Pastor Cyril says:

I was asked by a sister why I am biased towards so-called 'Calvinism':
I grew up in the United Methodist Church, stayed there until I was 23 and then spent 17 years in a non-denominational quasi-charismatic Evangelical church. I then wandered a bit before settling in at what was at the beginning (at least in name) a teen pregnancy program. It was there that I received the remainder of my pre-Pastoral preparatory training. A dear friend & brother in Christ introduced me to Reformed Theology,  a.k.a. the Doctrines of Grace,  a.k.a. Calvinism in 2007, shortly before we were to start the Fellowship. It completely renovated my thinking, changed my view of God to the Biblical one and in the process radically changed my life. Hence my bias.

... In retrospect I was ready then, ripe as it were for the introduction to Reformed Theology, because having lived through the death of my Son in 2001, and the resultant pain and struggle with my faith and practice, I had found my Theological positions lacking, unable to sustain me, and patently unbiblical. I began to see that despite what I was taught from the pulpit, the Sovereignty all of God was in all things, and all circumstances and all over the Scriptures.

I know today that I have a grasp on what the Bible truly teaches about essential doctrines and I am humbled by, and better for it.

One unforeseen benefit/blessing of my embrace of the truth of Reformed Theology was, that since I had to accept the absolute Sovereignty of God in losing my son, I did not have too hard a time accepting the truth of Election. In that acceptance, I discovered the freedom from internal conflict re: The ‘morality’ of God, that it appears that many Christians and non-Christians alike wrestle with. I had already dispensed with the man-centered concept of ‘fairness’, in favor of the God-centered concept of Justice & Righteousness, but I realized in observing the struggles of others with the morality issue, especially in passages like 1^st Samuel 15, that this was not a struggle for me in the least.

Spiritual Blindness

So, one morning, I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine,

I mentioned in passing

(during a conversation about vegetarianism) that I was a Rastafarian many years ago, and was a vegetarian during that time.

My colleague said then that their spouse loves Reggae Music

I asked then, if the love was based in faith or music appreciation. My colleague stated that it was music appreciation, that their spouse attends many concerts, and Loves the Music. My colleague went on to say that their spouse is a schoolteacher and teaches the  students to say... JAH Rastafari!

Surprised, I explained that to declare "JAH! Rastafari"

is a declaration of the deity of Haile Selassie. I broke it down word-by-word, and making clear that it means “YAHweh/Jehovah is Haile Selassie!”

My colleague looked at me with this vacant stare, then said someting along the lines of

The spouse says that if Haile Selassie is watching over all those people (e.g. Rastafarians I assume) then he can watch over the kids…

Now, is that not a FAITH statement???

People blinded by the god of this age...

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. – 1 Cor 2:14-15 (HCSB)