I preached through the Old Testament in overview form from October 1, 2000 to August 13, 2005, on Sunday nights in Cedar Rapids. It also explains the rise of Gnosticism, denominationalism and just about every modern non-essential doctrinal dispute in the church. It is not always the calvinist pastor’s fault…sometimes it is non-calvinist lay leadership causing the problem. Church splits notwithstanding I think there is a real fear among ordinary, everyday Christian people concerning Calvinism. As for the view, I studied it when writing a paper in seminary. The worst mistake young pastors sometimes make is going into a church and trying to remake the traditions of that church in the first few months of their tenure. One of those patterns I’ve turned into a book which I hope will be published before the Lord returns, called, “Significant Servants.”  But I noticed something else, something that perhaps many of us who are pastors may not want to admit. Childhood home church (First time as child): Deacons fire pastor because of “ineffective preaching” (to my best recollection). More traditional Baptists say if Jesus died only for the elect, then Baptists’ trademark evangelism becomes pointless. The fault is always THEM!! If there are ministers who get it right, then arrogant competitiveness from other ministers can bury their ministries. For the CRC founders in America, the RCA at the time appeared to contain problems similar to the State Church in the old country. Oh, wait…never mind. “7. We are elect because he is elect. Decades ago, preachers used to preach upon it frequently but now it is rare to hear an entire sermon on it. https://sbcvoices.com/biff-baptists-in-full-fellowship/, Response to SBC Presidents on Critical Race Theory (Rick Armstrong), Some under noticed SBC news stories from 2020, A Letter from Dr. Jamie Dew to the NOBTS Faculty. Sorry for the confusion. 4)  We’ve got to learn to respond to criticism in a godly way. This was a good post. Sunday Service 10am Morning Worship (In-Person and Online) 4pm Afternoon Worship (Online only) Follow Us Find us on Facebook. When you are in a role of pastoral leadership in the church, it is very easy to let pride and arrogance surface. Many don’t like it and leave (and are often painted as bad people in the process). In other words, according to some leading neo-Calvinists, men are called to lead in every sphere of life, including business and politics, and women are called to submit. Emily McGowin, a doctoral candidate at the University of Dayton and former Southern Baptist, said that Calvinism has the potential to rework how Baptists view women’s roles even beyond what the Baptist Faith & Message says. 5)  Please, let’s leave behind the “addition by subtraction” and “weeding out the tares” metaphors. Calvinists call this the doctrine of “predestination” — the idea that a person’s salvation already has been determined. . A pastor I know came under some harsh and unfair criticism. But I think the second type of fear has been around longer than the internet or the current state of unease. A lot of the fallen pastors I’ve interacted… Read more ». God demonstrates his love for us in the sacrifice of Christ, not some kind of squishy and standard free tolerance. When the leaders sought God and his help, the people of God overcame the disunity accomplished God’s purpose. I have seen it several times. Anglicanism and Calvinism have some shared history, but diverge in significant ways. Certainly, many of the congregations will hang on tenaciously. Quora User asked me to jump in — sorry it took me a while to do so. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 3)  The problem is often pastoral arrogance. A church that has split is likely to die. In the United States, the largest group is made up of the Southern Baptist Convention. But over the course of a few or many years, the cancer of the split eats away at the health of a church body. The… Read more ». When I have seen a church divided, I have almost universally observed a pastor who has mishandled a situation, responded in pride not humility to criticism or who is advancing a self-centered agenda. A church attender offered to build a huge new parsonage on the church property. Instead of staying and causing trouble, they left the church. Again, pastor, you are going to be criticized. They may not understand it, but they see it there. But the fault is always someone I don’t look at in the mirror when I shave. William, I understand your point. What they learned and did in that instance worked well, so well that they adopted it as a hallmark for their ministry. In some Southern Baptist churches there has been a revival of interest in Calvinism, the theology of the 16th-century reformer John Calvin, who also had a great influence on colonial America.. Whenever God was at work among his people, there was always conflict and dissent. I know this is judgmental, but it is my observation. But I have observed in reality what I have also observed in the scripture – that it is often crucial (and often sincere or at least unintentional) errors by leadership in a church that causes disunity to become division that leads to a split. Modern Protestantism, over the 20th century, has undergone a split. Pastors sometimes want to punish those who criticize them. How often do you guys see a church split and call themselves a church plant? As of 2015, the group was made up of more than 15 million members. Don’t try to alter a church’s direction until you have invested enough time for the people to know you and trust you and be ready to follow you. 2)  The problem is often the pastor’s hidden change-agenda. They hold special classes on Calvinist topics, he said, and they staff the church with fellow Calvinists. The problem is not Calvinism or seeker-sensitivity. Of course it’s also a responsibility to look carefully to see