Sunday, February 26, 2006

Here is a quote:
"From the first, therefore, I have always said to myself, "if the battle is to be fought with honor and with a hope of victory, then principle must be arrayed against principle; then it must be felt that in Modernism the vast energy of an all-embracing life-system assails us, then also it must be understood that we have to take our stand in a life-system of equally comprehensive and far-reaching power. When thus taken, I found and confessed and I still hold, that this manifestation of the Christian principle is given us in Calvinism. In Calvinism my heart has found rest. From Calvinism have I drawn the inspiration firmly and resolutely to take my stand in the thick of this great conflict of principles."

This statement of Calvinism being a dominating principle may confuse some who only think of Calvinism in a context of TULIP, or Calvinism as a doctrine of salvation. But in actuality, Calvinism is not just "one man's opinion" about salvation but the dominating principle that in the widest possible cosmological sense, the Triune God is Sovereign over the whole cosmos, in all its spheres and kingdoms, visible and invisible.

The funny thing is that just as this battle was being won, the enemy changed uniforms. It is now not modernism that is arraying its forces against truth, it is post-modernism that we battle. In post-modernism (definitely I am no expert) the idea is that truth is variable and, as it relates to scripture, the text contains no inherent truth but it becomes true, variable, for each person, uniquely, as he encounters the text in his own way and time.This next quote seems to suggest that this approach to scripture is bankrupt from the start:
"For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world- to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."