Wednesday, June 2, 2010

TULIP, Calvinism, and The Great Controversy Theme

[caption id="attachment_2229" align="alignleft" width="274" caption="John Calvin"][/caption]Herbert Douglass, in the book Fork in the Road has written a helpful summary of why Calvinism and Adventism cannot be unified on the idea of what the Gospel means. You may not know it, but Calvinists are the "big wigs" in the evangelical world. From popular scholars like R. C. Sproul to pastors like D. James Kennedy and John McAurthur. Certainly there are some who do not agree with all of the positions of the Calvinistic cause, but many of the popular authors and preachers in the Evangelical world are Calvinists.

The Five Points

By Calvinists, I mean those who hold to the five points of Calvinism, or at least most of the points. This is often referred to as TULIP, In short these are:

  • Total Depravity – When humanity sinned it was placed in a position where they can do nothing but sin. It is sometimes called “total inability.”

  • Unconditional Election – God unconditionally elected some to be saved.

  • Limited Atonement – God only died and provided the atonement for salvation to those who were elected to be saved.

  • Irresistible Grace – The grace that saves cannot be resisted by the human being it is given to.

  • Perseverance of the Saints – Once you are saved, there is nothing that can remove you from that saved condition.



Where the System Begins

They begin their system with the idea of God’s sovereignty. God is ultimately in charge and can do anything God wants to do. No one else has freedom. God alone has freedom. Due to total depravity, we cannot chose anything but sin. Thus God must choose those who will be saved and thereby will be choosing those who will be lost. Humanity can not judge God, the saved should be happy that they are among the ones that God has chosen to save.

Adventism’s Starting Point

Adventism begins with the concept of God giving humanity Freedom. We say that God has given the gift of freedom to all of humanity. We get to choose whether we will follow Satan or God’s government. This gift of freedom has been given to the entire universe of beings, according to this idea.

Interestingly God uses this world to demonstrate where Satan’s principles will lead. Thus God chooses to demonstrate the rightness of God's cause in this system.

Finally, God has chosen all of us in his son to eternal life, and those who do not reject God’s rule of love will be saved at last.

In the end, we have one scheme beginning with God’s sovereignty that makes human freedom impossible. On the other end we have humanities freedom as being something given to humanity by a sovereign God. God wants us to choose the righteous government. But the Calvanistic system makes such a choice impossible unless the one has already been predestined to salvation.

Finally, in the Adventist system, God allows Satan’s choice to play out before the entire universe. Freedom of choice is an important component of Adventism while it is impossible under Calvinism.

Can’t Synthesize the Two

While there are certain similarities between the two groups, and both can recognize that one can be saved while agreeing with the other position. But like my Calvinist friend told me after a long conversation, "You may be saved...but you are wrong on this issue." So we see that we can’t synthesize the two views. And why would we want to? Either the Calvinist view is right, or the Adventism view is right, or perhaps logically another option is correct, but all of them are not right. Because of this, it is time for Adventists to stop getting our “understanding of the love of God” from folks who do not accept at all the freedom of humanity which is at the foundation of the Great Controversy that we preach. It is time to decide if we are Adventists or not. If not, then Calvinism might be an acceptable alternative, go ahead and look into it, but if you are going to be Adventist, then it is time to stop running behind the evangelical teachers who have different presuppositions than we have. If we are going to be Adventists, be Adventists.

They Don’t Mix

No Adventism and Calvinism don’t mix. It is time to stop acting as if it does. It is time to stop acting like the contradictions that we are currently spouting are actually “paradoxes.” It is time to stop telling our people that our evangelical friends have Jesus and we have the law, so go to them to get Jesus and come to us to get the law! No! If we ain’t preaching Jesus, then we need to start preaching him in the context of the message that God has given to us. Be not deceived our Calvinist brothers and sisters do have a place for the law, and it is an important place, but it is just not the same place we have for the law and for Jesus in our understanding.

So what is the answer? Maybe it is time to start reading Steps to Christ again instead of Experiencing God. What’s the answer? Using The Great Controversy Theme as a hermeneutical key to interpret everything. Otherwise we will continue to drift wondering why we even exist as a people.

