News: A Calvinist Faces Death
Posted on Sunday, February 04 @ 16:34:45 PST by Virgil |
|
By David Van Biema
After roughly 200 years of decline, Calvinism, the faith of the Puritans, has made a modest comeback among younger Evangelical Christians. One of the movement's potent mentors is Albert Mohler, the influential, telegenic head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who made waves last June when he critiqued the religious claims of presidential contender Barack Obama in an essay called Secularism With A Smile. Mohler, a Calvinist, went into the hospital in December for a fairly routine stomach operation and suddenly developed pulmonary embolisms, a frequently fatal form of clotting, in both lungs. After emergency surgery and four days in the Intensive Care unit, he made a complete recovery. David Van Biema asked him whether his crisis could illuminate his brand of faith.
I'm happy to be talking to you!
And I'm happy to be talking to you! And thankful.
A few years ago you claimed that "everyone is a Calvinist in praying before surgery." Can you explain that?
Yeah. Absolutely. In this sort of crisis we all want God to be sovereign, all powerful — to be able to intervene decisively, to rule over every atom and molecule of the universe. My point was that lots of believers are more dependent on a Calvinist-style sovereign God than they realize when they make their theological claims.
Like who, for example?
The God of liberal theology — He's a linguistic symbol, or a vague kind of spirituality. I've heard liberal theologians who have said that in situations like mine God is basically active in helping you find our own inner resources. It was very apparent to me in the ICU that I had no inner resources. My trust was in the unlimited sovereignty of the God of the Bible. I shudder to think of going through that experience believing that there is no one in control.
Click here to read the entire article
|
| |
 |
|
Average Score: 5
Votes: 2
 |
|
|
E-mail to Friend - 
Print - 
View PDF - 
Subscribe - 
Comments RSS
