John Calvin Archives - Redeeming God

October 31 is not just Halloween. It is also “Reformation Day,” which commemorates the day on which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church door in Wittenburg and sparked off the Reformation in 1517.

I have often thought that I would have liked to live back then. They were amazing times. There was not only great upheaval and changes within the church and theology, but these changes also took place along with the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, and eventually, the Enlightenment.

These were times of great advances in science, medicine, engineering, art, music, and theology. Imagine living during the time of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, and Calvin!

Well, guess what?

You are!

You and I are currently living in the middle of a new Renaissance! A new Enlightenment! A new Reformation!

The New Reformation is Here

Imagine how exciting it would have been to live in the days when the “New World” had been discovered and Spain, Portugal, France, and England were racing each other to place colonies on this new land to the West.

Well, in case you missed it, there is a race right now to put human colonies on the moon and on Mars. China, Russia, and Europe are racing to put a colony on the moon, while MarsOne, NASA, and SpaceX are racing each other to put human colonies on Mars by 2030. That’s fifteen years away.

Then there are the advances in Quantum Physics. The discoveries of Quantum Physics are unraveling much of what we think we know about time, matter, energy, and space. For example, it appears that reality does not exist unless you are actually looking at it. Furthermore, it appears that quantum particles can communicate with themselves in their past, so that events in the present can ripple back in time. Recent studies from just last week have proved quantum entanglement, that two entangled electrons can communicate with each other instantaneously, no matter how far apart from each other they are. Believe it or not, these sorts of discoveries will eventually trickle down into theology, requiring us to rethink much about creation, prayer, the afterlife, the flow of time, and numerous related subjects.

But that’s not all…

The advances toward Artificial Intelligence and discovering life on other planets threaten to undo and change everything we think we know about ourselves and about how we came to exist. For example, if life is found on another planet (and scientists are certain they will find it), what will this mean for our understanding of Genesis 1:16 that God “made the stars also”? If we are able to develop Artificial Intelligence that rapidly becomes smarter than humans, what will this do to our understanding of Genesis 1:26-27 about humans being made in the image of God?

The changes in theology are not all just potential future changes, however.

The Christian theological world is already full of upheaval. There is an earthquake going on right now in theology surrounding the issues of justification, the violence of God, the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, and what it means to be the church–the people of God in this world.

We are living in exciting times. Times that future people will look back upon and say, “Wow! Can you imagine living in the early 21st century? There was so much going on! So many changes! Because of what happened then, the world has never been the same!”

A few things to expect in the next few decades

If history is any guide (and it usually is) the current Renaissance, Revolution, Reformation, Enlightenment will be accompanied by several factors.

Below, I have listed some factors that will contribute to the New Reformation along with some changes that we will see as a result.

1. Disaster

First, on the negative side, it is quite likely that there will be some sort of rampant disease, catastrophe, or war which will serve as the final catalyst for the future changes.

This will be some sort of humanitarian crisis or a tipping point among world governments. It might be a financial collapse. It might be a medical disaster (the Black Plague helped kindle the Renaissance). It might be a war. It might be a drought and famine. It might be all of these combined.

I don’t say any of this to scare you. There is not much that can be done about it. I am just saying that usually, these sorts of disasters and catastrophes help spur the human race on toward a new level of understanding and unity, which make further advances easier.

2. Voices from Below

Second, however, as I look around at what the World Wide Web is ushering in, I think that this new Reformation will not come from the leaders and those in power, but will come from below. The internet has given everyone a voice. The gatekeepers no longer have the power to silence the masses.

Now with blogs, podcasts, YouTube, etc., anybody can make their voice heard. So the new Reformation will be led, not by a few key voices at the top of the hierarchy, but by a large number of voices near the bottom. This Reformation will be launched from the “uneducated.” From the “unschooled.” From the blogs and podcasts of the non-professionals.

So if you are starting a blog or a podcast right now, you are well situated to be one of these voices. (If you need help on these, let me know!)

3. Leadership from Women

Third, I believe that this new Reformation will contain a piece of the theological puzzle which has LONG been missing from the church. What piece is that? It is the voices of women. I firmly believe that one of the major problems with historical/traditional Christian theology is that it has primarily been written by men. As a result, theology has often shifted away from the one thing it is supposed to do, which is to engender love and relationships among people.

Voices of women will play a larger role than ever before, which will allow the church to adopt a stance toward people that has always been missing in traditionally male hierarchy.

