribe to the Westminster Confession. We believe that Christ redeems the Church chosen by him; we believe in the effectiveness of his blood and the perfection of his righteousness. We believe in human incapacity, the slavery of the human will, the enmity of the human heart towards God; we believe in the sovereignty and eternal purpose of the Lord; we believe in the absolute need of the work of the Holy Ghost, before and after conversion; At the same time, we preach a free and universal gospel; We proclaim a free and universal invitation to sinners; We present to all sinners a merciful coming to Christ, without any prior qualification; we do not ask anyone to wait until they have investigated their own choice or produce evidence of regeneration, sufficient sorrow or deep conviction. Is it told every man, as he is, to come to the Savior at this time, with the certainty that he will not be cast out or discarded?(Horacio Bonar).