Calvinism is not a cult

What do you mean by teaching "calvinistic views to the church"?

 

A couple of questions:


Who called calvinism a cult?

Did the interim reveal in advance that he held to this position?

 

I'm having a hard time following your line of thought here.

Did the church leaders not interview this man before you called him as interim to see if his biblical views lined up with the churches'? Interim or not, this is important.
Perhaps you should call a new interim.

Calvinism is NOT a cult.

 

That is true, even if you do not agree with Calvinism.

 

I'd rather pray that people come to know who Jesus is, and experience the reality that the Bible teaches of knowing Him. It is less important to me whether they agree with the 5 points. I don't give a hoot what my forefathers taught. They probably taught some stupid stuff we wouldn't want to repeat along with stuff we agree with.

There's more to be concerned about than someone adhering to the TULIP's definition of soteriology.

I don't think Calvinism is a cult, by the way. There are some calvinist crazies just like there are crazies of all stripes of theology.

 

Scott,

Welcome to BB. :wavey:

First -- that doesn't make it right. In Job, read 8:8-10. Bildad's advice was the same as yours -- listne to the wisdom of the ages. Well, it was flawed! It was the wisdom of MEN. Why not go back, in that case, the the Catholics?

If you think you receive eternal life via "election" (sad to say) or "5 points," they might be right.

Would you feel any more secure if they answered to the "mutlitude of scripture that backs up" Mormonism? or Judaism? We all know many scriptures "back up" the latter but are you willing to practice them in the "age of grace?"

I will pray with you. How did you get involved in this "non-Calvinist" church anyway?

skypair

 

Amen Brother Dan.

 

Oh, Yippee

I always wanted to be a member of a cult....I don't know what to say, other than: If Calvinism is a cult, it had to be predestined.

Shalom,

Pastor Paul :type:

 

I think that if the congregation's thoughts run contrary to the policy of the church leaders, it is perhaps time for new church leaders.

 

...but isn't this what you calvinists do too?

To me, this is all heresay. I don't have the first hand opinions of the deacons, so I cannot comment on what offended them, or if it even did.

 

I can care less what Calvin taught, to be quite honest. His teachings do not affect my view of God (which is identical to yours, btw, and I am not a calvinist).

 

mmmm maybe I should also say that

Non-Calvinism is NOT a cult.

 

First of all, neither Calvinism nor non- Calvinism is a cult.

Second, there is something not right in this situation or the reporting of the situation. The interim told them that he was Reformed, but they don't want him to preach it after 2 months.. Could it be that this is all that he is preaching? There just seems to be something strange going on here.

 

Tom, you wrote:

Good Point! Even as a 5-Pointer myself, I see the problem you address. It is one thing to preach election/predestination/Calvinism from Romans. It is quite another to preach these things from Joshua 7—the sin of Achan.

I am a firm believer in preaching the author’s intent as the main point of the passage. Nearly every message I’ve preached (and I don’t preach regularly), I have diagramed in the original language—or at least I’ve consulted the original language. This helps me to chase only the rabbit the author intended to be chased.

Hopefully, this interim preacher was not on the “Calvinism Soapbox.” That would be unfortunate and divisive, not to mention less-than-biblical.

Blessings to all,

The Archangel

 

One of the great ironies of strict Calvinism is that in taking sovereignty to such an extreme length, they do indeed put God in a bottle. To the strict Calvinist, God is unable to work through free will.......they continually maintain that it is either man's free will or God's sovereignty, thereby claiming that either God must be sovereign or man has salvific free will, that both cannot be true.

The scriptures do indeed teach that God is totally sovereign........so sovereign, in fact, that he can work through free will. A truly sovereign God is not limited by man's free will......He can sovereignly work to elect those He chose, even though we have the freedom to choose or reject Him.

And no, we don't have to understand it. He's infinite, and we're finite.

 

Many people simply do not understand Calvinism. Maybe they don’t take the time to understand it, maybe they take other people’s (wrong) opinions about Calvinism as true, or maybe people just don’t care. Who knows?

The point is this: I’ve read many things on this site which show there is a fundamental lack of understanding of Calvinism and Calvinists. Certainly the preacher in the OP may have made some missteps, many Calvinists do, but then again, we are human too.

Being labeled a “Cult” is just another in a long line of silly accusations leveled against Calvinists. I’ve heard it all: Anti-missions; anti-evangelism; deterministic; anti-freewill; etc., and now—a Cult.

There is a recent Baptist Press article about Calvinism and evangelism. I have posted it and a response on my blog. Please vist.

Many Blessings,

The Archangel

 

Not that we need to stoke the fire on this one, but I have yet another concern:

Why do deacons have this kind of authority in the church? Sounds to me like there is an identity crisis in theological views and polity.