where we may be neglecting or interfering with the work God means to do. Warning:  Pastors, some of you may not like me much after you read this. Calvinism is a denomination of Protestantism that adheres to the theological traditions and teachings of John Calvin and other preachers of the Reformation-era. It is a joy, a privilege, and a responsibility to look carefully to see where God is at work, to acknowledge it, and to thank him for these evidences of his grace. I’ve done a little bit of a non-scientific study of church divisions and splits. It draws its moral guidance from a so-called rational or intellectual focus on biblical theology, reinforced by theological training in special seminaries. If a split is occurring over “woke” doctrine, it appears the Reformed Christian movement is the first place it’s happening. Just remember, I am the anointed leader of this blog and any criticism of me if clearly wrong and evil. Important conversations are happening now. (Editor’s note: Demers is a graduate of Covenant Seminary and for our PCA... Continue Reading The Dutch Reformed Church further splintered in the colonies after differences in worship practices among churches from which the CRC emerged. David. Churches have a history and a personality. Dave Miller is the senior pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa, and editor of SBC Voices. God’s power is not available to me accomplish my will or to promote my glory or to attain my ambitions. Everyone has an agenda, don’t they?!?! It amuses me that some of my calvinist friends think that if you just package the theology right, if it is explained right, if it is… Read more ». People left to their own aren’t going to come up with Barth/Torrance theory. “It is obvious that we all cannot be right,” Ascol wrote on his blog. But I believe that these generalities are generally true, even if there are exceptions. If we reject the idea of corporate election, we are left with two options that frankly have so many problems that I don’t want to choose either: unconditional or conditional individual election. Irresistible grace means those who resist God may cease to do so if it is God's will. It took a long time before that church recovered. As examples I mention the doctrines of Common Grace, Visible/Invisible Church and Presumptive Regeneration. If anything, the information explosion has just magnified it. A number of doctrinal issues came under discussion in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in the course of the 1930s, with several ending up on the table of General Synod 1939. We are at war, folks, with the principalities and powers. This was rooted in part as a result of a theological dispute that originated in the Netherlands when Hendrik De Kok was deposed for his Calvinist convictions, leading there to the Secession of 1834–35. The Baptist Faith & Message of 2000, the denomination’s comprehensive confession of faith and doctrine, already asserts a form of “complementarianism” (men and women are equal but have different roles), but some strains of Calvinism go a step further. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! We carry around a lot of pride as well. Tom Ascol, a Florida pastor and executive director of Founders Ministries, a pro-Calvinist organization, called the report a positive step. Calvinists broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century, having different beliefs of predestination and election of salvation, among others. After all, the Great Commission is as much practical as it is doctrinal. Do you get mad and fight back? The Protestant Split. Calvinism. I think Torrance at least is pretty clear in his new book (edited by his nephew) “Atonement.” He is neither a universalist nor does he subscribe to traditional Calvinistic unconditional election. The Enemies Within the Church team would like to invite you to come to our conference, “Stand Against Marxism,” October 18-19 in Des Moines. Oh, no he didn’t! This split has also affected how the doctrines of modern Calvinism have affected the modern churches. God has a proven track record of working with and through complete screw-ups (both of the people variety and the situational variety as well). The Protestant churches are now divided into what are called "liberal" and "conservative". The core principle of the book is the question, “Whose agenda are you working?”. The Reformed Church in America is a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world. Five-point Calvinism, Mohler said, “is not hyper-Calvinism.” “However, if one takes an additional logical jump from that point and says, ‘Therefore, we should not present the Gospel to all persons,’ they are in direct conflict with the Scripture and direct disobedience to the call of God and in direct contradiction to the model of the apostles,” he said. That is where I agree with Olson. I understand why you see it that way. Southern Baptists who split with northern Baptists founded the Convention in 1845 in Georgia over the issue of slavery. His differences with Martin Luther about the nature of the Lord's Supper resulted in the splitting of the evangelical churches into the Lutheran and Reformed groups. It is my impression that he was a church hopper and was probably trying to buy influence in the church, but the pastor was thrilled with the idea. According to the report, congregations are free to choose Calvinist or non-Calvinist pastors, but both the candidate and the congregation must be honest about their beliefs. Calvin’s real name was Cohen. How can we support you and your church? You brought forward the eternal answer . Had I tried to force some kind of change agenda on the church in the first couple of years it could have imploded this fellowship. At stake are fundamental beliefs on who can be “saved,” the need for evangelism, and whether Baptists will retread familiar battlefields