Hello all:
I’ve noticed a revival of Calvinism in the Church. I was in a teen class the other day listening to our new youth minister talk about predestination. John Mark Hicks has written an article on Calvinism vs. Arminianism on his website. The Christian Standard is running a whole series looking at Calvinism (very critically, I might add).
We in Churches of Christ are historically Arminian in our soteriological point of view. The Baptist embrace of Calvinism really turned Campbell off because he and many Christians couldn’t express a conversion experience that the Calvinism of the time required. Is this a point in our theology that we need to reevaluate? What is driving many to question this point of our beliefs?
Tell me what you think.
-Clarke
Hello everyone:
I’m not totally sure what happened, but I noticed today as I was looking through my blog that Bobby Ross’ blog was not appearing on my blogroll. I got into the settings and found that it was set as invisible.
That has been changed now and I am linking visibly to his blog once again.
Sorry Bobby.
-Clarke
Hello all:
In the last couple of days, I’ve read enough sentences that say something like “xxx rejects the authority of the scriptures,” that I’m ready to puke. This phrase has bothered me for a long time, but I have tired of reading and hearing it, so now I shall start my diatribe against it.
This phrase comes out of the mouths of many in Churches of Christ. Not only that, though, this phrase also comes out of the mouths of many others that would be considered “evangelical” about churches that are more liberal than they are, or with whom they disagree.
If you read most statements of faith and creedal statements by most fundamentalist or evangelical groups today, they usually include a phrase that mentions that they firmly uphold and affirm the authority of scripture.
The groups that our church often criticizes for rejecting the authority of the scripture love to talk about how much authority the scriptures have. So why do we say that they reject that authority?
It is because they don’t reject the authority of the scripture, but instead they reject our preconceived ideas and beliefs about scripture. They reject, or rather, don’t even recognize our idea that there is a “New Testament Pattern” of how to conduct a worship service. They reject the Command, Example and Necessary Inference hermeneutic (which stems from the idea of a pattern to look for and follow). They reject the notion that the bible must specifically authorize something in English for it to be permissible in a worship service. They reject various interpretations of scripture that Churches of Christ typically affirm, and when they do this, we then say they are rejecting the authority of scripture altogether. It is implied that they don’t respect God. It is implied that they are apostate for not agreeing with our notions about scripture.
We then use these items in our unwritten creed to keep these people at arms length or further so they don’t effect “doctrinal purity.”
When we do this, we, in fact, are guilty of rejecting the authority of scripture. We instead exalt the authority of our logical and common sense above that of the scripture. We impose our beliefs on the text instead of reading anew what the text actually says and means.
One of our taglines states: “It says what it means, and it means what it says.” Its time that we respect that.
-Clarke
I don’t believe that there is an identity crisis in Churches of Christ at all. We know who were are, no matter whether we are conservative or liberal.
I am a member of a congregation that is most would say is becoming more progressive. There is some serious, healthy questioning of our traditions going on in this church. However, this questioning, which is rejecting some of the teachings that have been held as “traditional” within our brotherhood, doesn’t mean that we have lost track of who we are. We are familiar with our heritage and history, and we affirm the people that came before us in a different time. In many ways, we are embracing the distant past of our Restoration Movement, and not the last 50 to 100 years that has brought division and turmoil.
So, are we in a crisis? No, not at all. We are instead entering a time of renewal and understanding that is being fermented by the Holy Spirit.
-Clarke