Calvinism and Arminiansim: Two Gold Calves

Calvinism and Arminianism: Two Golden Calves I Kings 12:28-29 (NAS) "

So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O' Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt." And he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan."

Deuteronomy 6:12-14 (NAS) "...then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,.."

Matthew 4:10 " The Jesus saith to him," Away with you, satan! For it is written, YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HIM ONLY WITH YOU SERVE."

I woke up from a long night of sleep with two passages on my mind. I Kings 12:14 and 14:12. This stirred me to read Chapters 12 through 14. So much is there about people choosing their ways over God's commands. They considered what they thought was best and moved forward with their plans. One can extrapolate many things from all of the events, but what stood out to me was the disobedience to God's directives and the creation of a better way in the eyes of those that wanted to build their way of reaching God.

John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius, men of God, from the 16th century sought to help the church and rebuke heresy from the philosophers and as well within the church of their time period. Each felt that their interpretation of Scriptures would bring forth a truer understanding of God's work of salvation. Little did they know that these two forms of Soteriology would become golden calves for the church to argue over for the next 500 years.

This writing is not to define nor to refute either teaching, but rather to give warning of the dangers of placing man's interpretation of the Scriptures in to a system of doctrinal laws of faith.

The passage below reminds me of the dangers of self-directed, systematic created interpretations to "be right". Matthew 23:22-24 (Message Bible) "You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God's Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that's wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

Does it mean that there is not gold in the searches of these men of God, Calvin and Arminius, to know more fully the grace and mercy toward mankind? Absolutely not! God allowed the Hebrews to retain gold on their way out of bondage. Yet, they took that which was to be used for other purposes and erected idols of their own creation to worship God in the way they deemed best. Can it be that in their searching, the Israelites, rather than simply bringing the gold along with them and seeing to its purpose, perhaps of making vessels of service toward His grace and mercies toward them, they instead made idols they could see and touch?

Has the Church for the last 500 years done the same thing in many ways? It has taken the grappling and wrangling over two men's teachings and thus created two golden calves that have taken the eyes of millions off of the worshipping of the Father to the worshipping of two sets of doctrines of how God chooses or does not choose to have relationship with His own creation?

The names Dan and Bethel seem to point toward something. Dan means Judgment and Bethel means House of God or Gate of Heaven. Have Calvinism and Arminianism become a point of contention that each proponent of these teachings are trying to say we are the best Judgment or the Gate of Heaven? Both groups when broken down into groups of Christians give forth an air of superiority to the other. Jeroboam sought to set up two places for Israel to worship so they would not go to Jerusalem.

I am thinking that the enemy has set up the Two Golden Calves (Calvinism and Arminianism) and people bow down to them rather than bowing before the Father and worshipping Him. The end result that Jeroboam wanted was to redirect the people away from facing God.

Now, we have had 500 years of debate over this issue. The Southern Baptists has been redirected for the past years over this issue. It is not in my heart to debate, prove my point or have someone prove their points of these issues. I find that it will redirect our attention from God by creating a false sense of security that we are going to find the right system of teachings which will make us better Christians or at least give a sense that we have the right doctrines to offer those who come to church.

Yes, it is good to look at how we express our Soteriology, for it tells the story of God’s love for mankind. For me, looking at both systems of teaching and drawing from them truths that are plainly in the Bible is spiritually healthy. And being able to articulate our understanding of God’s Grace and Mercy toward the lost is a must.

But to choose one over the other simply means someone has convinced us that their research is better than the other. As a result you are going to have to declare that the Holy Spirit led you to that belief, and that decision declares that all others are not being led by the Holy Spirit in their research and conclusions. This is our own Holy Wars/Crusades in the Southern Baptist Convention and no one is going to come out of it any closer to God by taking a side in this Theological quagmire. As a matter of fact, it will divide many who are simply on the outskirts of these camps. And for those of us who hold strong convictions it will cause us to always wonder about the speech of others as they share their faith, considering that someone may not tell the “Gospel Truth”.

We need to remind ourselves of this passage. Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”