Paul's Passing Thoughts

Nothing irritates me more than the predestination debate. Pastors and scholars on both sides of the issue are either clueless or lying. The completely disingenuous premise of the argument assumes that John Calvin had the gospel right, and the predestination argument is “secondary.” Past this ministry (TANC), who is saying, “Predestination is not the issue, Calvin believed a false gospel, that’s the issue”? I certainly can’t find anyone. It totally drives me nuts that pastors who claim to be “Calvinists” are assumed to be propagators of a true gospel while Calvin clearly promoted a false gospel. Whether John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, or whoever, if they proclaim themselves to be Calvinists they are false teachers on that merit alone. So, what is Calvin’s false gospel?

1. The state of being of a “believer” is not changed; a person is only illuminated for the purpose of seeing how far they are from God. This facilitates #2. The new birth is redefined as an ability to see how evil we are so that we can perpetually return to the same gospel that originally saved us.

2. Salvation is a process and not a completed work. Since “believers” continue to fall short of perfect law-keeping, they must continually seek re-salvation and this process can only be obtained through church membership.

3. Only water baptism admits one into the fellowship of the church which is synonymous with being part of the body of Christ. Of course, this is tantamount to baptismal regeneration.

4. Pastors within the church have authority to forgive sin. Right, in all, this is NO different than the Catholic Church. Right, whether MacArthur or Mohler, or Piper, or your local Protestant pope, they think they have authority to forgive your sin. That’s what they believe….period.

5. Clearly, Christ plus the church’s “means of grace” (salvation).

6. Clearly, works salvation.

The ability to progress in salvation, according to Calvin, depends on one’s ability to see how much further they are from God rather than a gospel that brings us closer to our Father’s likeness. Then, we have masses of confused Churchians moaning and whining on discernment blogs about the condition of the church when the very orthodoxy calls for it. It’s a joke and cognitive dissonance of the highest order.

Susan and I no longer go to church, but every summer of have to confront the whole idea that it is alright to send our grandchildren to VBS and church camps. Why would that be ok? It’s not ok, a false gospel is a false gospel…end of discussion.

I doubt this post will get any pushback because anyone vaguely familiar with this ministry knows that I have a litany of Calvin citations to back up what I am saying here. Nevertheless, we can start with 4.1.20-22 of the Calvin Institutes. Then we can move on to discuss how the other daddy of the Reformation, Martin Luther, believed the same gospel.

That is, the FALSE gospel of justification by faith.

paul