A hairy creature that will attach itself to and suck the life out of you.
---------- Post added at 10:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 AM ----------
As for baptism, and the eschatology, I will not waste time with people that hold different views (we all really don't know as we ought)
That is unfortunate.
why?
I am about unity. If one holds to the Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation (Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Luther, & Calvin.) I have more in common with all those men than I do with (Pelagius, Arminius, Wesley)
As for baptism I believe in the one baptism (that is in Christ alone)
And as for the end times I like what Paul Washer said, "When Jesus returns we will all know what Revealation means." What I want to know is does one have the knowledge of salvation. If they hold to the orthodox doctrine of salvation then we can walk together.
Why? Because you said you would not waste time on those who you disagreed with. That is a slap in the face of those people. You are saying that they are not worth your time and fellowship. If you meant to say that you refuse to get in an argument over these secondary issues, then that is fine. Unfortunately your original post did not convey this idea.
I meant that I will not argue over the seconday issues. I am sorry if I led you down the wrong trail.
I would argue tooth and nail for this position and I think Hodge does a great job at explaining it.
Statement of the Doctrine. The Augustinian scheme includes the following points: (1.) That the glory of God, or the manifestation of his perfections, is the highest and ultimate end of all things. (2.) For that end God purposed the creation of the universe, and the whole plan of providence and redemption. (3.) That He placed man in a state of probation, making Adam, their first parent, their head and representative. (4.) That the fall of Adam brought all his posterity into a state of condemnation, sin, and misery, from which they are utterly unable to deliver themselves. (5.) From the mass of fallen men God elected a number innumerable to eternal life, and left the rest of mankind to the just recompense of their sins. (6.) That the ground of this election is not the foresight of anything in the one class to distinguish them favourably from the members of the other class, but the good pleasure of God. (7.) That for the salvation of those thus chosen to eternal life, God gave his own Son, to become man, and to obey and suffer for his people, thus making a full satisfaction for sin and bringing in everlasting righteousness, rendering the ultimate salvation of the elect absolutely certain. (8.) That while the Holy Spirit, in his common operations, is present with every man, so long as he lives, restraining evil and exciting good, his certainly efficacious and saving power is exercised only in behalf of the elect. (9.) That all those whom God has thus chosen to life, and for whom Christ specially save Himself in the covenant of redemption, shall certainly (unless they die in infancy), be brought to the knowledge of the truth, to the exercise of faith, and to perseverance in holy living unto the end. Such is the great scheme of doctrine known in history as the Pauline, Augustinian, or Calvinistic, taught, as we believe, in the Scriptures, developed by Augustine, formally sanctioned by the Latin Church, adhered to by the witnesses of the truth during the Middle Ages, repudiated by the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent, revived in that Church by the Jansenists, adopted by all the Reformers, incorporated in the creeds of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland, of the Palatinate, of France, Holland, England, and Scotland, and unfolded in the Standards framed by the Westminster Assembly, the common representative of Presbyterians in Europe and America. It is a historical fact that this scheme of doctrine has been the moving power in the Church; that largely to it are to be referred the intellectual vigour and spiritual life of the heroes and confessors who have been raised up in the course of ages; that it has been the fruitful source of good works, of civil and religious liberty, and of human progress. Its truth may be evinced from many different sources.
Charles Hodge (2009). Systematic Theology Volume II - Enhanced Version (Kindle Locations 7155-7175). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.
My thunder has been officially stolen!
