The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

How's come Kalvinists kant not reed?

I must be a glutton for punishment. On the No Greater Joy ministries webpage, I came across a series of "expositions" on the book of Romans, by Mr. Michael Pearl. Just for fun (or abuse), I downloaded his sermon on Romans 9. Most Arminians/semi-Pelagians would just as soon skip over Romans 9 because they can't handle it, but Mr. Pearl decided to get after it and the results are to be expected. The word we are looking for is eisegesis, as Mr. Pearl puts on his semi-Pelagian reading spectacles and proceeds to run roughshod over the plain teaching of the text, teachings that are clear in context of both the surrounding text in the book of Romans, as well as the entire Biblical record. These teachings make clear the absolute sovereignty of God over the universe as a whole, and salvation of individuals in particular. But the sinner doesn't like to hear that they are not responsible, even in part, for their own salvation.

At about 25 minutes into this disjointed "sermon", Mr. Pearl muses: "I am beginning to wonder if a Calvinist can even read". Well, in response to that, I am a Calvinist and it is generally agreed by those who know me that I can indeed read. I have been doing so since I was a wee lad, and I even know a bunch of the big words. I suppose it is possible that great scholars and prolific writers like Edwards, Spurgeon, Owens, Hodge, Luther, Calvin, Sproul, Piper all were secretly illiterate and used ghost writers. Perhaps it is more likely that Pearl is merely being juvenile here in front of an audience that either doesn't know enough or is sufficiently complacent intellectually to let these sorts of playground accusations slide by without questioning him.

Whenever someone throws the term "heresy" out as cavalierly as Michael Pearl does, you have to be a bit suspicious of their motives and the strength of their argument. When they get personal and nasty, double that suspicion. There are lots of teachers who casts doubts on anyone's ability to interpret the Bible other than their own (see Perrysburg's own semi-Pelagian Jonathan Modene). I won't use the C word here, but anyone who claims that he, and he alone, understands the great teachings of the Bible (especially when those teachings contradict the teachings of great men of Christ throughout the centuries), ought be viewed as highly suspect. Plenty of "churches" require people to be baptized only by them, to read only a certain translation of the Bible (no shocker here that Pearl is apparently a KJV-Only guy), that the only teachings that should be followed are their own.

Those he does express some measure of admiration for, like Spurgeon, he completely misrepresents or flat out doesn't understand. I am pretty self-confident, but I also realize that I do not have a monopoly on understanding God's truths and that all of us can benefit from reading and studying the works of other God honoring men, today and throughout history. One can only hope that Mr. Pearl can set aside his own preconceptions to the extent that he is able to see the marvelous soveriegnity of God. That is a far greater comfort to man than the Arminian notion that we are at least partners, if not authors, of our own salvation.