Part One of A Call to Christian Patriotism

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2247692/#lb  

With the election in the fall, Dinesh D'Sousa released a movie, a documentary, on what America will be like in 2016 if Obama is elected.  I do not know whether it is a faith-based movie, but it will cause some with faith to consider a responsibility in this election. Christians are on both sides of the election for sure, but we need to consider carefully our country and our world.



For ten weeks I will blog about A Call to Christian Patriotism by Howard A. Eyrich. It is a 52 week study, but I will go through it in the ten weeks before the election. You can get it here where author Dr. Howard A. Eyrich writes:

I am really excited about of my readers impacting the outcome of the 2012 elections. This book is about inciting a passion for the American way that our Founding Fathers conceived. My earlier books have been about changing the lives of those struggling with personal and family problems. This book is about Christian Americans struggling with the tarnishing of the American vision that our Founding Fathers rooted in the Gospel.  It is about practical Christianity doing something to revive and restore God’s good gift of freedom.

There are 52 weeks of studies but I will cover this book each Monday  until the election. You can cover it also.
 

The reading of this book really suggests an action plan beyond the book. Eyrich suggests in the Preface:

You will best utilize this book first of all by setting aside 20 minutes or so on Monday Morning. . . . . Engaging the essay will challenge you to be a Christian Patriot each Monday morning. . . . You determine the project within your comfort zone, your time frame and your sphere of influence. . . . In the process of working through this book I hope you will begin to develop a philosophy of Christian Patriotism and an action outlet for your passion.

So I am hoping to write about this book for ten Mondays until the election, a faster pace than the 52 weeks, but not impossible. These ten Monday posts will essentially be my notes and reflections for Eyrich's book.

Genesis 1-3 and Romans 13 recounts how sin came into the world and how the governing authorities are appointed by God to handle this sin and lawlessness.

In Acts 2:37-47 the first Christians devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, communion and prayers. In Revelation 2:1-7 the Ephesians we read have abandoned their first love. Has our country abandoned our first love?

Eyrich writes "God providentially gave America a foundation that is largely consistent with righteousness. No, God did not directly make a covenant with American, but our Founding Fathers gave us a framework that recognized God's providence and set forth a pattern of freedom, justice, and mercy that honored God (p. 8)."

He then asks why we should be a Christian patriot? His answer: "We cannot afford to be patriots who simply want to retain a way of life. Neither can we afford to be Christians who naively enjoy liberty. We must be Christians who are completely involved in the propagation of the Gospel, while at the same time taking the responsibility to be Americans, so as to preserve our freedom for the sake of the Gospel: thus we are Christian patriots (p. 11)." He goes on to say that the only hope for our country comes through expansion of the Kingdom of God. "It is only as the church is strengthened, expanded, and permeating American can we hope to experience the integrity of the intent of our Founding Fathers. . . . Preserving our nation is a consequence of the impact of the Gospel, just as turning of the world upside down was a consequence of preaching the Gospel (p. 13)."

How is this accomplished?

1. Prayer. Colossians 4:2,3
2. Preaching. Acts 2 and 3
3. Deeds of justice and mercy. Acts 4:32-37
4. Evangelism. Acts 8:2, 4

It is not too late to buy the book

 and to use these the suggested action plans. Meanwhile

invite people to this movie

 and pray for our elections in November.

Next Monday I will again blog more about this book.

The Brouhaha Over Calvinism

 

Fresh off the press from CruciformPress.com . . .

Killing Calvinism. The subtitle is "How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Theology from the Inside." I needed someone to write such a book and thankfully Greg Dutcher has. Now Pastor Dutcher is not trying to kill Calvinism, but is looking at what Calvinists are doing that is clearly bad press for the church.

Drucker says that Calvinists are shooting themselves in the foot by first of all loving Calvinism as an end in itself. Dutcher points out:

All around the world blogs, study groups, conferences, podcasts, and unusual little publishing houses are churning out material on election, justification, covenantalism, ammillennialism, postmillennialism [the earlier subject of this blog--see Origin above for history], Christo-centric hermeneutics, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and, yes, even the differences between infra-, supra- and sub-lapsarianism. Frankly, it is indeed cool to be a Calvinist right now, and more resources are available to the "Young, Restless, and Reformed" crowd than ever before. (p. 16)

Click on three red sites in this paragraph that illustrate the above point. The first is this Countering Calvinism which sets out to destroy Calvinism.  Another Calvinistic site posts "this week in Calvinism". Meanwhile this summer the Southern Baptists have a series contrasting Traditionalists and Calvinists with David Allen urging on July 4th deliver us from attempting to Calvinize or de-Calvinize the SBC.

