Dear Comrads,For some time now it has become evident that our dear religion is in trouble. For years now our churches, seminaries and homes have been plagued by a heresy that threatens to destroy us. Yes, I'm talking about Calvinism. For years, these Calvinists were confined to the fringes of Christianity, but over the past few decades they have been making a resurgence in many denominations. NOW IS THE TIME! I call upon all Arminians of solid conviction to take action to stop the spread of Calvinism throughout the world.
Now is time to root them out. Perhaps they are in your church or your school. It is possible that even your pastor himself is one! The word must get out. Over the course of the next few weeks we will be distributing these posters. Place them wherever you can. Let us end this wave of heresy before it grows worse.
Sincerely,
Comrad Foma Karlovich Slavsyn
11 comments:
With God on our side, no one can resist us! Unless, of course, he makes a Free-will decision.
Signed - Davidovich Huntitovich
The words in the poster are priceless, Tom.
How right you are. It is spreading like a disease. In fact I have one living in my house right now! And he's sitting at the computer typing this comment as we speak!!!
Sincerely,
Mr. Elected
Are we allowed to copy these posters to our blogs to aid the campaign, comrade?
Jonnovich Huntovich
President
Soviet Baptist Convention (SBC)
To the Arminian, everyone has "free will" except God! Weird...
Visit us, pls, and comment.
John Lofton, Editor
TheAmericanView.com
JLof@aol.com
I'm not sure how accurate that last statement is. I doubt any sober-minded believer who is an Arminian would say God was forced by something or other to do anything.
Not that you would care, probably, but isn't satire against fellow Christians counter-productive to the Gospel? And I do say this out of sincerity.
Not sure how often the moderators get around to checking questions on old posts, especially with Tom on missions in Russia, but here's this reader's 2 cents:
To "I doubt any sober-minded believer who is an Arminian would say ...",
No, they wouldn't say it. But their answer to the question of who ultimately chose whom can be perceived to imply this.
"isn't satire against fellow Christians counter-productive to the Gospel?"
Shouldn't be.
I could just as easily say that the Calvinist view easily *implies* lots of things (read: Hyper Calvinism)but I know brothers and sisters of both pursuations who are holy saints and love God. So this satire IS counter productive in that it is deriding REAL believers. Please tell me where the Bible instructs us to do that and I will admit defeat.
No. I'm not providing the satire, and you brought the reprimand. So as far as our words are concerned, it is left for you to show where the Bible instructs us to reprove those who use satire to show the folly of false teaching.
I'll leave it to Tom, Eric and Carlos to defend themselves, which they have aptly done in the past.
While I think there is ample evidence against Calvinism, a couple of simple verses are John 3:16 and 1 Tim 2:4. Of course these are familiar but I honestly don't see a way to argue around what they mean, and they certainly don't fit within the Calvinist system and its implications.
Jeremiah 32:35 is another verse that examples how God's will and desire is not something that always happens. These verses are plain enough, in my opinion.
Being a member of a Calvinistic church, I've had a lot of struggles over the seemingly endless searching and squeezing of Scripture to come up with these off-base conclusions about God's sovereignty (something which Arminians agree with but define in a different manner, one which is not deterministic). I think what clued me in on this was reading the Westminster Catechism, specifically the question "what is God?" that fails to mention love in the answer. I mean it says goodness, but that's not the same as love is it? I found that quite odd considering the Scriptures plainly teach that "God is love."
At any rate, I think it takes some gusto and a dash of ignorance to label Arminianism a false teaching especially when there is strong evidence against your systematic theology.
Stamati,
"Dash of ignorance" in me? Absolutely, or likely a whole pot-full. "Gusto"? I take that as a complement, considering the listlessness and apathy I often possess.
"Strong evidence against your systematic theology"? Now you're getting silly.
How much have you read? I fear that your not finding satisfactory mention of love in your desired places in Westminster didn't clue you in, but rather deceived you. You don't think these divines were well aware of God's love? Moreso, His grace! The abundant love He shows to us though we deserve none of it! This is a prominent theme running all through Reformed theology. But what of the aspects of God that don't give us warm fuzzies - His wrath, His justice, His sovereignty, etc. Are they any less in His nature because man doesn't tend to like them as much?
I guess a man hears what he wants to hear, but please consider - Do you truly think that the volumes of systematic theology and serious exegesis of scripture by Reformed and Puritan theologians can be dismissed by you that easily? And yet you call me ignorant? Do you really think Arminian reasoning can stand up to scripture and plain reason? Have you read Owen? Or the proceedings from Dort? Have you considered Romans 8 through 11, Ephesians 1 and 2, and ... never mind - the whole counsel of scripture? Have you examined the rest of John 3 that comes after verse 16? Have you even tried to reconcile "simple verses" like 1 Tim 2:4 with the Reformed understanding? They actually fit very well.
God's grace to you.
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