Alan over at the Gadfly has decided to discontinue posting. If you were not a reader of the blog, he maintained a much less vitriolic tone than some of the other Calvinist forums. His blogroll is also, for me, an invaluable research tool and I’m glad that he has decided to maitain the page for historical purposes. God bless you Alan, on your future endeavors and thanks for all you have done in furthering the discussion of reformed theology.
Category: Calvinism
Raising TULIPs II
I wonder if the monergism/synergism debate even needs to occur. In the long run, who really cares except those who engage for fun or profit in the theological underpinnings of the Christian faith? Pastors, professors, and prognosticators have a vested interest in taking a position on one theological system or the other but the effect on the young man who will sit in the front row this Sunday morning is what I’m most concerned about. Does he care? Should he care?
Paul writes twice in his letter to the Philippians on the profitability of putting aside theological debate for the good of the Church. In 1:15 – 18 he muses about his imprisoned state and the free ability of others to preach Christ for their own personal gain. With sincerity in view, Paul raises his shackled arms wide and says, who cares who preaches the gospel, so long as it gets preached. The motivation behind the act is dismissed as long as Christ gets the glory.
In 3:15 – 16 Paul moves the debate from the terrestrial to the heavenly by saying that theological discourse will eventually be resolved by God himself. Can we, in our ‘free will’, release the grace debate to God to be sorted out? If we place Christ and His Church above our need to self-identify the result might be an additional skip in our step as we labor in our portion of the Missio Dei. Just thinking…
Raising TULIPs
A recent leadership discussion has me thinking once again about the importance of theology to the day to day life of the body of Christ. I am of the conviction that one’s theological framework gives us the lens through which to view the decisions and direction of a life guided by the Holy Spirit. Do minor disagreements on theological issues put the first crack in an otherwise solid leadership foundation? As the leader of the leaders, how far should I go to gain consistency of thought within the leadership team?
I’ve been kicking around a book idea for several months now about this very topic. It seems important to provide a guide to the process of teaching Calvinist doctrine to men and women in the laity, one that shows how the key doctrinal points and the position one takes can affect how we view our place in the Missio Dei. The level needs to be popular rather than scholastic and practical more than theoretical. Maybe today is the day to get started…
LOVE | ACCEPT | FORGIVE 