In chapter two Dutcher contends that Calvinists are becoming theologians instead of disciples. He points out how knowledge puffs up (I Cor. 8:1), but that he himself also used to enjoy setting an Arminian straight while he was woefully neglecting things like mercy, kindness, and servanthood (p. 29).

Chapter three is on loving God's sovereignty more than God Himself. In this chapter he references cage-stage Calvinists who should be kept in a cage so they do no harm. He points out that joy, pride and anger might be reasons for the cage-stage. No one is really born, born again or elected as a Calvinist and I certainly find this is correct in my pilgrimage; my conversion was as a child so naive about theology but so happy to be in God's kingdom. I have always gone to Philippians 2 for work out my salvation and it is God who is working in me--two sides of the coin. Yes, God's sovereignty is reassuring, but being WITH our LORD is really more important than being a theologian IMHO. Our LORD wants to be with us. I have blogged about this discovery here, With Part One and With Part Two. This is so important and I am delighting in my devotional and prayer life more than other typical Reformed issues now. My faith is not all about theology. Quote me Scripture that says something different and I will love that you are quoting Scripture and we both can agree that we are growing through Scripture.

Losing an urgency in evangelism is the focus of chapter four. I noticed this immediately when because of my marriage I was thrown into a Reformed congregation where evangelism didn't seem to be the norm.  I found it very hard to criticize Billy Graham dismissing him as Arminian as some Calvinists do. Let the elect find their own way to Christ? Dutcher rather says that like Paul we need to believe 100% in evangelism and 100% in election.To me Graham was in the same camp as the Reformed D. James Kennedy and his Evangelism Explosion. I am not a charismatic, but just like a charismatic I pray Lord, whom do you want me to speak with today, and now as a Reformed believer thank You that You can use me however You will.

Learning only from other Calvinists? In chapter five Dutcher points out how he learned by radio from someone who was not a Calvinist. I heard Chris Fabry on Moody radio interview Skle Jethani and that made me want to read Jethani's book that I have reviewed here. Now Jethani is an editor with Christianity Today, not the reading source of many of my Reformed friends. Actually I want to learn from Scripture itself, and not through the lense of the Westminster Confession or Christianity Today only. I want to keep learning period--Scripture and maybe some creeds, confessions, biblical books and blogs.

The next chapter on Tidying up the Bible's "loose ends" contends that "Calvinists get the order backwards, letting their theology determine what the Bible says or does not say (p. 71)." I noticed on the SBC site that the Scripture quoted is different from what Calvinists use. Of course! Each has their own point to make.

Being an arrogant know-it-all is the subject of the seventh chapter. Notice the emphasis in Reformed circles on T. U. L. I. P. People in my extended family (both pro and con on Calvinism) pointed this out to me and suddenly my joining the church of my husband was suspect to my extended family. Would I become one of them--you know--a know-it-all. At first I had to study just to keep up and really this blog was part of that search. Now I just want godliness,  wisdom from Scripture, not merely knowledge. On the back cover to Killing Calvinism Sam Storms writes that a "healthy dose of Dutcher's wisdom will go a long way in bringing spiritual health to the young, restless, and reformed." Might I add to any one of my senior citizen age as well.

The final chapter of this short book takes on Calvinists for scoffing at the hang-ups others have with Calvinism. Dutcher pastors a church where Calvinism is not an issue because, although he believes in this theological system, he doesn't push it down the throats of those he preaches to. He says my congregation is learning the content of Calvinism without some of the offical labels. . . . All we are trying to do is unpack Scripture. (p. 101) Love it!

Baptist Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile of The Gospel Coalition on the back of the book sums up the value of this book:

"This book blew me away! Greg Dutcher skillfully diagnoses how I kill the very truth I love by my hyposcrisy, pride, anger, and judgmental attitude. This book will serve a young generation of Calvinists. But the older generation had better heed it, too. There's medicine here for all our hearts, and taking this medicine will make us more joyful and more humble when making our glorious God known."

Contest:  The first person to carefully comment on five different posts on Millennial Dreams will win a free copy of Killing Calvinism. If you are first to do that, contact me at the e-mail in Origin of the Blog at the top. Note that one of the five comments can be on my other blog. The comments will all come in order on my e-mail.  Looking forward to mailing you Killing Calvinism. Hopefully you will appreciate this book as much as I have and then you will not have to order a minimum of five paperbacks which is the usual Cruciform Press policy. Of course the book might make some mad. No spam, though, as I can take that off of this blog and spam won't count.

Cordially,
Carol