Thank you for writing. This answer may take awhile.
Bessie and I have some of the same convictions that you have about contemporary church services. And we have similar personal views on smoking, drinking, and dancing. We could probably sign the longest list of “do nots” of any fundamental church in the country, but we would not. We have managed to be and remain non-legalistic. The statement of Paul in Romans 14:17-18 is where we like to be: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval."
Reformed theology has two things in common with other evangelical theologies:
1. The gospel, the deity, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace, faith, and repentance.
2. It is a systematic theology (like Arminianism, Wesleyanism, Dispensationalism, Lutheranism, etc.).
We agree on #1 if we are saved people. We disagree on #2 in that the theologies are different from each other.
What is common is that all of these theologies are systematic. This is a way of studying the Bible.
Systematic theology is not just an accumulation of topical Bible studies put together. It is a worldview made up of Scriptures from all over the Bible with every piece fitting together perfectly like a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. As we read through the Bible, none of us can see it fitting together perfectly like we want it to. The Bible is not written that way. But we want it to fit, so we study it systematically. This means that we have to pound a few pieces into place. That seems innocent enough. However, someone else happens to be pounding other pieces in a different way. Our different pictures will not look the same. This is a wrong way of studying the Bible. We are choosing which way we are going to be wrong. We do not find truth this way.
There are five points in Reformed theology that were first put together at the Synod of Dort. They were a reaction to five points of Arminianism.
• Total Depravity: Mankind is so depraved that it is impossible for him to believe or repent until after he is born again.
• Unconditional Election: The saved were elected by God to be saved before the foundation of the world.
• Limited Atonement: Christ only died for the elect. He did not die for the people who are eventually lost. The key word used is “efficacious.” Christ’s death is always effective. If Christ died for the lost and they were still lost, then His death is not efficacious. If He died for every last person and His death is efficacious, then universalism is the result, and everyone would be saved. Since they know that universalism is not true and that Christ’s death is efficacious, then He did not die for the non-elect. This is reasoning; it is not biblical.
• Irresistible Grace: Since you are elect, it is impossible to frustrate the grace of God. This is called sovereign grace.
• Perseverance of the Saints: If you die as an apostate unbeliever, that proves that you were not elect in the first place.
If you would like a book on these five points from the Reformed position, there is one by the authors Thomas and Steele called The Five Points of Calvinism.
Unfortunately most of us have theologies and living is made up of one of two things: a reaction to what we think is not right and conformity to what we think is right. We are cultural Christians more than we are biblical Christians.
In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
Bessie and I have some of the same convictions that you have about contemporary church services. And we have similar personal views on smoking, drinking, and dancing. We could probably sign the longest list of “do nots” of any fundamental church in the country, but we would not. We have managed to be and remain non-legalistic. The statement of Paul in Romans 14:17-18 is where we like to be: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval."
Reformed theology has two things in common with other evangelical theologies:
1. The gospel, the deity, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace, faith, and repentance.
2. It is a systematic theology (like Arminianism, Wesleyanism, Dispensationalism, Lutheranism, etc.).
We agree on #1 if we are saved people. We disagree on #2 in that the theologies are different from each other.
What is common is that all of these theologies are systematic. This is a way of studying the Bible.
Systematic theology is not just an accumulation of topical Bible studies put together. It is a worldview made up of Scriptures from all over the Bible with every piece fitting together perfectly like a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. As we read through the Bible, none of us can see it fitting together perfectly like we want it to. The Bible is not written that way. But we want it to fit, so we study it systematically. This means that we have to pound a few pieces into place. That seems innocent enough. However, someone else happens to be pounding other pieces in a different way. Our different pictures will not look the same. This is a wrong way of studying the Bible. We are choosing which way we are going to be wrong. We do not find truth this way.
There are five points in Reformed theology that were first put together at the Synod of Dort. They were a reaction to five points of Arminianism.
• Total Depravity: Mankind is so depraved that it is impossible for him to believe or repent until after he is born again.
• Unconditional Election: The saved were elected by God to be saved before the foundation of the world.
• Limited Atonement: Christ only died for the elect. He did not die for the people who are eventually lost. The key word used is “efficacious.” Christ’s death is always effective. If Christ died for the lost and they were still lost, then His death is not efficacious. If He died for every last person and His death is efficacious, then universalism is the result, and everyone would be saved. Since they know that universalism is not true and that Christ’s death is efficacious, then He did not die for the non-elect. This is reasoning; it is not biblical.
• Irresistible Grace: Since you are elect, it is impossible to frustrate the grace of God. This is called sovereign grace.
• Perseverance of the Saints: If you die as an apostate unbeliever, that proves that you were not elect in the first place.
If you would like a book on these five points from the Reformed position, there is one by the authors Thomas and Steele called The Five Points of Calvinism.
Unfortunately most of us have theologies and living is made up of one of two things: a reaction to what we think is not right and conformity to what we think is right. We are cultural Christians more than we are biblical Christians.
In the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
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