QUESTIONS - Do Elders In A Local Church Need To Be United On Calvinism Or Arminianism？
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, Pastor Joel Webber joins us to talk about what it means to be an ecumenical church, why it's important to have a clear soteriological view of salvation, and the role of local churches in this matter.
Transcript
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Do you think a local church can be fruitful if there is no clear soteriological view,
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soteriological view, view of salvation. For example, my church is Arminian and Calvinistic.
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I get you. There is clear divide and we have had three pastors in four years. Yeah, I think that's
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a bad idea. I think there are some things. So in one regard, I want to be very ecumenical. I get
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in trouble for this. Some of you guys, you know this, you follow me. I want to be as ecumenical
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as I possibly can be. But then there are some things that we don't need to be ecumenical at all
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about. So for instance, and I know plenty of people will disagree with me, but I would hold
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to this, Brian Sauve and Eric Kahn, Dan Burkholder, the guys with Kings Hall, they would hold to this.
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Doug Wilson would hold to this. A lot of guys would hold to this. Dale Partridge would hold
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to this with real Christianity. We believe that in this present hour, that one of the needs of
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this hour is baptismal Catholicity, baptismal Catholicity, and even at the local church level,
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meaning we believe that although it may not be ideal, we think it should be permissible
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and it may be necessary in many cases where one local church affirms and accommodates both the
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credo and paedo-baptist position in the same local church. And I know there are a lot of
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credo-baptists and a lot of paedo-baptists who would say, that's madness. That's insanity. That's
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just breeds confusion. That's not helpful. And I would disagree. I could be wrong, but I would
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disagreeing. I would say baptismal catholicity, lowercase c, just mean universal, ecumenical,
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is important. The question that you're asking, Bruce Wayne, is salvation catholicity,
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soteriological catholicity. And on that one, I would say big fat no. No, I do not think it is
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a benefit to tell people in one breath that they need to choose God and that Jesus died for everyone
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and in the next breath to say that God is the author and finisher of our salvation
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Paedo and Credo baptism have contradictions, of course.
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But I think Arminianism and Calvinism at the level of salvation
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have such stark and direct contradictions that it just, it cannot,
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those two things cannot both survive under the same roof. That is going to breed a level and
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a certain type of confusion in a certain arena, namely salvation, which is central,
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that is going to do more harm than good. And it's not a surprise. I'm glad you included that
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because obviously you're connecting these dots and recognize it, but it's not a surprise that
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your church has had so much overturn with its leadership in such a short amount of time. They
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need to figure out what they believe about salvation. They need to make up their minds.
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And hopefully, they'll choose to be Calvinists because that's what the Bible teaches.
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Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold it. Big announcement, a scary announcement,
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a threat, but also a promise. The price of our conference, the post-millennial and theonomy
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conference, it's going up. It's going up right after Reformation Day. We are going to hold the
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price at $100, which is super cheap for a three-day conference with Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot,
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Dr. Gary DeMar and the guy who's not a doctor, so we'll say Pastor Joel Webin. We've got a great
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conference, May 5th, 6th, and 7th in Georgetown, Texas, just north of Austin for a hundred bucks,
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super cheap, but we can't hold that price forever. So if you want to get into that price,
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you got to get in now, right after Reformation Day, not Halloween, Reformation Day, October 31st.
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That's the last day that you can get in this conference, register at the price of a hundred
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bucks. After that, starting November 1st, it's going to be 130. So go to rightresponseconference.com,
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rightresponseconference.com and register today. Thanks. Thanks so much for listening. But real
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quick, before you go, do us a small favor, take a moment and leave us a five-star review. If you
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