Boys used to play with blobs of mercury, which was fun with old wooden desks, inkwells, and carved initials where a blob could be stored. Unfortunately, as many found out, mercury has a great affinity for silver and gold. Once the mercury touches a gold or silver ring, the toxic metal adheres - no washing it off.
Dentists know that because many fillings are amalgam. The term is an abbreviation for silver-mercury amalgam. The dental scientists add toxic mercury to silver to make the filling more flexible. It is strange how parents warned us not to play with mercury and paid dentists to entomb silver-mercury in our mouths.
Calvinism is just like mercury, adhering to what is good and pure, almost impossible to remove. John Calvin took over the rationalism and Enthusiasm of Zwingli, swaggering with the same pride and lack of Biblical comprehension. Worst of all, Calvin tried to fool everyone about how much he agreed with Luther.
One pesky writer taunted Calvin into admitting how much he disagreed with Luther's Biblical teaching. His name was Westphal, famous for Calvin's tirade - Against Westphal.
Ever since, Calvinists have tried to achieve unity by having Lutherans drop:
- Baptismal regeneration
- The efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace
- The Real Presence, and
- Justification by Faith.
Perhaps many Calvinists would claim Justification by Faith, but I see little evidence of that. Many Calvinists dwell on covenant to such an extent that they say, "If I am faithful to God and obey Him, He will reward me." That is not true of every Calvinist, and heaven knows the Calvinists are quite different from each other. But that covenant concept is common, and rarely does a Calvinist mention Abraham in connection with Justification by Faith.
Calvinists moved into the German territories and scrapped with Lutherans. The friction led the government to move toward uniting the Lutherans and the Calvinists into one, big, happy Calvinist family. F. Schleiermacher, the unbeliever who studied theology at Halle U. and taught there, moved the government along toward a complete union of the two confessions.
The Calvinist victory shows in the dominance of Objective Justification, Election without Faith, Church Growth, and the NIV/ESV abominations.
Marketing the Gospel? - Calvinism.
Gimmicks during sermons? - Calvinism.
Getting rid of the liturgy and creeds - Calvinism.
I think the ad came from WELS for the 500th, I am not sure. But the wording came from Lutherans and it said this - "No matter what Luther's short-comings were, at least he pointed to Christ."
The wording struck me because it was used by Pieper to show what was wrong with Calvinism. The Calvinists, like Kalnis (now forgotten), said the Word of God is like a statue of Mercury (such irony) that points the way but does not give a person the power to go that direction. Yes, Calvinism thinks the Word is dead, like their cast iron statue of Mercury in the garden. They have to make the Word of God
- attractive (marketing),
- relevant (The CORE), and
- reasonable (Objective Justification).
At the Chicago Inerrancy Conference, as I wrote before, I heard one Calvinist belittle Dr. Robert Preus for not doing those three things (bullets, above) in his doctrinal paper. The individual went on to say he would not accept a paper like that from a student at his seminary. I would have quipped, "I would bet on that, you Enthusiast!"
One must see Calvinism for what it is to realize how it amalgamated itself to the American Lutherans and triumphed with Objective Justification and Church Growth. Those who want to be one with so-called Evangelicals - like David Valleskey and Paul Kelm - are also the people who stuff Church Growth down everyone's throat.
