Know Your Cuts of Calvinism
1. Total Depravity: Pertains to the saints also.
2. Justification by Faith Alone: Pertains to sanctification also.
3. Mortification and Vivification: Perpetual death and rebirth for living by faith alone in sanctification to maintain justification. The reliving of our baptism “again and again.”
4. Double Imputation: Christ’s passive obedience to the cross for justification, and His active obedience as a substitution for our obedience in sanctification.
5. Deep Repentance (aka Intelligent Repentance): Seeks the death of mortification in re-experiencing our new birth.
6. New Obedience (aka New Fruit): The experience of Christ’s active obedience in sanctification (vivification).
7. The New Birth: Perpetual mortification and vivification.
8. The Objective Gospel: All reality is interpreted through the redemptive works of Christ.
9. Christ for Us: Christ died for our justification, and lived a perfect life for our sanctification.
10. The Imperative Command is Grounded in the Indicative Event: Biblical commands show forth what Christ has accomplished for us and what we are unable to do in sanctification. Works are experienced only as they flow from the indicative event of the gospel.
11. Neo-Nomianism (New Law, aka New Legalism): The belief that we can please God by obeying the law in sanctification.
12. Progressive Sanctification: The progression of justification to glorification.
13. Progressive Imputation: Whatever is seen in the gospel narrative and meditated upon is imputed to our sanctification, whether mortification or vivification.
14. The Golden Chain of Salvation: See cut 12.
15. Good Repentance: Repenting of good works.
16. In-Lawed in Christ: Christ fulfilled the law perfectly and imputed it to our sanctification.
17. Redemptive Historical Hermeneutics (the Christocentric Hermeneutic, aka the Apostle’s Hermeneutic): The Bible as historical narrative for the sole purpose of showing forth Christ’s redemptive works.
18. Faith: A neutral entity within us with no intrinsic worth that is able to reflect the object of its focus outside of us. The object of focus can be experienced within, but remains outside of us.
19. The Heart: The residence of evil desires and faith. It can be reoriented (the “reorientation of the heart” or “reorientation of desires”) to reflect Christ via mortification and vivification.
20. Flesh: The world realm where evil is manifested and experienced.
21. Spirit: The Spirit realm where the imputed works of Christ are manifested and experienced (not applied through our actions).
22. Christian Hedonism: Seeks to experience the joy of vivification.
23. Obedience of Faith: New Obedience.
24. Christ in Us: “By faith,” and faith only has substance and reality to the degree of the object it is placed in; i.e., Christ outside of us.
25. Vital Union: Makes experiencing the gospel possible. Makes mortification and vivification possible.
26. Eclipsing the Son (aka the Emphasis Hermeneutic): Focusing on anything other than Christ. Anything that is not seen through a Christocentric prism creates shadows that we live in. The obstacles that create the shadows may be truth, but they aren’t the “best truth.” “They may be good things, but not the best thing.”
27. Sabbath Rest: Sanctification. We are to “rest and feed” on Christ for our Christian life. The primary day this is done is Sunday. Through preaching and the sacraments we “kill” (mortification, or the contemplation of our evil and misery) resulting in vivification throughout the rest of the week.
28. The Subjective Power of the Gospel: The manifestation of the gospel that flows from gospel contemplationism. We never know for certain whether it is a result of our efforts or the Spirit’s work (although the Spirit’s work is always experienced by joy); hence, the power of the objective gospel is subjective (Heidelberg Disputation: Thesis 24).
29. Mortal Sin: Good works by the Christian not attended by fear that they may be of one’s own effort (HD 7).
30. Venial Sin: Good works by the Christian attended with fear (HD 7).
31. Power of the Keys (aka Protestant Absolution): Reformed elders have the authority to bind or loose sin on earth (Calvin Institutes 3.4.12).
32. Redemptive Church Discipline: In all cases to convert one to cuts 1-31. This redeems them to the only one, true faith. This can be a long process, and said person is not free to leave a given church until the elders bind or loose.
33. Preach the Gospel to Yourself: See cuts 1-32.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
[…] Know Your Cuts of Calvinism. […]
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Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
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“2. Justification by Faith Alone: Pertains to sanctification also.”
The two aren’t logically separable. For example, say Paul teaches justification by faith alone. Then Paul says “What? Don’t you know that no murderer can inherit the kingdom of heaven?” He does do both these things. So what is this? Well, the “work” of not murdering after becoming a Christian is now required for final justification because it is required for sanctification — the two, ultimately, are the same. The concept of justification by faith alone, therefore, does nothing but create confusion. If you take faith alone seriously, you of necessity jettison sanctification altogether.
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Well, it’s a free country, but this ministry is predicated on a radical dichotomy between the two. We hear the law, but we are not under it. It informs our sanctification which leads to confidence that we have been justified, we will grant you that, but the two are totally separate.
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What does “informs our sanctification” even mean? Sanctification is about holyfication of lifestyle, not about information. Are you even using English definitions of these terms?
