THEOparadox - The Biblical Paradox Blog: Why I am a Bad Calvinist

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Why I am a Bad Calvinist - Part 4

Because it required the direct intervention of the Third Person of the Trinity to turn me from my love of sin and bring me to faith in Christ.

The Holy Spirit unveils the beautiful Son of God to us and instills in us His own love for Christ. No fallen sinner will ever choose Christ on his own. But thanks be to God, He draws us to Himself.

4 comments:

AnonymousMay 12, 2010 at 1:05 PM
You're also a bad Calvinist for posting all these music videos by a semi-Pelagian! :-)

Actually, I'm joking around with you. I loved Keith Green's passion (and his music), even though he promoted some pretty suspect theology. Personally, I'd trade a whole room full of merely academic Calvinists for one brother with Keith Green's passion. Guess that makes me a bad Calvinist too!
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THEOparadoxMay 12, 2010 at 2:09 PM
Barry,

Ha! I was waiting for someone to catch on! Welcome to the Bad Calvinist's Club.

I'm trying to show how the so called "5 Pionts" of Calvinism all depend on a Biblical view of man's depravity. A whole host of errors can be avoided if we simply recognize how sinful we are, and lots of bad theology results from our self-justifying pride.

You've probably noticed I'm using Keith Green's most "Calvinistic-sounding" songs. Tomorrow's post will feature his most Calvinistic song of all, and I think one that shows some maturing on his part. If he was still around today, he might be a full blown open theist, but then again he could be a Calvinist. I daresay he IS a Calvinist now. :)

Blessings,
Derek
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DavidMay 13, 2010 at 12:01 PM
Thanks for the Keith Green. My early Christian work was saturated by Green's music. And having been through so many twists and turns over the decades, I still enjoy coming back to the innocent piety of Green and his music.

Sorry that my comment is not about Calvinism. :-)

David
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THEOparadoxMay 13, 2010 at 12:29 PM
David,

Glad you enjoyed the vids. "Innocent Piety," is the perfect way to put it.

You've said so many good things about Calvinism, I'll give you a pass on this one.

Blessings,
Derek
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THEOparadox MISSION Statement:

~To honor God by upholding the authority, inerrancy and sufficiency of His Word, the Bible.
~To help students of the Word to interpret Biblical paradoxes in a way that faithfully reflects God's heart.
~To ignite a devotional flame that will help believers to warm up their theology and burn up their pride.
~To encourage Christian faith by resolving or explaining apparent contradictions in the Scriptures.
~To explore the nature and extent of paradoxes in historically orthodox, Reformed, Biblical theology.

~To provide Biblical resources for those who desire to know God and His Word better.

~To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners and the Savior of the lost.

What is a PARADOX?

A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.

Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 Edition

"... it is synonymous with apparent contradiction. A 'paradox' thus amounts to a set of claims which taken in conjunction appear to be logically inconsistent. Note that according to this definition, paradoxicality does not entail logical inconsistency per se, but merely the appearance of logical inconsistency."

James Anderson, Paradox in Christian Theology

Wise Words . . .

"By advocating paradox I don't want to give the impression that I'm giving a carte blanche to not think philosophically, to not think deeply, about these doctrines. Quite the opposite. . . . My position is that with each of these doctrines we reflect on them as hard as we can, we penetrate them as best we can based on the Scriptural data that we do have, but we also recognize that there are going to be limits, and that those limits are actually a positive thing and not a reflection of some inherent problem in the doctrines or in the process of theological reflection. . . . I think we can make progress, we can make

considerable progress, in understanding these doctrines and resolving some of the . . . initial difficulties that we have with them, but at the same time recognizing that we're always only going to get so far and when we bump up against the limits of our capacity to formulate them in certain ways or to resolve certain difficulties in them, we

shouldn't be too concerned about that. We certainly shouldn't say, 'Okay, we need to admit that Christians are ultimately irrationalists.' No. We don't need to say that at all. . . . It's a Biblically constrained rationality. It's a middle way between rationalism, of which I think [Gordon H.] Clark was a representative, and irrationalism, of which, to take an example I think the Neo-Orthodox - Karl Barth - would be an example, where you're saying that there are actual contradictions in there. So I think it's navigating a Biblical middle way between these two extremes: having too high a view of the human intellect, and perhaps too low a view of the intellect, of our ability to know the things

of God."

~Dr. James Anderson

Theological Paradoxes

Below I have listed some of the classic theological paradoxes (and a few interesting ironies, too) . . .

~The Trinity - God is One being revealed in three distinct persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
~God is transcendent (separate from His creation) yet immanent (in His creation)
~Omnipresence - God is always present everywhere, yet He sometimes speaks of Himself as "present" in a special way
~The Incarnation - God became a man
~The Virgin Birth - A Jewish virgin gave birth to the Son of God
~The Two Natures of Christ - Jesus is fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man

~The Atonement is sufficient to save every person, but efficient only for those who believe
~God is completely sovereign (in control of everything, everywhere, all the time) yet He is not the author of sin and he uses human choice to accomplish His purposes
~Inspiration of Scripture - The Bible was written by sinful human beings yet it is the inerrant and flawless Word of God
~Divine Revelation - Sinful man cannot comprehend God, yet God reveals Himself to sinful man
~Sanctification - Christians are sinners by nature, but saints by grace
~Suffering - God brings His joy and comfort into our lives through our experiences of pain, disappointment and suffering

There are many others. Paradox is everywhere when we attempt to understand God's ways in a genuinely Biblical way.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Why I am a Bad Calvinist - Part 4

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