Foolishness and Folly

I applied my ear to know,

and to search,

and to seek out wisdom,

and to know the wickedness of folly,

even of foolishness and madness.

Eccl. 7:25

Surely you have noticed the onslaught of an old and argumentative system of theology, that is all of a sudden, well maybe over the last few years, "new again," restless ones joining the debate and jumping track to participate in the polemics. I do not want to be numbered with this group, a writer who constantly debates in opposition to others concerning contrived theological systems. There is far too much precious life-sustaining material in the Scriptures which we will never exhaust. No, not before Jesus returns to take us Home. I recently researched and wrote a thesis on such an argument for a client. I don't recommend this for the faint of heart, because it drains you of so much spiritual talent you could be using on something much more productive for the cause of Christ.

A long time ago, I learned to trust Deuteronomy 29:29 when it comes to the "Secret Things." They belong unto God. I have not arrived, neither do I think I know everything concerning Scripture, but I rest my qualifications beside many through the years who have studied and prepared themselves for Christian service. I hold a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Religion/Christian Education, and better than all that study and research and preparation are the years I have sat at the feet of Jesus. He is my All-Sufficient One—El Shaddai! I would rather spend the rest of my days learning and understanding to the depths the Names of God and how they affect my life than to waste my time trying to involve myself in a "system of theology" (erroneously described as such) that attempts, but fails, to draw the very life out of Holy Scripture.

I'll stop here to say that I have studied from a biblical standpoint, the Subjects of Sovereignty (adoption, predestination, election, fore-knowledge). These are subjects that have to do with acts of God alone. Man has nothing to do with these divine acts. They are complex but not to be misunderstood. You can get what God has for you concerning these fathomless subjects by studying the Scriptures. You cannot listen to some unwise and untrained polemic as he or she argues the so-called five points of Calvinism, which actually came from the Arminian Debate. It will not work for you, for you have attempted to step into God's Holy realm and outside the Canon of Scripture. 

I Corinthians 11:17 says, "Are we coming together not for the better but for the worse?" Are there "spots in our love feasts?" I think so in many lives.

I share from my thesis here with a bit of wisdom from Dr. A.W. Tozer who offered something invaluable to a student preparing to attend Nyack College. There was one burning question the student had before leaving, so with confidence, he went to Dr. Tozer and said, "Please give me advice concerning the problem of Calvinism vs. Arminianism." (He framed it right: the problem.)

At the time, he thought Dr. Tozer's response was less than helpful, but he listened carefully. "Son, when you get to college, you're going to find that all the boys will be gathered in a room discussing and arguing over Arminianism and Calvinism night after night after night. I'll tell you what to do, Cliff. Go to your room and meet God. At the end of four years you'll be way down the line and they'll still be where they started, because greater minds than yours have wrestled with this problem and have not come up with satisfactory conclusions. Instead, learn to know God." Snyder, James L. The Life of A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God, Ventura, California, USA: Regal, 2009.

Here we are, folks, years later, trying to reach conclusions concerning these two "systems of theology."

If you're still insistent on confusing yourself further, try to align these systems with the infallible Word of God. What did Jesus do on the hillsides of Judea when He preached to the thousands? Did He divide them into theological systems—the elect on one side and those who were not of the elect on the other side? Or by the ones who were already saved and those who would never be saved? (What was the purpose, then?) Did he include the little children whom He had elected to go to hell, or did he separate them from those He had chosen to go to Heaven? You see how preposterous that sounds? No, a thousand times no! He said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God."

He identified Himself as the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Door, the Bread, the Water and offered all of this freely and so much more to "Whosoever Will."

Jesus never taught contrary to the Father's will, and just because this man from the past who could never decide whether he was saved instantaneously, or later thought maybe it was gradually, boasted the initials J.C. does not mean that he was worthy to wash the feet of our Dear Savior. Sometimes I think people have gone into buffoonery like Joseph Smith and the beginning of the Mormon movement in the 1800s. His thought process was to change the Judeo Christian Scriptures and to add to the Canon with his own words and mischievous thoughts.

May I say to you, the Canon of Scriptures is closed! Even Calvin had no rights to get into it to make changes. Revelation 22:18-19 emphatically explains this: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

Do you really want to test the character of God?

Redemption is by and through the Blood of Christ (Romans 8:1-4) and by Power, wholly of God. Christ delivers us from the guilt and penalty of sin through His own Blood. The Holy Spirit delivers us from the dominion of sin by the Blood of Christ.

The Church, the Blood-bought Body of Christ, must stay true to the Word of God if we are to bring a lost and dying world to Him. Can we take our instructions from the Apostle Paul? — "That I may know HIM, and the Power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death" (Philippians 3:10)

Conformable not to John Calvin, nor Jacobus Arminius, not John Wesley, Whitefield, Luther, but to Christ alone. Truth be known, these men would not have had it any other way, and those of you who insist on rearranging the Scriptures to suit some longing or dissatisfaction with the way God did it, have stymied your own growth and interfered in the progress of the Church (the Body of Christ). For that... one would be accountable.

Jane Bennett Gaddy

February 13, 2020