Church History Rant

The church-at-large to so ignorant of Church History. Many of our christian fore-fathers died to give us access to God's written Word.

We MUST remember that at one time the only permissible church was Rome. Rome did not and does not want the common man to fully understand the word of God. People at that time totally relied on the priests for everything.

Luther and Calvin tirelessly pointed out the problems with Rome.

We are to study God's word like the Bereans. We are to know what we believe and why.
We are not to believe something just because someone gets up in a pulpit and says we should!

Five years ago before I really knew anything specific about Calvinism I tried to read Dave Hunt's book which was a Debate of Calvinism. It's the first book I read that even talked about Calvinism. I couldn't finish it. It was horrible. It was a debate between Dave Hunt and James White. It was VERY obvious to me from my reading that Hunt had not read any Calvin. He only quoted other individuals who had supposedly read Calvin. It was also very clear that Dr. White knew what he was talking about.

That is when my journey started.

We believe WAY too much of what other people tell us. We should investigate and form our own opinions.

Since I started reading through the Institutes in January I can tell you there are plenty of folks out there against Calvinism but they have never read it.

John Calvin lived most of his life in pain and misery. He was preaching a sermon one day and was coughing up blood. John Calvin never desire to be well known. God however had a different plan.
I can only thank God for what He was able to accomplish through John Calvin.

I want to highly recommend two books about John Calvin.

1. The Legacy of John Calvin by David W. Hall (it's a short book).
2. John Calvin A Heart for Devotion Doctrine & Doxology edited by Burk Parsons.

There are four great men from the past that I have the highest admiration for:
John Calvin
John Owen
Jonathan Edwards
Charles Spurgeon

Please don't ignore our past. We do so at our own peril.

Our prayer should be "Lord show us thy truth."
He will show us His truth and it will set us free.

Grace & Peace