Boldly, yet without a four-letter word...

This was posted at another blog:

CT: (Yes....Christian Library is CT) Are you paying for all this free time cuddling up with the regular Calvinist blogosphere?

When can we ask you about your view that all visible churches and all ordained ministers are apostate?

I don't hold that view because the Bible doesn't say it. The Bible defines 'church' as an assembly and also says wherever two or more meet in His name He is there. The strength of the faith is not in physical, sensual trappings and ritual and men. The Church of which Christ is King is not physical and visible. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a physical, sensual experience performed by human mediators. And my connection to Christ is not a matter of eating symbolic bread and drinking symbolic wine. As for ordained ministers... I don't care about their credentials. I think if a person is able to teach or preach or evangelize then it's given them by the Holy Spirit. Of course there is the issue of are they on-the-mark, are they Bible-believing, etc., but that is all a matter for the discernment of their audience.

That Calvinists get the greatest rewards in heaven?

I've never stated this. I have stated that, as the Bible itself states, there will be difference in reward in heaven and there is hierarchy of being in heaven. The Bible states this. I once stated that Calvinism (i.e. hardcore biblical doctrine uncompromised and unnegotiated down to the demands of vanity, worldly pride, and self-will) might represent a different order of Christains, but that comment was in a thread where an Arminian was being particularly 'brick wall' in refusing to acknowledge anything - anything - that was being written in response to him. My remark was tongue-in-cheek. If God has me in hell and the Arminian nearest His throne then so be it, it's just.

That the KJV only is necessary to all proper Bible reading?

That the Textus Receptus of which the King James Version is translated from is the pure Word of God and not the corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts. This indeed is a mark of real understanding and discernment. To accept the corrupt manuscripts and the versions based on them shows a lack of valuation for the Word of God and a lack of discernment that one could say it is to the degree of one falling short of regeneration itself. Yes, I believe that.

That reading the Bible seven times is the revealed secret to the Christian life?

'Revealed' and 'secret' are your dishonest words. Reading the Word of God complete once, three times, seven times does indeed cut to the quick of everything. You force the issue. How regeneration occurs (I mean when if ever, because we know how it occurs, it occurs by the Word and the Spirit), how the issue is forced, what happens in terms of time and length of time, are different matters, but the issue will be forced, you'll be hardened or you'll be awakened, either way you'll be convicted and in a very different position than you were in prior to the dedicated complete reading. A dedicated, humble, childlike complete reading of the Word of God - diligent, actually doing it, having a real, concrete goal to do it and then accomplishing that goal with the real necessary effort and time put in - is the foundational effort of a Christian. To deny that is to have no understanding of the faith and what the faith foundationally rests on.

That you can't be wrong because you are the elect?

I never stated this. (The iMonk is prodigiously dishonest, by the way. He engages in demogoguery in a rather easy and fluent manner.) God's elect, once regenerated, have the Spirit of Truth in them and hence have not only the ability to find and discern the truth and to know the truth but also the desire to find and know the truth. This requires effort and happens by degree, yet the discernment for what is false is usually quick and sure.

That all who disagree with you are unbelievers?

My standard and authority is the Word of God. You and others like you can't comprehend authority not being invested in man, one way or another. Sola scriptura period. The Word of God is sole standard and authority for all matters regarding faith and practice. If I'm on-the-mark then I just am. If you think I'm not then challenge it. But just know that the standard and authority is going to be the Word of God and not man. Fear God, it is the beginning of wisdom. Don't fear man.

Your attempt to reinvent yourself as "one of the gang" is sad. Of course, if it contains the "F-word" in your posts, I'm all for it.

# posted by Michael Spencer : 12/18/2005 11:45 AM

As I stated elsewhere I'm not trying to reinvent myself. I will always be a stranger to the crowd that prefers to congregate on the 'not yet entered' side of the Wicket Gate (Pilgrim's Progress reference)...