I just wanted to share why I became a Calvinist (Feel free to share!)

CoffeeSwirls · #11 15th February 2005, 12:06 AM

Oops, I didn't mean to double-dip here. Those darn QUOTE tags have me all messed up!

Beoga · #12 15th February 2005, 05:13 PM

Lets see, pretty much grew up in a baptist church who did believe in eternal security but also denied calvinism and preached the opposite (though i never heard any mention of Calvinism). About 5 years ago, my family switched over to a Church of God (out of Anderson, Indiana) church. They really believed in arminianism and so i remeained ignorant. I was introduced to the idea that a believer could lose their salvation by my youth pastor my freshman year (four years ago). I was shocked that someone could believe that they could lose their salvation, but ignorant of the scriptures, i became convinced of his arguements. I then started to study the idea of eternal security and became convinced of it again. All throughout that study i never came across this whole idea of calvinism. While later the same youth pastor introduced me to the idea of predestination (though completely off) and I was repuled my it. I thought it was a horrible idea, he (my youth pastor) also showed me this site (www.bible.ca) where it had/has a section on calvinism. When I checked that out, and looked over the doctrines of calvinism, i thought it was horrible, it made know sense (of course they misrepresented calvinism). Anyway, so that went on until about early last year (feb, march) when i read romans 9 and started to question how God could predestine someone if we choose us first and then he chose us. I got a book by Erwin Lutzer called Doctrines that Devide (still havn't read it all to this day) and started to read the sections on predestination. I looked at the back of the book in the bibliography and saw chosen by God by R.C. Sproul. So i went out and bought this book and another book on calvinism. I read sproul's book (and romans 9) again and became convinced of 4 out of the 5 points of calvinism. I just could not accept limited atonement (thanks to my traditions). I struggled with that for about a month or two until I became convinced of that too. During that time and ever since then, Scripture has been more alive, flows better, and makes more sense. God has also gotten bigger and bigger in my eyes to this day.

Imblessed · #13 15th February 2005, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by littleapologist

.......... During that time and ever since then, Scripture has been more alive, flows better, and makes more sense. God has also gotten bigger and bigger in my eyes to this day.

That is SOOO true!

Imblessed · #14 15th February 2005, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by ksen

I loved reading your testimony imblessed!

Our God is truly an awesome God. Why it seems from your testimony that God actually ordered your steps for you! Did you notice your free-will getting stepped on?

ROFL---am I ever grateful he "stepped on my free-will"!! he he he

CoffeeSwirls · #15 15th February 2005, 08:53 PM

It is precisely for these reasons why it is perfectly loving for us to challange the ME-ology of others. We don't just want them to see the doctrines of grace to be correct, but so they can share the same blessings we have in scripture interpretation, worship and so much more. Monergistic theology is liberating even as it binds us to the truth. Just lowering the self to realize this is sanctifying. To say nothing to others is to withold blessings of kindness. It is harsh at first, but God is good. When it sinks in, the Bible is truly sweeter than honey.

theseed · #16 15th February 2005, 10:32 PM

I studied the issue for years, and look for better ways to interpret Scripture and counter arguments. I found one. Finally, I had to accept what I found hard to accept as true.

Reformationist · #17 16th February 2005, 05:08 AM

Hey everyone.

I don't have that nifty little faith icon but hopefully you all know I'm a reformed Christian, a true blue (Or should I say red and white) Calvinist.

