Something More Virtuous than Reason and the Road to Holocaust
Words mean things. This truism often espoused by the political icon Rush Limbaugh is a stalwart against holocaust that is much underestimated. The horrors of history are always paved with something more virtuous than reason and common sense. After all, in this world of shadows reason has an alien pure form, so why make much of reason?
We know the drill; the law was written on cold, hard tablets of stone while the “New Covenant” is an epistle written on the soft, fleshly heart. If you are really spiritual, you don’t live by “a bunch of do’s and don’ts.” The pure is beyond what we can examine with the five senses; “streets of gold” do not really suggest that there will be material objects in heaven, only the unlearned believe such things.
This is why pithy sayings vomited out by Calvinists dressed in the demeanor of Mr. Rogers should make our blood run cold. “Christ is not a precept, He’s a person.” “It’s not a riddle, it’s a redeemer.” Take note of these statements by Calvinist Paul David Tripp in the book, How People Change:
Jesus comes to transform our entire being, not just our mind. He comes as a person, not as a cognitive concept we insert into a new formula for life.
That good work begins in relationship to Jesus and is brought to completion within an ever-deepening union with him. This is the most unique aspect of a biblical view of change. It is not less than cognitive change; it is so much more…The Bible gives us more than exhortations and rules for change. The great gift Christ gives us is himself!
These truths are not just cognitive tools to adjust your thinking; they are intended to increase your love for Christ!
One of the first steps of any totalitarian state is to disarm the public. This is why in most countries the citizens can do nothing but watch when acts of unimaginable brutality are performed on innocent people. In fact, they are often forced to watch. But such governments first seek to disarm the public of their abilities to reason as well. In this respect, Calvinism and Islam have always led the way. Robert Ley, the Internal Education Minister for Adolf Hitler, stated the following in his famous speech, “Fate—I Believe!”:
Understanding sometimes is not enough to explain something. Only faith is sufficient. The Führer in Nuremberg said: “Woe to him who does not believe!” He who does not believe has no soul. He is empty. He has no ideals. He has nothing to live for. He has no sunshine, no light, no joy in life. He is a poor, poor man. What is wealth? What are possessions? What does it all mean? Problems come despite them, only faith is left. Woe to him who does not believe!
All of this is best summarized by the words of Rudolf Hess in his speech, “The Oath to Adolf Hitler”:
Do not seek Adolf Hitler with your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts!
Indeed. Before the mass graves can be filled, the public and the church must be disarmed of their reason.
paul
John Calvin’s Anti-Love Trilogy
St. Augustine was a strong advocate of allegorical interpretation for obvious reasons; the Reformed gospel cannot withstand a commonsense interpretation of Scripture. Reformed writings are often in blatant contradiction to the plain sense of Scripture.
While the apostle Paul instructed us to make it our goal to please God, and John recorded Christ’s instruction to love Him by keeping His commandments, John Calvin denied that the Christian could do either. This can be found in the Calvin Institutes (3.14.9-11).
Calvin’s primary argument for this supposed inability to love God through obedience is also extremely problematic. Calvin insisted that justification is defined by the Law of Moses, and a perpetual perfect keeping of the law has to be maintained in order for justification to be valid. Not only does the Bible state that justification is apart from the law, the apostle Paul stated that there is NO law than can give life. Hence, who keeps the law for us is irrelevant—the law can’t give life.
Calvin sanctified this egregious error by making the perfect obedience of Christ part of the atonement. Supposedly, Christ came to die for our justification, and also came to fulfill the law through perfect obedience to maintain that justification. This leads to even more egregious error: the idea that justification isn’t a finished work.
This also leads to a works salvation by the practice of antinomianism in sanctification. Because the law defines justification and mortal Christians cannot keep it perfectly, they must live out their Christian life by faith alone. If they do this, the perfect obedience of Christ will be applied to their Christian life and they will remain saved. So, Christians must live by the same gospel that saved them in order to keep themselves saved. The Reformed mantra, “We must preach the gospel to ourselves everyday” is a means, or a practice, something WE DO in order to keep ourselves saved.
Therefore, according to Calvin, Christians love Christ by applying His obedience to their lives by faith alone.
