Paul's Passing Thoughts

Calvinists are clearly among the most confident people roaming the earth; but why? They pride themselves as ones who embrace the hard truth of reality; God alone chooses those who will be saved and man has no ability whatsoever to choose God. All glory belongs to God, and Calvinists disdain any notion that man has some ability within himself to choose or desire the things of God. Clearly, they look at “Pelagianists” in a demeaning way in the same way that Gnostics look at those who believe reality can be understood through the five senses.

This is why Calvinists are the most ridiculous bunch roaming the face of the earth: while they are proud of their elect standing, Calvinist doctrine holds to the idea that NOBODY knows their eternal destiny until the “final tribunal.”

Fact is, Calvin held to three classes of elect: the non-elect, the temporary elect (the called), and the final elect (those who persevere). Now, forget the whole, “those who don’t persevere were never saved” routine. That’s not what Calvin taught. He taught that there is a temporary elect who are “temporarily illumined.” And due to the fact that they are temporarily regenerated by God, and do not persevere by God’s predetermination, their eternal damnation is greater than the non-elect. If you want to argue with this, citations are available upon request, but be sure of this; you are going to lose the argument.

So, why evangelize? According to Calvinism, it brings glory to God because man’s rejection of the gospel is proof that it is all of God. And, since all of reality is a metaphysical narrative written by God, all aspects of the story gives glory to God. Susan Dohse has taught on this extensively in regard to the theology of Jonathan Edwards.

However, there is one theory that explains why Calvinists can remain confident and haughty even if they lose their appetite for the “sovereign gospel of grace.” It pertains to Calvin’s doctrine of “power of the keys.” What’s that? Well, it’s a Catholic doctrine, because, you know, Calvin was a Catholic. And you know, an avowed follower of Augustine, till the end, who was, well, a Catholic. The doctrine holds to the idea that the church is God’s authority over salvation on earth. If you think that Protestant orthodoxy rejects the idea that pastors, like priests, have the authority to forgive sin on earth, you are dead wrong. And, if you think excommunication is a Catholic thing only (the idea that being ejected from church membership is the taking away of salvation), and not a Protestant thing, you are beyond dead wrong.

So, you can be a proud Calvinist while having no way to know your future destiny by merely staying faithful to church membership and obeying those “who have the rule over you.”  It is sort of like having a get out of election free card. So, you can choose God’s election by remaining faithful to the church. Brilliant.

And, obviously, if church is the only way to heaven, you must see no evil, hear no evil, or speak any evil against the church. Besides, Calvinists are all totally depraved anyway…

…and proud of it.

paul

“It is unclear as to whether or not the families have received any actual payments, but even if they have, Obama paid Iran back with interest. Let that sink in; Obama repaid Iran for a settlement that was the only justice Americans received for the 1983 bombing.” 

The political discussion surrounding the pros and cons of assassinating Qasem Soleimani, even from former military personnel, is stunning. Vacant from all of the discussion is the fact that Iran was directly reasonable for the Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 Americans during Qasem Soleimani’s tenure. On the one hand, we bemoan “endless wars” because we put so much value on the life of our brave soldiers, but on the other hand, many, including NO ENDLESS WARS AT ALL COST advocates such as Tucker Carlson seem to be completely comfortable with no justice being executed for the cowardly murder of 241 Marines while they slept.

Granted, trying to ferment democracy in some countries is a total waste of time, money, and blood, but I understand the ideology. Since humanity is endowed by God with a need to be free, wouldn’t it make sense to save the world with democracy building? No, because here is what George Bush (both of them) totally missed: freedom requires bravery. America is the best thing that has ever happened to the world, but not only because our land is free; the land is free because the brave live here.

You see, justice is all about the value of human life. If a life is worthless, who cares about justice? America’s bravery comes from valuing life. When acts that see life as worthless happen, those who value life displace their fear with anger. You cannot build a democracy where zero-sum-life ideology rules.

In response to a lawsuit filed by families of the Marines in 2014, a federal court found Iran guilty of being responsible for the bombing. The families were awarded 920 million. I won’t go into the twenty-year-plus maze of court cases, but a case in 2016 cleared the way for the families to obtain the awarded funds through a law that had frozen 1.7 billion in Iranian assets located in U.S. banks.

Throughout the legal process, the Obama administration supported the court cases for obvious political reasons, but in the end, merely paid Iran back for the settlements. In fact, though there is much debate about how much cold cash was delivered to Iran by Obama, one delivery was 1.7 billion, the same amount that were frozen assets that the families were awarded from. It is unclear as to whether or not the families have received any actual payments, but even if they have, Obama paid Iran back with interest. Let that sink in; Obama repaid Iran for a settlement that was the only justice Americans received for the 1983 bombing.

Where is this story, and where is the discussion of the Marine barracks bombing in all of this? Furthermore, the result was America pulling out of Lebanon immediately; how did that work for us?

Iran has committed several acts of war against the U.S. One must ask what would happen if a country bombed a Chinese military barracks. What Trump has done follows: he has finally delivered some measure of justice for American families.

If Iran is not willing to take their medicine; let there be war, final justice for them is long overdue. And if you want an end to endless wars, trust me, this won’t be an endless one.

paul

…it is true they were Christians, but they were primarily sons of the Enlightenment, and they held man as an effective, potent, rational creature. The founders of our country were effective men. They believed in the effectiveness of human existence. This is in absolute defiance of historical orthodoxy. There is no way you can massage historic Augustinian-Lutheran-Calvinist orthodoxy into rational, competent, successful men. It’s not possible. The practical outworking is in the United States man’s exposure to the Dark Ages was directly centered around the Puritan doctrine, and it was that same Puritan doctrine that the Founding Fathers made an overt effort to separate from government and, in many instances, to defeat.

See conference videos and full transcript here.