Calvinism: A Dreary Business Indeed
September 24th, 2008
Calvinists are constantly having to explain to people why when God's Word says, "God so loved the world" it doesn't really mean "the world" and why when God's Word says, "Christ died for all" it doesn't really mean "all."
What a dreary business it is defending a system that so starkly contradicts God's Word. That's why I continue to appreciate the razor-sharp proclamation of the love of God, in Christ, that is the very heart and center of Scripture, and hence, the beating heart of Lutheranism.
A dreary business indeed, Calvinism is.
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Categories: Calvinism
This is one (among many) reason that I left Calvinism for Lutheranism. I remember asking myself one day – why do I spend so much time explaining what the Bible doesn’t or can’t mean in seemingly clear passages?
Sad indeed.
Very true. Too bad, though, they got the sacrament rights. (I’m being a a bit facetious, but I do think they got the sacraments right).
Well, the dreariness of Calvinism isn’t anything new. St. Francis de Sales converted tens of thousands of Calvinists to Christianity when he preached in Switzerland during the Counter-Reformation. He did it by simply presenting the love of God in Jesus Christ.
McCain: Your presentation is a bit on the “rose colored glases” side, to say the least. de Sales and his missionaries engaged in persecution of protestants in Switzerland and the “conversions” were by no means the gentle events that you might wish them to be.
Mark said: “St. Francis de Sales converted tens of thousands of Calvinists to Christianity when he preached in Switzerland during the Counter-Reformation.”
…wait a minute. I’m not going to let that one slip by. I agree with anyone who says that our Calvinist brothers are wallowing in error and engage in fits of logical sophistry that would make a Vulcan blush. I agree with Rev McCain that the understanding of God’s Word espoused by Calvin is dreary and inconsistant. I can see how the Calvinist view of the Word and Sacrament is so flawed that the Gospel remains largely obscured among them, but are we saying that individual Calvinists are not Christians (and thus in need conversion to the Christian faith)?
I am not willing to make that judgement so flippantly.
Amen. What a sad, sorry gospel that is emptied of the power of salvation.