The voices of women will bring theology and the church back to the way they were always meant to be. So if you are a woman, and want to contribute, please, start a blog, start a podcast, start a YouTube channel, write a book.

4. Direction from the Poor and the Minorities

Fourth, I believe that the new Reformation will include a new focus on minorities and the poor. I believe that new thinking and revolutionary ideas will not come from the rich and the powerful, but from those who have traditionally been ignored and silenced. Voices of the poor and the minorities will have a larger role in the changes that will occur in culture and the church.

5. Church will become less centralized

Fifth, just as the first Reformation resulted in church becoming less focused on a hierarchy of priests to lead and teach it, I believe this trend will continue in the second Reformation.

The Reformers, as wonderful as they were, still retained the Magisterial, hierarchical, building-centered approach to doing church which began after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.

Millions of people are now seeing how empty that structure is, and are leaving the Sunday-morning, leadership-led, entertainment-focused style of church to enter into a daily, Spirit-led, relationship-focused style of church. As I reported last week, this trend will soon become the majority trend within the church.

The church will become less and less centralized, which makes it more universal than ever.

6. Church will become a servant to the world

Sixth, as a result of church becoming less centralized, those who focus on being the church in this way will stop thinking that the job of the church is to attract the world, and will begin recognizing that the job of the church is to serve the world.

Church will become less power-centered, and thus, more powerful. This will not be the power of money and position, but will be the power that was present in Jesus – the power of truth, and light, and love.

The church will become less group focused, and more individual focused. This does not mean the church will become individualistic, but that the church will realize that our mission and our task is not to “groups” of people “over there” but to “individual people” who are next to us right now. The newfound power of the church will be the power of individuals loving individuals, rather than groups focusing on groups.

7. Scriptural Understanding Will Change

Seventh, due to all the preceding factors, there will be a radical shift in how people read, understand, teach, and apply Scripture.

Words like “inerrancy” and “authority” and “inspiration” will drop out of use, and we will instead begin to hear more about “redemption” and “reconciliation.” That first set of words are “book-focused” which is what theology and the church have been focused on since the cry of sola Scriptura of the first Reformation.

But now, with the focus on relationships, and love, and following Jesus into the world, the church and theology will become more relationship-focused, which is why terms like redemption and reconciliation will become more prominent.

No longer will doctrinal statements be focused on “truths to believe” as a litmus test for orthodoxy. Instead, churches will adopt “Practical statements” which will be focused on truths to practice. We will stop arguing about whether a person believes in inerrancy or not, and start debating about whether anybody is beyond redemption or not.

Ultimately, of course, all these changes in Scriptural understanding will have Jesus as their goal and focus. It is His life and teaching which will serve as the model and framework for how the church progresses into the dawn of the new Reformation and the new age that will follow.

So are you excited to be alive?

You are currently living in a new period of Enlightenment, a new scientific Revolution, and new Renaissance, a new Reformation. Does this excite you?

What do you think about the things I have written above? Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have anything to add?

What are you doing to contribute to or participate in this new Reformation? Share your ideas and suggestions below!

A Brief Summary of Calvinism

By Jeremy Myers

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Some say that John Calvin was not a Calvinist.

In some regards, this is probably true. There are one or two points of Calvinism which John Calvin is less than clear about in his writings. In some places, he seems to say one thing, and in other places, he says the opposite. This is not too surprising, especially for someone who wrote as voluminously as did John Calvin.

But the real reason we can say that John Calvin was truly not a Calvinist is because he himself did not develop the system of theology which bears his name.

Jacobus Arminius

Several years after John Calvin died in 1564 (click here to see a brief history of John Calvin), a man named Jacobus Arminius traveled to Geneva to study under Theodore Beza, who was Calvin’s successor.

After Arminius completed his studies in 1587, he moved to Amsterdam to pastor a church there. As he as preaching through Romans in the years that followed, he developed several points of disagreement with the theology of John Calvin. In fact, it was actually in seeking to defend the teachings of Calvin against some detractors that led Arminius to have doubts of his own. So just as Luther and Calvin had sought to reform the church of their day, Arminius sought to reform Calvinism.

The Five Articles of Remonstrance

After Jacobus Arminius died in 1609, some of his followers put together a document called “The Five Articles of Remonstrance.” In much the same way that Martin Luther had posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, for the purpose of stating his objections to the abuses he saw within the Roman Catholic Church and inviting church leaders to gather and discuss these items, so also, the Five Articles of Remonstrance were an invitation by the followers of Arminius to the followers of Calvin to gather for the purpose of discussing these issues.