on the proper roles of men and women. No split is necessary. Jim: There is no question that some people fear Calvinism. Eric Hankins, a pastor from Oxford, Miss., and member of the committee, said the report will change at least one important process in Southern Baptist life: the selection of pastors. Ascol embraces one of the aspects of Calvinism that makes traditional Baptists deeply uncomfortable: the idea that Jesus died on the cross only for humans whom God had elected to save, and not for everyone. There is one inviolable rule of church conflict and splits. I’ll have to look into it. I spend my life around pastors. Many members of the church think it is wrong because it "sounds" wrong or because Mom, Dad or the preacher said it was wrong. Precisely. Jeff, I agree with you. A report in Christianity Today for September 2006 was entitled “Young, Restless, Reformed: Calvinism Is Making a Comeback--And Shaking up the Church.” It documents the rapid spread of Calvinism in Evangelical circles, and I am seeing the same thing among Fundamentalists. Them. It was received into the CRC as Immanuel Christian Reformed Church in November 1959. I went through Romans in Men’s bible study. Go ahead and tell me what you think. The statement you made above is one of the reasons. Eighty percent of SBC pastors disagreed with the idea that only the elect will be saved, according to last year’s LifeWay poll, and two-thirds disagreed with the idea that salvation and damnation have already been determined. In other business, the SBC meeting is expected to: Part of HuffPost Religion. Watch this video on YouTube The Enemies Within the Church team would like to invite you to come to our conference, “Stand Against Marxism,” October 18-19 in Des Moines. On the other hand, it was Rehoboam’s folly that led to the split into two nations. Every use of the word “elect” (with the exceptions of Jesus himself in 1 Pet 2:6 and the angels in 1 Tim 5:21) is in the plural sense, that is, an elect group of people rather than a collection of elected individuals. My point is, the problem is not Calvinism, but the pastor’s unspoken agenda. I want to build a following. I have a heart for pastors and for church unity. Even as good-looking, sweet and kind as I am (no, you need not comment on this), there has always been someone in every church I’ve been in whom I sarcastically call “chair of the Dave Miller fan club.”  I remember one lady who would sit and stare daggers at me every Sunday morning – oh, she hated me. Tell me that doesn’t occur with anything but Calvinism. All rights reserved. Dave, Every split I have experiences has been due to personality / leadership issues, not theological issues. Most of the serious Barth scholars with whom I am familiar don’t agree with Olson, either. Dave has insightfully looked past the surface of church splits to the “spiritual root,” if you will, of many church problems. I feel the need to list them because looking back now I have several observations that have helped form my practice. I love the story in 1 Samuel 30 where David and his men returned from battle to find their women and children kidnapped. I outlined the major viewpoints (Calvinism, Arminianism, and the current Baptist view) on the relevant passages and… Read more ». I’ve done enough work in Torrance… Read more ». I think it is hard to argue against the notion that many churches have split when a new pastor brought Calvinist convictions and perspectives into a church that was previously not Calvinist. On the other hand, it is God’s church and I have no right to attempt to force my agenda or to use God’s church to glorify myself, make a name for myself or accomplish my will. “There is no fluff in Piper’s ministry. I do agree that unconditional election is an uncomfortable topic, but let’s face it, we have to deal with election. Many times after the Calvinist is called as the pastor of the church, they begin to teach Calvinism in order to “reform” the traditional Baptist church in ecclesiology, polity, and worship. By Olson’s critique, do you mean Grenz and Olson’s treatment in 20th Century Theology? Well, if that agenda goes beyond the Great Commission and draws lines outside God’s agenda (which IS the Great Commission, no more, no less), then division will occur. The report cites John Piper, R.C. It happens all the time. The problem is that Anglicanism, unlike Calvinism, is not a confessional church. 2)  Disunity becomes division when leaders react wrongly. Calvin was massively influential and his reformed teachings spread quickly around Europe. Many such places can be found with the letters SBC in the web address. I think you said something very clearly here, William. I know some of you aren’t crazy about him, but Henry Blackaby is my hero  – the most significant human influence on my life other than my father. If ever I’m persuaded that unconditional election of persons is not true, I’ll be jumping into the “election of people groups” camp. This is a false dichotomy. If a split is occurring over “woke” doctrine, it appears the Reformed Christian movement is the first place it’s happening. Calvinism (also called the Reformed tradition, Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, or the Reformed faith) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. This is where godly wisdom comes into play. For this reason, the ‘Barth-Torrance’ view may not be understood in the way that you want it to be . The problem is that Anglicanism, unlike Calvinism, is not a confessional church. Current Pastor. Exactly. Basically, even the most un-Christian-seeming individual can be persuaded to follow God if that is their destiny and God wills it. There will be enemies without and enemies within and it is all a natural part of living in a fallen world which lives under Satan’s deceptions. 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