Mean Calvinists? (sermon)

British Columbia: July/August 2018

Grace Baptist Church/Michael Phillips on Calvinism (2013)

Audio and text

Preface

For myself personally, I consider myself Reformed and not a Calvinist. I certainly hold to a form of TULIP, which Pastor Phillips defines well.

Some reasons I consider myself Reformed and not a Calvinist:

I am not a devotee of any particular non-biblical writer. Admittedly, John Calvin with the Bondage and Liberation of the Will and The Institutes of the Christian Religion, did provide me with key historical support for my modern theological/philosophical view on compatibilism  But John S. Feinberg and others also provided significant modern theological/philosophical input. This is more Reformed than Calvinistic.

Although I do not consider it heresy, I do not favour infant baptism over believer's baptism, theologically. My views in this context are of the Anabaptist tradition (fused with Reformed theology in other areas) and not of a Calvinist tradition. I attended a Mennonite Brethren bible school, a Baptist seminary, am a baptized Mennonite Brethren, and am a member of my third church of that denomination.

To be blunt, I am not American, I am Canadian, and would not subscribe to a significant amount of what makes someone a 'Calvinist' in an American sense.

Although, I technically have United Kingdom/European citizenship and passport (The EU passport will be deleted eventually with Brexit), I did not grow up in a Calvinist tradition from the continent of Europe, where the movement began. Of course the same can be stated for being Reformed, in that context.

In other words, I am not culturally a Calvinist or Reformed.

I am Reformed by a combination of biblical, theological and philosophical (philosophy of religion) research, writing and prayerfully adapting my views over the years by the grace of God. This took place throughout my academic career, culminating, somewhat ironically through secular British University theses only research!

The truth is from my very young days, when according to my Mother, I would 'Blame God for everything', by God's grace I had a growing understanding of God's infinite, omnipotent nature and sovereignty.

I would state that I am far more a Reformed theologian and philosopher of religion than a Calvinist.
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From Audio and Text

Pastor Phillips states:

There are five well-known, generally accepted distinctives of Calvinism or the Reformed Faith.; These are the ones that typically offend others, and give us the chance to be know-it-all, loud-mouthed jerks! There's an acronym to help remember them: 

TULIP. 

Total Depravity. This does not mean that a sinner's as bad as he can be, but only that every part of him is fallen away from God, and therefore, he cannot want God or believe the Gospel without first being touched by His Grace. In other words, God does not favor us because we repent and believe, but we repent and believe because God favors us. In a word--We love Him because He first loved us. 

Unconditional Election. This means that God chooses sinners for salvation, and He does because of something good in Him, an not something good in us, either actual or foreseen. He does not choose us because He foresaw us choosing Him later, but we choose Him because He chose us before the foundation of the world. 

Limited Atonement. The wording here is bad, but the content is good. It means the death of Christ secures the salvation of His People. It doesn't 'make salvation possible', it saves. 

Irresistible Grace. This is another poor way of expressing the doctrine, and has led some to think it means God forces Himself upon us--Divine rape--it's been called. Nonsense! Irresistible Grace is good news because it means human sin and folly cannot frustrate the saving purpose of God. The Lord saves us in spite of ourselves. 

Perseverance of the Saints. This means the Grace that saves us when we die, also saves us before we die. Conversion really converts; When a sinner becomes a 'new creature in Christ', that's what he remains. Forever.

Again, I reason these are good definitions.

The Pastor lists some reasons why Calvinists might often be mean and/or perceived as such: His Main Reason

THE MAIN REASON The main reason is something else. Calvinists are obnoxious fools whenever we misplace the Gospel. We haven't denied the Gospel--thank God for that!--but we move it out of the center of our theology and life, putting something else in its place. When we do that, we do exactly what Paul tells us not to do. We make people blaspheme the Word and doctrine of God. We're called to adorn the Gospel--to make it look good by humble and winsome lives. But by being arrogant, mean and negative, we make it look bad. Our lives don't beautify the Gospel; they uglify it.

This ties into my points that I am separate from American and European cultural Calvinism that may influence this sort of bad theology and bad behaviour. Yes, this type of bad theology can also develop academically, I admit.

I suppose I came to a realization of the truth of much Reformed theology, progressively, simultaneously with the theology that in Jesus Christ, we are saved by grace through faith, not by works, but for works (Ephesians 1-2). In my spirit/mind this prohibited the idea of arrogance and nastiness toward others in the Church and outside of the Church.

I agree that secondary doctrines should never equal or replace primary doctrines in importance, in regard to the Gospel.

Cited

THE GOSPEL CURE In the first place, the Gospel humbles us as nothing else can. In the second place, the Gospel elevates our brethren in Christ--even if they don't know as much as we do. In the third place, the Gospel creates the Church--not the seminary, no less the debating society--where every person and gift is needed. Including, let's say, the generous brother who doesn't believe in Limited Atonement or the sympathetic sister defends free will without a brain in her head.

In Christ we should be humble in love and truth.

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Just prior to the lead photo.