Killing Calvinism: How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Theology from the Inside by Greg Dutcher

Author:Greg Dutcher [Dutcher, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cruciform Press
Published: 2012-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Six

BY TIDYING UP THE BIBLE’S “LOOSE ENDS”

“Okay, guys let me draw a circle here on the whiteboard to illustrate this. Now pay close attention because I’m going to try and make a perfect circle without a compass.”

I step up to the board and draw a huge circle and (because I’ve been doing this for a number of years) it is actually pretty close to perfect. I start at about 1 o’clock on the clock face, swoop my arm around in a big smooth arc, and then start to slow down as the line comes back around to the top. As I turn my back to the whiteboard and take a couple of steps toward the class full of teenage students, I can see the confusion and frustration on some of their faces. And I know exactly why.

I didn’t quite close the otherwise perfect circle. There is still a small but obvious gap at the top.

Without saying anything, I then return to the whiteboard and write a series of words that include lots of “t’s” and lower case “i’s”—but I don’t cross any of the “t’s” or dot any of the “i’s.” At that point, you can almost see the smoke coming out of the ears of some of the students.

This has been my practice in teaching the occasional Bible course in my kids’ Christian school. I like to find out which students want closure and how frustrated they become when they don’t get it. Unclosed circles and half-finished letters have a way of driving certain people crazy. On one occasion, a fifteen-year-old girl raised her hand and asked, “Mr. Dutcher. I know that you are just trying to be funny and make a point. But could you please close that circle or I think I’m going to come out of my skin?” I put her out of her misery and closed the circle.

Sometimes Calvinists do this, too.

Closing the Circle

Like any theology, Calvinism is a system of doctrine. All systems have structure, unity and, of course, closure. I have made several references to T.U.L.I.P. in this book, and that acrostic is really a kind of system itself. It pulls together many strands and sections of biblical teaching and presents them in an orderly and logical fashion.40 If someone asks the Calvinist, “What is your understanding of how God saves sinners?” then he can respond with a clear, linear answer. Having such systems is helpful. We need good and clear categories of thinking, especially when thinking about God. People who have questions need solid answers with substance and will usually be put off if we freewheel through the Bible, making reference to seemingly random stories and passages.

Another way to say it is that systems are just convenient ways to talk in a sort of “Bible shorthand.” We acknowledge that a theological system (Calvinism, or any “ism” for that matter) is really just a summary of the Bible’s teaching. Yet a summary of Bible teaching is not to be confused with the Bible

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.