Predestination - A Theological Fulcrum
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ February 25, 2009
"We are constantly opposed, and yet perpetually preserved!" Charles Spurgeon.
My mother's family was Methodist for several generations. My sisters and I were raised in a Methodist Church in a small town in Mid-Western United States. The little town was also home to a Presbyterian Church. Mother told us the difference between the two churches involved God controlling everything from His throne in Heaven and people controlling their own lives here in His creation. Dad's family had been Presbyterian but when he married my mother he converted to Methodism. Dad was a thirty-third degree Mason.
During my lifetime, Christian revivals have been long on the human factor and short on the God factor. Great efforts have been made to devise attractive presentations. There has been heavy emphasis on accepting Christ and making a decision for Christ. Church leaders have been teachers and churches have worked to heal families and individuals through counseling. Evangelism, spreading the Gospel by fulfilling the Great Commission, tops the objective list of most churches with growing in Christ, being nurtured in the church, finding peace, being set free from sin, loving one another, being healed, receiving the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the presence of God closely following. Concern was humanistic, serving the creature, as opposed to Godly, serving the King. Dispensationalism and Arminianism are responsible for much of this emphasis.
In His Word, God always does the choosing.
Why does He choose some individuals and not others? To the human mind it seems unfair. Theologians have often been at odds with the doctrine of predestination, allowing their perception to overrule the clearly defined actions of the God they claim to worship. Arminianism is common in the Christian Church.
The contention between Calvinism and Arminianism involves selection and volition. Calvinists contend that God does not choose everyone and that those He chooses not only are unable to resist but are permanently His thereafter. Arminians contend that God chooses everyone but many resist deciding against redemption. They also believe that some who have been converted backslide into secularism. The distinction is of the utmost importance!
Deuteronomy 14:21 reads, "Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."
I Corinthians 6:2-3 reads, "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?"
A catastrophic result of Arminianism is the loss of understanding of the special place God's chosen people hold in His creation. Jews cling to an erroneous choosiness while Christians possess it but fail to utilize it. Jews act like God's chosen people while Christians act like humanists.
While there is nothing special about a person who chooses to become a Christian, there is something special about a person who was chosen by God as the Apostle Paul was chosen in the Book of Acts.
Prior to the Diaspora, the Jews were God's chosen people. They were the descendents of a chosen man named Abraham. God did not choose everyone. He chose Abraham and his progeny. They were a special people, precious to the Lord. God wanted them to have a higher respect for themselves than for people whom He had not chosen. Meat from dead animals could be given or sold to foreigners but was not to be eaten by His Chosen people.
After instructing the Corinthians to judge the church instead of the world, the Apostle Paul chides them for using pagan courts instead of judging within their own body of believers. He then reminds them that they will judge angels.
These verses set forth the special position Christians occupy in God's creation. God does not choose everyone. Those who are not chosen are His responsibility while those who are chosen are responsible to Him. We are a special people, precious to the Lord. We are expected to set high standards for God's church and to use our position in Christ to mold His body of believers into a potent force for righteousness.
The humanism of Jacob Arminius robs God's people of their special chosen position. It opens the door to judging those who are not selected and renders Christians common rather than specially chosen.
Arminianism encroaches on God's sovereignty. If the creature can override the Creator the creature becomes sovereign and churches can convene small groups where the Scripture is discussed and each individual can develop a personal opinion. What does not fit comfortably into the sinful human mind can be discarded allowing the Spirit of sovereignty to be transferred to the creature.
This humanistic niche into God's absolute control opens the door to a progressive deterioration in the Christian Faith. Instead of looking up to the Creator, obeying His Commandments and striving to understand His Word and His Will, the whole process is overturned with the creature demanding that the King fulfill promises for gifts, healings, and blessings while His Word and dominion are being picked away by sinful judgments and disobedience.
Most contemporary Christians consider Old Testament Law to be an onerous burden placed on God's Chosen people by a cruel Old Testament tyrant. They reject God's Laws using the propitiation of Christ as an excuse to live without legal restraint. Nothing could be farther from the Truth. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, He does not change. The Laws of the Old Testament were given with the same blessing in mind as the Advent in the New Covenant. Obedience was not given as a burden but as a blessing. God mandates and enforces obedience to the Law because His chosen people are special and obedience will bring them blessings not available to a lawless secular society.
Dispensationalism has exacerbated the gutting of the Christian Faith by arbitrarily transferring the mantel from Christians to Jews. Already compromised by the Arminian heresy and led by poorly trained clergy, Christians began following a toothless and clawless lion of Judah; a lion of their own creation; another gospel.
This bogus gospel has resulted in the election and re-election of secular political parties that bear heavy responsibility for the creation of the social sewer that surrounds us. It has caused the loss of the war against secularism by allowing heretical theology to rob the troops of zeal and antinomianism to corrupt their battle plan. It has caused anarchy in the Protestant Church by trashing the work of our forefathers in the Faith. It has allowed our pastors to ignore the meat of the Gospel and the Biblical passages that support it and instead of establishing an army for King Jesus, equipped with the sword of the Spirit, and the breastplate of righteousness it has created a congregation that ignores the war and supports neo-Israel in a futile effort to help God bring about the Second Coming. It is a humanistic endeavor that fawns on esoteric teachings, healings, peace, and entertainment from ministries that ignore the Will of God in favor of large congregations and full collection plates.
The impression that people are essentially good is prevalent among Christians and the more difficult doctrine of original sin is ignored. This often translates into an injurious trust in government that allows the growth of malevolent policies that if truth has been attended would have been stopped.
It is a battle between subjectivity and objectivity. Consider, gentle reader, why you are attending your particular church. Chances are the leader is a "wonderful" Bible teacher and the congregation is lovingly concerned; you have made friends in your church and it is the center of your social life; maybe the church has a school where your children can acquire a Christian education; maybe you have become a "leader" and are one of the pastors chosen people, someone he has made to feel important. It could be that you feel you are being nurtured and are "growing" in your Christian faith or that you have invested heavily in the church and seek to help it grow. There are other reasons but take a moment and consider your motivation. All of the above are subjective and humanistic. The primary objective for attending the Church of King Jesus should be to worship, obey, and SERVE Him! We are to love each other but every Christian congregation should be centered on God, obeying Him, and working for His dominion in His creation. Obedience and dominion are the fruit God expects of His people.
Now, dear Christian, brother or sister, you have been drawn by the Father to His Son and converted to believe in His propitiation and redeeming power, but do you understand why the increase in numbers of believers in the United States has been inversely proportional to righteousness in our society? Converts are not the fruit of the Gospel. Converts are like the fig tree in Jesus' parable, they must bear fruit!
We are chosen, individually and as a Christian body, we are special, it is our duty to be obedient and to seek righteousness and justice in His creation. Righteousness, peace and joy are the ultimate fruit but first we must become God's victorious army. God's army is always victorious; there is never a question about winning. Unfortunately, in the United States His army has never been mobilized!
"Catastrophes are often useful to clearing the evil minds of God's fallen creatures. Living in the midst of the horrendous results of humanistic leverage can open recalcitrant dispositions to changing their opinions. We are at the precipice of a world catastrophe." AC
"I believe in religious freedom: Everyone should be able to worship any God they choose as long as it is King Jesus!" AC