Hyper-Calvinism is an offense to God, and it is an offense to any serious Calvinist. Yes, yes, I know, there are disagreements over just what hyper-Calvinism involves. Some have attempted to paint me as a hyper simply because I hold to a strong view, a modified supralapsarian view, in fact. But you really don’t have a lot of question about a real hyper-Calvinist when you meet one (and you won’t meet them witnessing to Mormons or JW’s or preaching on the duty of men to repent and calling men to Christ): the really hard-core, nasty, graceless ones will call you an unbeliever if you dare say “good morning” to an Arminian. I.e., they ask you a simple question: “Can an Arminian be saved? Are Arminians Christians?” If you say, “Yes, Arminians can be saved” they will tell you, “then you are not saved, either.”
On a normally quiet e-mail list called TULIP a hyper showed up to start spitting at me when Chris Arnzen posted an announcement about the debate on Long Island with Bill Rutland. It is odd: many of my Reformed brethren have commented that, in personal conversation, in our online community, in other forums, I can be very patient in trying to help a non-Reformed believer come to understand the doctrines of grace. But I have zero patience with hypers. Call it a personal flaw (I have many of them), but I just can’t stand hypers—they should know better. Part of it, of course, is the fact that I am constantly having to refute those who oppose Calvinism by painting me as a hyper, but part of it is just the incredible attitude of a real hyper. The Arminian, 99% of the time, is simply ignorant of the issues. The hyper isn’t.
Here is the last response I sent to that list. Enjoy, or not, as you see fit.
Anyone who says that people who believe in universal atonement are saved is taking sides with Satan, calling God a liar and is not a Christian.
Anyone who says that people who believe in duotheletism are saved is taking sides with Satan, calling God a liar and is not a Christian.
Without using Google or taking your eyes off your monitor, sir, do you know if you are condemned by that statement? Do you know what duotheletism is? It’s important. It has to do with the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and His person, all vitally important things, just like the extent of the atonement. So, are you a duotheletist or a monotheletist? Do you know? If we make such important, yet complicated, aspects of the faith the standard by which we know if a person is a Christian, how many people are Christians today, sir? I just said on my webcast that you draw the circle in such a narrow fashion as to have to stand on one foot to stay inside it yourself. So how about it?
By now you have probably looked up the term, somehow, and discovered that orthodox Christians are, in fact, duotheletists, not monotheletists, and that the criterion statement offered above is false. But the point would be the same if I used monotheletism. You see, sir, 99% of all Christians I know, who show significantly more grace than you do in their behavior toward others, would not know the difference between monotheletism and duotheletism. But they are still Christians, because perfection of knowledge and belief is NOT the standard of salvation: Christ is the standard of salvation, and the error you hypers make that will haunt you as you answer for it before God is that you demand of Christ that as Shepherd He only have perfect sheep—He cannot sanctify them and cause them to grow in His grace and knowledge—that passage means nothing in your system. You are like the Pharisees of old who were confident of their standing before God because of what they knew and did. Read Matthew 23 sometime, and look into your own heart.
James>>>
