November 16, 2009
-
My message to Revelife (re: the Calvinism blow-up)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This afternoon I wrote the following message to Revelife, with the subject line "please remove my last two Revelife posts":
I can see these [posts] have caused dissension which was not my intent. My purpose was to expand upon misunderstandings of Calvinism, but have caused division in the Body of Christ.
Please remove these two posts:
http://www.revelife.com/716508400/why-im-a-happy-calvinist-a-response-to-why-we-fear-calvinisim/
http://www.revelife.com/716618701/misconceptions-about-calvinism/
Please contact me to confirm this. This is not a bogus request. I want to do all to uphold the unity we have in Christ.
For His glory,
KarenI wrote the first post in response to another post that I didn't feel characterized Calvinism well, and then the second as a bit of a follow-up. My intent was not to cause division but only to explain the doctrine a bit more...By submitting the posts to Revelife, I can see I have caused division in the Body of Christ and for that I apologize and ask your forgiveness.
I seek to have fellowship with all who've been washed in the blood of Jesus and regenerated by His Spirit. I desire to follow God's commandments to us in His word to maintain the unity we already have in Christ. Our particular beliefs (Calvinist or Arminian) cannot keep us from fellowshipping with one another.
May we all continue to go back to Paul's words in Ephesians 4 so we might always remember Whose we are and the unity we have in Him:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Paul's words in Romans 15 are also my prayer for the Body of Christ and myself:
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.My dear brothers and sisters, we have much work to do here. The Church is in a sad and sorry state now. We are in the midst of a spiritual war to uphold Christ and His Gospel and the glory of God. By His grace may we put aside our differences and seek Him first and His Kingdom and continue to pray with one heart and one mind that He might rend the heavens and pour His Spirit out on us and revive us again. We will have our differences, yes, and we can certainly explain our viewpoints and discuss them with one another, but let us be on guard that we never become contentious with one another over nonessential doctrine. We ought only to be contending for the Gospel. Let's always be careful we do not fall in the devil's trap of fighting against each other rather than fighting against him.
Along those lines, I welcome as many who are being called by Him to participate in His great mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth to come alongside those of us who have a passion to see the Church revived and renewed so she might be a praise in the earth to the glory of God.
Bound to You by the precious blood of Christ, may we continue to seek Him and His glory,
Karen(If you are grieved over the lack of unity we have in Christ, please see the prayers I've posted here and here, as well as my posts here and here. We can sing about and write about and talk about unity, but we've got to humble ourselves, to fall down on our faces together before God and confess our sins and ask Him to have mercy on us...)
EDIT: 11.27.09 - As a follow-up to this post, please see my post "I can't keep walking on eggshells here (more on Revelife, Calvinism, the Body of Christ and self."
Related posts:
RSS feed
Comments (10)
That is to bad. My prayers are with you.
Karen, here's our song...
We We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.
Chorus:
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land.
Chorus:
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.
We will work with each other, we will work side by side.
We will work with each other, we will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride.
Chorus:
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.
I'm with you on this. We have this treasure in earthen vessels...The world needs that Treasure.
I tend to be suspicious of "-isms" or any doctrine named after a particular. They make me think of I Cor 3.
God knows your heart and knows you did not intend to create any dissension. Give it to God and he will use it for his purposes.
Karen, you didn't bring division to the body of Christ. You are merely a catalyst. The division in the body of Christ exists. You neither added nor detracted from this division. As I point out in my latest post even Jesus had to deal with divisive disciples. Not engaging the problem won't make it go away. Engaging it and pointing to a better way is how Jesus dealt with it. Divisions are going to come, but we best fix those by doing what Jesus taught us to do about it... Keep the command of Christ that we love one another, as He has loved us. You will add nothing by having Revelife take those blogs down. They're a good teaching tool, for future reference.
You're doing fine Karen, calm down, and look at the bigger picture.
Lonnie
[I can see these [posts] have caused dissension which was not my intent.]
You have to know that any time this subject comes up, there is going to be strong disagreement. I've never seen any one post on this where that didn't happen. In one sense it's nice that you feel this way. That's your own conviction. I myself enjoy the debates and like to hear both sides.
[My intent was not to cause division but only to explain the doctrine a bit more...]
Again, you need to realize, which I guess you now have, that trying to explain it will not work. Most non Calvinists have heard and studied Calvinism and know what it teaches. People are going to believe what they believe the bible teaches.
[I can see I have caused division in the Body of Christ and for that I apologize and ask your forgiveness.]
I don't think you need to apologize. Even in the bible we see Christians not agreeing on every doctrine. I don't think God minds us debating it.
[Our particular beliefs (Calvinist or Arminian) cannot keep us from fellowshipping with one another.]
Amen! Good post!
I was thinking about those posts all day today. In my comments I tried as hard as I could to be loving and gracious to those I was interacting with. I think I failed. My words must have been seen as attacking and hurtful. I prayed about this all day. I have never been attacked this much or accused of so many things.
I take full responsibility over what happened on those posts! The idea that God and His Holy image have been tarnished absolutely break my heart! May He have mercy on all of us!
~Michael
Unfortunately, the responses to your Revelife posts are typical of what happens when anything significant is posted there. I've seen people get just as angry over specific Scriptures and even argue with the words of Jesus himself, so it's no surprise that they jump all over a theological post. I don't think there was anything wrong or inappropriate with what you wrote. It is very clear that you weren't trying to create disunity.
You know I just reread your last post on Revelife, and my first response to you is still the right response. It's a wonderful post, thought provoking, but not divisive, or confrontational. You explain why you believe what you believe, and what it means to you. Your passion is genuine, produced from a genuine appreciation of what you believe.
You have no reason whatsoever to believe that you started something with your posts. I enjoyed reading it again, and felt absolutely no compulsion to even want to offer up differences. I'm thankful you have a vibrant faith. You and I are both orthodox in our beliefs, we fully accept all that is stated in the Apostles Creed, and so we are of the same faith. We do have differences, but I deeply respect what you believe, none the less.
Lonnie
Hello,
I'm Rebecca, contributing editor for Revelife, and I apologize that I did not receive any message from you regarding the removal of those posts. Again, I'm very sorry that they went up without your approval, and in the future, please contact me directly with questions and concerns about Revelife.
Thanks!
Dear brothers and sisters,
I've been contemplating and praying on all this and instead of commenting here, I would ask you to read this.
In Christ's love,
Karen
@nidan, @quest4god@revelife, @blonde_apocalypse, @Such_Were_You, @musterion99, @MC_Shann, @Roadkill_Spatula, @modernmelody@revelife