I think where my conversion actually started when I began praying for God to do a serious re-work in my life. Since then, I've been flipped on my head a number of times, but now that I look back, I think it laid the foundation for this, and I have a clearer picture of what salvation is. That's where all good doctrine begins; on your knees.
It really started with listening to Paul Washer; he made a statement once that if the Holy Spirit were to be lifted from the Earth, you'd see a tremendous evil that would make Hitler look like a choir boy. Made sense. I think I owe about 50% of my conversion to Calvinism to things I've heard him say which I just knew were true. I wasn't really open to the idea of Calvinism, mostly because I just didn't like it (good reasoning, eh?); I had seen some nasty comments made from both sides of the aisle, so my tendency was to avoid the debate altogether, but I realized that someone else's delivery shouldn't keep you from learning the truth; regardless, you are still responsible for it.
Well, I knew two concepts made sense to me: Total depravity and unconditional election. Total depravity, because I've seen the terrible wickedness of people inside and outside the Bible, and it's impossible to call humanity "basically good." What is more amazing is that a "good person," a truly "good person" is very much the exception. I guess it follows, could such a man ever accept a Gospel that offends him? Unconditional election? Well, I had to accept the idea that the Bible talks about the elect. I had accepted the pretense that election means God simply "foreknew," but then why does Jesus say, "You didn't choose me, but I chose you?" Then in John 6:65, Jesus commented, "This is why no one can come to the Father unless he has been enabled," because the message He preached was too difficult for the typical man. So a man cannot come to God unless he has been graced to do so. This was a jackpot find for me in deciding this issue. Well, there's the TU, now for the LIP
Perseverance of the saints was next to fall in line. This wasn't much of a battle, because if God has to enable a person to salvation, wouldn't it make sense that the good work He began will be carried to completion, and that if He wants you, He will have you? There is no work in the unregenerate, the unelected. Addign to this, Jesus lost none of those that the Father had given Him, except the one meant for destruction. So there's perseverance of the saints. Irresistible grace came next. I wasn't able to grasp the idea until I read John Piper state that it means that God has taken our neither-willing-nor-able and overridden with the power of the Holy Spirit (which I already believed that He does according to John 6). Well, that makes sense, because if this is not true, then how could God get the elect in the first place?
So far I've got 4 out of 5, I just haven't looked into the Limited Atonement yet. I'll most likely tackle that at some point, but thus far, there is my story.
__________________ "If Jesus had preached the way many pastors preach today, He wouldn't have ended up being crucified." - Leonard Ravenhill
"If you are unsaved, get saved; if you are saved, reach the unsaved." -Purpose-Driven Statement
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On today's discernment:
Jeremiah 6:29 (NIV) - "The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out."
I was raised in a PCUSA Church. Then I went to college and really began to think on my own. Then I read The Institutes and was pretty well sold on Calvin.
I also grew up in a PCA church. In high school, and into college, I wandered away from the faith, like so many others. Later, some friends I knew in college, and then my brother, led me back. And, I've been back ever since.
I remember, about a year ago, after starting in a new job, discussing biblical matters with my new colleaugue. He asked me "What do you think about Calvinism?"
I said "Huh? What's Calvinism?"
<Really long discussion>
Time after time, he presented me with that which defines Calvinism, and time and again, I agreed with it and quoted one biblical reference after the other. Even he himself warmed up to Calvinism. I thought to myself "So then, Calvinism means agreeing with that which is written in the Bible. Simple. Nothing wrong with that."
Well I had a very enjoyable time reading through this thread and here is my contribution.
Both of my parents are Christians and I was baptised as an infant in the Church of England. When we moved to South Wales we attended a Baptist church. When we moved to where I live now we attended a CofE church and then left to attend a free evangelical congregation.
I stopped attending church at 16 although I knew what the gospel was and in a fit of teenage rebellion became a Marxist and associated with the Communist Party in the UK. When I was studying at university I was doing a module of US Politics and Government and I looked into the Christian Right for research and did a project on the creation-evolution debate in the States. This prompted me to look again at religion.
I began to see that human nature is inherently bad and so my communist dreams vanished.
One night alone in my room I saw that the reason humans are inherently bad must be because of sin and so the gospel I knew made sense and I called upon the Lord.
One of the first things I read as a young Christian was Spurgeon's A Defence of Calvinismwhich made sense to me and tallied with Scripture. I did more research into it and saw that the Calvinist view was the one that Scripture taught and from that day forth I was happy to bear the name "Calvinist" knowing the doctrines I believed were Scriptural.
Hi Iosias
I visited that link you mentioned. Man... So awesome....
That whole article is *so* in sync with an awesome vision the Lord showed me as a child, and again a while back, that demonstrates with crystal clear clarity how the Lord finishes the work He starts in us. I need to go now, but I'd like to share it tomorrow.
I started my long journey towards Calvinism in the summer of 1970, when I was a Sophomore in junior college taking a Philosophy class. After studying Descartes, Hume and others, we spent some time studying Thomas Aquinas and his logical arguments for the existence of God. I found his arguments quite persuasive but they did turn my straight A into a B on my final because my Professor was an atheist.
Was from a Pentacostal/Charismatic background (approx 7yrs) became increasingly sceptical about many of the more so-called claims re healing and wealth and knew that God was leading me towards a more Biblically sound doctrine. Started listening to a lot of James White's teachings and I was immediately hooked. I'm not saying I'm a five pointer, but I certainly adhere to many aspects of Calvinism.
I remember, about a year ago, after starting in a new job, discussing biblical matters with my new colleaugue. He asked me "What do you think about Calvinism?"
I said "Huh? What's Calvinism?"
<Really long discussion>
Time after time, he presented me with that which defines Calvinism, and time and again, I agreed with it and quoted one biblical reference after the other. Even he himself warmed up to Calvinism. I thought to myself "So then, Calvinism means agreeing with that which is written in the Bible. Simple. Nothing wrong with that."
This sounds so familiar. When I was pretty young my grandmother started talking with me about Christianity. We discussed our way through Paul and the Gospels, mostly. As we got to Romans, it was interesting: my grandmother was a follower of Wesley, a Methodist. But as I started reading Romans I found that some of the words Paul was using didn't match up to Wesley. By the time I got to Romans 7 I was following Paul a different way, with people trapped in sin and released by God. Years later I connected with a church that was also tracking with Paul this way -- a Reformed church.
__________________ "... not an unconcerned sitting of God in heaven, from which He merely observes the things that are done in the world; but that all-active and all-concerned seatedness on His throne above, by which He governs the world which He Himself hath made." John Calvin
To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
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