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Calvin Is My Constant

Calvin Is My Constant published on

I was having lunch with a Presbyterian youth pastor.  We were totally hitting it off.  Then out of nowhere he realized I was Methodist and didn’t think Rob Bell was a heretic.  He literally said, “I can see we have nothing in common.”  I was thinking, well, we’re both middle-class American white dudes, so there’s a start, right?

John Wesley said his own theology was only a “hair’s breadth away from Calvinism.”  And then he throat-punched the concept that Christ’s death only atoned for the saved, and had no effect on anyone else.  Oops.  That’s where Wesley had to work out his concept of prevenient grace.  This means that because of the cross of Christ, God’s grace is freely offered to everyone, and the presence of the Holy Spirit is freely in everyone enabling them to accept that grace.

PS.  Charles Wesley’s shirt is now available for sale at etsy.com!  Click here to buy the shirt in liturgical Ordinary Time Green!

 

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