Posted on 09/30/2004 4:49:07 AM PDT by HarleyD
A rather lengthy post but worth the read.
Calvinism will, in my humble opinion, never again be a driving force in the SBC. Calvinism is a dirty word among many evangelicals, and I do not see any great chance of that ever changing.
It is hard to say how God will work but I suspect you're right. I do believe Calvinism is the correct interpretation but, as this article points out, people aren't interested in correctly interpreting the Bible.
What amazed me most was to read about the core theology taught at Southern Seminary a hundred years ago. It was not only Calvinist doctrine, it was what authors Norm Geisler and Dave Hunt, not to mention certain FReepers, derisively call "hyper-Calvinism" today!
| In 1899, Southern Seminary professor E. C. Dargan could still write, in a small book published by the Sunday School Board and designed to teach basic doctrine to Baptist young people, that election was God’s choosing those who will be saved, that God made his choice before the foundation of the world, and that God’s choice in election is not on the basis of foreseen faith or repentance, but God’s sovereign, free, untrammeled, gracious acting on his own initiative. |
"He thus rejected the commonly held view of Baptist historic successionism – that Baptists could trace their history all the way back to John the Baptist."
The problem is worse than that, they don't believe in the accuracy nor the authority of the Cannon of Scriptures. The "Inerrancy of the Autographa" is not preached because preacher fear to be contradicted by scientists or their own bretheren. Believing that the original writings by the authors were inspired inerrantly clears up much of the issues.
Thus we can look more closely at the historicity of the bible and see that the closer you get to the originals, the more light is present as opposed to less light as some might believe.
Also we have gotten away from presenting Christ as the central person of the bible and a personal relationship with Him as Savior as essential to faith. Rather than build our foundation on Christ, we try to make our beliefs on obscure texts and interpretations. We forget that no one can build anything except upon the work and person of Christ.
Once Christ is central and the inerrant Word of God is preached, all other issues come into focus.
I see much of this going on in our Southern Baptist church. The traditional services has now been moved to 8:00 and is called the "Classic Worship Service". I told my wife that must make the other two Worship-Lite. Taste great but less filling.
What struck me about this article is how close the SBC was originally to historical Calvinism. It's no wonder the doctrine is very close but with theological errors no one wants to address.
The problem, IMO, is the leaders DON'T want to receive an accurate diagnosis of the problem. It's easier to build congregations with the feel good stuff.
Becky
Rather then concentrating on accurately interpreting God's word our church seems to be drifting to snazzy musics and slide show presentations.
It sounds like it's time to make a new wineskin!
Wow, where did he get his ThD? From an offer on the back of a cereal box?
Wow, where did he get his ThD? From an offer on the back of a cereal box?
Aaaargh! Double post!
Interesting read; covers some things we've talked about.
PC churches:), let's all just learn about God's love, hold hands and sing kumbyeya:) Congregations are buying into it by the droves.
Becky
I felt like standing up and shouting, "This is what it says...!" but I don't think they would have approved of my Calvinistic interpretation. :O)
The heart of the matter is that evangelicals lost their way when they abandoned the God-centered doctrinal foundation of Calvinistic theology and replaced it with a theological stew of man-centered belief systems.
One doesn't have to believe in the modern five-point Calvinist system to have a "God-centered doctrinal foundation." Candidly, having been to several Presbyterian churches that still hold to Calvinism, I can say from experience that they aren't faring any better than the SBC.
I believe that God is sovereign. But I also believe that He sovereignly gave us free will to choose to either accept His salvation and love Him, or to remain in our sins and love ourselves instead. If He did not, we have no moral responsibility and it is unjust to punish us--and interestingly enough, the whole tone of the above article up to the point where the author suddenly veers into a veneration of Calvin is that the churches are using their free will to choose modernism and selfism, not that God has preordained that they would do so and they're therefore just following His will.
The author had it right to begin with: The real problem with the Church in America today is lukewarmness, shallow teaching, lack of discipleship, and ultimately, putting Man at the center instead of God--which I could have sworn was Adam and Eve's sin in the first place.
I'd love to see them document that claim, BTW. Is there any actual evidence that Calvinists (at least the major Calvinist denominations) are less concerned with missions than other Christians?
See post #5, above. Apparently, the Southern Baptists thought differently a century ago.
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