10 years ago, in the midst of college I realized I held Calvinistic beliefs. I was excited to finally have a label on what I believed. In the intervening years I waffled, Seminary and the desire for better grades will do that to a person. More recently I have noted my lack of deep theological understanding is affecting the way that I preach and the way I work in the church. To rectify this problem I have decided to explore, as Time Magazine has so aptly stated, New Calvinism.
The problem I have is that New Calvinism is not really all that new and different. The new is referring to the age of the adherents, mostly 20-40 year-olds. So I am left with studying the theology of the Reformers and Puritans, and then looking at the pet projects of the new leaders like Piper, Sproul, Mahaney and Driscoll. Berkhof is on the list as well, but I really want to see a repository of thought with reviews of materials so I that I don't have to spend hours reading texts that agree with one another.
God as I reaffirm my belief in you, help me to establish it based on who you are rather than on what I understand.
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amen brother.
ReplyDeletei just heard a sermon today that said "Its better to learn doctrine from Bible texts than to learn it from a categorized system of beliefs first and try to fit your theology to that system."
that being said... back when i was a very young Christian, i didn't know what a Calvinist or Arminian was... but at a Bible study i was called a "Calvinist". I had no idea what they meant. It sounded like a big fancy word to me. lol
in confusion i told them i had no idea what a "Calvinist" was. doubting me, they responded by asking where i got all my beliefs from then!?
with complete oblivious innocence and no spite intended at all, i simply answered "i learned all this stuff from reading the Bible." i then started showing them passages that i had read in my personal quiet time. lol