Funny Mix

I sometimes get surprized when I see some zealot Puritan Calvinist bloggers put the picture of Martin Luther along side the picture of John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon together in the same spot!

I think this is naive. This is not seriously dealing with the teachings of Luther and is fanciful. I believe the smelly monk Luther would have spewed out explatives upon seing his picture along side these men. For one thing Luther would have rejected Calvin's view of the Lord's Supper because it falls short, since it stems from a Nestorian view of Christ. He would have been upset with Edward's mysticism and would have lumped him with the Enthusiasts, and most of all, he would have anathematized the baptistic Spurgeon for being an AnaBaptist in his baptist doctrine.

Same cloth - many points

Through past historical events, I am still part of list group whose members I am sure treasure and love their Calvinism. A discussion arose between me and with a Baptistic 4.5 point Calvinist friend in the list who then got into discussion with the guy I usually spar with, a Baptistic 5 pointer Calvinist. Here is a quote from the 4.5 pointer

Under all of our theologies (God's included) the death of Jesus Christ saves no one. It presents no one before God as justified, in and of itself. To be really blunt – the death of Christ is of no
more value than the death a sheep outside of the complete salvation "package" - sovereignly decided by God. Again very bluntly – the blood of Christ is of no more value for our salvation
than a quart of oil outside of the complete method of God given to us whereby we must be saved.

Even under the vaunted supposed Calvinistic theology, Christ's death accomplished nothing until the merits of it are applied to our lives when we exercise our God given faith.

You said, "The Calvinist believes that Christ has already purchased the redemption (saved positionally) of His own when He received their retribution. And that, the benefits of the secured salvation simply need to be brought to them by the Holy Spirit that they may
be saved experientially. "

Not true! I don't believe that and I don't think many Calvinists would say that they believe that.

I admire the candor of my 4.5 pointer friend about his Calvinism, he was willing to call a spade a spade. His frankness and boldness got me thinking, for a while now I have thought that Arminianism and Calvinism are a cut from the same paradigm. The 4.5 pointer brother confirmed what my hunches were telling me. In the end it leads to inward looking faith, i.e. we are saved by what is inside us. One is left looking at the subjective justification rather than the objective. Although the 5.0 pointer affirms that this faith is an instrument, one's faith nevertheless gets the subsequent attention or focus, at least my 4.5 pointer friend was willing to admit that, yet the 5.0 pointer fails to see it in the system. His brutal honesty was something to note and immitate.

What is quite unique about the Lutheran fathers is that they can say "do not talk to me about faith, talk to me about Jesus". Faith as opposed to works, simply trusts the promise God made that is already there. Indeed, when we focus on our faith and our consciousness of it, we can be side tracked. The Apology has this

56] For faith justifies and saves, not on the ground that it is a work in itself worthy, but only because it receives the promised mercy.

It receives the justification that is already there - won by Christ. Amen.

Repentance

I am thinking over this definition of repentance by an internet friend...

'repentance is a willingness or resolution to consciously turn away from sin, self, and the Devil, and a concomitant commitment to follow Christ in His lordship.'

Should I agree with this?

Attitude

Something triggered in my mind while I was listening to Issues Etc. It occured to me that when I was in evangelia/charismania that we talked often about bad attitude rather than sin. Having bad attitude is not sin. This means that you can improve on your bad attitude by adopting new thoughts. In born again teaching, Christians are bogged down by bad attitude, they are not bogged down by sin. So you have sermons on how to counter bad attitude, a lot of sermons preached on having the right attitude.

The nice thing about bad attitude is that you can sort of correct it by simply stopping that bad thing you do or think. You'd think?!/?

Well, if bad attitude is considered sin, that is very negative and people can not relate to that. But if bad attitude is not sin, then the solution to that is found inside you - it means you have to work at it.

Religion of works do not appeal to me because I am downright lazy and get tired easily.

I do not have bad attitude, I have sin.