I’ve run into this too many times: Radix Fidem is not Calvinist. Most assuredly not, because Calvinism rests on western reasoning, and we reject that a priori. The first solid inkling of predestination was a part of the Augustinian academic traditions, and they hit the Christian religion hard with Martin Luther before he even broke…
Tag: Election
The Whole Command 01
While there are broader meanings in the words themselves, here I’ll use “grace” to refer to eternal election and redemption. The word “mercy” will emphasize God’s tolerance for our fallen human nature through the Covenant. God granting the Covenant of Moses to Israel was an act of mercy, but not a conduit of grace. When…
We Can’t Know
We cannot possibly comprehend Eternity. It is most certainly not “time without end” as is so popular in our culture. On the other hand, you also cannot say it is “without time”. I rather suspect the best we can say is that time becomes a manageable variable, just as space is for us now. Even…
Path to Nowhere
Related to the issue covered in my previous post is the question of the Doctrine of Election. What happens to the non-elect? Scripture says very little. It should be obvious that, since there is an Elect, a privileged group who belong to God’s household from before their birth, then there are some who are not…
Mindwar
One of our fundamental teachings is that the nature of the Fall was choosing to trust human perception to answer the question of what is good and evil. Morality is thus determined from the inside, not from the Source external to us. And morality becomes a matter of convenience, as opposed to a system by…
The Big Surprise
Dr. Heiser seemed to believe that Satan and his minions were not aware that Jesus came specifically to die on the Cross. I consider this a mistake. First, the Wilderness Temptation indicates that the Tempter was trying to derail Jesus’ commitment to His mission as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Instead, the Devil wanted Him…
A Psychology of Election
Sometimes it helps to draw a psychological model, even if we know that the actual truth of what goes on inside of us exceeds the grasp of science. The verbiage in Scripture seems to run in different directions in different contexts because it’s beyond words in the first place. Sometimes there’s a heavy burden of…
Shoveling Manure 01
Think it through, folks. God gave us brains, not to run the show, but to organize and implement our response to His divine call. The heart runs the show; it is the part of you that is able to commit to Him. The brain cannot do it. The heart is directly connected to your spirit….