Thursday, July 9, 2009

Where Calvinism Errs

At the recent constitution of the Anglican Church in North America in Bedford Texas, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah expressed the hope of restored Christian unity and spoke of Calvinism as a heresy that has caused division. He identified the following as essential for unity:
  • Affirmation of Holy Tradition
  • Recognition of the authority of the seven Ecumenical Councils
  • Return to the original form of the Nicene Creed (without the filioque clause inserted at the Council of Toledo, 589 A.D.)
  • Recognition of all seven Sacraments
  • Rejection of 'the heresies of the Reformation' and subsequent 'isms' that resulted when Protestants rejected the authority of Holy Tradition: Calvinism, anti-sacramentalism, iconoclasm, Gnosticism, and the feminism and the egalitarianism that led to the ordination of women priests and the consecration of women as bishops.

Read it all here.

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2 comments:

  1. James GibsonJuly 10, 2009 at 8:10 AM

    A Lutheran friend once told me, "Calvinism is what happens when lawyers do theology." Perhaps the conflict with Holy Tradition is not Calvinism's novel doctrine but, rather, its novel interpretation of doctrine. It is not a question of whether or not God predestines, but of whether or not his sovereignty is contingent upon predestination. Is God omnipotent because he predestines, or does he predestine because he is omnipotent? The difference between these two positions is more than merely semantic.

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  2. Alice C. LinsleyJuly 10, 2009 at 10:44 AM

    Thanks for that good obseration, James. My former TEC bishop is a lawyer and yesterday in Anaheim he spoke to his resolution whereby TEC would bless unions of "adults" which I suspect he regards as a compromise.

    The predestination question can't be understood apart from St. Paul's thoughts on the Pleromic Blood of Jesus Christ.

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