Why I am a Calvinist (Reason #8,930)
[Preface: I have a bad habit of quoting large portions of text. I hope you don’t mind. Consider it an invitation to enter my head for a few moments, learn what I am learning, and stand amazed at the same beauty of God’s work which I have perceived.]
Below is an excerpt taken from Abraham Kuyper’s Six Stone Lectures which he delivered at Princeton University in 1898. I find them to be spiritually encouraging and intellectually stimulating. They are a recommended read for anyone desiring to know why Christianity, biblical Christianity, as seen in a Calvinist worldview is the best, most coherent life-system for mankind. This passage deals with predestination, more broadly on God’s eternal decrees in general which give the Christian hope and meaning to our reality.
“Calvinism has gone through many fierce struggles on account of its clinging to the counsel of God's decree. Again and again it seemed to be near the brink of destruction. Calvinism has been reviled and slandered on account of it, and when it refused to exclude even our sinful action from God's plan, because without it the programme of the order of the world would again be rent to pieces, our opponents did not shrink from accusing us of making God the author of sin. They knew not what they did. Through evil report and good report Calvinism has firmly maintained its confession. It has not allowed itself to be deprived by scoff and scorn of the firm conviction that our entire life must be under the sway of unity, solidity and order, established by God himself. This accounts for its need of unity of insight, firmness of knowledge, order in its world-view, fostered among us, even in the wide circles of the common people, and this manifest need is the reason that a thirst for knowledge was quickened, which in those days was nowhere satisfied in a more abundant measure than in Calvinistic countries. This explains why it is that in the writings of those days you meet with such a determination, such an energy of thought, such a comprehensive view of life. I even venture to say, that in the memoirs of noble women of that century and in the correspondence of the unlettered, a unity of world-view and life-view is manifest, which impressed a scientific stamp on their whole existence. Intimately connected with this is also the fact that they never favored the so-called primacy of the will. They demanded, in their practical life, the bridle of a clear conscienceness, and in this consciousness the leadership could not be entrusted to humor or whim, to fancy or chance, but only to the majesty of the highest principle, wherein they found the explanation of their existence and to which their whole life was consecrated.”
I found myself tearing up upon reading this passage. You will really have to excuse me, I tend to cry over a lot lately and have always considered myself a bit of a cry-baby (though I think it is getting worse as I get older). Many in the Christian community tend to laugh off the doctrinal issues of Scripture. The common claim is that we’re all going to get to heaven and find out that no one is right, we have all been horribly mistaken and now we can just laugh it off and have a jolly ol’ time. I think this view is the one that is horribly mistaken. I am a firm believer in Truth, the Truth Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, very God of very God. I don’t think that the article of predestination is some little point of doctrine with which we can wield our little philosophical swords around in one big philosophical duel. It is a serious matter to which men and women of the faith (in both camps) have committed their bodies to the flames.
Of course I believe in predestination. Not because I think it is fancy or neat, but because Scripture teaches it. The early Church in Acts 4 prays a prayer with Peter and John upon their release from the Sanhedrin and they say:
"Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
For the early Church, it was not a point of doctrine. It was comfort in the direst of needs. They realized that all the good, all the bad, all the evil which they were encountering was part and parcel to a Divine Purpose.
It wasn’t my intention to get on a huge rambling about predestination, but I will say that Calvinism makes me joyful. Not only does it excite my intellect, broaden the boundaries of my understanding, but also it silences my heart, gives me an inner peace, a comfort which the world cannot give to me. Of course, this isn’t just Calvinism, it is Christianity proper.
Sometimes I tend to poke fun of the Dutch. Their strict, narrow, hard-nosed ethic at times makes me cringe. But men like Abraham Kuyper were the bomb. Men who were willing to stand up and fight, maybe not with swords, but with words, with the Word of Truth, the most powerful weapon known to man. I take comfort in the fact that I follow in the footsteps of the giants of the Faith. May God use me, may He use us in such a way as to build and encourage the Church.
Below is an excerpt taken from Abraham Kuyper’s Six Stone Lectures which he delivered at Princeton University in 1898. I find them to be spiritually encouraging and intellectually stimulating. They are a recommended read for anyone desiring to know why Christianity, biblical Christianity, as seen in a Calvinist worldview is the best, most coherent life-system for mankind. This passage deals with predestination, more broadly on God’s eternal decrees in general which give the Christian hope and meaning to our reality.
“Calvinism has gone through many fierce struggles on account of its clinging to the counsel of God's decree. Again and again it seemed to be near the brink of destruction. Calvinism has been reviled and slandered on account of it, and when it refused to exclude even our sinful action from God's plan, because without it the programme of the order of the world would again be rent to pieces, our opponents did not shrink from accusing us of making God the author of sin. They knew not what they did. Through evil report and good report Calvinism has firmly maintained its confession. It has not allowed itself to be deprived by scoff and scorn of the firm conviction that our entire life must be under the sway of unity, solidity and order, established by God himself. This accounts for its need of unity of insight, firmness of knowledge, order in its world-view, fostered among us, even in the wide circles of the common people, and this manifest need is the reason that a thirst for knowledge was quickened, which in those days was nowhere satisfied in a more abundant measure than in Calvinistic countries. This explains why it is that in the writings of those days you meet with such a determination, such an energy of thought, such a comprehensive view of life. I even venture to say, that in the memoirs of noble women of that century and in the correspondence of the unlettered, a unity of world-view and life-view is manifest, which impressed a scientific stamp on their whole existence. Intimately connected with this is also the fact that they never favored the so-called primacy of the will. They demanded, in their practical life, the bridle of a clear conscienceness, and in this consciousness the leadership could not be entrusted to humor or whim, to fancy or chance, but only to the majesty of the highest principle, wherein they found the explanation of their existence and to which their whole life was consecrated.”
I found myself tearing up upon reading this passage. You will really have to excuse me, I tend to cry over a lot lately and have always considered myself a bit of a cry-baby (though I think it is getting worse as I get older). Many in the Christian community tend to laugh off the doctrinal issues of Scripture. The common claim is that we’re all going to get to heaven and find out that no one is right, we have all been horribly mistaken and now we can just laugh it off and have a jolly ol’ time. I think this view is the one that is horribly mistaken. I am a firm believer in Truth, the Truth Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, very God of very God. I don’t think that the article of predestination is some little point of doctrine with which we can wield our little philosophical swords around in one big philosophical duel. It is a serious matter to which men and women of the faith (in both camps) have committed their bodies to the flames.
Of course I believe in predestination. Not because I think it is fancy or neat, but because Scripture teaches it. The early Church in Acts 4 prays a prayer with Peter and John upon their release from the Sanhedrin and they say:
"Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
For the early Church, it was not a point of doctrine. It was comfort in the direst of needs. They realized that all the good, all the bad, all the evil which they were encountering was part and parcel to a Divine Purpose.
It wasn’t my intention to get on a huge rambling about predestination, but I will say that Calvinism makes me joyful. Not only does it excite my intellect, broaden the boundaries of my understanding, but also it silences my heart, gives me an inner peace, a comfort which the world cannot give to me. Of course, this isn’t just Calvinism, it is Christianity proper.
Sometimes I tend to poke fun of the Dutch. Their strict, narrow, hard-nosed ethic at times makes me cringe. But men like Abraham Kuyper were the bomb. Men who were willing to stand up and fight, maybe not with swords, but with words, with the Word of Truth, the most powerful weapon known to man. I take comfort in the fact that I follow in the footsteps of the giants of the Faith. May God use me, may He use us in such a way as to build and encourage the Church.
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