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.

[Quix]

Well put.

And, sadly, seemingly quite too fittingly apt for my comfort regarding such folks and their eternal . . . heading.

[P-Marlowe]

I’m tired of this conversation. To me you are being disengenuous. Have a nice day.

[P-Marlowe]

Heretics of a feather flock together.

[Quix]

LOL.

Thx.

Biblically accurate heretics are the best kind!

[P-Marlowe]

One man’s heresy is another man’s orthodoxy.

[the_conscience]

I'm sorry to hear that. It sure would be nice to know how I was being disingenuous?

[Quix]

We sure see that with the Roman Catholics et al.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Imagine that you set the conditions of rolling a fair pair of dice 100 times. Wouldn't the results be random because you did not control the results? How is this different from God setting the conditions for salvation (free will accept or reject) and then purposely not controlling the results, but simply writing down the results and calling it "predestination", as synergists do?

Remember, we are talking about the actual names of the saved from God's POV. From your synergist POV you can say it is not random because you are in control and you choose. However, from God's POV it WOULD be random since He would not be in control, so as not to offend your sovereignty. The synergist view leads to random results as far as God is concerned, and demonstrates a God who couldn't care less which of His creations actually spends eternity with Him in Heaven.

What a great illustration. I never thought of it that way before.

"The synergist view leads to random results as far as God is concerned."

That is exactly right.

[boatbums]

Re: “poofing a bag of M&Ms”. I'm not an atheist, never was, but this example of evidence happened to me personally. I was in college, broke as usual, and learning to trust the Lord for all things. I was in my dorm room, and, at that time, I had no roommate. I was down to my last dollar - literally - with several days until payday - happened to me frequently, it seemed. I left my room to empty the trash for only about 60 seconds. The trash room was only around the corner, and I left my door ajar. When I came back and continued to tidy up, I picked up my purse from the desk and underneath it was a ten dollar bill! It was NOT my $10 - and like I said I was not sharing the room that semester.

I sat down, literally pinched my arm in several places, snapped the bill a few times and then when I was sure it was REAL, I started to cry and went to my knees in thanksgiving to the Lord. I do not know - to this day - who or what put that bill under my purse during that minute I slipped out. I do know I would not have simply misplaced it, that's for sure!

So, it wasn't candy, but God through that event and many more since then, continued to show himself real and my faith grew more and more every time. I saw that he was ever faithful, ever caring, ever present. This is one way in which God says he will reward faith. He doesn't require the kind that moves mountains in the beginning, just a childlike faith that says, “Yes, Lord.” But he is the one that causes faith to grow into the mover of mountain kind.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

I will not stop speculating either.

[Alamo-Girl]

LOLOL!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed. Thank you for all of your insights, dearest sister in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

Calling the eyewitness testimony biased is not a reason, it is an excuse.

Indeed. Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

The Religion forum to me is a place to meet and confer with people who have spiritual minds and who are seeking spiritual truths; to discuss theology and the implications of our theological positions and beliefs; to have an online fellowship of like-minded believers who will give us support and prayer in times of need; and to discuss the spiritual implications of politics and world events and to engage each other in spirited dialog to test our faith and strengthen it through steel on steel discussions and to engage each other in the study of God's word and the history of our spiritual heritage.

Beautifully said, dear brother in Christ!

Ditto.

[Alamo-Girl]

Excellent analysis. Thank you so very much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

Excellent analysis. Thank you so very much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

The deaths of so many martyrs is indeed extra-Biblical evidence of an extraordinary kind, Historically verified, and we may accept that many of these were in deed direct eyewitnesses to His resurrection! ... And there are in fact secular sources which confirm the ministry and Resurrection of Jesus,

Precisely so!

Thank you oh so very much for your testimony and insights, dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

I join in your prayer, dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

There is no higher level of security.

Indeed. Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!