Featured Cage Staged Calvinism

Never experienced that "stage" in my experience.

 

The Problem of "Angry Calvinists"

Why Are Calvinists So Mean?

The troubling trends in America's 'Calvinist revival' - Religion News Service

Why Do Many Christians Think Calvinists Are Arrogant Jerks?

 

This is one of the saddest posts I have ever seen on this board and is an example of the worst of what can go on on the internet.

 

I thought that really old people were supposed to loose recent memories first. [just kidding]

Have you really never met a new Christian that was so “gong-ho” that they were more likely to scare people way from the church than win them over to the Lord? I saw it (and was it) even as a brand new “Church of God of Anderson, Indiana” Christian full of stories about the Wesleyan Holiness Movement and covered wagon preachers spreading the Gospel across the Great Plains just two generations ago (the Grandfather of the man that baptized me was an itinerant preacher in a covered wagon). I thought it was IMPERATIVE that everyone hear about Jesus as soon as possible ... the phrase “bull in a china shop” comes to mind.

 

You better withdraw to the safety of your ‘happy place’ if you think THAT is the worst that the Internet has to offer.

Your post reminds me of a story ...

A man in a village came upon the ‘village idiot’ sitting on a pile of horse manure eating clods. When the man tried to explain to the him that he should not eat that, the fool argued bitterly that the manure was food and refused to stop eating it. In response, the man wrestled the fool to the ground and physically overpowered him to stop him from eating the manure. As the fool walked away grumbling, he was still an idiot, but now the man was covered in manure.​

I remember now why I stopped posting here. I came looking to sharpen iron against iron and always ended up with my sword covered in manure. I just got tired of wrestling in the crap.

I leave you king of your pile.

 

See ya

 

I love my Reformed Calvinist brothers and sisters, but I can no longer claim to be a “Reformed Calvinist.” I have removed it from my About section.

I have been attacked by only three groups of people: militant atheists, a handful of fanatics from Steven Furtick’s church, and Reformed Calvinists. So basically non-Christians, false Christians, and Super Christians. And the worst of these attacks were from — you guessed it — Reformed Calvinists.

The ivory tower of Neo-Calvinism has reached so high, I’m not sure what the point is anymore. Calvinist bloggers only stimulate other Calvinist bloggers. Neo-Calvinism has become the ghetto of the ghetto of the Christian subculture.

Somehow the sincere search for deeper doctrine has led to arrogance, inhouse fighting, a ridiculously isolated blogosphere, and 20 year olds condescending to everyone. Doctrine-nerds are yelling “heresy” and “blasphemy” without a clue how serious those charges are, and also without a single gesture of brotherly love or empathy. Disagreements do not mean nuclear war. How Jesus would grieve over these New Pharisees.

Why I’m No Longer Self-Identifying As A “Reformed Calvinist”

 

The problem isn't "flaws" with personalities, the problem is the virulent contentiousness of Calvinists regarding perceived error in other people's theology. Calvinists feel they have a corner on Theological Truth, having had the scales fall off their eyes and seeing the light of TULIP. And they want everyone to know about it.

 

Spurgeon noted this tendency, toward a nasty disposition, among some in his circles, and rebuked them:

"There used to be a very strong contention about particular redemption and general redemption, and though I confess myself to be to the very backbone a believer in Calvinistic doctrine, I never felt at home in such discussions. It is one thing to believe in the doctrines of grace, but quite another thing to accept all the encrustations which have formed upon those doctrines, and also a very different matter to agree with the spirit which is apparent in some who profess to propagate the pure truth."

"I admit that some called Calvinists are the most quarrelsome set breathing....I wish they would leave off their quarrelling, for it is a disgrace to our religion....Everyone says to me—'Look there at your brothers and sisters! I never saw such a set of cut-throats in my life!'....that is near the truth, and I am ashamed to confess it"

"Some of you, my hearers, and a great many that are not my hearers are miserable little cramped souls; you have learned a cast-iron creed, and you will never move out of it. A certain somebody drew up five or six doctrines, and said, 'There are the doctrines of the Bible'....little souls who set themselves up for princes in Israel, and think every man must believe as they believe....I pray for all bigots, that they may have a little wider heart. I should like to stretch their hearts a little. But, no, they have reached the ultima thule"

 

You seem bitter

 

Of course. I'm just saying I never felt the need to debate the doctrines of grace ad nauseum. lol.

I love to talk about them, and I debate them until I see that one is simply unmoved in his position.

And, really, love is the reason we preach. We're often asked, Why preach if God has already chosen? Because we love to tell the story, and because we love our fellow man.

On the flip side, the circuit riding Presbyterian was asked why he carried a side arm if he believed no could can die till his appointed time. "Because I never know when I'll meet an Indian whose time has come."

 

I think it is more of a maturity issue that seems to plague everyone who becomes part of something new to them and they are really enthusiastic about it. It happens in other groups, too.

I know a guy who converted to Roman Catholicism and suddenly, for about the 1st year or so, he was more Catholic than the Pope. I mean, he was in RCC mode 24/7 until the newness wore off and he calmed down.

I think it is important to distinguish between people who are "new" to Calvinism and the "New Calvinism" or "Neo-Calvinistic" movement. The Neo-Calvinists tend to lean more Left and accept Social Justice.

 

As an Arminian, I was more like a "cage stage Calvinist". And the "Calvinists" were nothing more than eternally secure Arminians. So I went around looking for any to knock their block off for being inconsistent in their OSAS views. Calvinism humbled me when I heard of it in truth for the first time. And it had the opposite effect from what many see in others.

 

Is that what is meant by Calvinism I.E. Doctrines of Grace?!? Surely there is more to it than that!

 

Have you ever read Institutes?

 

Only portions.

 

You must read it.... and his golden books which are little snippets of theology