The Arminian Creed (a bit of joyful sarcasm)

[MennoSota]

“I believe in God who once was Almighty, but sovereignly chose not to be sovereign; and in Jesus, my personal Lord and Saviour, Who loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life, Who came into my heart when I asked him to, and is now seated at the right ventricle of my belief in Him, Who walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way, and tells me I am His own, Who shall come again with secrecy to rapture us out of here, Whose Kingdom shall last one thousand years; And in the Holy Ghost, who did some weird stuff at Pentecost, but doesn’t do much more anymore except speak secretly to the hearts of individual believers. And I believe in this local, independent, and powerless church, insofar as it is in line with my personal interpretation of the Bible and does stuff I like; in one believer’s baptism for the public proof of my decision for Christ; and in giving my personal testimony for soul winning. And I look for the identity of the Antichrist, and know that the Last Days are now upon us. Ay-men.”
http://xenos-theology.blogspot.com/2011/02/arminian-creed.html?m=1

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

:;-D: :;-D: :;-D: :;-D: :;-D:

 

[user1234]

Praise the Lord! :cheer:

wait ... WHAT?

 

[atpollard]

Except that 'Reformed' believers tend to be cessationists and Pentecostals tend to be Arminian, it was a fair paradoy of the modern church.

 

[MoreCoffee]

No follower of Jacobus Arminius would recognise that "creed" as anything but a Calvinist sham parody of their religious views.

 

[atpollard]

No follower of Jacobus Arminius would recognise that "creed" as anything but a Calvinist sham parody of their religious views.

I don't think that is a 'Calvinist' sham parody as much as a sham 'Calvinist parody'. Calvinists, as a group, tend to be sticklers for the details and would have parodied the actual 5 points of Jacobus. Of course, after the impact of the Wesley brothers, I am not sure Jacobious would recognize Methodism, Church of God (Tennessee), Church of God (Indiana) or the Pentecostal movements as his religious views (at least in the USA, I am unfamiliar with these denominations world wide).

Setting aside the 'Arminian' in the title, it does touch on many popular teachings of the worst of contemporary tele-'Christianity' in the USA. Surfing the self-proclaimed preachers and evangelists and prophets and spiritual leaders on TV on any Sunday, one can readily find messages of:

* Accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
* God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
* Rampant speculation on eschatology.

So for our Arminian brothers who dare to believe that God is too good for salvation to be the equivalent of a spiritual rape in which an all-powerful Creator chooses irresistibly which of His created beings will love him, and especially for those who dare to follow the teaching of Wesley that a Christian life lived without service to God in pursuit of personal spiritual growth, comfort to the poor and those in need, and evangelism of the lost, is not really a Christian life at all ... That parody does not apply and is a slap across the face.

And this is coming from a Reformed Baptist ... Someone who believes that God is so great that he can be both fully Soverign and fully Good at the same time. It just takes a LOT more work for us to even begin to understand some of it (and 100% understanding is beyond human grasp).

So I take the advice of my Moravian Brothers: "In essentials Unity. In non-essentials Liberty. In all things Charity."

The deity of Christ = essential = worth fighting over.

We chose God first vs. God chose us first vs. God chose us because God knew that we were going to choose him vs. we chose God because God empowered us to choose him = non-essential = not worth fighting over because our understanding does not obligate God. We should know what we believe and why. We should be aware of what others believe and why. We should give them the same freedom to believe what is not heretical (directly contradicted by scripture with no scriptural support) that we expect from them.

"In all things Charity" means that we are a family, not a hive-mind. We are allowed to have different opinions on things and still be family. So we need to strive to err on the side of kindness.

 

[Imalive]

Arminius is right cause hes Dutch and hes not called Arminius but Hermanszoon, son of Herman. Get your facts straight. LOL
(an Australian on cf told me that, Biblicist, I had never even heard of Arminius lol)

 

[MoreCoffee]

I don't think that is a 'Calvinist' sham parody as much as a sham 'Calvinist parody'. Calvinists, as a group, tend to be sticklers for the details and would have parodied the actual 5 points of Jacobus. Of course, after the impact of the Wesley brothers, I am not sure Jacobious would recognize Methodism, Church of God (Tennessee), Church of God (Indiana) or the Pentecostal movements as his religious views (at least in the USA, I am unfamiliar with these denominations world wide).

Setting aside the 'Arminian' in the title, it does touch on many popular teachings of the worst of contemporary tele-'Christianity' in the USA. Surfing the self-proclaimed preachers and evangelists and prophets and spiritual leaders on TV on any Sunday, one can readily find messages of:

* Accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
* God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
* Rampant speculation on eschatology.

So for our Arminian brothers who dare to believe that God is too good for salvation to be the equivalent of a spiritual rape in which an all-powerful Creator chooses irresistibly which of His created beings will love him, and especially for those who dare to follow the teaching of Wesley that a Christian life lived without service to God in pursuit of personal spiritual growth, comfort to the poor and those in need, and evangelism of the lost, is not really a Christian life at all ... That parody does not apply and is a slap across the face.

And this is coming from a Reformed Baptist ... Someone who believes that God is so great that he can be both fully Soverign and fully Good at the same time. It just takes a LOT more work for us to even begin to understand some of it (and 100% understanding is beyond human grasp).

So I take the advice of my Moravian Brothers: "In essentials Unity. In non-essentials Liberty. In all things Charity."

The deity of Christ = essential = worth fighting over.

We chose God first vs. God chose us first vs. God chose us because God knew that we were going to choose him vs. we chose God because God empowered us to choose him = non-essential = not worth fighting over because our understanding does not obligate God. We should know what we believe and why. We should be aware of what others believe and why. We should give them the same freedom to believe what is not heretical (directly contradicted by scripture with no scriptural support) that we expect from them.

"In all things Charity" means that we are a family, not a hive-mind. We are allowed to have different opinions on things and still be family. So we need to strive to err on the side of kindness.

Catholics - in the rite of Christian initiation of adults (RCIA) - emphasise human freedom in the matter of choosing to become a Catholic Christian and the freedom of God to give grace to whom he wills and as he wills. No conflict is created between grace and human freedom. We can grasp the human involvement in God's work of salvation and we accept God's grace even if we cannot fully comprehend it and why it is given. The mystery is acknowledged and that is sufficient this side of the resurrection.