12 comments:

  1. I like the comment were you say if we are going to be Adventist lets be Adventist, hard hitting but true... too often we find ourselves listening to some sermon, reading a book or playing the music of Charismatics, Pentecostals, Evangelical or whatever other form of "Christianity" we have out there being attracted to their style of worship or their seemingly spirit-filled manner or the prosperity gospel. The reality is however our doctrines are far removed from each other... a simple example is the Sabbath, the Sanctuary and the State of the dead.
    Its not enough that they talk about Christ but the purity of the doctrine is more important than smooth words or a glamorous service. I think we need to go back to the Bible and understand what makes us Adventist then we will not accommodate or emulate some of what we are drawn to emulate even in some of our own churches services.
    The Lord help us to keep a pure doctrine remember even the Devil quotes Scripture (Matthew 4) but it is only in Christ that a pure understanding of the Scriptures may be obtained

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  2. Why do we always have to pidgeon hole or categorize ourselves as Christians? Never mind the denominational rubbish, it is divisive and straight from satan..I do not care adventists, calvinists or whatever...my question is do they follow the Bible..the Holy word of God...and do they follow all ten commandments..including the fourth commandment. If yes then that is what I consider to be a Christian organization I like to attend..if any part of that is No or denominational doctrine....bye bye...time we smarten up and follow the word of God, and not the traditions of man! Thank you and God bless you!

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  3. True indeed. Adventism and Calvinism don't mix. We tend to make very light of the Word, it's "anything goes" attitude we now have.

    Please allow me to digress! Are we children of the Most High first before we are Adventists or is it vice versa? Some may say who cares? But I care exceeding great.

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  4. Descriptions of ours or any other beliefs is not to "pidgeon hole" or put someone down for said beliefs. It is simply to accurately represent their beliefs. All sides would say that they are following the Bible. The question is are said beliefs in line with the Bible. I do not think that understanding or attempting to accurately characterize other beliefs or our own beliefs is problematic. In fact it is important. How can you know if you are following the "traidtions of man" if you never seek to understand whether your beliefs are in line with the Bible? Yes we must understand the Bible, but we also must understand our own beliefs if we are to have any idea of determining if they are in line with the Bible...

    God Bless...

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  5. I might be reading you wrong, but your question seems to have an assumption that one can be an Adventist and not be a follower of God. For that matter that it is possible to be a Baptist and not be a true follower of God. I don't accept that assumption. Being a true Adventist includes being a follower of God. You cannot be a true Adventist and not be a Christian. I would also argue that you cannot be a true Baptist and not be a follower of God. True Adventists and True Baptists and True Christians of all stripes are members of their denominational group because they believe it is where God wants them to be. They are there BECAUSE they are followers of God.

    I don't think the "christian before Adventist" or vice-versa terminology is a good or helpful one. Anyone who is trying to gain salvation through an organization whether it be Baptist, Adventist, or whatever is not a true member of that organization which holds to salvation by grace through faith as these organizations say is a part of their theological structure.

    So I would say that we are Adventists because we are attempting to Follow God. I know some Calvinist brothers and sisters who are Calvinist because they are attempting to follow God. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, but I think they are wrong on certain aspects as I have noted here. And they think I am wrong. But neither of us necessarily are attempting to gain salvation from our theological beliefs or from our ecclesial organizations. If you were, you are definitely not Calvinist no matter how many of the five points you believe. I would also say you are not Adventist no matter what church your name is on the roll.

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  6. Using the Great Controversy theme as the hermeneutic. The Bible is to be the first, middle and final basis of hermeneutics, rather than the pretext of a denominational line.

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  7. You are mixing Apples and Oranges...My question is not the text that is interpreted here. That is the Bible...My qeustion is how you interpret the Bible. We all use a bible Hermeneutic (or Theology) when we interpret. We all use a hermenutic that we have discovered, hopefully from the Bible. You have a Biblical Hermneuritc whether it is individual or a "denominational line." The Great Controversy Theme....TULIP....and other interpretation strategies are discovered by Bible students as they study the Bible.

    All Bible students interpret the Bible. All Bible students use some hermeneutic. Again the issue is not the text under consideration...

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  8. WE WILL BE SAFE AS A PEOPLE IF WE DO ONE THING, DO NOT TEST THE WORD BY A PASTOR OR ANYBODY ELSE, WE MUST TEST THEM BY THE WORD, THAT INCLUDES ME, YOU , AND EVERYBODY ELSE. THAT WONDERFUL CHAPTER IN THE GREAT CONTROVERSY REALLY SAYS IT ALL . " OUR SAFEGUARD THE SCRIPTURES .

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  9. see the challenge...is everyone says they use the Bible...even in this last debate over Jakes all sides quoted scripture as well as EGW...

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