I BELIEVE in God almighty
And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our Lord
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried
And the third day rose from the dead
Who ascended into heaven
And sitteth on the right hand of the Father
Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit
The holy church
The remission of sins
The resurrection of the flesh
The life everlasting.

a slightly more detailed statement…

I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost
of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again
according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son];
who with the Father and the Son together
is worshipped and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. AMEN.

I figured it was prudent that I post a statement of faith since I advocate using them in many of my posts. Many of you will recognize the statements above as I do not feel compelled to “reinvent the wheel”.

AMDG

poor John Calvin…

All these Christians now calling themselves after his name.

I propose that we leave John Calvin out of this mess. Calvinists should actually be called dorts.

So we should henceforth refer to calvinists as dorts and calvinism as dortism.

After all, it wasn’t John Calvin who created the “five points of calvinism” (otherwise known as TULIP). At the very least, calvinists should be called Beza’ians if they insist on having a label by a name other than Christ.

…and while I am on the subject what is so wrong with some of the points of “arminianism”?

Arminian Articles of Remonstrance
* God has decreed to save through Jesus Christ those of the fallen and sinful race who through the grace of the Holy Spirit believe in him, but leaves in sin the incorrigible and unbelieving. (In other words predestination is said to be conditioned by God’s foreknowledge of who would respond to the gospel)
* Christ died for all men (not just for the elect), but no one except the believer has remission of sin.
* Man can neither of himself nor of his free will do anything truly good until he is born again of God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. (Though accused of such, Arminius and his followers were not Pelagians.)
* All good deeds or movements in the regenerate must be ascribed to the grace of God but his grace is not irresistible.
* Those who are incorporated into Christ by a true faith have power given them through the assisting grace of the Holy Spirit to persevere in the faith. But it is possible for a believer to fall from grace.

Do I agree with all of the 5 points above? No. Do I agree with any of them? Yes.

I should present the other side as well.

The Canon of Dort (”The Five Points of Calvinism”)
* that fallen man was totally unable to save himself (Total Depravity)
* that God’s electing purpose was not conditioned by anything in man (Unconditional Election)
* that Christ’s atoning death was sufficient to save all men, but efficient only for the elect (Limited Atonement)
* that the gift of faith, sovereignly given by God’s Holy Spirit, cannot be resisted by the elect (Irresistible Grace)
* that those who are regenerated and justified will persevere in the faith (Perseverance of the saints)

Do I agree with all of the 5 points above? As stated, yes. However, I must note that everything in block quotes above is pasted from another site (a reformed site no less) and I do not agree with some of the teachings we have today concerning limited atonement.

I am sure all the elite calvinists…err…I mean, dorts out there will not like the label change, but, it is more proper.

AMDG

Reproduction of my comment (with one edit) posted here, since I was unable to find a way to trackback. At any rate, there is some good discussion happening on that post.

Amen to all you brethren who are preaching the gospel and only the gospel.

Making assumptions that the whole world will not be saved = the world cannot possibly mean the world, is just that, assumptions, without any Scriptural support no less.

As Sven mentioned, even John Calvin himself did not believe in limited atonement (or so some experts say, not that it matters…only the Scripture matters).

People that jump headlong into limited atonement are no different than the arminians who believe that God cannot possibly be 100% Sovereign because the Scripture tells us to choose. Therefore, we must all have the ability to choose Salvation…bzzzt…wrong answer. Some things exist beyond humans being able to fully understand them and some answers may not be to your liking.

…let us look at the Romans for a second…If God’s will is always done, then how can He find fault with us?…

Now we want to see an answer for this…and we basically get…

illegal question…who are you to question God? We are not able to fully understand the concept of predestination with 100% accountability. Part of this is because it is impossible for any human to ever understand not being bound by time. Everything and every thought we have is shrouded by time. Most of the Scripture is even written so we can understand it (in relation to time). The other part of that thinking is just our finite minds trying to fully fit God into our comprehension level.

Stop trying to make the Scripture conform to your logic. Instead, make your logic conform to the Scripture.

Limited atonement is not taught in the Scripture, period.

AMDG

In reference to posts here, here, and here.

Refreshing to see groups taking a stance on education as it relates to Christians. As a Christian I think the most important education children can get is about our Lord, Jesus Christ.

All throughout the Bible we see how we should work for treasures in heaven and not on earth. How our focus should always be on God…and yet, somehow that is thrown out the window when it comes to “education”. All of a sudden it is about being successful and making money, everything else becomes secondary, which is totally contrary to what the Scripture teaches.

When this idea crept in I am not sure. However, I would love to see the Church start taking a stance that Christian children should be pulled from godless, public schools and homeschooled and/or put in Christian schools.

I realize that it is difficult for some people to homeschool or afford Christian schools…but you have to ask yourself…can we really send our children to be indoctrinated by a godless organization and then call ourselves servants of God? I can’t see how. And just so I am clear…if the school/organization isn’t teaching children about Jesus (for Him) then they are against Him…there is no middle ground.

AMDG

Just a few things to post on the ESV.

I initially made a post about the ESV here.

In addition, I have two ongoing entries regarding the ESV.

The Ideal ESV Edition is for ESV readers to post their feedback on what they would like to see in an ESV edition. Crossway actually looks at feedback so I encourage you to comment and let them know what your ideal ESV edition would include.

In addition, ESV Support is continually updated with links (blog entries) I run across in regards to the ESV.

Some of these links posted on the ESV Support entry may answer the recent questions posed here and here.