The Canons of Dort and TULIP

Instead, the followers of John Calvin met in Dordrecht, Netherlands from 1618 to 1619 and crafted what has become known as the Canons of Dort. This consisted of a point-by-point refutation and condemnation of the Five Articles of Remonstrance.

As such, there were five main points to this second document. It is these five main points in the Canons of Dort that have become known as “Calvinism.”

The five Canons of Dort are often summarized today by the acrostic TULIP:

Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

A Summary of TULIP

TULIP Calvinism begins with the idea that mankind is completely sinful and cannot do anything to contribute to his salvation (Total Depravity).

As a result, we are totally dependent upon God to initiate salvation for us, which He did in eternity past by choosing to save some, without any condition or merit on the part of those whom He chose (Unconditional Election).

In order to accomplish this salvation of those whom He had previously chosen, God sent Jesus to die specifically and only for the sins of those whom He had chosen so that they might have eternal life (Limited Atonement).

Those whom God has chosen, and for whom Christ died, will be irresistibly drawn by God’s grace into God’s family (Irresistible Grace).

Since God’s will cannot be thwarted, none whom God has chosen, for whom Christ died, and whom were drawn and transformed by God’s grace, can ultimately be lost. They will all be glorified. Due to this gift of grace in their life, all who are delivered by God’s grace in this fashion will give evidence to it by living a life of perseverance in faith and good works (Perseverance of the Saints).

A Sixth Point of Calvinism?

The so-called sixth point of Calvinism, which of course is not mentioned in the five points above, but which undergirds them all, is the Sovereignty of God. One can see that God’s complete control over all things is behind each of the five points.

God must be in control, and God must accomplish everything, from first to last, if humans are to have any hope of salvation, and if God is to be certain of defeating sin, death, and the devil in the ultimate end.

Calvinism by Calvinists

Not all Calvinists will be happy with the brief summary above. I have tried to state the view as succinctly and clearly as I know how, and in fact, I tried to write that summary in a way that almost nobody could disagree with it—not even most non-Calvinists.

If you are trying to figure out what Calvinism is all about, it is likely that as you read through that brief description of the five points of Calvinism, you though, “Yeah? So? That’s what I believe. That’s what the Bible teaches, isn’t it?” Yes, well, that is what this series of posts on Calvinism will seek to determine.

Nevertheless, for those Calvinists who feel I did not properly explain Calvinism, tomorrow I will post some summaries of Calvinism from leading Calvinists. (This will be a common practice in my series on Calvinism … to allow Calvinists to explain their views in their own words. I hope any Calvinists reading this will allow me to do the same with my own views.)

A Brief History of John Calvin

By Jeremy Myers

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John Calvin was born in France in 1509 and was raised as a Roman Catholic. His father initially intended John to enter the priesthood, but realized later in life that there was more money to be made in law, and so in 1525, sent John to become a lawyer.

The Reformation

It was during this time that the ripple effects of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (published in 1517) were beginning to be seen throughout all of Europe. In 1533 John Calvin experienced his conversion, and later that year, one of John Calvin’s close friends, Nicolas Cop, publicly sided with the Reformers in calling for changes in the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, Cop was condemned by the Catholic Church as a heretic, and was forced to flee for his life. Calvin was also implicated in the condemnation and was also forced to go into hiding.

Publishing and Pastoring

In 1536, Calvin published his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, which was initially intended to be a short explanation and defense of the teachings and ideas of the Reformers. The book went through numerous subsequent expansions over the course of John Calvin’s life.

A short time later, during one of his travels, John Calvin traveled to Geneva, and a man there named William Farel convinced John to stay and help reform the church in Geneva. He agreed, and in 1537 he was selected to be a pastor of the church.

However, by the end of the year, the church council forced Calvin to resign his position and leave Geneva because he wanted to force church members to sign his doctrinal statement and articles of church organization (which few people wanted to do), and because he refused to serve communion with unleavened bread on Easter Sunday.

Calvin traveled to Strasbourg, which was a city of refuge for Reformed people, and over the course of the next three years, preached and taught in three different churches. He also worked on an updated version of the Institutes, and published his Commentary on Romans.

During the time, the church in Geneva dwindled in size, and was facing pressure by the Roman Catholic Church to return to Catholicism. By way of response, the Genevan church called upon Calvin to write a letter in their defense, which he gladly did. They were so pleased with his letter, they asked him to return to Geneva and take up the pastoral position once again.

