"Just as Martin Luther was a heretic for teachings the necessity of the sacraments for salvation, John Calvin was also a heretic. Calvin taught infant baptism and that the Sacraments were EQUAL with the Word of God. Calvin and Luther BOTH taught baptismal regeneration. Calvin even had people killed for disagreeing with his heresy on infant baptism. So many people today are naive of such men. I've been reading Christian books for years that quote Martin Luther and John Calvin, come to find out they both endorsed the sacraments and infant baptism. There is NO way that such men could be saved because they ADDED works to faith, which is no faith at all. Calvin taught that believers must persevere to the end to be saved. This is works salvation. The reformation was plagued with the remnants of Catholicism, enough to pervert the simple plan of salvation. As I have often said --Martin Luther came out of Catholicism, but Catholicism didn't come out of Martin Luther. The same can definitely be said of John Calvin. Why is it that so many people feel compelled to join existing religions rather than read the Word of God for themselves? It is clear to any knowledgeable Bible student that the "great whore" of Revelation is likely Catholicism." -David J. Stewart
You know, after reading things like this; I'm never quite sure how to feel. If we're talking about base emotions, I can't helping feeling a mixture of sadness, anger, and genuine confusion. I'm not going to completely discredit Stewart's tirade, mostly because I haven't researched it all, but it's not like his arguments really compel me to do so anyway. Like I said, I'm not exactly sure how I should feel or react. The words "Ye shall know them by their fruit" in Matthew 7:16 seem to readily come to mind. I seem to forget often, that although I admire the both the men mentioned above, they were both men, sinners, and by no means perfect. However, that does not mean the accusations listed are any more founded than before, and I will go out on a sturdy limb to say they are not. That being said, people concern me, they do not wholly scare me, anger me, nor do they shake me, but they do wholly concern me, and it causes me to wonder how we've even been allowed to make it this far.
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Serviceable Substitutes for Wit
"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die." -G.K. Chesterton
3 comments:
I can hardly believe that someone could use such small logic to send two theologians to Hell. In his examples, they didn't 'add works to faith', they just didn't Gnostically oppose Christ himself by saying that when he said 'do this in remembrance of me', he really meant 'but you don't really need to, I mean it's not like it's literal or anything.' How abominable!
He sounds as if everything in Catholicism were bad. Have we forgotten that these people are our brothers and sisters? Apparently so. Thankfully for him, God is not as eager as he is to excommunicate people with faulty beliefs.
I would however question what he might be lacking if there is so little brotherly love.
Exactly! You took the words out of my proverbial brain.
As for what he's lacking:
I think it's more of a personal issue he's had while interacting with other Christians, or at least that's what seems to scream out the most to me. "A Personal Issue" although it kind of bugs me to reduce the basis of arguments down to that point, it holds much more sway in perspective and thought than we tend to give it credit for.
You're right, it does scream 'personal issue', but by 'personal' I don't mean 'nonspiritual.'
I detect that he didn't research the reformers for himself and probably just believed another's opinions originally. He seems to have felt deceived, or at least theologically somewhat naive, and isn't going to make that mistake anymore. The strange thing is that by saying 'they ADDED works to faith', he gives away that he still doesn't know the first thing about their theology. And in saying 'there is NO way that such men could be saved' he shows that he has some major errors in his own soteriology.
I'll agree with him that both men preached false doctrines that they believed to be true. And I am in agreement that they erred by enforcing '10 minute baptisms' on whoever denied the doctrines preached (whether the doctrines were true or false). I need to research into the history of those events before I could really know what to make of them all.
But seriously, this guy sounds like the Bible would really offend him if he understood it.
The most baffling remark of all was 'Why is it that so many people feel compelled to join existing religions rather than read the Word of God for themselves?'
Hmmm...did he forget the guy who was nearly martyred for translating the Scriptures into German - the language of the people?! I don't think he realizes that he gets his Protestant ideas from the Protestant Reformers! Not to mention...is he trying to propose anarchy? Christianity IS an existing religion - Joseph Smith went off to 'read the Word of God for himself'.
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