I have seen numerous examples of people abusing others in various forums due to their difference (or lack) of theological reasoning. Sadly, many of these people claim reformed doctrine as their own. Why is this? Have we discovered some truth that others just are unwilling to grasp? Have we found the true, exclusionary way to realize salvation? Are we now a step above other Christians? Has the realization that God chose us and set us apart in Him gone to our heads in such a way that we now have license to spiritually abuse those who haven’t come to similar conclusions? If you feel this is so, I have a message for you.

To be one of the elect taught in the Bible, you don’t need to be reformed. Believing in reformed traditions doesn’t ensure that you are of the elect. Is the theology of the reformation sound? Quite so! The truths I have labored to accept have brought peace to my heart the way no teaching has been able to do. My Bible has come alive to me once I placed God at the center and moved myself to my rightful place in my heart. I cherish the realization that I was set apart since before the forming of the world to be guiltless in the sight of God, but don’t look upon this truth as a reason to be abusive to those who disagree with me.

The first petal of the tulip should remind all who adhere to this doctrine that they are no better than anyone else. We did not find God, for He was never lost and even if He was, we weren’t looking for Him. Before our eyes were opened to the wonder and majesty that is our treasure, we wanted nothing to do with a God that had the audacity to make any claim on our self-worship. Through His word and by His spirit, we have discovered a truth that many (even many of those set apart) reject, but that is all. Even as some claim to have sole propriety over their decisions in life, the doctrine of original sin is one that is common to all. What gives us the right to proclaim someone a sinner or an outcast just because they don’t embrace the same theological structure?

God spoke and brought the universe to being. Just because an evolutionist denies this, does this mean that they do not exist? Adam spoke for us by choosing to find knowledge apart from the will of God. If someone denies this, does this mean that they are not infected with the same sin as you and I? God decided that I would be set apart as His. Was this not true before I was told about this?

Do you remember the discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees? They tested Jesus with the question of marital status after the resurrection and He corrected them.

Matthew 22:23-33
The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”

Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

The multitudes would not have been astonished had Jesus not understood the flawed teaching of the Sadducees. Doesn’t this mean that we have a responsibility to obtain some measure of understanding of things we don’t agree with, if for no reason than to be able to rebut what others claim? And Jesus answered with truth, not with malice. We all could learn from that passage as we discuss matters with those who we would like to bring to our way of thinking. All I ask is that we all consider the way Jesus handled the matter of differing doctrines. Jesus approached the matter with love and truth.

When reformed doctrine was introduced to me, it was done with love. A portion of this can be attributed to my own willingness to research the things I was told in my own Bible, but the fact remains that I was raised with a cocktail of doctrines that conflicted with each other, and most of these doctrines disagree with the reformed values. Thus, I hotly rejected what I was told until scripture convicted me. Had I been treated as some are treated in forums on the internet and other mediums I have seen, I never would have considered researching what was told to me.

Did you catch that last line? It was the Godly love of two men I am proud to call brothers that encouraged me to look into a doctrine that placed the emphasis on God and not myself. In examples I have seen recently, there is often no love expressed by reformed people. Rather we take our doctrine to excuse an attitude of superiority, as if by fighting this battle for the Lord brings glory to His name. Election should humble us, not allow us to raise our self-worth over another person, whether they are a believer in any fashion or not. Moving the center of the universe is a difficult thing for anyone to do. Let us not make it any harder.