In 1541, Calvin returned to Geneva under the condition that the church accept and adopt his proposed reforms. They agreed. Calvin ministered in Geneva for the rest of his life, until he died in 1564. The first few years of his ministry were busy and productive. He preached an average of five sermons a week, and wrote numerous books, tracts, as a well as a set of commentaries on almost every book of the Bible.

Opposition in Geneva

However, his ministry in Geneva was not without opposition.

Not all agreed with Calvin’s teaching and theology, and many accused Calvin of teaching false doctrine. From 1546 to 1553, Calvin’s power and influence steadily waned. There were frequent attempts by both sides of the debate to undermine, arrest, and even kill members of the other party.

As one example, a man named Jacques Gruet was arrested and, under torture, confessed to writing an anonymous letter in opposition to the church leaders. Gruet was beheaded in July of 1547.

Eventually, the opposition to Calvin became so fierce, that in July of 1553, Calvin offered to resign his position a second time. His request was refused, because those who opposed him knew that an uprising and church split would likely occur if they accepted Calvin’s resignation.

Michael Servetus – The Scapegoat Savior

One month later, in August of 1553, all of Calvin’s fortunes changed when a man by the name of Michael Servetus arrived in Geneva. Servetus also was a Protestant Reformer, but had been condemned as a heretic by both Catholic and Protestant church leaders for his writings against the Trinity and infant baptism.

Though Calvin and Servetus had debated these issues by letter for many years, they had never met in person, yet when Servetus stopped in Geneva on his way to Italy, he was recognized and arrested. A trial ensued, in which Servetus was once again condemned as a heretic, and on October 27, 1553, was burned at the stake on top of a pile of his own books.

John Calvin – The Defender of Christianity

As a result of his involvement in the arrest, trial, and execution of Servetus, John Calvin was acclaimed across all of Europe as a defender of Christianity.

Over the next two years, his power and fame grew as never before, and in 1555, all who had previously opposed John Calvin either fled Geneva or were rounded up and executed.

From 1555 until his death in 1564, Calvin’s position, power, and reputation went almost completely uncontested. He did experience some controversy with Martin Luther over the issue of consubstantiation, but even this controversy with Martin Luther—the “father” of the Reformation itself—only solidified Calvin’s position of prominence in the minds of many.

During these final years, he continued to write, preach, and teach, and he also founded several schools, including Calvin College (Collège Calvin) in Geneva, Switzerland in 1559.

In 1558, he finished his final edition of the Institutes, and he preached his last sermon on February 6, 1564, before dying on May 27, 1564.

After his death, Theodore Beza took over Calvin’s position in Geneva and helped carry on his work and ideas.

This is obviously a very short and summarized history of John Calvin’s life. For those of you who have studied John Calvin, do you have anything to add? For those who didn’t know much about Calvin, what are your initial impressions from this brief account? Let us know in the comments below.

My personal history with Calvinism

By Jeremy Myers

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I am not really sure when I fully embraced Calvinism, but I do know that by the time I was in my early 20s, I was a five-point Calvinist.

Since Calvinism was so inherently logical and apparently biblical, I was fully persuaded in my own mind that “Calvinism is the Gospel, and the Gospel is Calvinism” (as some Calvinists claim). I vividly remember debating Calvinism with many of my non-Calvinist friends, trying to convince them of what was eminently obvious to anyone with a working brain.

Losing Limited Atonement

However, it was not long after this that one of my Calvinistic friends declared that he was no longer a five-point Calvinist, but was now a four-point Calvinist. He no longer believed in “Limited Atonement.”

I told him that he had begun to slide down a slippery slope, for the five points of Calvinism are like five links on a chain: they stand or fall together and if one link in the chain breaks, it is only a matter of time before the whole system unravels. My friend assured me that nothing of the sort would happen to him, and he was still fully convinced of the other four points of Calvinism.

I was skeptical, but he and I talked about it, studied the Scriptures, and read numerous books.

It was not long before I too had given up on Limited Atonement as well. But I was convinced that I would remain a four-point Calvinist, just like my friend. As it happened, what I told him about the links in the Calvinistic chain turned out to be true—at least for me.

Shedding Perseverance of the Saints

Later that year, I sat through a Bible College class on the General Epistles in which the professor, Dr. John Hart, had us read numerous books which challenged the fifth point of Calvinism: the Perseverance of the Saints.

