A Recovering Calvinist Reads Romans 9 Again | Jason Logoluso

Lesson Transcript

If you're not aware, when you talk to a Calvinist—or if you've been one yourself, like me, I would call myself a recovering Calvinist—I'm now able to read Romans 9 without anxiety or any kind of, um, raise in my blood pressure. O Lord, restore your ancient ways, and make your people new. Well, it's been a blessing to be here. I want to thank all the brothers that have prepared and presented, and the fellowship has been really encouraging.

So, what I'm going to talk about is something that's a bit more on a personal level: how the early Christian writings have helped me understand the Scriptures. Not so much as a presentation, but how has it impacted my life. Now, maybe like a lot of you, I was the type of Christian that couldn't care less about church history, very ignorant of it, and probably thought, without realizing it, that we know more anyway in our day than the people in the past, so why look into it.

What actually brought me first to the early Christians, after leaving the Pentecostal church and wanting to see what was—what was true of the faith, what did I really believe, it definitely got us thinking along the lines of, what was the historic faith, or what was Christianity like. We had this crazy idea that if something was taught from the beginning, then maybe it is something we should follow, and maybe it would be what the Scriptures taught.

So what the topic that actually got me to look at the early Christian writings was Calvinism. I had gone from Pentecostalism, and you probably could figure out I was pretty ripe for something like Calvinism, jumping into that. And I was a bit skeptical if this was really true, but again, that same reasoning that I've heard, uh, later would hear from David Brousseau over years and years and years, that if it's taught in the beginning, we should really take that seriously. And it—it definitely helped me out.

But trying to make the early Christians into Calvinist—into Calvinists was very, very difficult. If anybody's ever looked at that topic, um, maybe heard a message on that, or studied it themselves, there's a pesky phrase that kept popping up, and it's two-word, I'm sure you can all figure out what it is. It's "free will." That is throughout. You read that early on. But like a good Calvinist, when I would see words like "elect," first—first book I believe I read was—or letter was Clement of Rome.

It's the first one in the first volume. Many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with that. He addresses the church as the elect. And oh, there they are. They're—they're Calvinists. That must mean they—that they're teaching predestination in the way that Calvinists teach. If you're not aware, when you talk to a Calvinist, or if you've been one yourself, like me, I would call myself a recovering Calvinist. I'm now able to read Romans 9 without anxiety or any kind of, um, raise in my blood pressure.

When you—when you, again, talk to somebody like that, when they see the word "election," they're thinking predestination. And I remember it was a message on free will, what the early Christians believed on free will and predestination. I believe it was in that message that heard Brother David teach, that brought out this point, that election and predestination are two different things. They're not the same. I didn't realize that I was reading that into the text, into the Scriptures.

So when I think about how the early Christians help our understanding of the Scriptures, there's many different ways that that—that we can talk about that. But personally, what I notice is they don't read Scriptures or interpret them in a vacuum. And that's been said today, but not necessarily maybe those exact words. When they're interpreting a verse in the Bible or a passage, they have the whole context of whatever that topic is in their minds.

It's not just simply, okay, here's one verse, and let's focus on that only, and come up with some idea or teaching. Not only are they drawing all the verses from the New Testament, but if applicable, they're bringing in the Old Testament, which was definitely a new thought to me. I can say one of the biggest influences the early Christians had on me understanding the Scriptures better was how they took the Old Testament. When you can—you can sum it up as it's Christocentric.

It's not that every single verse is a direct connection to Christ. It's just that every single verse does actually speak about Christ. In other words, they're always seeing Christ in the Old Testament. That was a new—a new one for me. All the Old Testament Scriptures are pointing forward to the New Testament. In Romans chapter 7, Paul makes a statement that the law is spiritual. What law is he talking about? He's talking about the law of Moses.

I don't know about you, but reading through the law of Moses, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, very hard, at least in my mindset, to see any spiritual connection, anything I could learn there, uh, spiritually that had anything to do with the New Testament and what we're commanded by Christ. But wow, they go through so many different statements, commands in the Mosaic law that have a spiritual application for us today. And I'm sure you could look at those and say, well, I don't know, I don't really agree with that.

It seems kind of strange. It's kind of funny. My response would be like, well, do you have something better? Can you come up with some better explanation for why God put some of the things he did in the law of Moses? It's not just there, as Paul brings out in Romans 7, just for the people in the Old Testament. There are applications for us, and we see the apostles doing that today. I know I already mentioned this, but as much as people talk about the context—and I'll say context is king, right?

When we think about scriptural interpretation, different methods of applying a scriptural interpretive method—usually those are people that aren't really taking all the Scriptures in context. But when you actually read people that do that, the Christians in those first 300 years, wow, it really helps clear up a lot of confusion. Going to the teachings of Christ, um, again, not in my upbringing to think that we need to take the Sermon on the Mound seriously, that it applied to us today at all.

