Arminian To Calvinist, Calvinist To Catholic, But No Salvation

"They know not, neither will they understand; they walk in darkness." - -Psalm 82:5

Recently I read an article by Mr. James Akin, a man who has changed religions again. He first converted from Arminianism to Calvinism "because Calvinism traditionally has been found among the more intellectual." The purpose of his article was to help Catholics have a better understanding of Calvinism so that they might "help more Calvinists make the jump" from Calvinism to Catholicism. By a strange twist of logic,if not sanity, he asserts "a Calvinist would not have to repudiate his understanding of predestination and grace to become a Catholic." With such brilliant intellectualism, it would not at all surprise me if Mr. Akin becomes a Hindu next week and a Muslim the next. He may work his way all the way back to a totem pole within a decade.

What Mr. Akin has done is simply swap religions: freewill Arminianism for intellectual Calvinism, then intellectual Calvinism for ritualistic Romanism. Such conversions are well described by him as a "jump" from one religion to another. Like children playing with toys that never satisfy for long, grown men and women who walk in darkness and have no understanding in the things of God dabble in one religion and then another, never finding satisfaction in any.

Understand this - Christianity is not a system of religion! Calvinism is no better than Arminianism or Catholicism if your Calvinism is void of Christ. I am not interested in converting men to Calvinism. I want to see sinners saved by the grace of God, converted by the power of God to Jesus Christ the Lord. Do not misunderstand me. I have no tolerance for the freewill, works religion of the Arminian or the papist. I fully recognize that there is no understanding of the gospel apart from those glorious truths commonly referred to as The Five Points of Calvinism - Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. But salvation is not a system of doctrine. Salvation is a Person. If a sinner is ever taken up in the arms of Christ, he will never "make the jump" into the abyss of papacy!

Don Fortner