Among the books he had us read were two that really challenged my thinking and helped me see certain key texts in a new light: They are The Epistle of James by Zane Hodges and The Reign of the Servant Kings by Joseph Dillow (a revised and updated edition of the book is now titled Final Destiny).

There were numerous other books I read and the class lectures of Dr. John Hart were influential as well, so within a year I had abandoned my belief in the Perseverance of the Saints, and was now a three-point Calvinist.

Calvinist No More

I remained a three-point Calvinists for quite a while, until, after Seminary, I began my first pastorate in Montana. It was there, where the rubber of theology hits the road of life, where the final three points of Calvinism finally fell.

The sources of influence were numerous and varied.

One elder named Bob Weaver challenged me to view God differently than I had before. I read some books which were recommended to me by others. God’s Strategy in Human History was helpful, as were various books by Samuel Fisk, Harry Ironside, C. Gordon Olson, Laurence Vance, and Dave Hunt.

Also, I was preaching at this time through the book of Ephesians, and my research and study on Ephesians 1 helped me to see that this chapter does not teach Unconditional Election as many Calvinists claim. Somewhere during those first five years as a pastor, all three of the remaining points of Calvinism crumbled in my mind.

Coming to Terms with non-Calvinism

It was an exciting but scary time.

It was exciting because my theology was changing and I was discovering new vistas on about the grace of God and the role of faith and works in the life of believers.

But it was scary because I kept wondering how deep the rabbit hole went. I didn’t want to be an Arminian, but at the same time, I knew I could no longer be a Calvinist.

In an attempt to stay true to my quickly fading Calvinistic beliefs, I read every Calvinistic book I could get my hands on. Not only did I read John Calvin, I also read John MacArthur, John Piper, R. C. Sproul, James Montgomery Boice, Philip Graham Ryken, A. W. Pink, Edwin Palmer, and dozens of other such authors, all of whom vigorously defended Calvinism.

In the end, though, none of them wrote anything in their books which persuaded me that my new belief system was wrong.

In fact, it often seemed to me that these Calvinistic authors themselves had never heard of the views which I myself held. They kept arguing against non-Calvinistic beliefs which I, as a non-Calvinist, did not believe!

It seemed to me that they had not read any of the books I had read, or even knew anything about the way of reading Scripture which I had adopted. At the time, I did not know exactly if these Calvinistic authors were trying to refute Arminian beliefs (which I had not read much of), or if they had simply erected anti-Calvinistic straw-man beliefs which were then easily knocked down. Looking back now, and having read many books on Arminian theology, I have to say that it was the latter.

Most Calvinists, it seems, rarely read books or listen to teachers that are not Calvinistic.

It is exceedingly rare to find a defense of Calvinism which actually deals with the documented beliefs and ideas of Calvinistic opponents. A typical Calvinistic defense seems to consist of stating the Calvinistic beliefs, quoting numerous Calvinistic authors, and referencing several biblical texts which seem to support the Calvinistic perspectives.

This pretty much brings me up to the present day.

Over the past fifteen years, I have continued to read both Calvinistic and non-Calvinistic authors, and study biblical texts from the various perspectives. With every passing year, I am more and more convinced that Calvinism reads Scripture incorrectly, distorts the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and has ultimately abandoned the roots of the Reformation.

All this will be seen in later posts.

So what about you? What is your history with Calvinism? Are you Calvinist now? Have you ever been a Calvinist? Do you know what Calvinism is? Share your stories in the comment section below.

I believe in the Five Solas of the Reformation

By Jeremy Myers

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Last week I announced that I needed to take a break from my series on the violence of God, and that I was considering doing a series on Calvinism instead. I ran a survey to see if people were interested in this, and 98% of you said “Yes!” So here is the first post… (Some of these posts on Calvinism ended up in my book, The Re-Justification of God which can be found on Amazon.

I believe in the Five Solas

The rallying cry of the Reformation centers around five solas (or in proper Latin, the five solae): Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, and Soli Deo Gloria.

Though not actually stated in quite this fashion until the 20th century, these five statements summarize what the Reformation was about. The Reformation was about authority, tradition, and justification, and the leaders of the Reformation believed and taught that everything we have from God, is Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, and Soli Deo Gloria.

In English we might say that what we have from God is “by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the authority of Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.”

I affirm all five statements. I consider myself to be a child of the Reformation.

