Free Republic

Issue: How does the Catholic Church understand predestination? Response: Predestination is a term used to identify God’s plan of salvation, in which according to His own decree, He “accomplishes all things according to his will” (Eph. 1:11). God gives us the gift of salvation through grace and faith. In turn, we must use our free will to persevere in good works “prepared beforehand” by God Himself (Eph. 2:8-10; cf. Phil. 2:12, 13). Discussion: There are two opposite and equally erroneous positions about predestination that have always been rejected in authentic Catholic teaching. The first is that of the Pelagians.[1] Pelagius taught that...

Southern Baptists inherited the most compelling aspects of all the Baptist Calvinists that preceded them. James P. Boyce summarized this well. He encouraged every preacher to get theological education in some way, even if it could not be at the Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. If no other means were available, he advised, 'work at it yourself.' The fathers of the convention did this, Boyce claimed; 'They familiarized themselves with the Bible, and Gill and Andrew Fuller, and they made good and effective preachers. God is able to raise up others like them.'1 But this is the very difficulty that...

Theologians past and present have used a bouquet of initials and analogies to describe Calvinist doctrine. Historically, the Reformed Synod of Dort in the Netherlands delineated the differences between Calvinism and the teachings of James Jacobus Arminius. For the sake of simplicity—and playing on an association with the best-known Dutch flower—those teachings have been summarized through the TULIP acrostic. • Total depravity. Human beings are dead in their sins, and they stand justly condemned before God, unable to do anything to save themselves. • Unconditional election. From eternity, God in his sovereignty chose specific human beings to be saved. That...

Sunnyvale, California - The Internet "giant" Yahoo has recently come under fire by former Pensacola Christian College students who say they were "turned in" to the school's administration for maintaining an online forum which discussed and supported Reformed doctrine. "We feel betrayed" said former student Mark Hudson. Hudson, along with seven other students were recently asked to leave the school after the administration discovered that they were secretly maintaining the web forum. The site, called "The Calvinist Underground" was frequented by a number of "closet Calvinists" at many Independent Fundamentalist Schools around the country. The site often contained frustrations expressed...

Austin, Texas - Pastor Micah Law is excited about the direction that his church is going these days. "We've become more open and accepting of others" said Law, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Austin during a recent interview with TBNN. "We know that our decision to become more open and accepting of Calvinists and Reformed people has caused a lot of trouble within our own denomination, but we feel it is the right thing to do." Law's church is part of a growing number of churches within the Southern Baptist Convention that are declaring themselves to be Calvinist/Reformed/Sovereign Grace...

Rodney BeasonI am a convert to the Catholic Faith from Calvinism. I loved Calvinism and owned a library full of Calvin, Luther, Warfield, Hodge, Murray, Owen, Machen, etc. as well as helped plant a local Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I knew Reformation Theology and how much hatred it generates for the Catholic Church. As a Calvinist, I could boast with the best of them. I even persecuted the Catholic Church and went after every one of them I found, beating them back with Scripture, upon Scripture, upon quotes of Luther, Calvin, etc. I found great pleasure in debating Catholics. My...

CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 19, 2007 - Fr. Scott Haynes, S.J.C. offered the Tridentine Latin High Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Siluva on 8-11-07. This was the first time the Traditional Latin Mass was offered at there since the Communist Occupation of Lithuania. Participants of Ad Fontes (http://adfontes.archangelus.lt/), a study-week of Gregorian Chant for young people, sang Gregorian Chant and rededicated themselves to their Catholic faith. After attending the High Mass, all received the blessing of Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius SJ, the Archbishop of Kaunas, Lithuania. As His Excellency confirmed our commitment to the implementation of Summorum Pontificum,...

EIJSDEN (AP) - It's a sunny Sunday morning, and altar boys ringing silver bells announce the passage of the Blood and Body of Christ through the ancient streets of Eijsden and its surrounding pastures. Roman Catholic families line the route to watch the start of ''Bronkfeest,'' a local religious festival that dates from time out of mind. A girl with a red cape precedes the host, while others throw flowers and wait while the parish priest gives a benediction at one of several altars along the way. One girl plugs her ears, giggling, when a cannon signals the Eucharistic procession...

"Covenant theology at the utmost, is forgiveness of sins and divine favor enjoyed; and all that concerns their new position in the Lord Jesus Christ is ignored, or alas! guarded against as dangerous."Men are placed under the New Covenant which does not go beyond remission of sins and the law written on the heart.  But being new creations in the Lord Jesus, and knowing it by the Holy Spirit, and what it involves now, has all but dropped out of their creeds." -- J.N.D."We are to come 'to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant' (Heb. 12:24).  We are not...

