That was the last straw! It was time to go talk to the professor.
A number of fellow students had come to us in the previous several months and had told us that a certain professor had warned them against hanging around me and and a few of my friends. Why would a professor tell students not to hang around us, you might ask. Simply put — we were outspoken Calvinists. Our theology apparently scared the professor; he felt sorry for us, but more so, he felt like we would hurt the spiritual development of students if we infected them with our theology.
So the prof had been systematically calling students into his office and warning them about us. But this time he had gone to far. This time he the young lady he warned to stay away from us was engaged to one of us! She was being warned to not hang a guy that she was about to marry. Unbelievable!
Yes, I remember those days fondly. We were Calvinist when Calvinism wasn’t cool.
Now Time is declaring that Calvinism is the new rage among young evangelicals. Great…. just great. The last thing we need is for Calvinism to get caught up in the Fad-driven Church era. I guess now we shall see tulip tattoos on hip pastors and 40 Days of Five Points Bible Studies. Then the fad will run its course and Calvinism will be left more damaged and misunderstood than ever before.
Calvinist, be warned. We must continue to teach diligently and not try to jump on any bandwagons of popularity. We must be faithful to the truth, come what may.
Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his generation of Christians and church leaders with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason graduated Central Private School (Central, LA) in 1990. He attended Liberty University for two years and graduated with a BGS from William Carey Univeristy (Hattiesburg, MS) in 1994. Jason earned his MDIV at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1998.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He planted Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
It’s a valid point. However, I’m not too stressed. There’s little “danger” that Calvinism will ever become popular in my neck of the woods. We’re still at the stage where others are being warned about us.
Jason,
The same here. I am known as the “staff Calvinist” at my church. No worries about cool Calvinism here. I agree though that it is still misrepresented and probably always will be. Oh well, it isn’t exactly a theology that “tickles the ears”.
Calvinism is never known as being cool even where I went to school where almost all the Bible professors were Calvinists because when you get down to it people don’t like to think about predestining people to heaven and hell. They like to say; “my God doesn’t do that, he gives us free will.” So, I think we are safe, but great post and so true. Let’s keep fighting for truth to be known humbly, diligently, and actively.
I was going to open up a store called R915 (let the reader understand).
I’m in the same boat as you guys. Calvinism is a “heresy” round these parts.
There is a danger with these Neo-Calvinists from what I’ve seen around the internet. They say some strange things sometimes. First thing new Calvinists want to do is convert everybody, but they don’t understand their own theology well enough to present it well.
While Calvinism is considered heresy around Dallas, there’s a ton of stigma attached to it. I was talking to couple of people about the Times article a while back and they were shocked that such a…”backwards” philosophy could be gaining ground, even in secular eyes.
I don’t think that Calvinism will become popular in the States the same way streamline Evangelicalism did, but it will certainly be misunderstood by many observers and commentators.
I really believe Jason has a very legitimate concern. Almost everyone I know came to the doctrines of grace through much personal struggle, study and long hours of wrestling with certain aspects of the doctrines. It was usually a long, slow process. However, in the end we not only had a understanding enough to be able to explain we had patience enough to allow people the time they needed grasp the depths of these doctrines. However, if it becomes a fad, driven by being the popular rebellion of the moment, or pushed by the popularity of guys like Mark Driscoll then it will become a series of talking points and arguments.