The Biblical Doctrine of Election and Predestination

Pastor Rice is a retired USAF Systems Engineer with 48 years of being a born-again Baptist by conviction. He has been a youth worker and associate pastor for 20 years of his military career and has been a senior pastor since his retirement in 1995. His upbringing and work in Regular Baptist Churches, and his staunch stand as an Independent Baptist Pastor have given him a broad background for teaching Biblical Doctrine on this topic. His degrees in theology and weekly communication of doctrine combine with his systems analyst background to enliven a fresh look at Biblical Doctrines and Systematic Theology. Pastor Rice's staunch stand on the inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired Word of God drives all his works towards Biblical accuracy and adherence to the Holy Scriptures. His fervent love for the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind resonates in his writings on Bible doctrine. Baptists distinctively use only the Holy Scripture to determine all of their faith and practice. Various ideas, doctrines and theologies departing from the clear teaching of Scripture are ever present and attract large followings down broad ways. Augustinian theology coagulated into John Calvin's errors which solidified in the reformed thinking called Calvinism. At its heart it removes the free will decision from the salvation experience. It has been stated by the historian Herbert S. Skeats, that: "It is the singular and distinguished honor of the Baptists to have repudiated from their earliest history all coercive power over the consciences and actions of men with reference to religion. They were the proto-evangelists of the voluntary principle." One of the best tools to continue this repudiation, is to expose the origins of the errors around election and predestination and examine how these origins depart from Holy Scripture. Then seeing the growth and development of this error into a full fledged false doctrine is both alarming and enlightening at the same time. The grossest errors of Saint Augustine center around an over riding authority of 'The Church' and, center stage in this consideration is a 'compulsory salvation'. Augustine twisted and hyper extended Scripture unmercifully to arrive at, and defend these doctrines. The ugly twists still permeate the theology books of our day. The tentacles of error underlie the misunderstandings and misrepresentations of Calvinism and Arminianism for every Christian who would study "So Great Salvation" from the Bible.

Dettagli