Christian Humanism

Why I see humanists posting on the Baptist Board.

Christian Humanism

When the gospel is mixed with humanistic principles it then becomes “another gospel”. When human beings are elevated to a status of “little gods” or elevate humanity to a position of greatness, or even in serving humans in priority over service to God, man has created an idolatrous religion.

Christian humanism came forth from the Renaissance and Enlightenment era and was embraced by those educated in humanistic principles. Christian humanism is a religious philosophy, but it is not Biblical. Christian humanism embraces the self, the free will, freedom of the individual and exalts these principles over the sovereignty of God.

This false religion is embraced by some denominations and Christian groups today. It espouses a false free will doctrine in which man is able of his own reconnaissance to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and rejects the scriptures which say that the unbeliever’s mind is blinded to the gospel message. Not only is the mind of men blinded to the gospel but the heart being desperately wicked cannot choose what is good because no good thing dwells in the unregenerate heart.

Just as Satan wanted to be God and usurped authority over God’s sovereignty over him, so do the Christian humanists reject God’s control over them. The will to do and perform is God given and does not in any way originate from man, yet the Christian humanist insists he can choose his own way.

Scriptures declare that without Jesus we can do nothing. In other words, even our bad choices are because God allows them. Everything you do is because God allows it. Why? Let’s take a look at what the bible says, The Lord has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all. Ps. 103:19

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and HE DOETH ACCORDING TO HIS WILL in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Daniel 4:35

And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. Ex. 33:19

Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. Deut. 30:6

See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who puts to death and gives life. I have wounded, and it is I who heals; and there is no one who can deliver from My hand. Deut. 32:39 The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts. 1 Sam. 2:6-7

But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him. Job 23:13-14

But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. Ps. 115:3

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. 2:14 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

 

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...and lastly, (5) not looking up the term "Christian Humanism" so see how it was defined in the past.

(1) We regret that Christians have rarely offered a clear alternative to secular humanism, and we seek now to set forth the salient points of what for centuries has been called "Christian Humanism".
Christianity, the True Humanism. J.I. Packer, et al 1985.

(2) "A serious blunder is being made by well-meaning Christians in the pulpit and the classroom, before television cameras, and in widely read books. This is the common practice of assuming that all humanism is the same as secular humanism, that the historic tradition known as “Christian humanism” is an oxymoron, a contradiction as puzzling as “liberal Republican.”
D. Bruce Lockerbie, “Thinking like a Christian Part 3: A Call for Christian Humanism,” Bibliotheca Sacra 143 (1986): 196.

(3) In northern Europe in the 16th century, an amalgam of evangelical piety and classical scholarship produced a Christian or biblical humanism. As the sources of wisdom were to be found in the words of Greek and Roman philosophers, so the Christian humanist sought the purest truth in a return to the sources of the faith, the Scriptures. These scholars wanted to discard the layers of scholastic interpretation which had accumulated for 400 years, and return to the essence of Christianity. As Erasmus, the ‘prince of humanists’, expressed it, theology must be called back to ‘the sources and to ancient simplicity’. Two primary foci emerged in achieving this goal: 1. the need for a working knowledge of the biblical languages; and 2. the availability of accurate texts of both testaments.
In their exposition of Scripture, the Christian humanists drew upon the newly developed classical resources of pagan literature and Jewish Hebrew studies. Enchanted by the newly invented process of printing with movable type, many humanists became publishers, such as Robert Estienne (1503–59) and his son Henry (1531–98) and John Froben (c. 1460–1527), whose presses in Paris, Geneva and Basel printed thousands of biblical and secular texts. Others, like Erasmus, edited the works of the early church fathers.
In England, John Colet (c. 1466–1519) greatly promoted a grammatico-historical approach to biblical interpretation. In France, Jacques Lefèvre D’Etaples (c. 1455–1536) published a Latin commentary on the epistles of St Paul and a French translation of the NT. Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522), a German humanist, pioneered Christian Hebraic studies with his Rudiments of Hebrew (1506).
In recent times the term ‘humanism’ has been loosely applied to any system of thought or philosophy which centres on human achievement, sometimes to the exclusion of any divine reality. Historically, however, there was a definite link between humanism and the Reformation. Many leading Reformers, including Calvin, Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), Melanchthon and Zwingli, had humanist training and inclination.
Sinclair B. Ferguson and J.I. Packer, New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 322.​

Rob[/QUOTE]
There is no doubt that people were classically trained, which meant a strong emphasis on the humanities, aka humanism.
Packer is correct to say the spectrum of humanism is large, yet the crux of Christian Humanism has resulted in the glorification of man and his free will. Liberal Christian humanists have gone so far as to deny Jesus deity and miracles, thus making Christianity a moral standard for humans to aspire towards. Martin Luther King Jr was one of those Christian humanists.
My OP was not wrong in adding free-will proponents into the Christian humanist spectrum as you cannot be a Christian humanist if you don't promote free will.