Secondly, Calvinism denies biblical love by calling on Christians to live in constant fear of the final judgment. Calvin believed that falling short of the law’s standard separates Christians from grace. As a way to motivate Christians to return to the same gospel that saved them, Calvin prescribed a focus on the final judgment and the fear of it (CI 3.3.3-9).
This is in direct contradiction to 1John where the apostle states that there is no fear in love because fear has to do with judgment. This blatant contradiction to Scripture by Calvin is mindboggling.
In addition, this whole idea of calling on the same atonement that originally saved us turns the book of Hebrews completely upside down. The Hebrew writer states that those who have tasted of grace, and turn away from it, cannot be brought back to a place of repentance. Calvin prescribed a use of the law that shows this very turning away, and a need to be brought to repentance again. The Hebrew writer states the following: that’s impossible!
Moreover, this is in direct contradiction to the Bible and its eschatology: Christians will not stand in the final judgment because that is a judgment according to the law. Christians are not under the law, and will stand in a separate judgment that will determine rewards. In fact, in direct contradiction to the apostle Paul, Calvin’s gospel is one that keeps Christians under law and a subsequent need for continued grace. That’s NOT “under grace.” Under law is the very definition of a lost person in the book of Romans. Christians are not under law…for justification, but rather under grace. The law now informs our sanctification and Christian living. This very fact is behind the “T” in TULIP, the idea that Christians are still under the law and unable to keep the law in a way that pleases God. Perfection is NOT required to maintain our justification because we are not under the law; under grace means that we are able to use the Bible to love God through obedience, and our shortcomings are a family matter of sonship—not a salvation issue.
And lastly on this second point, it turns the book of James completely upside down. James stated that faith without works is dead in the same way that a body without a spirit is dead. Calvinism states that the Christian life is lived by faith alone and that all of the works are of Christ; ie., Christ supposedly loves Himself with His own works. And apparently, when Christ will say, “Well done faithful servant,” He will be supposedly talking to Himself. Of course, Calvinists would say that the “well done” refers to living a life of faith alone, but specific works are cited by Christ, not faith alone. If that’s what they really accomplished apart from works, why wouldn’t Christ simply say so?
Thirdly, Calvin believed that the Christian lives out their baptism through a process of “mortification and vivification.” Mortification and vivification is a formal part of Reformed systematic theology. It is repentance for sins that separate us from grace (mortification) resulting in the joy of our original salvation (vivification). In other words, a focus on evil leads to joy. The apostle Paul said that love does not rejoice in evil, but according to Calvinism, a focus on evil is efficacious to having joy.
paul
Christmas, Family, Life, and Church According to the Dohses
Most people who read here know me simply as “paul,” but I am Paul Dohse, one of the “Dohse” family. In case anybody hasn’t noticed, the world is a crazy place, and mostly perplexing to the reasonable soul. This week, amongst the craziness that is unavoidable in this world, the word “family” came up often.
Perhaps there is not a word that is used more loosely. The usage found most incredulous is employee as “family.” The Olive Garden restaurant used to have a commercial that said you are family while you are eating there: “When you’re here, you’re family.” Motorcycle gangs are often touted as family also. Many claim that the mob or some street gang is the “family I never had.”
So, is “family” a company, an Italian gathering of gluttony, or a criminal enterprise? I think it is something much deeper. I think God wires family within us. Family must be defined by watching it over time. Family is a mystery—something deep, it can only be defined by what it does.
However, some elements of family are evident, and that’s where the confusion comes in. Families supply a need, or a perceived need; for example, money which leads to confusing a job with family. A residual need supplied by an entity does not make a family. A family is a refuge that enables one to stand against the world.
And, I have learned something about families by examining the Dohses. We have something to add to the conversation. I have noticed that some families act different from our family, and I wondered, “why?”
Many things make up the Dohses, but I think since I do not have the rest of my life to fully evaluate us, as would be the necessary discipline to evaluate any family comprehensively, I will choose the most prominent place in view at this time. I think what primarily makes the Dohses the Dohses is the Whistmans, my grandparents. A family forged by an orphan named Elwood who had little family.
Now, I will describe their motif, but we must go deeper; what forged this motif? They were just simply always there. Their little plot of land in a secluded area of southern Ohio was a refuge away from the world—if family, no reservations required. And though counseling was always available from my grandmother—no qualifications required. My grandmother was a woman of deep convictions; God is a Democrat and she would never back down from that fact, but if you were family, you could be a Republican, and many of us are. Really, she set that standard for the Dohses; you make your position known and then you get on with being family. Besides, the hope of “I told you so” always lingered in the future.