It applies today at all for Christians. But the way they not only took those words of Christ seriously, but made practical applications of Christ's teaching, completely changed my life. The early Christian view of the two kingdoms was a foundational pillar for me and my family and the others that were with us to have a clear distinction from the world. If your foundation of separation from the world is not based on the two kingdoms, I'm afraid it'll be really hard to maintain that.

Reading their writings didn't make us want to go more towards the world. It made us want to run away from it. Areas of our life that was fixed on wealth and pursuing riches, worldly entertainment, or modesty, all those things, when I read the early Christians' writings, they helped me see what Christ and the apostles were teaching to live separate from the world. I believe these writings helped ground us in the faith, um, especially for us being so spiritually deceived, not knowing which way to go.

I—I saw such an anchor into the faith that was delivered, once delivered, to the saints. So you may be thinking, well, we don't need the early Christian writings to help us understand the Scriptures, because we all have the what? What does everybody say? I heard it. Holy Spirit, right? John 16:13. However, Jesus says, "When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority." And I've heard that over and over and over. We don't need anyone.

We have the Holy Spirit. It will lead us into all truth. Now, no way am I saying that the Holy Spirit doesn't lead us and guide us and help us. But there wasn't a single early Christian that I could find that ever interpreted that verse to mean that every individual Christian will just only rely on the Holy Spirit to have understanding of the Scriptures or to know how to follow God. Christ gave his gospel to the apostles. They gave it to the church. That was, again, once delivered to the saints.

And I would encourage you all to reconsider that understanding of John 16:13, if that is how you've always looked at it. We hear it so much, you know, it's just this idea that it's just going to be me and my Bible and the Holy Spirit, and I don't need anyone else to teach me. I can just get it all straight from the Holy Spirit. Well, the truth is, all of us reach and grab for something to help us understand the Scriptures.

Passages that aren't clear, things that we—we may not quite know what Christ is saying or the apostles. And my encouragement, as it's affected my life in such a positive way, is to look to the early Christians, to see what they say about a given verse. Now, I would like to also suggest that you don't just stop there.

It's—nowadays it's not hard to look up a passage, type in John 16:13, for example, and thankfully, with the resources we have, and then see that understanding that several people maybe have commented on. And you can do that, and that's good. That's a good start. But I started asking the question, why do they come to the conclusions they do about certain verses or passages? It's really, really important, in my opinion, to consider that. What is their method for interpreting the Scriptures?

Why do they come to those conclusions? Again, we can memorize their—their answers, and I've done that, and, um, you know, shared those with others, which has been very edifying and encouraging. But why do they come to that conclusion? Again, they're taking the whole, the whole context of the Scriptures. I notice a theme, especially in the New Testament, but also with Old Testament passages, is that their understanding always points us to the narrow way. It's—it did that in my life. It's still doing that.

I hope it'll do that for you as well. The narrow way is not an easy way for us, but when we have the encouragement of the Christians that have gone before us, I know it'll strengthen and help all of you as well as it has for me. The early Christians have also helped me see Christ in the law, the prophets, and the psalms. Jesus said that to his disciples in Luke 24, that he would open their understanding to see him in the law and the prophets and the psalms.

And I just see them doing the same thing, just like the apostles did when they looked to those Old Testament passages. We've already heard a good message on baptism. Their understanding of it helped me just simply see the—the clear language of the Scripture. When I—I look at the topic now, it was such a struggle to get out of the view I had and to embrace what the historic church taught. But it's simply the words of the Scripture, which is so refreshing.

When I hear other people say, well, I don't know, I—I don't know if we should read the early Christians' writings or, you know, it—it makes us rely on them only. Actually, the opposite's happened for me. I've actually gone back to the Scriptures in passages that I never noticed, maybe a potential prophecy about Christ or something that connected the old to the new. I see it in a whole new, fresh way that is something I never noticed before. It's made me want to go to the Scriptures more. It's convicting.

It sure is convicting to read their writings and just know that they're just spouting out all these passages of Scriptures that I should know that I don't. Brother David also shared, I don't know if it was last night or this morning, but some of their explanations on the deity of Christ or the Trinity, however it helps you remember. I have never read or come across such clear teaching and understanding on that topic. It helped clear up all the confusion.

I'm sure many of you have experienced those battles with people. Jehovah's Witnesses, of course, is the most common one, and they're throwing out their verse, you're throwing back your verse, and it goes nowhere. It's never fruitful. Their explanations of how Christ, nature, and the Father, and how that relates to each other is hands down the best I have ever read that's helped me so much. I could go on about other ways the early Christians have helped me understand the Scriptures.

I hope that you will also look and take that challenge, if you haven't already, to look at their writings, to consider the method that they apply to interpreting the Scriptures. I think it'll change your life like it's changed mine. Thank you. O Lord, restore your ancient way and make your people new.