When we are pointing the fingers at division in the church over doctrine, we must remember that error is always divisive. The Calvinists think that the Armenians are divisive and the Armenians think the Calvinists are divisive. The fact is that both are divisive. The Calvinists are spreading a false gospel based on a false premise that no one has a choice in their salvation. Armenians are spreading a false idea that they think came from Arminius but in fact did not. One believes there is no choice and that every man was created to go to heaven or hell. The other believes that man chooses but can be saved one moment and walk away if their sin is bad enough the next.
Both concepts are unbiblical and therefore divisive. Calvin was a persecutor of the true church and Arminius clearly taught that one could not lose their salvation once they had trusted Christ.
Those who follow Calvin rather than Christ have made a plaster saint out of the false information written about him and the followers of Arminius have believed something about his teachings that were not true. What is the problem with all this human idol worship? The problem is that too many folks are depending on human beings for their answers rather than on the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I have a conversation with someone about doctrine, I am suspect of their walk with God when the first things out of their mouth is "Calvin says." It is at that point that I know that they are more interested in what a man thinks than in what God has said.
We lack faith when we place our trust in the teachings of one man because we are trusting that man rather than the Holy Spirit and God's Word. We think that we can not hear God through the Holy Spirit, we must see a man, hear his voice or read his writings to know the truth. If we trusted Christ when He said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth, then we would not be concerned about following the particular teachings of a man. If we trust Christ and believe that the Holy Spirit can teach us then we don't need to run to writers for our wisdom.
It is alright to read the writings of others, write ourselves and even have real live teachers, the problem comes when we do not test all that they say by reading the Word of God ourselves. So often man likes to have a "helper" like the Holy Spirit that they can see, touch and read, just like the Israelites who wanted a human leader that they could see and hear, rather than God Himself. In other Words our pride wants to guide us into the realm of intellectual elitism by quoting popular writers. How can we brag if our boasting is about an unseen God. Arrogance is at the root of all human error and must be denounced before we can hear the Lord.
We lack faith in the promise of the Lord when He said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. Whatever did the Lord do the last 2000 years before Calvin and Arminius were born? He used the Holy Spirit and still does that today. Our culture has a hard time hearing our "helper and teacher" that lives in us, because the noises of the elite writers are drowning Him out. The pressures of our modern culture are crushing in upon us, making us feel silly and stupid if we do not give in to the ideas of these iconic figures of the past.
Our challenge is to refuse to listen to those who would quote men and correct those who would continually attempt to intimidate us into accepting the teachings of men rather than the teachings of Christ.
Please let us STOP raising our idols above Christ. We need to push them over and burn them. If we cannot control our impulses to follow the teachings of one man then we are in sin and will lead others into sin also. Do we have the faith to walk away from the teachings of man and trust Christ in us to bring us to an understanding of the truth.
When we look into the past and see the lives of these people we worship, we would see that every one of them has wrong teaching to some degree and in Calvin’s' case heresy. That is why the Lord said "let God be true and every man a liar." Romans 3:4
God told us all we need to know in His Word and God gave us the perfect Helper, Teacher and Comforter to be to us all that we need.
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