Have you always been a Calvinist or did you convert?

[LeahIA]

mind if I ask what GARBC is? (i'm sure it's a type of baptist church, just wondering which....)

ooops, sorry. General Association of Regular Baptist. Fundamentalist, somewhat legalistic.

 

[j-boot]

If you converted, would you mind sharing your story?

I'm interested in how everyone came to Calvinism, since I myself am a recent convert.

Hi Bono,

I've been a Christian for 25 years, but I've only been Reformed for about 2 years. I came from an Arminian background, and the churches I have attended place heavy emphasis on "free-will" and give God's sovereignty the merest lip service. My first church did not believe in perseverance of the saints or even eternal security, and encouraged us to "return to the fold" with public repentance each Sunday! That was heavy stuff for a teenager.

Like many of the folks on this thread, I was having a terrible time making sense of scripture, and many verses troubled me. In my confusion, I actually hated the Old Testament and the way that it portrayed God. (If Marcion had shown up in my town, I would have followed him. ) I repeatedly gave up, but the Lord was persistant in drawing me back. The break came when I finally read Romans-really read it, not just skimmed it so that I could check it off on my reading plan. Chapters 8 and 9 hit me like a baseball bat to the head. I grappled with election for a week or two, and then suddenly it all fell into place.

The scriptures made sense at long last!

I didn't even know what the things I had discovered were called until I started researching it on the web and learned of Calvinism and Reformed theology. In this, I owe a debt to many of my brothers on this forum, especially drstevej, ccwoody and rnmomof7 for nurturing my growth in the doctrines of grace. Thanks guys/mom!

My current church is not a Reformed church, but as a newly minted teaching elder I am beginning to steer my students in the proper direction.

 

[Imblessed]

Hi Bono,

I've been a Christian for 25 years, but I've only been Reformed for about 2 years. I came from an Arminian background, and the churches I have attended place heavy emphasis on "free-will" and give God's sovereignty the merest lip service. My first church did not believe in perseverance of the saints or even eternal security, and encouraged us to "return to the fold" with public repentance each Sunday! That was heavy stuff for a teenager.

Like many of the folks on this thread, I was having a terrible time making sense of scripture, and many verses troubled me. In my confusion, I actually hated the Old Testament and the way that it portrayed God. (If Marcion had shown up in my town, I would have followed him. ) I repeatedly gave up, but the Lord was persistant in drawing me back. The break came when I finally read Romans-really read it, not just skimmed it so that I could check it off on my reading plan. Chapters 8 and 9 hit me like a baseball bat to the head. I grappled with election for a week or two, and then suddenly it all fell into place.

The scriptures made sense at long last!

I didn't even know what the things I had discovered were called until I started researching it on the web and learned of Calvinism and Reformed theology. In this, I owe a debt to many of my brothers on this forum, especially drstevej, ccwoody and rnmomof7 for nurturing my growth in the doctrines of grace. Thanks guys/mom!

My current church is not a Reformed church, but as a newly minted teaching elder I am beginning to steer my students in the proper direction.

That's a great story J-boot! The people on this forum ARE great aren't they? !!!

 

[cajunhillbilly]

Hi jboot What church do you attend ?

 

[j-boot]

That's a great story J-boot! The people on this forum ARE great aren't they? !!!

Many of the brothers and sisters whom I trust most I know exclusively through the Net. Some of them I have talked with for years on a bunch of different forums. These forums are great, though.

 

[j-boot]

Hi jboot What church do you attend ?

I attend a very young non-denominational bible church right now. The pastor is former SBC, but he attended Free Will Baptist Bible College (of all things!!). You can guess that the doctrine is rather Calminian, with heavy empasis on the MINIAN! I love them anyway, of course. The Spirit has planted me where He needs me, and I'm determined to grow!

 

[Imblessed]

I attend a very young non-denominational bible church right now. The pastor is former SBC, but he attended Free Will Baptist Bible College (of all things!!). You can guess that the doctrine is rather Calminian, with heavy empasis on the MINIAN! I love them anyway, of course. The Spirit has planted me where He needs me, and I'm determined to grow!

how strange, me too! Our church is just now 7 years old(I guess that's not VERY young, but still young). It's an 'offshoot' of a baptist church in town, that realized that there needed to be a different 'kind' of church for people to go too, but that particular church was not wanting to change gears, so they got some people together and did a church plant...and 7 years later, we have upwards of 2000 people a week coming!

Calminian! LOL...I was just trying to figure out what our church taught, and that would describe them VERY well. They aren't heavy on Arminianism, but they definately don't teach Calvinism..it's plain that they teach that the "change" one has when one becomes a christian happens 'after' one accepts Jesus as Lord...there's been a few times that I thought they were going in the calvinist direction, but the pastors seem to stop short of it...oh well. Like you, I still love them, and it's plain that the Spirit has led my husband and I here, and I just couldn'te imagine being anywhere else right now!

 

[oworm]

Calminian,!

Interesting! Has Calmin wrote anything yet?

 

[j-boot]

Interesting! Has Calmin wrote anything yet?

Yup, he writes under the pseudonym "Norman Geisler"...

 

[j-boot]

Calminian! LOL...I was just trying to figure out what our church taught, and that would describe them VERY well. They aren't heavy on Arminianism, but they definately don't teach Calvinism..it's plain that they teach that the "change" one has when one becomes a christian happens 'after' one accepts Jesus as Lord...there's been a few times that I thought they were going in the calvinist direction, but the pastors seem to stop short of it...oh well. Like you, I still love them, and it's plain that the Spirit has led my husband and I here, and I just couldn'te imagine being anywhere else right now!

My pastor describes himself as a Calvinist, but he rejects limited atonement; more tellingly, he believes in the Wesleyan theory of election, i.e. God foresaw our choices and elected us based on that foresight. He admits in private that no scripture explicitly teaches this doctrine but he still can't accept God's primacy in election. One positive result of this discussion is that he has stopped preaching Wesleyan election from the pulpit. He almost sounded Reformed a few weeks ago when he expounded on John 6.

He's a good guy and he searches the scripture. He already admits that the scripture backs up the Reformed position. I'll wear him down eventually.

 

[BBAS 64]

Yup, he writes under the pseudonym "Norman Geisler"...

ROTFLMHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

or may be Dave hunt!