I am Neither Calvinist nor Arminian

Yet I do not identify with either of the two main groups that came out of the Reformation; I am neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian. (I am not Lutheran either, for those Lutherans who see themselves as a group apart.)

Certainly, there are many things I appreciate about John Calvin, Jacobus Arminius, Martin Luther, and the other Reformers, but I have too many differences with the main theological arguments of each man to be comfortable identifying myself with the theological systems that bear their names.

Ironically, my main area of disagreement with Calvinism and Arminianism is that they do not take the five solas far enough.

That is, the Reformers and their followers stopped short of fully reforming their theology around the five solas. Having begun with the revolutionary truths of the five solas, they failed to follow through on the full theological ramifications of these five statements. As a result, the Reformation sputtered to a halt and—in my opinion—ultimately failed.

How can I say this?

The Failure of the Reformation

If you were to compare the typical writings of the average Calvinist, Arminian, Lutheran, and Catholic theologians, you would discover that when it comes to the issues of faith, grace, the accomplished work of Jesus Christ, the authority of tradition over Scripture, and the goal of glorifying God in all of life, there is very little distinguishable difference (See the journal article I wrote on this several years ago).

It is not just me saying this. There have been talks in recent decades between prominent leaders of these various groups to all reunite into one group. The primary sticking points, it seems, have nothing to do with the five solas, but center instead on issues like Mariology, the veneration of the Saints, and papal authority.

I believe that if the Reformers and their followers had resolutely held to the five solas, the spiritual landscape of the world today would be much different. The Reformation would have continued to do its work, so that grace, faith, love, and freedom would flow out of the church today in ways that have not been seen since the church began nearly 2000 years ago.

Of course, one cannot blame Luther, Calvin, Arminius, or any of the other Reformers for not fully following through on the ramifications of their own theological insights. Theological development is a multi-generational endeavor.

We can, however, challenge both the contemporary and historical followers of the Reformers to advance upon the teachings of their forebears. No Reformer, I believe, ever thought that his beliefs were perfect and that nobody could ever improve upon his teachings or take his ideas further.

The Reformers would agree, I think, with what some people say about the Reformation: “Always reforming; never reformed.” The reformation of church and theology is never over.

Just as the Reformers sought to reform the church of their day, so also, they would want those who came after them to continue the reforms “till we all come to the unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4:13).

Let the Reforming Continue!

That is the purpose of this series on Calvinism. I hope that the information contained within these posts will build upon the reformations that began during the Reformation and will lead to further reformation in the future. Specifically, I want to provide Calvinists and non-Calvinists with a perspective on certain passages of Scripture which will hopefully allow people to see that there are viable alternatives to Calvinism and it’s theological opposite, Arminianism.

There is a balanced middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism.

Though there are numerous avenues that one might take in seeking to provide a non-Calvinistic perspective on Scripture, the route I have chosen is to emphasize the biblical teaching on “faith alone” and contrast it with what is often taught in Calvinism. I want to show how Calvinism, though it claims to defend sola fide, actually undermines it with every point of its theological system.

Related to this, the book will also contain a heavy emphasis on radical, outrageous, shocking, scandalous grace. Of course, I cannot write about faith or grace without mentioning Jesus Christ. All of this discussion will revolve around what the Scripture says, rather than on human or religious tradition, and ultimately, the entire discussion is for the glory of God as I seek to help others see the radiating grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ as He died on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

Hopefully, as these posts progress, you can proclaim the five solas aloud with me: Sola Gratia! Sola Fide! Solus Christus! Sola Scriptura! Soli Deo Gloria!

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

The New Reformation is Here

A few things to expect in the next few decades

1. Disaster

2. Voices from Below

3. Leadership from Women

4. Direction from the Poor and the Minorities

5. Church will become less centralized

6. Church will become a servant to the world

7. Scriptural Understanding Will Change

So are you excited to be alive?

Jacobus Arminius

The Five Articles of Remonstrance

The Canons of Dort and TULIP

A Summary of TULIP

A Sixth Point of Calvinism?

Calvinism by Calvinists

The Reformation

Publishing and Pastoring

Opposition in Geneva

Michael Servetus – The Scapegoat Savior

John Calvin – The Defender of Christianity

Losing Limited Atonement

Shedding Perseverance of the Saints

Calvinist No More

Coming to Terms with non-Calvinism

I believe in the Five Solas

I am Neither Calvinist nor Arminian

The Failure of the Reformation

Let the Reforming Continue!

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