Anyone read any of Bridges and what do you think? My wife and I are reading one of his books and she is really liking it. This is amazing since she is anti-Calvinist and Bridges no doubt is a Calvinist! Perhaps this may be a way to persuade her of anti-Calvinism so one day we can both attend a Reformed Baptist church, or a Calvinist Bible church which would be a dream of mine.
Jerry Bridges
Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by evangelist6589, Jul 30, 2015.
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evangelist6589 Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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Seems a little odd to me that apparently you were completely ignorant of your wife's very Calvinist leanings before you two were married.
Did that fact of your very different theological views never come up between the two of you before you two were married?
If not, apparently you either didn't notice that difference or you didn't care about that difference or something else.
At any rate, it seems very strange to me that you, a person who wants us all to believe that you're 100+% sold out to evangelizing everyone you see [Not saying I believe you aren't because I believe you are, and am very glad that you are!], why you didn't feel it necessary to reconcile this obvious difference between the two of you BEFORE she became "Mrs. Evan."
Care to explain why you chose to overlook this rather glaring difference between the two of you such that apparently the two of you go to different churches every time the two of you go out to your respective--but different--local churches?
Inquiring minds would like to know. -
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Hopefully both of them can come to some understanding about this seeming point of division between the two of them--and soon.
I hate to see what otherwise is probably a happy home be torn apart over matters like this.
Hopefully the two of them will seek some good, Bible-centered counseling so that they both can live together in peace and harmony at home.
It's hard enough to have a home with all the pressures 21st-century society puts on a marriage. They certainly don't need something like this to add to their marriage. -
evangelist6589 Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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evangelist6589 Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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If you mean what some folks call the Doctrines of Grace--the so-called TULIP--that's one thing.
OTOH, if you also want to include his infant baptism, & all that goes with that heresy, that's something completely different.
You know that there are people here on BB who hold different--and often very contrasting--views about the Doctrines of Grace.
If, however, your concept of Calvinism also includes his adherence to infant baptism & all its accompanying heresies, I don't think many BB posters would be with you on that.
All I'm asking for is for more clarity on your concept of Calvinism. Comprendo senor? -
You said "infant baptism and all its accompanying heresies" --you have some explaining to do.
What is your meaning of the word heresy anyway? Is it soul-damning? Or something that you believe to be sub-biblical. The "H" word is bandied about with far too much abandon around here. -
The "accompanying heresies" are that which allowed folks who were supposedly baptized long before they were old enough to even question why, indeed, am I being baptized (See Acts 16:30-31. The jailor wasn't an infant.)
Since they were baptized as infants, they had all the rights and privileges the state-church accorded them--regardless of whether they were truly saved at some later point in their lives or not.
Some may have been truly saved, but some weren't. Those who were saved had the HS dwelling in them, but those who weren't saved didn't have the HS dwelling in them.
Now, since none of us can know with complete certainty who has the HS dwelling within another person, and, conversely, who doesn't, we have no 100% guarantee that the other person will act in accordance to the HS's guidance.
Knowing this, how can we be absolutely certain that person who is now a full member of that church-state will always live his life in full accord with the HS's guidance?
We can't. All we really can do is to take that person's word that he's going to live in accordance with the HS's leadership...regardless if he truly is indwelt by the HS or not.
If he's not, then he may be prone to hold to any number of heresies that were around in the 1500's....and there certainly were plenty heresies making their rounds back then.
Since there were so many heresies around back then, I'll just pick one out to illustrate my point.
One such heresy was that it was okay to kill any person who might hold to something your state-church says that he shouldn't....Let's say this person holds to the idea that he himself should be able to read and practice what his own Bible tells him he should do, rather than blindly following what his local priest says he should do.
The priest says it's okay to kill that neighbor of his who holds to the idea that he doesn't necessarily have to mindlessly obey his local priest in all matters of life.
What's this person then prone to do?
Kill that pesky neighbor who has the audacity not to follow the local priest like a dog on a leash!
If my memory of what went on in some places back then serves me right, there were a few innocent "neighbors" who met up with a fate such as that.
My point is this: Once you allow for one heresy to take foot in a church/state-church, there's no telling what that may eventually led to.
Heresy is the kind of thing that you can't always tell exactly what it may eventually led to. See what I Cor. 5:6 and Gal. 5:9 tells you what can happen if you allow the symbolic leaven [Symbolic of sin in most NT cases] to take root in a church.
A heresy per se may not immediately be "soul-damning." At first it may just be "sub-biblical." But heresy is still heresy.
Maybe you believe there's nothing wrong with infant baptism. You have that right to believe if you wish. But, IMHO, infant baptism isn't right because it has the potential to eventually result in a lot of unintended consequences...consequences that can be fatal to a church or other Christian "ministries."
That's why I posted what I did.
You're free to disagree with me over the proper subject for baptism if you wish. I suppose we as brothers in Christ will just have to agree to disagree on this point, okay? :wavey: -
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blessedwife318 Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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Maybe you think it's absurd or off-the-wall, but I don't.
If you do, I'd suggest you read Foxe's Book of Martyrs or Martyr's Mirror and see for yourself how difficult it was for some people to live in most of "Christianized" w. Europe back in the 1500's.
On an almost daily basis, they had to put up with a whole lot of your so-called "absurdities," probably more than you, my friend, would care to do.
'Nuff said. :thumbs: -
evangelist6589 Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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There is no conflict between Calvinism and the free proclamation of the Word of God. -
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