Faint Praise for Toxic Mercury

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:

1. Baptismal regeneration
2. The efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace
3. The Real Presence, and
4. 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.

The Essaence of Calvinism - Supplanting Luther - Controls Theology Today

John Calvin passed himself as Lutheran for a time,
like the Synodical Conference Lutherans of today -
who gladly work with ELCA.
Future book - Calvin Ruined the Protestant Faith.

Here are some brief points about Calvin and Calvinism, which explain so much of what is happening today.

1. Calvin was an Enthusiast, like Zwingli before him - separating the Holy Spirit from the Word. Zwingli was fairly stupid and mocking, but Calvin was more sophisticated in his mockery.
2. Calvin apperded to agree with the Lutheran Reformation, signing the Augsburg Confession, but clearly deviated from it and proposed his own views.
3. Calvin argued that a sermon, a baptism, or Holy Communion would be ineffective if the Holy Spirit did not drop by. 
4. Likewise, he made his Double Predestination a completed transaction, so there is no connection between the sermon, faith, and salvation, contrary to Romans 10.
5. Calvinism is overly fond of philosophical disputes, which drove the Lutherans into countering Calvin with their own ornate and opaque arguments. That led to Pietism.
6. The precious categories of Objective Justification and Subjective Justification were canonized in the very popular lectures of Knapp, a Pietist. But the explanation comes from a Calvinist translator. No problem! Walther liked the labels and the Synodical Conference adopted these labels, where they are official dogma today.
7. Mrs. Matt the Fatt explained to me that "there is Objective Justification and Subjective Justification."
8. Just as Calvin sought to replace Luther, so his disciples seek to replace Luther's doctrine with their Calvinistic categories, chiefly Objective Justification, the favorite of Jay Webber, Rolf Preus, Mark Zarling, David Valleskey, Herman Otten, John Moldstad, Frosty Bivens, and other illiterates.
9. Just as Calvin's Double Predestination is central to his teaching, so is OJ central to the Synodical Conference dogma. Because SJ is simply another statement about OJ, the great and wise have little to say about SJ.
10. Cults spring from Calvinism the way mold grows from damp and dark environs. 
11. Modern theology is inherently Calvinistic in its rationalism and hatred of Luther's Biblical teaching, Justification by Faith being central to Luther and the Book of Concord.
12. Modern theology likes to play with words and concepts, starting with Biblical words but having flights of fancy, inevitably ending in a dramatic display of atheistic dogmatism, i. e. Barth's theology as promoted in all the best schools and Fuller Seminary.

 "Stick with me Charlotte," he whispered, and ve vill rule da vorld!"

Calvin's Style Is Barth/Kirschbaum's Style. We Find the Same Protestant Papal Style in the UOJ Stormtroopers

 John Calvin shared Zwingli's Enthusiasm
but expressed it with more elegance.

“We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is fore-ordained for some, eternal damnation for others.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21, Paragraph 5) Cited on this Calvinist blog.

The above statement is the famous double predestination decree found in all editions of Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion. The style - a thesis statement - reminds me of JP Meyer, below.

The first time the Lutherans contended with Calvinistic justification pitted Polycarp Leyser and Hunnius against Samuel Huber, a former Calvinist who became Lutheran and taught at Wittenberg, until his dogma was revealed and his position vacated.

Webber argued the same position, parroting Jon Boy Buchholz.

 All the information is available on the Net. Why have Lutheran clergy passively accepted the demonic reign of UOJ?

I knew quite a few LCMS clergy and laity in Midland, Michigan, during the 1980s. One layman was being trained in the official LCMS program for lay ministry. And whom did he quote all the time? R. C. Sproul.

I think that many people who call themselves “Calvinists” haven’t studied much about Calvinism.  They probably heard a passionate sermon from Paul Washer (and YES, HE IS a Calvinist), read an article by Charles Spurgeon, read a book by John Piper, listened to a James White debate, watched an R.C. Sproul lecture or read a John MacArthur Commentary.  Then they put their theological “stake in the ground” and say, “I’m a Calvinist”. Source

While Calvin is heavy-duty, industrial strength Enthusiasm, separating the Holy Spirit from the Word, Fuller and Trinity Divinity are the insta-answers of Enthusiasm that follows, easy on the brain and conscience. Thus the Calvinism behind the LCMS (via Stephan's and Walther's rationalistic Pietism) has become a bug-eyed devotion to the idiocies of Church Growth, now branded as Missional since the earlier label has worn thin from caressing.

 This is too deep and too Biblical for today's crop of initiates in the LCMS-ELS-WELS. Besides, they may start thinking and studying on their own. Heaven forbid.