- Aug 18, 2004
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The great 19th century Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon once said That God predestines, and yet that man is responsible, are two facts that few can see clearly. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. The fault is in our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other.
I believe that one of the more important reasons why some folks deny this point is they have an unbiblical view of man, his nature and his relationship to God. It is natural that we chafe at the idea that man is not autonomous (literally means self-law) in his relationship to God. No created thing is autonomous. Only the Creator is and can be autonomous. All other beings are completely dependent on God for their continued existence.
I believe that the denial of Gods sovereignty (in the Calvinistic understanding of the word) is nothing less than an invasion of humanism into Christian thought. The rise of semi-pelagianism (non-Augustinianism) in the medieval Church and the rise of Arminianism (non-Calvinism) in post-Reformation Protestant Churches have lead to the decline of Christian culture and Christian influence in our society.
The Augustinian/Calvinistic understanding of Gods sovereignty was central to the Reformation and the cultures that sprang from the Reformation. Calvinism (actually the broader aspects of it known as Covenant theology) was a primary, and vital ingredient in the American Revolution. Non-Calvinistic Christian thought would have never rebelled against the British Crown.
George Bancroft (Americas most important 19th century historian) said this about Calvinisms influence in the Revolution: "The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster."
The conservative American Roman Catholic scholar Russell Kirk said this In colonial America, everyone with the rudiments of schooling knew one book thoroughly: The Bible. And the Old Testament mattered as much as the New, for the American colonies were founded in a time of renewed Hebrew scholarship, and the Calvinistic character of Christian faith in early America emphasized the legacy of Israel.... he also wrote John Calvin's Hebrew scholarship, and his expounding of the doctrine of sin and human depravity, impressed the Old Testament aspect of Christianity more strongly upon America than upon European states or other lands where Christians were in the majority.
The Roman Catholic Austrian scholar Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn said this "If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin the great-grandfather. In saying this, one need not exclude the Virginians because Anglicanism has essentially Calvinistic foundations still recognizable in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Pilgrim Fathers, like the Puritans generally, represented a kind of re-reformed Anglicanism. Though the fashionable eighteenth century Deism may have pervaded some intellectual circles, the prevailing spirit of Americans before and after the War of Independence was essentially Calvinistic . . .
The greatest German historian of the 19th century Leopold von Ranke said, John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.
University of Chicago historian Carl Bridenbaugh said, It is indeed high time we repossess the important historical truth that religion was a fundamental cause of the American Revolution." That religion was Calvinistic and was found mostly among the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptist and even the Anglicans.
Ideas have consequences. American Evangelical Christians first abandoned their Calvinistic roots then they adopted a pessimistic eschatology (dispensational premillennialism). When these two things had happened the theological roots for American Christian culture was destroyed. America has lost her Christian theological foundations because American Christians first abandoned the theological foundations of America. That theological foundation is known as Covenant theology.
Coram Deo,
Kenith
I believe that one of the more important reasons why some folks deny this point is they have an unbiblical view of man, his nature and his relationship to God. It is natural that we chafe at the idea that man is not autonomous (literally means self-law) in his relationship to God. No created thing is autonomous. Only the Creator is and can be autonomous. All other beings are completely dependent on God for their continued existence.
I believe that the denial of Gods sovereignty (in the Calvinistic understanding of the word) is nothing less than an invasion of humanism into Christian thought. The rise of semi-pelagianism (non-Augustinianism) in the medieval Church and the rise of Arminianism (non-Calvinism) in post-Reformation Protestant Churches have lead to the decline of Christian culture and Christian influence in our society.
The Augustinian/Calvinistic understanding of Gods sovereignty was central to the Reformation and the cultures that sprang from the Reformation. Calvinism (actually the broader aspects of it known as Covenant theology) was a primary, and vital ingredient in the American Revolution. Non-Calvinistic Christian thought would have never rebelled against the British Crown.
George Bancroft (Americas most important 19th century historian) said this about Calvinisms influence in the Revolution: "The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster."
The conservative American Roman Catholic scholar Russell Kirk said this In colonial America, everyone with the rudiments of schooling knew one book thoroughly: The Bible. And the Old Testament mattered as much as the New, for the American colonies were founded in a time of renewed Hebrew scholarship, and the Calvinistic character of Christian faith in early America emphasized the legacy of Israel.... he also wrote John Calvin's Hebrew scholarship, and his expounding of the doctrine of sin and human depravity, impressed the Old Testament aspect of Christianity more strongly upon America than upon European states or other lands where Christians were in the majority.
The Roman Catholic Austrian scholar Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn said this "If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin the great-grandfather. In saying this, one need not exclude the Virginians because Anglicanism has essentially Calvinistic foundations still recognizable in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Pilgrim Fathers, like the Puritans generally, represented a kind of re-reformed Anglicanism. Though the fashionable eighteenth century Deism may have pervaded some intellectual circles, the prevailing spirit of Americans before and after the War of Independence was essentially Calvinistic . . .
The greatest German historian of the 19th century Leopold von Ranke said, John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.
University of Chicago historian Carl Bridenbaugh said, It is indeed high time we repossess the important historical truth that religion was a fundamental cause of the American Revolution." That religion was Calvinistic and was found mostly among the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptist and even the Anglicans.
Ideas have consequences. American Evangelical Christians first abandoned their Calvinistic roots then they adopted a pessimistic eschatology (dispensational premillennialism). When these two things had happened the theological roots for American Christian culture was destroyed. America has lost her Christian theological foundations because American Christians first abandoned the theological foundations of America. That theological foundation is known as Covenant theology.
Coram Deo,
Kenith
