I just found your blog and really enjoyed reading your post on young calvinists. I am one of them and have started in the past couple of years to take a more proactive approach to working out my faith and am discovering the fun of reading in the process. I just got done reading N.T. Wright’s first three in his Christian Origins series and just started Calvin’s Institutes a couple weeks ago. I want to see what Calvin himself actually had to say and judge the quality of his argument for myself. Anyway, check out my blog if you’re interested and I’ll be reading yours frequently in the future. Thanks!

Alex

Now I know that no one reads my blog, because I haven’t caught any doo-doo for doing just that.

Steve, glad to know I wasn’t the only one to think of Taylor’s song. But please don’t labed something “old” that I remember when it was first released.

But because they feared the Pharisees, his parents distanced themselves from him, sold him out really. They didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue, and they were willing to turn their backs on their own son to retain that group privilege.

All this from disagreeing with “L.” I’m telling you folks, pay attention. If this isn’t proving to you that among a slice of the reformed pie, the Gospel=our current version of our theology, then you need to wake up.

At Boar’s Head you said, “The resemblance between this approach and the Judaism of the Pharisees is remarkable.”

I’ve also noticed a similarity between a certain brand of Calvinist and the Pharisees. In my opinion they seem to be more committed to their theology than they are to God.

After one person made a comment about a love for “Scripture, the truth of Christ and the Gospel,” I asked if these were to be the true objects of our love. All hell broke loose.

A new post was made there (http://carla_rolfe.blogspot.com/2006/03/should-we-love-scriptures.html) defending the appropriateness of loving the Scriptures. Not only did she get my name wrong, but she entirely missed my point.

I argued, “So my point is that to love even the Scriptures in place of God is idolatry. (I am not accusing anyone of that, just making the point.) This reminds me of what Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.’”

You can follow the “argument” there if you wish. But these people were incapable or unwilling to even allow for the possibility that someone could love the Scriptures to the point of idolatry. One even said, “Are not the Scriptures and God inseparable?”

But the resemblance to the Pharisees goes beyond this potential bibliolatry.

The Pharisees saw themselves as the defenders of the purity of the Jewish faith. These attack dogs see themselves in the same role.

I believe another statement Jesus made to the Pharisees might be applied to them (with some modification):
“You keepers of the creeds and definers of the orthodox, you have found the narrow gate and made it even narrower, driving away those who would enter. It would be better for you to have never studied theology. There will be greater honor in the Kingdom for a simple-minded child who calls people to love Jesus than for you.”

Anyway, I find the resemblance striking.

Rod

I have a problem with churches building buildings. Every time I sit through a business meeting regarding a new whatever all that goes through my mind is how many churches in some south Asian country could be planted with the same resources. If it were up to me, all churches would meet in houses and schools, or at least be multi-purpose warehouses or gyms. Thankfully, it’s not. But if I live my life that way, never making room in my own passions and beliefs for someone elses, I could possibly miss what God is doing somewhere. This can always be taken too far, but it at least has to be considered.

Steve Taylor wrote an old Christian song entitled: “I Want to be a Clone”. May we never exist like that.

We’re all wrong about something, and we don’t know which part it is. So we need to be gracious toward those who disagree with us. We need to be constantly refining our theology. We need to “look past” our theology to the One who is really important.