Dear Micheal thankyou for letting me subscribe to your blog.There is so much happing with this New Calvinism and Evangelical and yet Preachers that you trusted for years and heard preach have gone down this road with people like warren and other Chrismatics in the USA.WE NEED TO STAND STRONG AGAINST THIS FASLE TEACHING. I know here in the UK we feel that it could happen here in are Reformed and evanglical circles which we do not want as we are here Calvinsts who follow the great Reformer John Calvin.So let us pray for our brothers and sisters over their who are standing strong for the Reformed Biblical Evangelical Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

personally ive studied this issue for a long time an i will never subscribe to a total calvanistic approach.it causes so much confusion in the body of christ.the bible clearly states god is not the author of confusion an he is not a respecter of persons.it seems C violates these principles along with others.however i do believe that there are definite C tones in the bible,election,predestination an the like.my conclusion is that we are NOT god,an we dont know all the things of god.(my ways are not your ways an my THOUGHTS are not your thoughts),so what do we do,we try to make things fit as finite beings in an infinite arena ,this we can never fully grasp or comprehend what gods intentions are! all i know is jesus said,do you very best to try an convert others.i believe we co-operate with god.he made us an he uses us to spread the gospel,(made in his image) so again,i doubt very much if god picks an chooses it would violate that respect of persons.there are things that the bible says god cannot do,lie,or contradict for ex.so if he chose an hand picked that would violate his words.respecter of people.so,its stand to reason C would be better off if it modified some of its declarations.calvanists are not the only ones going to heaven.

Several years ago it was presumed that Christianity was being replaced by secularism in America. Only 39% of the population was “churched” or admitted to Christianity. After 9/11, the Times Magazine poll showed that 93% of Americans were Christians.
The question was obvious. Where are these people and what do they believe?
The answer may be..they are Calvinist.

Don, this is not an either/or situation. Both statements are different aspects of the same phenomenon. Pietism is the theological/spiritual root of the Evangelical mentality that arose in the nineteenth century. Revivalism became a key vehicle for its propagation. Although I didn’t mention it in the post the perfectionism of the holiness movement also played a factor.

Evangelicalism as it has manifested itself in America, and as a subculture has historically been a tradition that is “heavenly minded.” Its roots are sunk deeply into pietistic spirituality arising from a post-Reformation reaction to cold doctrinal orthodoxy within confessional Lutheranism in Germany, as opposed to what can legitimately be called a Reformed or Puritan spirituality/worldview.

As such, evangelicalism has historically had a tremendous problem in being involved in “the world.” During the 19th century as revivalism was institutionalized in America, spiritual life was privatized and became unrelated to other areas of life. (What mattered was “my personal relationship with God/Jesus.” etc., gone were larger senses of responsibility to community and society.)

I don’t follow this point. It seems that you are saying first that Evangelicalism in America has deep roots in Pietism that caused it to distance itself from the world, then you say that as Revivalism is institutionalized, Evangelicalism distanced itself from the world.

Which is it? Or am I totally missing what you are saying?

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

[...] Fundamentalists and the Evangelicals are falling apart and blaming it on Calvinism.  JC really knows how to celebrate his quincetenary [...]

Nice article. I my studies I have found many of the historical references that you mentioned. I would like to comment on the modern Christian Evangelical or what may be my experience with them. There is a lack of application with what they preach. You can do some validation with the Barna group. Statistically there is no difference between Christians and others, which is sad. I was a deacon in a Southern Baptist church for awhile. What I found was that many of the deacon’s hearts were cold towards people. Coming back from visitation, they had no compassion for the people they visited and looked down upon them as if they were some how less then themselves. As I saw into the hearts of more of them I noticed that it was about the rules and not about people and impacting lives. Many of the rules imposed had more to do with old cultural thinking than anything relating to God. I think that the Jewish leadership done the same thing to God’s people, burden them rules that caused them to miss God and His peace.

In more broader sense. If Christians done something as simple as “show moderation in all things” their lives would be simple and much more peaceful. The concept of virtue, the center between the extremes, would be counter culture and have a major impact of their lives and society. Instead, they go to Dave Ramsey classes to learn this basic fundamental. Then combine virtue with actually caring about people more than the rules, we would fulfill the second most important command – love.

Don’t miss understand, “rules” or doctrine are important, but if you have to announce that your not changing doctrine in a deacon’s meeting, then I would question if they could really tell if it was changed.

Then there are the other strange things that Christian leaders are doing; for example, tying salvation to how you vote or the doctrine of being Republican equals being Christian. There are many more examples of what seem to be disconnects with reality of what is happening in the world. The average Christian seems only capable of parroting the pulpit and not engage in the debates.

Michael
I think there are nut job Christians in general.

[...] A brief history of Evangelicalism and its current situation: collapse and Calvinism. [...]

Ms. Kittle,
From what I have seen with your posts on this site you sure have a way with rhetoric. I am not a Calvinist for numerous reasons, but the reasons for my not being a Calvinist do not hinge on how a some (not all) Calvinists have behaved at various points in history. If I did this I would also be forced to give up Christianity all together given the way many Christians have acted throughout history. I generally think it best to not judge a religious movement by the worst people claiming to be part of that movement. There are some nut job Pentecostal’s out there just like there are some nut job Calvinists.