The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 2

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13 ESV).

My own struggle makes me more patient with others who are on the way. And in one sense, we are all on the way. However, we must remember that even when we know things Biblically and truly, we still see through a “mirror dimly” (v. 12). There can be many tears as we seek to put our ideas through the testing fires of God’s word. But all the wrestling to understand what the Bible teaches about God is worth it. God is a rock of strength in a world of quicksand. To know him in his sovereignty is to become like an oak tree in the wind of adversity and confusion. And along with strength is courage. To begin, we need a bit of history; however, before I get in the middle of that history, I pray you will be strengthened and encouraged. Please don’t feel that you have to read these short devotionals in any particular order. It may be that you will skip a few days and then go back and forth through them. There is an intentional order to the series, but feel free to start and stop wherever it looks most urgent for you. If you get help, then you will be drawn back to the rest of it. I hope that because of our short time together in these writings you will move into a deep and satisfying experience of God’s grace. Let’s begin at the beginning. John Calvin, the famous theologian and pastor of Geneva, died in 1564. Along with Martin Luther in Germany, he was the most influential force of the Protestant Reformation. His commentaries and Institutes of the Christian Religion are still exerting tremendous influence on the Christian church worldwide. The controversy began between Arminianism and Calvinism in Holland in the early 1600s. Jacob Arminius (1560–1609) studied in Geneva under Theodore Beza, and became a professor of theology at the University of Leyden in 1603. Gradually Arminius came to reject certain Calvinist teachings. The controversy spread all over Holland, where the Reformed Church was the overwhelming majority. The Arminians drew up their creed in Five Articles, and laid them before the state authorities of Holland in 1610 under the name Remonstrance, signed by forty-six ministers. The official Calvinistic response came from the Synod of Dort which was held November 13, 1618, to May 9, 1619, to consider the Five Articles. They wrote the Five Points of Calvinism in response to the Five Articles of the Arminian Remonstrants. These so-called Five Points were not chosen by the Calvinists as a summary of their teaching. They emerged as a response to the Arminians who chose these five points to disagree with. These five points are still at the heart of biblical theology. They are not unimportant. Where we stand on these things deeply affects our view of God, man, salvation, the atonement, regeneration, assurance, worship, and missions. They will then form the “points” of our coming study. Today, concentrate on the undeniable love and compassion God has shown toward us in Christ. That is our strength!