Wednesday, June 23, 2004

cracking the calvinism code

the following list is designed to help those who are trying to enter into a splinter cell of presbyterians, are preparing to attend gordon-conwell theological seminary or have friends who are planning to name their first child 'piper,' engage in meaningful conversation.

these are the keywords that will enable you to crack the calvinism code: sovereign, sovereignty, irreducible glory, double predestination, jacob or esau, antinomian, compatibilism, piper, piperian, imputed righteousness, sola fidei, sola scriptura, sola gratia, soli deo gloria, han sola, delight not duty, glorify by enjoy, total depravity, inerrancy of the autographs, godward, complimentarian, extra calvin nulla salus, christian hedonism, ordo salutis, praying the promises, supremacy, future grace, savoring jesus, supralapsarian, predestined, assurance, indelible grace, god entranced, god intoxicated, once reformed always reforming, original sin, substitution not moral persuasion, schismatic, dordt, westminster, decretive will, effectual call, superficial conversion, covenant, unregenerate, potter's freedom, paedo-baptism, simply irresistible.

i would like to dedicate this list to dr. david wells, who always warned us that the worst response to truth is to laugh at it.

4 comments:

miah said...

simply irresistible...very nice.

i'm trying to discern the level of sarcasm (if any) in this post.

i believe i'm hearing a bit of the tounge in cheek gentry here. please help me by elaborating. what are you trying to say here?

g13 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
g13 said...

hey miah,

it's about 99% sarcastic. i was returning a fairly recent collection of jonathan edwards' sermons to the shelf when i read john piper's recommendation on the back wherein he spoke of edwards' 'god-entranced sermons.' that description sounded so, uh, hyperbolic and forced to me that i had to laugh. so that, paired with the slate of 'cracking,' 'breaking,' 'unraveling' the da vinci code books as well as the mind numbing boredom of working at CBD led me down the road towards sarcasm.

i could say something here about how the limitations of iconoclastic, reformed-speak should point us towards the power of image, metaphor and a reappraisal of art, but i won't.

Anonymous said...

Having sat under Pastor John Piper's teaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for three years, I found this post quite ... funny, actually ...

Nice work,
Steve K.

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