Imperishable Inheritance

Gwen Robinson pointed me toward a website called "Outside the Camp." The site is maintained by a Hyper Calvinist, and reading this website reminds me of two things:

1. I see more clearly why Calvinism has such a negative connotation.
2. That is not how I am to act or treat other members of the Body.

As I am trying to open Christians to the discussion of Soteriology I have learned that other Christians do not want to be indoctrinated, belittled, and the like. My experience in this thus far helps to resolve the position that sharing Monergism (Calvinism) should be an edifying experience. Let's look at some of the few excerpts from this website.

We are not aiming for wide distribution; this newsletter is not for all who profess to be Christians. This newsletter is specifically for people who profess to believe and proclaim the Doctrines of Grace. We hope to edify, stimulate, and challenge those who are in these circles to true, biblical Christianity.

We are finding more and more people who are in areas where there is no solid organized church [...] They may live in areas where there are one or more churches that profess to believe the doctrines of grace, but they have the integrity not to be a part of a church that professes to believe the doctrines of grace but is compromising with the world or with Arminianism.¹

Under the article heading: "Are We To Fellowship With Arminians?" He sarcastically includes Psalm 1:1, 25:4-5; Proverbs 13:20, 14:7.

He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Proverbs 13:20

Now, I believe that Monergism is what the Bible proclaims of God's decree of election. I live and breath on God's redemptive work in salvation, and I'm prepared to lay down my life for it; but I would never claims such as these. I would never abstain from fellowship with an Arminian. It's fundamentalism like this and KJV Onlyism that is destroying Christianity on another end. We have some destroying Christianity with the impartation of a "worldly" view of life, and we have others that are attempting to destroy others from the inside.

It should be noted that I am not an advocate for ecumenicism, but I am also not an advocate for tearing down someone to build myself up. If I really believed in Monergism that strongly, would I stay in my basement writing slandering articles against Arminians; or would I go out and try and share what God has revealed to me as truth is His word?

[A reader] states that believers remain Arminians after conversion but are given the righteousness of Christ as a shield and clothing. This is a denial of the work of God in changing a sinner's heart (including the mind). One thing that is most definitely changed upon conversion is the person's belief in the ground of salvation. He might be in error about many other things, but his new heart believes that Christ met all the conditions for his salvation and that his salvation is in no way conditioned on him. Using [this reader's] reasoning, it could be said that people could remain in the false gospels of Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Buddhism, or Islam (and even atheism) after conversion, as long as they are "given the righteousness of Christ as their protecting shield and clothing," even if they know nothing of the righteousness of Christ being the only ground of salvation. Romans 10:1-3 opposes such thinking.²

You know what reading this garbage makes me see? Myself. Is this how I've treated others? In his "Heterodoxy Hall of Shame" he slanders such great Calvinistic scholars as Charles Spurgeon, A.A. Hodge, Loraine Boettner, and of course John Calvin. Let's take a look at a quote by Spurgeon he labels as "heterodoxy" defined as: "a set of beliefs or opinions that are not in agreement with accepted doctrinal beliefs of a church³." (Note the title of the book that Spurgeon is quoted from.)

"A man may be evidently of God's chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold that there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe in the doctrine of perseverence. We hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus."
Charles Spurgeon, "Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle For Gospel Preaching"

If I have ever treated anyone in this manner, I am sorry. What a travesty.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
1 John 3:14

Suggested reading: "The Dangerous Pursuit of Reformed Theology"