[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Profession of Faith in a Christian Reformed Church in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college. I can tell Dutch jokes with the best of them. I've even heard Palmer speak on the Five Points of Calvinism in a series of lectures. The Dutch Reformed Church, the precursor to the Christian Reformed Church, has been well known to be populated by people in the past who thought "If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much" and because I was not born into the Christian Reformed Church, I was considered by some to be a 'heathen' (a direct quote). There are few groups of religious people who are as arrogant as Dutch Reformers, who considered themselves to have a monopoly on the truth contained in the Bible, as they interpreted it. In other words, they thought they were perfect.

FWIW, the problem of "Dutch Reformed arrogance" has been noted by certain Calvinists. There have been criticisms of Dutch Reformed to the effect that they essentially regard Dutch Calvinism as the only "legitimate" brand, holding other national varieties in some disdain.

Remember, after all, it was a Dutchman (Jacobus Arminius) and his Dutch followers (the Remonstrants) who had the unmitigated arrogance to introduce heretical and UnBiblical doctrines of soteriological Synergism into the pure stream of Calvinist predestinarian truth, against the best judgments, advice, and warning of their more-thoughtful peers, willfully poisoning the doctrinal integrity and breaking the unified communion of Reformation Protestantism with their intransigent advocacy of error. Not from among the Swiss Calvinists or the English Calvinists or the Scottish Calvinists came this arrogant, willful intransigence in support of Synergistic heresy, but from among the Dutch.

Sadly, it is reputed to be true that some Dutch Calvinists are nearly as arrogant as were their obstinate Dutch Arminian rivals.

[connectthedots]

Sadly, it is reputed to be true that some Dutch Calvinists are nearly as arrogant as were their obstinate Dutch Arminian rivals.

Or more so! An interesting question would be if Arminius and his followers statements of faith were intended as a response to the perverted doctrines on the Dutch Reformed Church or if their motivation came from another source.

Your comments regarding the Dutch Reformers goes a long way toward explaining why you disagree with Palmer; he was a Christian Reformed theologian. I personally think that Spurgeon was a great preacher of the true Gospel and articulated the true spirit of the reformation movement. I just would not call him a Calvinist when a 'Reformer' would be a much more appropriate discription of his theology.

You comments on this thread also seem to indicate that you believe that individuals can make decisions whether to make decisions for Christ to come into their lives to be their Savior. I could accept the position, or at least not want to spend much time arguing, that God knew in advance who would be receptive to the Gospel message, but to claim that God actually made the decision in advance in some arbitrary manner who would be saved and who would be condemned to Hell is an entirely different matter.

The problem I see with referring to someone like Spugeon as a Calvinist (BTW, did he consider himself to be a Calvinist, or is that just a label some people have tried to place on him?) is that if one was to read Calvin's Institutes, it does tend to support the Dutch Reformed positions in many cases, even though Calvin himself had serious doubts and concerns about much of what he wrote in his Institutes, doubts some extreme Calvinists onthis thread so willingly seem to simply blow off.