Dispensationalism - A Reformed Evaluation    If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 2.  I want to point your attention to two verses.  We are going to begin today by making some observations about dispensationalism and then we are going to give a rapid overview to the Davidic Covenant and especially the establishment of the house of David in II Samuel 7.  But first I want you to concentrate on two verses here at the end of Romans 2, 2:28-29.  Hear God’s Word.       “For he is not a Jew who...

The Visible Church Was There All Along by Cindy Beck “I just can’t be Protestant anymore,” I blurted out one night as my husband and I were driving in the car. “What?” “This is just crazy. Every church teaches something different. Every pastor interprets the Bible according to his own personal beliefs. How is anybody supposed to know who’s teaching the truth?” “Well, all we can do is choose the denomination that’s most faithful to the Bible.” “So we decide what the Bible means? We decide what’s true? Then the Bible isn’t our final authority – we are.” Kerry was...

Ash Wednesday2 Peter 1:3-5, 23-25             The Lenten Season really begins on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps your congregation has a long history (or a short one) of marking Ash Wednesday. Or perhaps you have not observed it previously and wonder about beginning it this year. We recommend it as a very rich and meaningful way to begin the Lenten season. To answer questions you or others in your church may have about the tradition, we are reproducing excerpts from articles written by Harry Boonstra that appeared in Reformed Worship 6 (December 1987) and 30 (December 1993). Reprinted by permission of CRC...

by Harry Boonstra Issue #6 Grace Episcopal Church is very quiet when I enter at 9:20. In fact, even though the service is to start at 9:30, I am the only person in the sanctuary. A few minutes later several more people show, but it turns out the big service will be in the evening. (After the soup supper. Ah! even Episcopalians must be urged with food. But during Lent?) I had hoped to slip unobtrusively into a pew in the back and be more observer than participant in my first Ash Wednesday service. But the service is being held...

A Letter to The Learning Channel To Whom It May Concern, I write today to offer your television network the rights to what I am convinced will soon be the most popular reality show on television. Reality television has offered the discerning viewer much entertainment and so many opportunities to learn. We have learned how to dress, how to cook, how to build motorcycles and hotrods and even how to build beautiful rooms using plywood, staple guns and glue guns. We've seen what it takes to make it as an executive for the world's leading corporations. We've seen the inner-workings...

The Question, "What Is an Arminian?" Answered by a Lover of Free Grace by John Wesley 1. To say, "This man is an Arminian," has the same effect on many hearers, as to say, "This is a mad dog." It puts them into a fright at once: They run away from him with all speed and diligence; and will hardly stop, unless it be to throw a stone at the dreadful and mischievous animal. 2. The more unintelligible the word is, the better it answers the purpose. Those on whom it is fixed know not what to do: Not understanding...

Why I am A Calvinist An Oversimplified exhortation to Sovereign Grace Theology by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon There are a variety of theological persuasions in the world. One might say there are too many of them. We may go from denomination after denomination and find a great variety of beliefs and doctrines concerning things about God, things about Christ, things about man and so on (to the utter detriment of the church's power in the world). Yet these ideologies are but ripples from the great stone of the Gospel which was plunged into the lake of humanity. All theological persuasions...

A seminary student tells this story about the first day of a class. The professor was the well known Reformed theologian and Presbyterian pastor R.C. Sproul. Sproul stormed into class on the first day, slammed his Bible on the desk and said, "You are all very very bad and God is very very mad!" I plan on telling that to my children before they go to sleep every night. There's a movement growing in young protestants in America over the past decade or so. It's called Calvinism and there are pastors around who would kill all the babies of this...

Since the 17th century, Calvinism has been identified with its five-point reply to the Arminian party at the Synod of Dort. Calvinists often complain that this summary of their theology, though accurate in expressing the Calvinists' disagreement with their Arminian opponents, presents a truncated view of what Calvinism really is. Where in the five points do we hear of the covenant or of union with Christ? To properly understand a theology, we must not only know what it says to its opponents, but we need to know how it is to be presented on its own terms. If a five-point...

A great man of the last generation began the preface of a splendid little book he was writing on this subject, with the words: "Happy would it be for the church of Christ and for the world, if Christian ministers and Christian people could be content to be disciples-learners." He meant to intimate that if only we were all willing to sit simply at the feet of the inspired writers and take them at their word, we should have no difficulties with Predestination. The difficulties we feel with regard to Predestination are not derived from the Word. The Word is...

One of the most promising signs of renewal in Southern Baptist life is the emergence of genuine theological discussion and historical interest. After decades marked by the absence of significant interest in many doctrines, Southern Baptists are awakening to historic doctrinal debates in a new key. As if awakened from doctrinal amnesia, the denomination faces the promise of both renewal and reformation. In this process, we may recover our theological heritage even as we address our modern context of ministry. Dr. William R. Estep, one of Southern Baptists' most distinguished historians, has recently directed attention to a resurgent Calvinism in...