A fan of good theology?

[chemist4him]

So I was asked the other night if I am "Reformed."  This was rather unusual, since, well, I didn't even really grow up in a denomination, per se, much less a Reformed one.  I thought about the question, though, and decided that the answer is "yes," though I don't think it really reflects any radical shifts in my views from the time not so long ago

Comments

[aibrainy]

The works debate disappears when you realize that "faith" doesn't mean "belief," it means "trust and loyalty." How can you possibly say you trust and are loyal to someone if you don't obey? There are definitely falsehoods on both ends (thinking that faith=belief, and thinking that faith=actions), but on the whole, yeah, it's a rather silly misunderstanding.

BTW, what do you think of free will? Are you a compatibilist?

[chemist4him]

offhand, I'd say yes. However, and this is hard to put into words by definition... I would say that rather than a compromise of some sort, both "free will" and "determinism" are true.

Can we choose God, or did He pick us? It's perhaps a case of having one's cake and eating it too. :-)

There are two questions at work here, as well - that of practicality: how each option would affect outreach to nonbelievers, that sort of thing; and that of truth: what the state of our understanding can be, and how it can be improved. I am "Reformed" in that I believe that God has chosen people, but as we can't really know the choice, it shouldn't change how we interact with "pre-Christians" (as Jonny might say). And as far as truth... whether it's a matter of an ill-defined syllogism or not, it does seem possible that both options are correct, and I for one am not sure how to improve our understanding of that mystery.

[avenger337]

"I believe it's possible to be TOO focused on hearing from God, and discerning His will for our lives."

Having been there, I agree completely.

[anonymous]

"I believe there's no conflict between "saved by faith" and "saved by works." Stupidest 2000-year-old misunderstanding ever." - :P so true. And yet I keep running into people who tell me about the false gospel of the Catholic church which falsely preaches "saved by works" and leads you to damnation.

I don't think I'm reformed, mostly because the people I know who claim reformed beliefs seem to consider me pretty far off theologically. But I don't know enough about what is and is not essential to "reformed" beliefs to state definitively why I am not.

- jon

what's up with James?

[anonymous]

what's up with James? He ain't Reformed. Formed right the first time! But a Christian nonetheless.

We really don't like being labeled, do we? And if we do begrudgingly accept a label, it always comes along with the caveats that we and only we get to define what that label actually means. Everybody has their own personal political philosophy (James, for example, is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. Rather, he believes [insert dissertation here]), everybody has their own personal creed.

We really hate being defined, hate being identified with anyone else (and especially with a group of people. These past few weeks, up in job training with other graduate students, I've been stupendously reticent, not only about the fact that I go to church and believe [insert Nicene Creed], but even the fact that I don't think all religious people are judgmental idiots, and that I believe the various religions are extremely different, and even that the various churches, denominations, sects, movements etc within individual religions are also

[treecatn]

hear hear (all of it) (except I have no idea what Reformed actually means, so I'll not comment on that at this time)