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Colleen Tinker, Feature, Letters to the Editor

Calvin Misinterpreted

Thank you for your article and insights on “What Do We Do With Calvinism?” This is a very difficult issue that you attempted to tackle. Shortly before John Calvin died, he wrote in a letter (“last will and testament,” dated 25 April 1564) that Christ’s blood was “shed for the sins of the human race.”1 In his commentaries and the Institutes of the Christian Religion, there are several statements that support the view that Christ died for everyone. After his death in 1564, Reformed scholastics (High Reformed theologians) moved away from Calvinism in subtle ways in the late 16th and 17th centuries. The forming of the acronym TULIP came as High Reformed theologians reacted to the Remonstrants (those who followed Jacobus Arminius). Some theologians would disagree, but a good case can be made that the L (limited atonement) in the acronym was a view that John Calvin did not hold. Thus, I would argue that Reformed scholastics, not Calvinism, “says that Jesus’ blood only paid for the ELECT, not for the sins of the unelected.”

[1]John Calvin, “Last Will and Testament (25 April 1564),” in History of the Christian Church, vol. 8, by Philip Schaff (1910; repr., Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), 698.

—DENNIS PALMER, VIA EMAIL

Help With Calvinism

I appreciate this article so much. I just knew you would explain it so well.

I plan to print this out to give to two dear friends. 🙂

One friend is a staunch (sometimes very uncharitable) “Calvinist” with whom I have had several heated “discussions” regarding the very scriptures you stated in the article. He and I agree on many points, but the disagreements begin when he rejects any notion of the scriptures that talk about the “world” or of believing, etc. He gets kind of mad to think that people have any choice whatsoever.’He puts God in a box, in my opinion, to the point that he does not even attend a fellowship because none of them are as “Calvinistic” as he believes they should be.

The other person is my friend who believes we are drawn by God’s grace but that after that we ourselves are tasked with believing and then with keeping our salvation intact. She believes in Gods Sovereignty, but for some reason she really rejects God’s choosing. It makes her just as mad as my Calvinist friend, just on the total opposite side of the coin! 

It is like neither of them are willing nor able to see past these two seemingly opposing views: 

God chooses—We believe

Gods keeping—Our obedience and sanctification.

Both of them jump on the verses that agree with their positions and throw out the verses that oppose them but neither of them seem aware of what they are doing.It is very frustrating to me sometimes.But I have learned to stay quiet.’I cannot change either of them BUT I will focus on those things that DO unite us.They both love the Lord with all of their hearts; they both pray and seek to be sanctified. (My friend who does not attend church is being disobedient to the word, but he does not agree with that either.’He no longer tries to find a fellowship. But to be honest, I have also been feeling the similar frustration of trying to find a decent church that can handle the Word of God correctly.)

So, thank you again for this article. I look forward to the discussion I can have with both of my friends after they review the article. It should not be matter of division because we can let God be God and His plan is good. We can believe both—We MUST believe both, because both are true!

We trust Him with our own salvation and security, and we can trust Him with everyone else’s too. 

Blessings on this ministry. I appreciate it so much!! Thank you again!!

—PROCLAMATION! ONLINE MAGAZINE

Answered Many Questions

I just read your wonderful article in Proclamation! magazine. This really answered many questions I’ve had over the years in such a beautiful way. As a child I would ask my father (a Dispensationalist) about this. I was never sure if there was a true and definite answer. Daddy asked me if I was born again. Yes I was. Then he said that to me both applied. I had free will AND I was chosen. If someone else was not born again it was only my job to show them Jesus through my life, love, and words. If I did that then I was living out God’s will for my life.…Once again, thank you for your beautiful article! I’m sure you will receive many responses similar to mine. This is an article I will save in my treasure trove!

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Your dad’s answers to you as a child actually were so accurate! I have trouble with ambiguity, and perhaps it’s helpful to just KNOW that our true object of trust is the Lord Himself, and He works out the paradoxes according to His will and timing. Yet it’s so reassuring to me to know that many other true believers have understood that God asks us individually to respond to Him as He reveals His will and His work He brings us. He handles the unknowables!

This Channel Is A.I. (Response to “Adventists, Wake Up!” 

“Believers” are not “asleep’; they were before then woke up and became a believer. See how that works ?  Good Lord, I’m trying to teach A.I. how the gospel works. This channel is an A.I. program, BEWARE.

—VIA YOUTUBE

Responses: 

From Richard Tinker, Moderator: We have had many crazy attacks from “the other side” but this is a first. No, we are not A.I. —Intelligent (we hope), but not artificial.

From a subscriber: They are not AI. They have many podcasts. I know Colleen Tinker’s voice, and that is definitely her! I know Nicole’s voice as well. SDAs getting uncomfortable? †

 

Colleen Tinker
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