Featured The Philosophy of Calvinism

...attaway Yesh! Good comeback! In the beginning Elohim....

 

So Recapitulation Theory, for an example, can be a theology since it wasn't constructed to answer a question. But Calvinism is forever doomed to be mere philosophy because it was.

Seems like an arbitrary dividing line.

 

Into semantics we go, I guess..

Most texts will say that "Theology Proper" is the direct study of God, and leave room for harmatology and angelology and a myriad of other -ologies in the tent that is Theology.

 

I don't know. I view Philosophy different than many. I use one of my professors definition of philosophy. He said, anything that can not be answered absolutely by Science is Philosophy.

 

Personally, I would get rid of them...
But that's just me.

Myself,
I can't think of any reason a believer should use such things, as we have the Holy Spirit as Teacher ( John 6:45, 1 John 2:20-27 ) and the Lord has given us all that we need that pertains to life and godliness in the Person of His Spirit and the presence of His word.

Could we maybe re-label them as,
"Stuff that's useful to know when comparing notes with others who read the Bible for themselves, but I trust the Lord to get me there on my own, just like He did for some of them"?

 

We have Scripture, and our understanding of Scripture. There will always be questions, answers, objections, what have you. If that's the dividing line between theology and philosophy, then theology might as well not exist as a concept.

 

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; Ephesians 4:11

What if some of the teachers mentioned here wrote stuff down?

 

An Interesting analysis.

Thx, you have challenged me to read further; just as Scripture admonishes us to at all times:

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."
Acts 17:11 (NIV)

 

I have some genuine concerns with that statement.

Pls consider the Christian Gospel as outlined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:

"Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.

No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed."
1 Corinthians 15:3-11 (NIV)

I can see no reference to the Trinity in the Gospel; our faith in which saves us.

Also, Christ does not work in opposition to or without the approval of, both our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. In fact Christ stated that he had come to do the Father's will:

"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me."
John 6:38 (NIV)

The Resurrected and Ascended Son now "seated at the right-hand of the Majesty on High" (He whom was originally sent by the Father to undergo a "Baptism of Fire" in his earthly ministry) now sends the Holy Spirit:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:8 (NLT)

If memory serves me correctly, theologically the Father is referred to as the "Administrative Head" and the "First Among Equals" (primus inter pares) in the Christian Trinity. Pls do not confuse that usage with the Communist borrowing of the term for their own ideological agenda!!!

I may have confused your post slightly as to being in relation to the Gospel rather than Calvinism per se.

 

Nobody is trying to say that Scripture and our understanding are equivalents.

But you are reducing theology down to reading Scripture, making the addition of any human thought/reason/exegesis flip the activity to philosophy.

Which you can argue. But it strikes me as odd that you begin the argument solely discussing Calvinism, while your novel way of defining things will affect every subset of theology.

 

His post was in relation to THEOLOGY in general, not the gospel, nor Calvinism in particular:

 

What I'm saying Rob, is that even if they wrote stuff down ( which is helpful ), don't you think that since the Lord has given you His Spirit, then He can show you the same things that He has shown to them strictly through your own studies?

As an analogy:

Why go to the well to have a cup handed to you with water that someone else has filled for you...
When you can go straight to the well with your own cup and fill it yourself?

 

It can be.

I disagree.

For example, what is commonly called "Calvinism", at least with regard to the TULIP, I've never found it necessary to go outside of Scripture itself for my understanding on any topic.
In a deeper sense, I've never had to go outside of the words on the page to understand concepts like "Divine Reprobation", "calling", election and predestination, and many other things that so-called "Calvinists" hold to.
With me it all started out small and built upon itself through my studies in His word over the past two decades.

I agree.

Those do, in my estimation, constitute most of the influences that pry at us as believers to take God's word as anything other than what is written.
That is why the Lord specifically states that we should abandon our own understanding and trust Him and His words alone ( Proverbs 3:5-7 ).

In other words, we should chuck all that out the window and trust the Lord to show us, in His time, the things in His word that we currently do not understand.