Well, I've shared this before but it's been awhile so I'll tell it again. As anyone who ever goes into the picture forums will surely know, I have 3 kids. Well, my daughter is by the woman I was with before I married my wife and though custody issues are often very troubling and frustrating, my daughter is a blessing that can, and does, seize my heart with but a look. So, after my wife and I got married we were interested in enrolling our children in a private Christian school (she has a son from a previous marriage). Christian, my stepson, was 5 at the time and Melinda was 4. So, we agonized about this for awhile, knowing that Melinda's mom would never go for it. It's not that she's against Christianity. It's just that, at the time, she was against anything I wanted to do. So, one day she said she had enrolled Melinda into a new daycare. At first, well, I was aggravated. She hadn't even consulted me and we share 50/50 legal and physical custody. Obviously I can be quite a self-centered person. Anyway, she told me where it was and suggested I go check it out. So, I drove up and down the road for 45 minutes looking for a daycare. Couldn't find it. So, I called her mom. She told me it was in back of a great big Spanish style house. So, I drove up to the only large (and I mean large) Spanish style house on the road and rung the doorbell. Well, this friendly lady came to the door and said hello and I, dumbly, asked her, "Uh...do you guys run a daycare here?" She smiled and said, "Yes. We also run a church and a men's and women's live in discipleship program. If you're interested in enrolling your child I'll take you on a tour." I told her that my daughter was already enrolled but, if I liked the place, I might be enrolling my son. Anyway, at this point I was a bit shocked. I was just starting to realize that my daughter's mother had enrolled her in a private Christian school.

So, the lady asked me if I currently went to church and I told her that I didn't but that I was looking for a church. She suggested I speak with her husband, who was the Pastor, and see if their church was a good fit. So, she went and got her husband. He walked in and I got my first look, though I didn't know it at the time, at a reformed Preacher. Well, to be honest, he looked pretty normal. Good looking, middle aged guy in shorts and a Hawaiin shirt, which turned out to be his standard church attire. Anyway, I went into his office and we had a bit of small talk but not too much. Neither of us were big on that sort of thing. Anyway, he asked me what I knew of the Bible and I told him that I knew very little but that I believed there was a God and that the Bible was His infallible revelation and that I wanted to be His servant. I told him I had been to probably 50 or 60 different churches of varying denominations, including attending services at a Catholic church as well as attending, for a period of time, an LDS church, over the course of my life and they all seemed just this side of ridiculous, with no real, rational explanation for anything that contradicted their views. They'd always say "Well, God's ways are not our ways." You know the drill. You've all heard and seen them wiggle before. Anyway, he asked me a very simple question to segue into his own beliefs. He simply said, "Don, what do you believe happened to man in the Fall?" Well, I think I gave him the token "mankind was separated from God and condemned to hell" line. So he asked me, "And who do you think will be saved?" So, once again, I fed him the party line, "All who make a free will decision for Christ." Anyway, after a bit more discussion, we got around to briefly addressing the extent of the atonement as it relates to election and, do you know what my response was when he said, "Well, God has elected, before the foundations of the world, whom He will save and His choice isn't based on any merit in them or any choice they would ever make?" I said, "Hey, that's not fair!!!" That's right people. I said it.

Well, instead of arguing with me, he simply said, "You're right. It's not fair. Tell me Don, what do you think would be fair?" So, as I clipped off the retort that had tried to force its way out of my mouth, I thought about it. And, to make a long story, well, not as long, I realized, and replied, "What would be fair would be for us all to burn in hell for our sins so apparently the salvation of any soul is the product of God's unmerited mercy, not fairness." Since I was being honest with myself, I realized fairness wasn't going to put me in a very good light, truth be told. So, he just looked at me and smiled and said, "That's right."

So, he suggested I check out the next service (which was two days away) and so I did. Well, I won't go into detail but I will tell you that it was the first church service I had ever been to that left me sitting there speechless at the end and with a profound knowledge that I was home. I knew that God had finally brought me to the truth of His Word. There was none of the doubt. There were none of the same old feelings of disappointment. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't one of those churches that told you how great you are. It was a reformed church. The Pastor told me the truth, even if it offended me. To be honest, it didn't. I sat under the tutelage of that man for 3½ years and never once heard a lesson that wasn't better than the last. Not only that, I saw the Gospel put in to practice on a daily basis in the discipleship programs in a way that nothing else could have shown me. I learned about selflessness. I learned how to love others. I learned how to see the deep seated sin in my life and seek to mortify it. I learned what a church "family" truly was. Up until that point I had always regarded "church family" as some silly thing people called themselves but never really applied. Ultimately, I learned to trust God at that church.

Well, sometimes, when I'm reflecting on my spiritual growth I need only to look back at the miraculous and completely out of the ordinary events that brought me under the teaching of a Calvinist preacher and that is enough to remind me that, on that day, God's gracious mercy was for little ol' me.

