Today I got the privilege of attending a class on The Institutes.

I can’t begin to explain all the coolness and faith-building and eye-opening I enjoyed there.  It was like a cruise to the North Atlantic and seeing a beautiful blue iceberg and realizing that, despite the awe-inspiring view, there was a monumental bit more that was there, but wasn’t visible, its effects seen but not completely perceived.  I’m not sure as that makes sense, just as the mysteries of God are just that, mysteries.

So I’m just going to put my notes down here, including some of what was going through my head as discussion developed the ideas.

First off, the topics were:  Predestination, Reprobation, Eschatology and a bit of Ecclesiology.  Fer us disedimicated folks, them’s technical terms that cover Salvation, Damnation,  End Times and Church.

Second off, lemme add my personal view of how the title track could run in this session:

Predestination Makes The Claim That God Does Not Wring His Hands.

I stole that twist of phrase about wringing hands from the meta of Pyromaniacs, but am not sure where specifically.  Suffice to say I definitely wasn’t intelligent enough to come up with it myself and am barely smart enough to use it properly.

As advertised in class itself, Predestination “Exalts God and Humbles Man.”

Okay.  On to what stood out to me as important.

1.  Calvin put predestination sort of in the middle of his work.  NOT in the front or in the back.  In other words, he apparently went against his own movement’s trademark focus and seems to have made priorities higher than predestination.  I personally gather that he took predestination as a given, not so worthy of massive defense and controversy.  IMHO, that is, kind of like Paul and the others didn’t really spend all that time defining and defending and elaborating something that God set up and apparently worked just fine without our perfect understanding.

2.  Slightly important.  Predestination is NOT unique to Calvin.  You don’t have to be a Calvinist to believe in predestination.  Arguably, all of us Christians believe in predestination whether we realize it or not.

3.  Mystery part.  God elects based on his mercy and for his good pleasure and his glory.  Pretty sure most will recognize the source of this statement.  Though I’m not a catechism or creed fed christian, I sure find that the Bible agrees quite a bit with the idea here (maybe because it’s bible-inspired?), that God does what he wills and how he wills, period.

4.  Election, the idea of the visible and invisible church, regeneration and all that take the glory away from the institution, the preacher and the witnesses, putting it back on the One Legitimate Recipient.  Can’t claim credit for saving somebody if the idea of Regeneration-within-Election is valid.  Fuzzy to contemplate in my mind, this is, so I may not be too clear.  I am, however unstable in terminology, stable in conviction.

5.  Reprobation (which leads to condemnation).  God PRE-DECIDES who is NOT gonna make it.  That part is very shocking, was for me to actually encounter it today, but it’s completely sensible and in agreement with the above predestination idea.  Therefore, God reprobates based on his good pleasure and his glory.  Read the story of Jacob and Esau for context.  One he loved and the other…

6.  Eschatology.  Unlike my christian education in the past, Calvin deals less with End Times stuff.  He paid attention to that stuff that was really meaty, valuable and apparently (I need to study more) of more consequence in the Bible.  Resurrection.  He didn’t focus so much on rapture details, Armageddon and all that which makes us shudder and look for Tim Lahaye to hook up the prophecy trough.

7.  Ecclesiology.  There again, the election and regeneration thing came up, giving us the visible and invisible church.  NOW there is an explanation for PKs (Pastors’ Kids) and GUBAs (Grown Up Born Again:   Those who have been christians all their lives) and how they either fall away or experience a sort of “second salvation” in the non-calvinist christian communities.  Strangely enough, this doesn’t seem to be a problem with these reformed guys.  It’s just as dreadful or awe-ful as reprobation, the notion that God chose before the dawn of time who was going to turn from Him for all eternity, to consider that there are people IN the church who APPEAR to be regenerate but ain’t gonna make it.

And finally, so much of this is just. plain. avoided in christian conversation.  The idea that just maybe God had EVERYTHING pre-selected, from heaven-bound souls to unrepentant rebels in parish suit-and-tie to druggies; every one of us to our destination, is really un-hip conversation material. Also un-hip is sitting back and NOT digging holes to China in our attempts to discern the details of the mysteries and prophecies of the Bible.

So, really, my question is…

How come Everybody is more than a little interested in dissecting the mysterious future of God’s end-times schedule (seals and plagues and fire and brimstone and who is that antichrist anyway), with movie after movie and book after book, fiction and speculation and “fact” oh my.

Yet we won’t address the lack of understanding of the real details that count, like God’s sovereignty and how we can glorify him.  I think, based on how my awe of God is greatly increased after this morning, that we could all benefit greatly on learning more about how God glorifies himself and causes everything he has made to glorify him.  More glory to him when we understand better how he is glorified, right?

In other news, I’ve been going to counseling with my beloved.  We’re studying marriage.  I’ve been sick for a few days along with the mama and our Molly.  I’m looking for a second job (one of those part-time things to cover differences between Navy pay and the money we owe).  Molly is a High Schooler (!!!!!).  Joscelin, Bo and Gwen are all in elementary school with no problems and lots of excitement.  The world is sorta rolling along around us.  It appears we’ve been led to a good church, and that is cause for excessive thankfulness.