Although I disagree on some or many points – small and large – with Arminians, Calvinists, Molinists, Provisionists, Open Theists, Catholics, Orthodox, etc… I still do consider them fellow believers in Christ.
Now you may have the same stance, sure… But I even won’t conclusively state that Unitarians, Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons etc. are not saved by their faith in Jesus (different though their idea of Jesus might be)! This is probably further than most of you would include under the biggest tent you have in your shed.
My stance is because of two things:
1) I cannot decisively say what the repentant thief on the cross or Naaman believed or confessed. If I can’t wring, say, Trinitarianism out of them… Then I won’t try to do it with anyone else. This sermon by Dr Heiser on Naaman is informative on this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHy1wLa0NwAnd more pertinent to our group in particular:
2) Sure, many of the people I mentioned say things about God and Jesus and other stuff I disagree with (sometimes vehemently): God was once a man, Jesus was a created angel, Mary is co-redemptrix and queen of heaven, God doesn’t/can’t know the future (or chooses not to, more acceptable to me), the list goes on.
But nothing compares, nothing is worse to me than saying, out loud and proud, that God is PERFECTLY PLEASED & PREFERS sin and evil and damnation. God authors evil, wants your suffering, decrees rape. God created billions for the specific purpose of unconditionally damning them to eternal hell – for His own glory & pleasure. God hates them. Jesus didn’t die for YOU as far as anyone can say with certainty. SOLI DEO GLORIA, don’t you dare object, WHOAREYOUOMANTOTALKBACKTOGOD, you worship your own pagan-goddess free will, you preach ‘a different Gospel’, you Pelagian Synergists think you can save yourselves, you reject God’s sovereignty for the same reason Satan does.
I strive for consistency. As a wise teacher once told me (but somehow fails to take his own advice a lot of the time), “Inconsistency is the sign of a failed argument” – James White.
And to be consistent, if I won’t cast out or anathemize Calvinists for all the above… Then I cannot in good faith and sound logic cast out anyone else I mentioned.
December 22, 21 at 4:25 pm
I however must disagree with the basis of your post…. because we cannot say conclusively that jw’s Mormons et al, have heretical doctrines, along with the deterministic God of Calvinism, that their mutual ideology of having a belief in Jesus prohibits us from judging each of the above on the basis of a consistent literal hermeneutic of scripture.
On the authority of Scripture alone, we can and ought to show how they all depart from what the bible teaches, and let God anathematize the heretics…