Featured How Should Arminians and Calvinists Approach One Another?

If that were true, why does the Libertarian party support it?

Are Rand Paul and Mitt Romney "woke" too?

 

Libertarian party is a bunch of nutts. Romney is a piece of crap. What Rand Paul supports is reform in name only.

 

If the Republican Party doesn't move away from the extremism you are promoting, it won't have much of an electoral future.

 

Conservatism.if you see Conservatism as extremism, so be it.

 

What "extremism" would that be?

 

The CATO Institute isn't exactly a left-wing organization. If the Republican Party wants to win moderates and independents in the future, and not just the hard right, then it will need to support police reform. Rather than de-funding the police, we need to reform their training and practices.

 

Specifically what police reforms are you referring to that Reps oppose? Right now, the Dems are unhinged with their efforts to destabilize policing. Their goal appears to be to nationalize the police.

 

I prefer a good sharp pitchfork. It was good enough for the Reformers so it should be good enough for me. I also wish I had been named Ulrich, but that's another story...

 

We have gone through a pandemic in which over 600,000 Americans have died. We need assurance of salvation now more than ever before.

Other than its support in the Bible, assurance of salvation is why I find Calvinism important. Because of unconditional election and irresistible grace, we can have assurance that God will preserve His saints.

Without the second and fourth points of Calvinism, we cannot have assurance of the fifth. This is why I've done my best to clarify what these doctrines actually mean, as well as their Biblical basis.

When you have the assurance of salvation that Calvinism provides, you can go on to humbly serve the Lord in love and gratitude, no matter what happens in life.

What is Calvinism and is it biblical?

Did the Early Church Believe the Doctrines of Grace?

This is from Martin Luther’s 97 Theses, almost twenty years before John Calvin’s The Institutes of the Christian Religion:

It’s only called “Calvinism” because John Calvin popularized the doctrines of grace, he did not originate them. It’s the same doctrines that Augustine taught against Pelagius and Luther taught against Rome.

 

If you are an Arminian who loves Jesus, that’s awesome. As the slogan of the Reformation goes, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

1 Corinthians 8:2-3
Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

 

Was this before or after the attempt to drown Anabaptists...

 

The quote is from a hundred years after Martin Luther.
Rupertus Meldenius - Wikipedia

 

The catholics repeat points of doctrine over and over so much, so often that they have themselves convinced it is true. Even points on the purpose and authority of the Bible.

Unless we are willing and able to clear our minds of the ever present clutter and put in the hard work of Biblical study and be willing to make changes based on the authority of the Word, then we are just repeating what others believe. Simple or complex, details of doctrine matter but regardless the sledgehammer approach is not a good way to make your point.

If I'm convinced that I'm right no manor of passion from the opposition will get me to change my mind. There is a difference in my judgement in saying our faith is grounded in the Scriptures vs. letting the Scriptures determine our faith details. I understand and accept that not everyone that is truly born again truly holds a high view of the Bible.

 

" Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
2 to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." ( Titus 3:1-7 ).

My friend, in the light of the above, should we be making such comments...especially on a publicly-viewable forum?

 

I don't know who is responsible for that phrase, but I see nothing in God's word to indicate that His people should adopt it or even pay any attention to at least the first two thirds of it.
But I do agree with the last...

"...in all things, charity".

The fact is, there are two different "Christ's" being presented between the two ( or three, depending upon how one looks at it all ), whether "Arminians", "Traditionalists / Provisionists", or "Calvinists":

1) The Jesus who knows and loves His sheep, gave His life for them and them alone, saves only those who were given by Him to His Father, and does not know those who are not His because they were never His sheep and were never chosen in Him before the foundation of the world;
He pronounces them as accursed.

2) The Jesus who loves everyone and invites all to come to Him, and waits patiently to see who will accept His offer of eternal life. The issue of whether or not He keeps His sheep from wandering away is the only point that these differ on.

... and IMO, no amount of discussion will ever resolve it.

 

So after they drown the Anabaptists and caused them to flee to Ukraine and parts elsewhere. After the 30 years war when Gustavus Adolphus brought his troops down from Sweden to save the Reformation from being crushed by Rome.

 

According to God's word, He seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth:

" But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." ( John 4:23-24 ).

It's not about "being right about everything";
It's about preaching and teaching the contents of the everlasting Gospel as laid out in every precious detail of His word...

About being extremely careful to not be guilty of delivering something to His saints that would be inaccurate, would result in people seeing God as Anyone less than who He has revealed Himself as throughout His word, and would show me to be under the curse of Galatians 1.


While I agree that is of utmost importance to be charitable ( no matter the circumstances ), it's just as important to preach and teach true doctrine... and not to simply cast that aside in favor of greater unity.
At the end of the day I'd rather stand alone in my defense of the faith than to compromise with the most minute detail of His words.


If it makes me a "Calvinist" to speak what Peter, Paul and the Lord Himself taught, then so be it.

 

The Origin of “In Essentials Unity…”

 

Yep.
Eph 5:11-12