Dusman

“Yes, Slick is a Calvinist. But I should also point out that not all (certainly most however) Calvinists are opposed to women in ministry.”

This fair and kind comment is a nice segue way into a brief and encouraging comment I’d like to offer. My dear brothers and sisters, I hold firmly to the doctrines of grace, am an elder in our church, and I’m also a biblical egalitarian. Dr. Douglas Groothuis (Christian apologist and philosopher), his wife Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (you know her through reading some of the best evangelical egalitarian literature), Dr. R.K. MacGregor Wright (apologist and theologian who wrote a book refuting the heresy of open theism titled “No Place for Sovereignty”), and Dr. Jon Zens (theologian and elder) are all Calvinists, egalitarians, and hold to the full inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture.

As you express your own personal distate for Calvinism I totally and completely respect that. But please remember that *this* Calvinistic brother in Christ loves his non-Calvinistic Christian brethren and cherishes them. I greatly appreciate much of what I’ve learned from those here who are openly non-Calvinistic and I thank God for you. I do not consider non-Calvinists heretics and never would (lest they begin deny essentials of the faith, such as the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, justification by faith apart from works, etc.).

The church I am an elder at is an openly Calvinistic church but we allow and encourage people who are non-Calvinistic to join as long as they assent to the essential truths of the Christian faith. We encourage our non-Calvinistic church members to respectfully and lovingly discuss their differences with us in this area so that we can sharpen one another in our study of Scripture and as a result, I’ve had to change my mind on several things in the past This is what I want, what I encourage, and why I cherish all my Christian brethren. Please do not throw out the baby with the bathwater by rejecting outright what Calvin taught in the area of soteriology because you reject the horrible atrocity that he committed against Servetus in another (and yes, I agree that they were absolutely horrendous). This is an informal logical fallacy known as the genetic fallacy (attacking the origin of a belief rather than the truthfulness of the belief itself). You wouldn’t reject the validity of alegebra because you found out later that your 8th grade algebra teacher was an axe murderer would you? You don’t reject biblical egalitarianism because the God-denying liberal theologian John Shelby Spong is also an egalitarian do you? Of course not. We all know better than that. I’m not asking that you agree with the doctrines of grace, but I am asking that you remember that this ole’ preacher loves, cares for, cherishes, and has learned so much from his precious non-Calvinistic brethren in the Lord. Thanks and much love to all of you in Jesus’ name!