What I would ask is, in what way can Paul say to his audience “Don’t you know that nor murder can inherit the kingdom of heaven?” if obedience to the command “thou shalt not murder” is not ultimately in practice required for final justification?
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With all due respect James, I have done the heavy lifting on this and don’t care to have to look up my own research to answer questions. Go to the Potter’s House series on the book of Romans. The link is in the widget. PPT also has a keyword search engine.
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I’m not saying you don’t answer the question somewhere: I’m just saying you don’t do it in English. That again is one major problem with justification by faith alone — it makes no sense in the vernacular. It only makes sense in some alien theologicese, and even there I’m not so sure how much sense it makes. When the common man hears “justification by faith alone” he automatically assumes sanctification is out the window too, because in common language there is ultimately no distinction between them.
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Justification, sanctification, and glorification are Bible words. Clearly, justification is not in time and space, sanctification is. Sanctification CANNOT effect justification. We were justified before the world was created and our glorification guaranteed. What is complicated about that?
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“Clearly, justification is not in time and space, sanctification is.” Justification may be a Bible word but talking about it being outside time and space is not Biblical. “We were justified before the world was created”–how so if justification is by faith? Faith happens in time and space. The more you try to separate justification and sanctification the more you sound like a Calvinist. What you are describing here is clearly arbitrary predestination: justified before time and space? glorification guaranteed? Here comes the lottery winner theory, again.
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Romans 8:30 is clear on this. You have a right to your opinion, you’re just wrong. Election doesn’t necessarily equal determinism.
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BTW, even if Sanctification cannot effect justification it can affect justification.
Effect means to cause, and sanctification is not a sufficient cause for justification because God’s mercy must also be involved.
But Affect means to have some bearing on, and clearly sanctification does have some bearing on ultimate justification. To argue otherwise–the only way to argue otherwise–is to appeal to Cosmic Lottery theory (aka Calvinism) as your last comment about justification being “outside time and space” and glorification being “guaranteed” demonstrates.
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James, the point you make in your first comment is one that I made (tried to make) on the MacAurther thread. It is a solid argument.
I happen to think the world of Paul-and a more wonderful family you will NEVER meet- but I am forced to agree with you. The idea that we are justified outside of our will at some past moment that exceeds even our very existence must make the root of Christianity mysticism even in the best case.
It presents two major problems. The first is that any violation of man’s volition automatically removes the man from the salvation equation. If that is true, then man cannot possibly be saved because man without will cannot sin; cannot have faith; cannot exist. And certainly cannot obey in sanctification.
The second problem is that it is logically impossible to say that what does not exist can be justified. If something doesn’t exist, it cannot have ANY attributes by definition, because it is not there. There is no such thing as something happening to you BEFORE you exist. That argument is wholly untenable.
We need to take Paul’s (apostle) advice and move beyond vain philosophies. We need rational faith. Without it, there is no truth…merely opinion.
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Romans 8:30, eh? If any of this crap were true why is there never any mention in the Old Testament that there is coming some day a scheme of salvation based on predestination from before the world began? Paul is just Gnostic trash.
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Paul,
You are most likely correct. Election does not necessarily equal determinism. Since God is infinite, there is no “when” to His actions, so it is impossible for God to determine. Without a “future” determinism is defunct.
But what MUST be true is that man’s election must be volitional. It must first be a function of man’s independent will. If not, Christianity is DOA as a rational belief system.
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Argo,
Understood, and I was wondering if you could help me out. I think “Christian”(?) posted a comment on your blog regarding this and I can’t find it.
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James,
I’m not a fan of Paul (the apostle…I am a huge fan of Paul Dohse) either. He is all over the map metaphysically in his epistles. But John Immel makes the case for lightening up on him a bit. The context he was operating in was exceedingly difficult for any one man…he was doing the hard work of going up against some of the most consistent and entrenched philosophies of the time.
Still…yeah, you gotta take his “doctrines” with a grain of rational salt and realize that on some things, taken at face value anyway, he just gets wrong.
I mean, he threw Christians in jail for what…years? Is it really that hard to concede that he could have gotten his metaphysics wrong in the course of his evangelistic journeys?
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Justification- one time done deal with our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; the past is forgiven and forgotten; the debt of sin is paid for and death is vanquished.
Sanctification- ongoing eternal work of the Holy Spirit and our co-laboring with Him (the Trinity)
I think many, many times we forget that the Holy Spirit is God within us; working with us.
We have that power to work with and submit to the Holy Spirit; if we don’t the Bible is very clear that He
will chasten us and discipline us as a loving Father. A loving Father does not divorce His children because
they became stagnant or disobedient in their sanctification. My husband has not done so with his children. If my children refuse to listen to our rules and advice they will not receive the rewards and blessings of those who do listen. This also pertains to our relationship with God.
I do not see this as a difficult concept to get really.
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T4H, I think you posted a comment over on Argo’s blog that I am trying to find along the lines of election and assurance. Can’t find it.
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