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Monday, January 30, 2012

The problem with Arminians

A moral and spiritual problem with most internet Arminians of my acquaintance is their single-minded obsession with Calvinism. They are more obsessed with Calvinism than many Calvinists. That’s just about the only thing they ever blog about. It’s all about Calvinism, all the time. Their identity is essentially comparative. 

And the problem with that myopic orientation is that when you define yourself and judge yourself by another, when it’s always the same target, when the comparison is invariably invidious, then that’s bound to foster an insular, complacent, self-righteous attitude. It disables any self-critical sense. If you always measure yourself by your opponent, and if whole the point of that exercise is to prove to yourself that your opponent never measures up, then that’s morally and spiritual corrosive. It’s a recipe for spiritual pride. It hardens you to criticism from outsiders. That’s automatically discounted.

This is less true of Arminian Bible scholars because they don’t incessantly compare themselves to Calvinists. Rather, they spend most of their time exegeting Scripture. That, of course, sometimes draws them into the Arminian/Calvinist debate, but it’s not-all consuming. I also think that’s why Nick Norelli is head-and-shoulders above the average Arminian blogger. He has interests outside of the Arminian/Calvinist debate. Same thing with Wintery Knight. 

8 comments:

  1. Good thoughts, of which I agree.

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  2. "The problem with Arminians"

    I appreciate Steve's charity here. He could have very well used the plural form instead of the singular with the term "problem."

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  3. Show us your polling data! (only kidding)

    I might add an additional caveat - there are some Arminians on the Internet who basically never touch the Calvinism topic. It just never comes up for them.

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  4. And here I was going to mention how I'm not obsessed with the whole Arminian/Calvinist debate and I come to find out that you said it for me. Thanks!

    BTW, I feel exactly the same way about Unitarians always defining themselves with reference to Trinitarians.

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  5. In some sense they are no different than the new atheists...obsessed with something they claim is false, and the default position is necessarily contrary.

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  6. Calvinism can surely be that thorn under the fingernail for many.
    It bothers them, and yet they simply need to extract it with the Word, but they leave it in there.

    Good thought BTW.

    I have some excellent non-Calvinist friends in Christ, and they challenge me, and I them, every now and then. But for the most, very most, part, we serve our Sovereign in love together, and love each other in His truth and grace.

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  7. AUGUST SAID:

    "In some sense they are no different than the new atheists...obsessed with something they claim is false, and the default position is necessarily contrary."

    Good point. Both classes define themselves by what they oppose. No positive identity.

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  8. Calvinism and KJV-Onlyism.

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