Out of the Flames

I grew up among Arminian heretics and struggled mightily with the notion that I was responsible for the intensity of my belief in the saving grace of Christ in order to earn that grace. It was too much for me, and I wallowed in apostasy for many years, even dabbling in (gasp) Unitarianism. Belief is involuntary, and you cannot will yourself to believe in anything, let alone control how intensely you believe. The whole Arminian scheme is insupportable. When I discovered Calvinism, and its doctrine of predestination, I was liberated. Belief is the gift of God, and you don't have to do anything to receive grace. If God chooses you as one of the elect, it is God that works an inner transformation.

Mrs Vache Folle is a former Roman Catholic, and I talked her into embracing the Dutch Reformed Church and Calvinism. We are both pretty happy with our church, mainly because of the wonderful people. When it comes to lofty theological ideas, we are pretty tolerant of different points of view. Aside from the notion of salvation by grace, other theological principles do not really have an impact on our Christianity as we live it. Ours is a somewhat childlike faith in that the most important aspect of it is how it helps us to live day to day and interact with others. Our feeble understanding of such concepts as the Trinity, the virgin birth, and the like have no impact on us.

Mrs VF and I both read (I did so on her recommendation) Out of the Flames by the Goldstones, a book about the unitarian Michael Servetus, a man whom John Calvin persecuted to death.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767908368/102-2412428-3242557?v=glance

The main issue that inspired Calvin, who was evidently a complete jackass, to work to have Servetus burned at the stake was the trinity. For Servetus, the concept of the trinity was unscriptural and superfluous; for Calvin, it was central and indisputable and anti-trinitarianism was vile heresy. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how believing in the trinity or disbelieving in the trinity would make any difference whatsoever in how one lived one's life as a Christian or even how the church would be organized. It is, in my view, wanting in practical import. And yet, it was deemed so important that Calvin had Servetus burned to death because of the disagreement. Calvin was not very Christlike. Neither man could conceive of being wrong, and Servetus might have recanted and lived if he had not been so arrogant.

I recommend the book for its insights into the Reformation and academia at the time. Servetus was a physician as well as a religious scholar and is recognized as the first to describe the human circulatory system accurately. The Goldstones' writing and scholarship are impressive, and the story of Servetus and his career as a heretic, physician to the rich and famous, and scholar are fascinating.

I am still grateful to Calvin for his doctrine of salvation by grace, but I see him for the tyrant that he was. He never meant to liberate anyone; rather he meant merely to replace the decadent Catholic hierarchy. Geneva under Calvin was a hellish place to live and as far from the Kingdom of God on earth as I can imagine.