Forget Calvinism?  Now that ought to get your attention.  But the line addresses both a danger and a concern.  The concern is that some who read this blog would think that Calvinism is to be associated with a theological movement that emerged in the sixteenth century that was not present before that time.  Wrong.  Calvinism was in the sixteenth century simply the then most recent emergence of the defense of genuine biblical Christianity that can be traced back to the apostle Paul and his understanding of the Gospel of Jesus.  Paul faced in Galatia those who wanted to add to the Gospel and thus make salvation something that humans did and he faced in Corinth those who wanted to take away from the Gospel thus allowing humans who could confess that their souls were saved while living lives by the ways of the world and thinking nothing of it since those who thus lived had created a Gospel to their own liking.  Much like we have done in our own day.  One of my greatest concerns in our culture is the thousands of people who make a profession of faith or say a prayer to be saved and then live in ways that are basically moral on most days but at the same time are living lives divorced from the church and dedicated to doing whatever they want to do so long as it doesn’t hurt them or anybody else.  And they think they are saved. If they are right, then the Bible lies and if the Bible is true, then they are in a dreadfully dark dillemma.  From Paul to the present, the church has had to fight back and fight off a fundamental heresy with regards to salvation and that heresy is simply that our salvation is up to us and it is a decision that we make when we are ready to make it and that decision  has primarily to do with a part of us (our souls) that we secure for heaven by our decision regardless of how we live here below both inside and outside the church.  This heresy has reared its ugly head in every era so that what Calvin was addressing was not something brand new nor did it go away after his day.

I have been reading a very wonderful and simple little book by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism:  Defined, Defended and Documented. I want to quote a section of that book that I hope will help us to see the larger picture that Calvin was facing as well as those who came before and after him.  This section is found on p. 14 of the book and reads, “J. I Packer, in analyzing the system of thought embodied in the Remonstance, observes, ‘the theology which it contained (known to history as Arminianism) stemmed from two philosophical principles:  first, that divine sovereignty is not compatible with human freedom, nor therefore with human responsibility; second that ability limits obligation . . . from these principles, the Arminians drew two deductions:  first, that since the Bible regards faith as a free and responsible act, it cannot be caused by God, but it is exercised independently of Him; second that since the Bible regards faith as oblilgatory on the part of those of all who hear the gospel, ability to believe must be universal.  Hence they maintained that Scripture must be interpreted as teaching the following positions: (now let me stop the quote here to make sure that we understand exactly what is being said.  Arminianism or the view that the initiative for salvation is from us to God and not from God to us requires us to believe in prinicple that divine sovereignty and human freedom cannot be held together.  Is that true?  Is it biblically true?  Second, is it true biblcially that ability limits oblilgation so that humans can plead ignorance before God if we can argue inablility to understand and comprehend His truth?  Third, is it true that who hear the gospel are obliged to obey the gospel?  These principles set forth by Packer are foundational for what follows), “1.  Man is never so completely corrupted by sin that he cannot savingly believe the gospel when it is set before him nor, 2.  is he ever so completely controlled by God that he cannot reject it .  3.  God’s election of those who shall be saved is prompted by his foreseeing that they will of their own will believe (quick pause:  be sure you understand that Arminians believe in election or they have to deny that God has foreknowledge or omniscience but what they believe is that God knows who will believe based on their believing so that the emphasis is on the choice that humans will make and not on the control that God has; I hope this one makes sense to you) 4.  Christ’s death did not assure the salvation of anyone but secured salvation for anyone and everyone who believes (which by the way opens the door to the possibility that nobody would or that everybody would but the most horrifying thought is that when Jesus was hanging on the cross and crying out in pain, this view requires us to belelive that He had no idea whether or not anyone would ever come to live a life of commitment to Him), 5. It rests with believers to keep themselves in grace.  Our security is  up to us.”

Be sure you read the above words carefully and get the book from which these words are quoted.  My concern is that we think that Calvinism is a historical phenomenon that just happened and then passed.  We must know that it simply represented the position that was present from Paul and the danger is that we reduce our understanding of God to a theological system as helpful as one might be.  At the end of the day we simply want to love God through His Word and understand who He is to us through the revelation in His Word.  His Word is the final arbiter of all truth.