No qualifications, only hope of a better future. As a young person, I often lost touch with my grandparents, but sometimes needed a refuge, a time away from the world. I would simply pack a bag and throw it in whatever I was driving at the time. Arrival time had to be planned for 7pm, this set the scene that was as sure as the setting and rising of the sun. The clanging of the gravel driveway aroused my grandmother from her chair in front of the TV, on channel 3, and my grandfather would remove the pipe from his mouth and ask, “Who is it?” My grandmother would stand at the door and announce who was arriving. Upon walking in the door, the conversation was a continuation of the day before, whenever that was. It was 25 steps to the guest room with the suitcase, and then 15 steps to the leftovers being placed on the table: rabbit, fried potatoes, beans, marinated cucumbers, chicken, and without fail, “I’m sorry that there isn’t much to eat.” No reservations needed.
Importance of family was forged into my grandparents by life itself. My grandfather was an orphan, and married into my grandmother’s family of seventeen siblings. During those times, the formation of a large family required the courage of love. They laughed together, worked together, supported each other, and mourned together when one of their own was struck down by the world. Their family, our family, was spared no category of tragedy. My mother, as a young girl, would go to the post office daily to check the posted list of fallen soldiers during WWII. Our family members were on that list too many times. My grandparents were a perfect symphony of one rescued from loneliness into the different seasons that come part and parcel with family. Hence, family was invaluable to them.
What good is any narrative about family without a juicy confession? This isn’t off-topic, and I will explain. Being a Dohse has taught me about another entity that uses the word, “family” loosely. That entity is the church. It shouldn’t be that way, that’s not what God intends, but it is. Since becoming a Christian in 1983, the church has taught me life’s most important truths, but it has never been my family. I have observed this mystery called “family” over the years and drawn a conclusion: The Dohses are a family, not the institutional church.
Why is this? It’s because Christians are not thinkers. This problem started in the Garden. God created Adam and Eve, and they talked with God face to face. Then the serpent came along and convinced Eve that thinking for herself was a bad idea. And the institutional church also thinks the same. You are not able to reason directly with God, you need a spiritual expert. The key to revival in the American church is the thinking Christian. When God said, “Come, let us reason together,” that wasn’t a memo given to the institutional church—He is talking to you. Until Christians figure that out, the claim on family is no more relevant than the same claim posited by Wal-Mart. As a Christian, and in the darkest hours when the world sought my life, it was the Dohses that spared no sacrifice in giving me refuge. It was the Dohses who did all they could, it was the Dohses who left everything on the field except that look that said, “if only I could do more.”
Church is a family as long as you agree with them. Yes, truth is important; the love of truth defines a Christian for God is truth, but Christian truth in our culture is defined by the traditions of ecclesiastical experts and parroted by lazy thinkers obeying the commandment that supposedly thunders from Mt. Sinai: “THOU SHALT NOT THINK FOR YOURSELF!” The gospel of oligarchy produces a family that is best defined by a used car salesmen—you are family while you are buying a car from him.
The Dohses also hold forth some valuable examples that are residual. It is a family of people who have always sought to focus on something bigger than themselves. This is helpful. Failure seems to be somewhat irrelevant; the goal is what is relevant. This eliminates a lot of pettiness. Yet, I must confess, the loyalty motif among those of different religions, politics, race, and sexual preference, in essence, the Dohses, is still a mystery to me.
Recently, my wife of three years, Susan, and I have endeavored to blend her family with the Dohses. And that’s who we are, at least to the degree that I can make sense of it. We are opinionated because we think for ourselves, we are diverse, at times very annoying, but always there. No reservations needed.
So, this Christmas is a major holiday, an opportunity to recognize family, not cheap substitutes that don’t have to live with you. This is the day we raise our glasses for a toast, and say, “Us against the world.” And somewhere grandmother is with us in a spirit born of a time when the world launched a blitzkrieg against her family. And she approves.
And this is my vision for my family: that we will all live together in eternity—you know where I stand. And this is my vision for what people in our day call church: that thinking Christians would stand, and these two would kiss: family and truth.
In both, the hope of a better future, Christ in us, the hope of glory.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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