TIME names "New Calvinism" 3rd Most Powerful Idea Changing the World

TIME Magazine ^ | March 12, 2009 | David Van Biema

[CondoleezzaProtege]

John Calvin's 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism's buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism's latest success story, complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination's logical consequence, predestination: the belief that before time's dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not), unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.

Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simply by "glorifying" him. In the 1700s, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards invested Calvinism with a rapturous near mysticism. Yet it was soon overtaken in the U.S. by movements like Methodism that were more impressed with human will. Calvinist-descended liberal bodies like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) discovered other emphases, while Evangelicalism's loss of appetite for rigid doctrine — and the triumph of that friendly, fuzzy Jesus — seemed to relegate hard-core Reformed preaching (Reformed operates as a loose synonym for Calvinist) to a few crotchety Southern churches.

No more. Neo-Calvinist ministers and authors don't operate quite on a Rick Warren scale. But, notes Ted Olsen, a managing editor at Christianity Today, "everyone knows where the energy and the passion are in the Evangelical world" — with the pioneering new-Calvinist John Piper of Minneapolis, Seattle's pugnacious Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Seminary of the huge Southern Baptist Convention. The Calvinist-flavored ESV Study Bible sold out its first printing, and Reformed blogs like Between Two Worlds are among cyber-Christendom's hottest links.

[xzins]

BD -God’s foreknowledge is according to His predetermination... SA -I think this is where we disagree. God's predetermination is according His foreknowledge.

And this is where I disagree with both of you. I do not believe that God has a divided mind. I don't imagine one piece of God uninformed by the others and vice versa.

My God is not schizoid.

[xzins]

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

I dearly love this, A-G. Eden and so much more.

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Co 2:9

what is the html for a different font: arial, nyt, etc.

[ShadowAce]

Sorry--that's not what I was saying. I probably was not as clear as I could have been.

"God's predetermination" is--to me--His decision as to the fate of sinners. God's foreknowledge of our sins, and the ultimate decision we all make, is not based on puppeteering. He has determined (predestined) where we will go, based on His foreknowledge of our lives.

[Alamo-Girl]

Truly, I suspect the questions concerning what God was doing before Creation and whether He pardoned Satan (Genesis v Job v Revelation) - and even the never-ending dispute over predestination v free will - derive from man's tendency to apply his arrow of time to God.

God, being Creator of "all that there is" - which includes time - is not delimited by any such thing as time, much less an arrow of time.

Or to put it another way, a thing is true because God says it. Time, whether a line, plane or volumetric, is irrelevant to God because He is not time-bound. We are.

Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: - Isaiah 46:9-10

For instance, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, we are in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. Christ is always the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah and He is also always the Lamb of God.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. - Revelation 13:8

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. - Revelation 5:6

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. - Hebrews 10:14

First cause and final cause are sensible to man as the observer because he is time-bound and perceives time as an arrow. But God has revealed His Name to us both as Alpha and Omega and I AM.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. – Revelation 1:8

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. - Exodus 3:14

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. - John 8:58

As soon then as he had said unto them, I am [he], they went backward, and fell to the ground. - John 18:6

Truly, man is not the measure of God..

[ShadowAce]

< font face="Arial" size="2" >

Minus the spaces, of course.

[P-Marlowe]

BD: God’s foreknowledge is according to His predetermination...

SA : I think this is where we disagree. God's predetermination is according His foreknowledge.

I disagree with both of you. They are intricately intertwined, but I don't think you can say whether one takes precedence over the other. I think that God is free to have foreknowledge as the basis for his predetermination and likewise he is free to have his predetermination be the basis of his foreknowledge. We are not privy to God's methods, only his results.

[P-Marlowe]

And this is where I disagree with both of you.

Wow, Great minds think alike!!

N³

[Alamo-Girl]

I love that passage, too, dear brother in Christ! Thank you so much for sharing it and for all of your encouragements!

The HTML commands to set the font (e.g. Arial) and type size (e.g. 2) are (drop the commas): <,FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="2"> and of course to end it, <,/FONT>.

[P-Marlowe]

Yes.

That's the best answer I've seen yet.

[xzins]

Thanks to you both for the html lesson. “font face” is the key, isn’t it? I kept trying it with “font” and getting noplace.

Behold how blessed when God’s Children dwell together in unity. :>)

[ShadowAce]

I'll give you a hint on discovering html tricks you see others do on this forum:

highlight (with your mouse) the section of code you want to see, right-click, then choose "view selection source". You'll see the html being used. It's pretty cool.

[blue-duncan]

“And this is where I disagree with both of you.”

Is that like my Yes?

[xzins]

Brothers

The Unfettered

[xzins]

Is that like my Yes?

Yes and no

(BTW...great story about K. I'm stealing it to appear in some future sermon at some future date, TGLW.)

[xzins]

Thanks, SA. I’m only getting a view source if I don’t highlight something first. Is my system different?

[ShadowAce]

Is my system different?

Could be. I'm using Firefox. It should be a standard firefox option.

[xzins]

Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: - Isaiah 46:9-10

God knows ends and beginnings, AND He "counsels" with Himself, AND He "decides (do all)" according to His "pleasure (purposes)"

I don't know how this verse could more clearly say that God has all things in both pre-considered and all things pre-decided. What does He look at in us? Jesus said that some he addressed were children of their father, the devil. He obviously didn't mean genetic code.

[P-Marlowe]

Brothers The Unfettered

LOL!

I get the feeling that everyone on this forum thinks we are both heretics.

Personally I think it only applies to you.

[xzins]

And I agree with you!

[xzins]

How do I know if I’m using firefox or, for that matter, what I am using?