Paul's Passing Thoughts

Authentic Calvinism dies a social death every 100 to 150 years because of the spiritual tyranny that goes hand in hand with it. In Authentic Calvinism, all reality and knowledge worth knowing is a deeper and deeper knowledge of how evil we are as “set against the holiness of God.” Hence, all tragedy, sin, misfortune, etc., contributes to our knowledge of how worthless we are. Have you been raped by a leader in the church? Awesome! What a wonderful opportunity to show forth the forgiveness of Christ that you have received by forgiving your rapist. What a wonderful opportunity to show forth the importance of tending to your own sin and not the sin of others. And what about “justice”? Justice?! Just be glad you haven’t received the justice that you deserve! Here is what Calvin said about justice:

Those who, as in the presence of God, inquire seriously into the true standard of righteousness, will certainly find that all the works of men, if estimated by their own worth, are nothing but vileness and pollution, that what is commonly deemed justice is with God mere iniquity; what is deemed integrity is pollution; what is deemed glory is ignominy (CI 3.12.4).

Eventually, this logic hits a dead-end with people. Authentic Calvinism dies, and out of the ashes comes an adjusted version with a sounder soteriology. But the nomenclature, “Calvinist” is retained.  Unlike the evolutionary cesspool of Authentic Calvinism that yields a Sanctified Calvinism, the latter holds to a measure of enablement on the part of the believer, especially in the category of law-keeping. Then, when Authentic Calvinism rears its ugly head in a societal resurgence, the former and latter go to war.

The First Calvinist Civil War

The first war occurred shortly after the siblings of the Reformation, the Puritans, landed on American soil from Europe. The Bible of choice was the Geneva Bible. An Authentic Calvinist, Anne Hutchinson, started a Bible study in her home. She was a rabid follower of John Cotton, Authentic Calvinist extraordinaire. In fact, when Cotton was forced to leave for America, she followed him here. In her Bible studies, she accused the rest of the Puritan gang of being legalists because they didn’t share John Cotton’s assertion that Jesus keeps the law for us in sanctification (or the Christian life), so that we can stand in the future judgment clothed in the perfect obedience of Christ and not our own. In turn, the other Puritan Calvinists (Sanctified: believe that law informs sanctification without effecting justification) accused her of being an antinomian. This was known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony antinomian controversy of 1637.

The Colony was a theocracy modeled after European Calvinistic Puritanism. Hutchison was brought to trial by the courts as well as her home church. Cotton, while defending Hutchinson, was able to play both sides of the fence and emerge unscathed. Hutchinson was eventually banished from the Colonies and was murdered by Indians five years later.

Sanctified Calvinists: 1.

Authentic Calvinists: 0.

However, not long after, the fallout from the European style Salem witch trials put an end to the Puritan theocracy.

The Second Calvinist Civil War

In 1970, two significant Reformed movements emerged and began having profound effect on American church culture: the biblical counseling movement founded by Sanctified Calvinist Dr. Jay E. Adams, and the beginnings of what is now known as the New Calvinist movement. The New Calvinist movement is the latest revival of Authentic Calvinism. The movement was trampled to death in Calvinistic Baptist circles, but found life in Dr. John Miller’s Sonship Discipleship program. Disciples of Miller infiltrated the biblical counseling movement and went to war with Adams claiming that his counseling construct wasn’t “vertical enough.” Basically, the same grace/works contention between the two Calvinist camps that occurred in 1637. Adams was eventually pushed out of the movement that he founded all together via character assassination and retreated to a small counseling organization of his own.

Authentic Calvinists: 1

Sanctified Calvinists: 1

The series is now tied.

paul