Closet Calvinist

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Closet Calvinist

Tag Archives: Pelagianism

Traditional Southern Baptist Dead Parrots

18 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by cc_ in Sigh, Theology

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Monty Python, Pelagianism, SBC, Traditional Baptists

While doing research for another post I came across an article about some documents that the “Traditional Southern Baptists” had put out on how to “smoke out Calvinists”

That article is worth reading, whether you have any ties to the Southern Baptist Convention or not. I am Confessional Presbyterian, though in the past I was an SBC member.

What is more tragic than these “Traditional Baptists” hatred for Calvinists, is the theology they promote. If they were Arminian, or the Baptist form of Arminianism that somehow believes in Perserverance of the Saints, I wouldn’t be so bothered by it. However, it seems that at least some of the more vocal leaders of this movement are at best semi-Pelagian, if not fully Pelagian, believing that man on his own volition can offer up a prayer at any time to be saved, and that God’s regenerating works is not necessary. This belief was condemned by the Church as a whole in 529 A.D.

Traditional Baptists anti-Calvinists memo

 

The above image comes from the article linked at the beginning of my post. While some of what they said in these papers misrepresented Calvinists, this part is accurate as to what Calvinists believe. Why they chose to call Calvinistic Baptists “Extreme Calvinists” I don’t know.

“Traditional Baptists believe while we were dead in our sins, we are still able to hear, understand, and respond to the Gospel…”

Have you ever tried to talk to a corpse? Most likely you wouldn’t, because a corpse cannot hear, understand, or respond to what you are saying. A corpse cannot respond because it is dead.

It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that the man who is dead in sin is regenerated, given the gifts of repentance and faith, which he then uses to repent and believe. Without this miraculous work of God none would ever be saved.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10, ESV

With that said, I leave you with an illustration of what exactly it means to be dead, and the actual traditional beliefs of the Southern Baptist Convention from their Abstract of Principles.

Descent from Arminianism to Seeker Driven Pelagianism

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by cc_ in Ecclesiology, Seeker Sensitivity

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Calvinism Rant, Ed Young, entertaining churches, Fellowship church, Pelagianism, sinner's prayer

 

Ed Young Junior performs the “Baby Shark song” at Fellowship Church

Ed Young Junior of Fellowship Church made news this Sunday for his absurd rant against Calvinism that he gave as his “sermon” this week. His argument is a total strawman, and even then I think it got a few hits in on him before he took it down.

His rant lead to a lot of discussion about his theology he holds to and the effects of it.

Calvinists believe that “salvation is of the Lord.” That is, that God does all the work in regards to a person coming to repentance and faith for the forgiveness of their sins. God the Father sent His Son to die in our place, God elects who will be saved, and the Holy Spirit carries out the work of regenerating the heart of the sinner and giving them faith so they will repent and trust in Christ the Savior.

The Arminian view differs somewhat in that they believe that at the regeneration stage the sinner is restored to the point that they can choose whether to repent and trust in Christ. Thus, ultimately the sinner can still choose to defy God and not be saved.

The Arminian view still credits God with most of the work in salvation, but tries to maintain a semblance of man’s free will.

When the Arminian view isn’t taught correctly, or more commonly, isn’t really taught at all in churches that hold to it. People tend to start believing in something different, that is Pelagianism. This heretical view believes that man, by his own volition, can choose to repent and trust Christ on his own at any time, or rather can  choose to obey God at any time.

In evangelism Pelagians and many Arminians tend to try to do the work of the Holy Spirit themselves, believing that it is their job to convince a man to repent and trust the Savior. Victory for them tends to end in convincing someone to repeat an unbiblical “sinner’s prayer” to “ask Jesus into their hearts” and then they are affirmed in their salvation by the pastor who lead them in this prayer. Where is the Holy Spirit in this? Hopefully he convicted their hearts and regenerated them that they may repent and believe. But, typically there is little concern for true contrition.

When this is combined with a misunderstanding of the purpose of the church service, the church service becomes a time of evangelism rather than a time of feeding and equipping the saints.

This leads to what is known as the “seeker driven church.” Ed Young’s church is a fine example of what a seeker driven church is. It is a church for the unchurched, that is, a church for the purpose of evangelism to the unconverted and not for the saints.

Unfortunately, unbelievers don’t tend to have the desire to sit under solid biblical preaching. You know, because they haven’t been regenerated and all that. They are by nature haters of God, so hearing Christ preached to them just doesn’t really fit with their desires.

Ed Young Junior uses his Ferrari as a sermon illustration

To combat this the seeker driven churches tend to stop preaching Christ, ignore the proper use of the Law (that is, to show our guilt and need for the Savior), and replace the Gospel with a system of works. To attract the unbelievers they try to be relevant and cool. For example, Ed Young believes that the way he dresses and the  car he drives can influence who will come to his church. So, he wears a girdle and got Botox to make him more attractive, drove a Ferrari on the stage at his church to show how cool Jesus is, brought wild animals into the church as gimmicks for his sermons about the traits of these animals, does the “Baby Shark song” with his congregation as part of the sermon, and spends a night on the church roof with his wife to show people that they need to have more sex in their marriages. The typical seeker driven sermon allegorizes the biblical text to make it about the hearer, and gives practical life tips to make your life better.

The idea then is that if he can get people into the church with these gimmicks he can keep them there by entertaining them and get them to “follow Jesus” by being obedient. There is no need for the Holy Spirit in this work, because there is no Gospel, and no forgiveness of sins, just the command to obey a watered down version of the law and God will make your life better.

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