Highly Recommended Read:
John Piper explains why Calvinists are so Negative
By Ben Witherington III
Anita's response:
For many years I disliked Calvinists.
I knew a few Calvinists who were gracious and humble. And yet, most Reformed churchgoers seemed to take great pride in their ministers' expertise in explaining the wrongs and degrading other churches. Alas, many of their youths too had followed in that step and adopted the angry and arrogant "we know therefore we are best" attitude. Only less than a year ago I spoke with a 17-year-old who claimed that his Reformed church had the license for arrogance. I was shocked. What has the Doctrine of Grace become?
Even after I 'became' a Calvinist - I consider myself inter-denominational but attend Christian Studies lectures and Sunday services at a Calvinist church - I still am uncomfortable with the apparent smugness of many Calvinist/Reformed believers.
I would not have become a Calvinist myself had I not listened to (now) my pastor at a seminar in February 2008. During the four hour lecture and discussion about Love, Christian worldview and Post-Modernism, he did not even once trampled other denominations' dignity while maintaining his strong Reformed faith.
Ben Witherington III:
"All too often, the apparent intellectual coherency of a theological system is taken as absolute and compelling proof that this view of God, salvation,the world must be true and all others be heresy, to one degree or another. But it is perfectly possible to argue logically and coherency in a hermeneutical or theological circle with all parts connected, and unfortunately be dead wrong-- because one drew the circle much too small and left out all the inconvenient contrary evidence. This sort of fault is inevitable with theological systems constructed by finite human beings ... The truth of God and even of the Bible is much larger than anyone's ability (or any collection of human being's abilities) to get their mental calipers so firmly around it that one could form it into a 'coherent theological system' without flaws, gaps, or lacunae ... in the end our posture should be that of Anselm -- 'fides quaerens intellectum' faith seeking understanding, not 'intellectus quaerens fidium' Understanding seeking and defining and limiting faith." (read more)
John Piper explains why Calvinists are so Negative
By Ben Witherington III
Anita's response:
For many years I disliked Calvinists.
I knew a few Calvinists who were gracious and humble. And yet, most Reformed churchgoers seemed to take great pride in their ministers' expertise in explaining the wrongs and degrading other churches. Alas, many of their youths too had followed in that step and adopted the angry and arrogant "we know therefore we are best" attitude. Only less than a year ago I spoke with a 17-year-old who claimed that his Reformed church had the license for arrogance. I was shocked. What has the Doctrine of Grace become?
Even after I 'became' a Calvinist - I consider myself inter-denominational but attend Christian Studies lectures and Sunday services at a Calvinist church - I still am uncomfortable with the apparent smugness of many Calvinist/Reformed believers.
I would not have become a Calvinist myself had I not listened to (now) my pastor at a seminar in February 2008. During the four hour lecture and discussion about Love, Christian worldview and Post-Modernism, he did not even once trampled other denominations' dignity while maintaining his strong Reformed faith.
Ben Witherington III:
"All too often, the apparent intellectual coherency of a theological system is taken as absolute and compelling proof that this view of God, salvation,the world must be true and all others be heresy, to one degree or another. But it is perfectly possible to argue logically and coherency in a hermeneutical or theological circle with all parts connected, and unfortunately be dead wrong-- because one drew the circle much too small and left out all the inconvenient contrary evidence. This sort of fault is inevitable with theological systems constructed by finite human beings ... The truth of God and even of the Bible is much larger than anyone's ability (or any collection of human being's abilities) to get their mental calipers so firmly around it that one could form it into a 'coherent theological system' without flaws, gaps, or lacunae ... in the end our posture should be that of Anselm -- 'fides quaerens intellectum' faith seeking understanding, not 'intellectus quaerens fidium' Understanding seeking and defining and limiting faith." (read more)
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