God bless

Imblessed · #18 16th February 2005, 11:23 AM

Great story reformationist!! You know it's strange how God works. For you, he sent you directly to a reformed church-and you heard emmediately the truth of Grace.

For me, God sent me to the church I'm at, and it was two years before I realized what was being taught. It took me that long to even come to the point where I was wanting to know. I actually came to the belief in Reformed theology before I realized that that's the view my pastor has. He was actually approached by a friend who reminded him that he was getting very lax on this, that he had stopped teaching Grace, and told him he needed get up there and teach it again!!! Talk about a kick in the rear! LOL---just in time too, because I was getting increasingly confused about the church, and whether I was going to have to go find another church, one who does teach reformed theology.

HarleyD · #19 16th February 2005, 04:52 PM

I was a Christian for over thirty years attending a variety of churches since I moved quite frequently. While I try to read through the Bible once a year, I’m particularly fond of the Old Testament as it reveals how God works with man. I never thought seriously on doctrine but there were many issues I couldn’t resolved between what the scriptures were stating and what I’ve heard from the many churches I attended. Especially the reconciling of what we often hear of God in the New Testament with what is actually revealed in the Old.

Several years ago as I was painting a bedroom ceiling, I heard a tape by John MacArthur on the sovereignty of God. Never have I heard about God’s sovereignty in the 30 years I’ve attended services, especially as it was portrayed by John MacArthur. I wondered how I could have been misinformed for all those years and thought that he must be wrong. That started an intensive study on my part to determine the truth.

I spent over a year researching church history, reading the Bible from cover to cover from a Reform perspective, and reviewing the creeds and the writings of the early church fathers. Was what Mr. MacArthur was saying correct? Indeed, the early western church fathers held a decisively Reformed view and the church has routinely slipped from a God-sovereign perspective to a man-center perspective. I could only conclude that I had been in error all these years and decided that I must embrace what the early western church fathers taught.

But it wasn’t just an intellectual leap. I read through the TULIP and found nothing that I had disagreements on from things I had read in the scripture. Many of the scriptural holes that I had been unable to understand are now complete. While I’m a young Calvinist and subject to errors, I feel like the questions that I have wondered about have finally been answered. I have just begun to read the works of John Calvin but for once I feel I truly understand the glory of God, the greatness of His sacrifice, and His divine grace and mercy to save a wretch like me.

Harley

Knight · #20 16th February 2005, 07:07 PM

Wow. Great testimonies....

I feel that I should expand a little on mine.

I've been a Christian for many years. I grew up on the Church of the Bretheren and placed faith in Christ around the age of 10 or 12. I honestly don't remember exactly when.

Anyway, I left that church when I started college. (3 hours is quite a long way to drive on Sunday morning

) I should also note that I had become a little jaded with church since the one I grew up in was not all that pleasant so I basically ignored this part of my life for a number of years. This resulted in stagnant spiritual growth.

When I moved out here to Indiana I was still pretty much the same. I had considered shopping around for churches but never really got going at it. (When you're single and don't know anybody who goes to a given church it's kind of hard to start up... At least that was my excuse at the time.) This went on until I was introduced to the lovely young lady who would eventually become my wife. She was an active member of a local church not far from me so I thought I'd give it a try. It was amazing. The church is a Bible believing and Bible teaching non-denominational church (formerly Baptist but they left the denomination many years ago. Much of the teaching is very similar). I was impressed. Everything I had been taught as a youth came flooding back to me. I had been reminded by God who I was. His child.

Anyway, our pastor did an expositionary sermon series on Romans. When I first saw the title of the sermon for Romans 9 I groaned. The concept of election, at that time, really bothered me. The Church of the Bretheren which I had been raised in is basically Arminian though they never really touched the subject. I was not looking forward to this but I thought I'd give it an honest listen. What followed changed the way I viewed God. He was no longer just someone I turned to for salvation. He was and is the author and perfector of my faith.

I actually don't recall much of the actual words to the sermon but it got me digging into the Scriptures and into this whole idea of Calvinism. Needless to say, I have never been the same in my walk with Christ.

All in all I would say that I was convinced rather than converted to Calvinism.