Beware: the Errors of the Armenians

The role of the Armenian Religion has undoubtedly remained vital up to present days despite the fact that Armenia has always been surrounded by states where Islam was the dominating faith.

Try to ask an Armenian to tell you something about his nation and he will proudly say that Armenia is the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion.

Thus, it is not accidental that 94 percent of Armenians consider themselves to be Armenian Christians and belong to the Armenian Orthodox Church, or as Armenians call it Armenian Apostolic Church.

 

Some excerpts from the article that I thought were of interest to me:

1) " Why would a Reformed Christian college host a conference celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Canons of Dort and invite speakers that regularly teach doctrine that contradicts what the Canons were written to uphold?"
Yes, why is that?

2) " This leftward drift in the theology of Dordt is nothing new under the sun, however. Like all institutions, Dordt College is affected by sin and will naturally seek to rebel against God and place human understanding above God’s perfect Word given to us in the Bible."
I agree.

Paul confessed that " For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. " ( Titus 1:10-11 )

There's always something or someone trying to chip away at sound doctrine.

3) "Recent critiques of Dordt College are made in good faith with the goal of returning Dordt to its reformed roots. These “reformed roots” are so vital because they proclaim the truth of God. God’s justice demands eternal punishment for all sinners. Yet in God’s mercy, He gifted us His grace through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. How could our only comfort, that we belong to this merciful God, be abandoned?"
I agree.

How could the focus on God's mercy and grace alone in salvation be abandoned in favor of man's will determining the ranks of the saved?

To me, that's easy.
People who believe it are simply replaced by those that do not.

 

4) "If anything is to be learned from history, it is that failed institutions rarely repair themselves."
Yet again, I agree.

In my estimation, I'd say that they never do... at least with regard to Christian ones.
To me, a good example is the Roman Catholic Church.

Despite some immense efforts both early on during the various councils like Carthage, Orange and others, and then during the "Protestant Reformation", all efforts at returning it all to its roots were ultimately met with failure... and the traditions and doctrines that were in error crept back in or simply remained in the background, having taken root and then began to grow over the years; while those whose concerns about them instead found it necessary to separate themselves and be used of God to start something "outside the gates".

Many of the conservative denominations both here in America and in the world outside it, also have followed this pattern.
Baptists are simply the latest, in my opinion.

In another thread I made the observation that, early on, the Baptists of England were essentially Particular...and in the ensuing years began to drift more and more towards "Generalism".
Later, the Particular Baptists experienced a split due to the teachings of Andrew Fuller.

5) " We must fight the beginnings of this transformation or history will repeat itself and Dordt will be lost for good. As the Synod of Dort rejected the errors of the Armenians *, the reformed community supporting Dordt College must reject the errors of liberal theology."
*[sic] "Arminians".
Having been involved in similar situations, I predict that:

Fight it he will, and he will also find himself in a losing battle... the "leadership", tasked with driving the coach, are the ones allowing it all in.
Poor kid...he doesn't even know what he's sitting right in the middle of, as I see it.

Fight or no fight, with that kind of thing in place, its only a matter of time.
In my experience, I personally found that "leadership" cannot be fought, as most of the people will invariably look to it, instead of to the Lord and to His words.

To me, it's a rare thing indeed to see a body of professing believers invite a false teacher to leave.