Don Boys and his take on Calvinism

I come home from at night from a good hard day’s work surfing the internet and was going over a web site called Canada Free Press  and looking over the religious section and I discovered an article by the name of Don Boys. He talks about his displeasure about the Emergent Church movement and gives his two cents worth(http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/4912). I discovered he has his own website. He is truly a religious rightie and proud of it! He even thinks George Bush is a heretic and is too vulgar (for goodness sake Texans are earthy for cryin’ out loud! Deal with it!).   It is no secret that I have concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. was a socialist (a Canadian NDP type, sorry my Republican friends in the U.S.)— but Don Boys, a former member of state legislature in Indiana evaluates Dr.King as a godless heretical Marxist who makes Bill Clinton look like a family friendly Stephen Harper! At least Mr.Boys prefers a holiday for Booker Washington (a 19th century black rugged individualist and educator) instead of Dr.King anyday. My friend Shay of the namesake blog Booker Rising at least can agree to a holiday for Booker Washington!

What I really, really, really want to talk about on Mr.Boys’ website is a splendid article on Calvinism. Most of what is written I actually have no problem with. It is also no secret that I have had trouble with the doctrine of Calvinism and it’s doctrine of predestination. I have had no problem with their view on a sovereign God and eternal security—one saved, kept saved. Calvinism’s decree of predestination makes God a puppet master for the human race. As a consequence, mankind is not really able to choose for himself to follow and to be with God. In Calvinism God only chooses the elect, the rest are lost. The article touches a little bit on John Calvin’s theocracy in Geneva in the 16th century. Thank God I was not there. You thought Armstrongist theocracy was bad…you ain’t seen nothing yet what John Calvin did. Frankly, I think Calvin if alive would have had contempt for some of the freedoms that Americans, Canadians and other western democracies have. Also you will understand that without the 4th century theologian Augustine (he too was quite a character and I don’t mean that as complimentary either)—Calvinism wouldn’t have got that springboard it needed so badly. Also thanks to Augustine and Calvinist theology, they provide no righteous provision for the unevangelized dead. If you didn’t get a chance in this life to know Jesus, too bad—tell that to somebody who gives a fuzz! To me, I take that verse in scripture very seriously—that God wants NOBODY to perish—but for ALL to come to repentence! As I have repeated many times on this blog, I have believed and still do believe that God WILL NOT under any circumstances will accept anyone who have explicitly rejected Him and continue to do evil into His eternal fellowship. So if anyone still wants to accuse me of universalism—they lose again.

If Don Boys and I cross each other in the political world, I will say on this—I will be Mr.Boys personal John McCain—a pure maverick, a thorn in the side and proud of it! I guarantee it.

Read the article here at:http://www.cstnews.com/bm/issues-facing-christians-today-common-sense-for-today/baptist-history-cstnews/calvinism-not-tiptoeing-through-the-tulips.shtml

An alternative to Barth and Calvinism ???

For those who are keeping up to date with Gavin Rumney’s blog of late, he is discussing his displeasure with 20th century Swiss theologian Karl Barth and his theology (or Barthianity as Gavin calls it). What also equally torments Gavin is that the evangelical WCG has a strong admiration for Barth and Gavin has some uncompromising words for Barthian admirers saying that,”WCG’s Surprising God blog – a kind of mutual admiration forum for the terminally deluded.”

Gavin says earlier in his post “any mind poisoned with Calvinism is a terrible waste. ” Karl Barth was no exception. I, like Gavin also have trouble with many aspects with Calvinism with the exception of the sovereignity of God and their belief in once saved, kept saved. Other than that, I don’t care for Calvinism, especially their belief in predestinarianism either.

 Somebody had problems with Calvinism too back in the 19th century. This person was George MacDonald (yep, that guy in the picture above) a man who inspired C.S. Lewis decades later.  According to wikipedia, “legend has it that when the doctrine of predestination was first explained to him, he burst into tears (although assured that he was one of the elect). “

This 19th century Scottish fantasy writer and preacher also had an idea on the sacrifice of Christ,

MacDonald rejected the doctrine of penal Substitutionary atonement as put forward by John Calvin which argues that Christ has taken the place of sinners and is punished by God in their place, believing that in turn it raised serious questions about the character and nature of God. Instead, he taught that Christ had come to save people from their sins, and not from a Divine penalty for their sins. The problem was not the need to appease a wrathful God but the disease of cosmic evil itself. George MacDonald frequently described the Atonement in terms similar to the Christus Victor theory. MacDonald posed the rhetorical question, “Did he not foil and slay evil by letting all the waves and billows of its horrid sea break upon him, go over him, and die without rebound—spend their rage, fall defeated, and cease? Verily, he made atonement (Wikipedia, George MacDonald)!” I myself of recent times have shifted away from Anselm’s  (the Jack McCoy of his day 11 th century) view on penal substitution. I am hoping in the new year to write some book reviews on Christus Victor from Gustaf Aulen and Recovering the Scandal of the Cross and other posts on the Christus Victor view of atonement.

Also in Mark Tabladillo’s Jesus Loves Fellowship message board a few years back, Mark had listed George MacDonald as those who believed in the concept of Divine Perseverence where God makes a righteous provision for the unevangelized dead.  In my books, George MacDonald was trying to make God a “real nice guy” as opposed to what Calvinism presents him as a “cold, unemotional, stoic (and proud of it) God who simply predestines people either to heaven or hell, all to his glory.” Evangelicals have fared no better adopting some of these aspects of Calvinism into their theology.  Some emergents have raised issue, I hope other Christian believers will start raising issues too!

To read wikipedia’s biography on George MacDonald and his work, link here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald . Tell me what you think about C.S. Lewis’ mentor.