Paul's Passing Thoughts

In 2011, this ministry had the only definitive answer for the New Calvinism movement that was sweeping evangelicalism. “Was” is past tense as the movement has totally taken over the church. 2011 is when I published the book, “The Truth About New Calvinism” and it is still the only truthful information about how, when, and why the New Calvinist movement started.

However, at the time I published the book, I believed that New Calvinism was a departure from authentic Protestant soteriology. Volume 2 will set the record straight on that and document how this ministry reached contrary conclusions. Volume One will also be revised. There will be a total of 5 volumes. I also wrote several articles on this blog that put forth the idea that New Calvinism is a departure from authentic Protestant orthodoxy.

My understanding has evolved since then, and I understand that those articles may cause some confusion about where we stand on this issue.

Nevertheless, volume one remains the only accurate account of how New Calvinism began. It also puts forth some theological arguments that confused Calvinists were looking for. Internet traffic for Paul’s Passing Thoughts .com was multiplied by 15 times in 2011 and doubled that in 2012.  PPT and TANC Ministries looked to be at the epicenter of a civil war between New Calvinism and Old Calvinism, the latter more accurately coined Confused Calvinism. Confused Arminianism can be included in the fray as well.

Here is something I believe about myself and those involved in this ministry; we are all about the truth and nothing but the truth. In 2011, I met with a local blogger named John Immel to discuss my book, and Immel noted that what I wrote in TTANC about the New Calvinists resembles the writings of Luther and Calvin. He encouraged me to do an in-depth study of the Reformation’s documents for myself, and The Calvin Institutes in particular. And I did.

This is when I discovered that New Calvinism is a return to authentic Protestant orthodoxy. And furthermore, Catholicism and Protestantism are fundamentally the same means of salvation. And, I began writing about this in 2012 which led to an apocalyptic bridge burning between myself and two communities: the old confused Calvinists and confused Arminians. What this ministry had the audacity to teach didn’t catch up to us until 2014 when we started seeing a decline in web traffic. Any decline was pretty significant as traffic had increased x30 between 2011 and 2014.

However, I remain shocked at how many are open to what we are teaching considering the following: we believe that Protestantism is the biggest lie ever perpetrated on humanity. We also believe that church history has no real connection with the book of Acts. Church history is not Bible history. How we “do church” and what church is must be totally reconsidered.

That shouldn’t scare us; that should cause eager anticipation concerning what God will do when we put real feet to following Him alone.

And being free feels pretty good as well.

paul

Unbelievers know more about salvation than church attenders because unbelievers understand the new birth intuitively. They know it is an exchange for the life they presently have for another life. This is why the gospel is rejected. This may include not wanting to lose present desires that they have.

Those primed for salvation want to escape desires that enslave them. They hate their present life, and pick up the cross and follow Jesus to the baptism of death to the old self. But they also follow Jesus in the baptism of resurrection and new birth. This is a one-time occurrence that seals the believer until the day their body is also redeemed.

Church orthodoxy explicitly teaches that you need church because you are the same person that you always were; you are saved because the Spirit supposedly showed you that you need church. Most unbelievers know better.

When one is baptized in church, the pastor says you die in the likeness of Christ and are resurrected in his “likeness.” It’s not a likeness, it’s sameness.