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WHY CALVINISTS NEED MAN-MADE CREEDS Reason #1
In the third century AD, Mani announced that a gigantic angel had told him that he needed to merge the best of all religions into a new superior religion?Manichaeism, which became one of the world?s great religions, and survives today as Reformed Theology. The angel taught Mani, among other things, the doctrine of unconditional election.
Correctly understanding that unconditional election is a pagan doctrine, Mani?s new religion made it a part of the rejection of Christianity.
A century and a half later, the Manichaean philosopher St. Augustine, forced to convert to Catholicism (he never converted to Christianity) wrote a fairy tale account of his conversion and went on to became the greatest of the Manichaean philosophers. Believing that Christianity is an inferior religion, St. Augustine sought to merge the best parts of various religions into a new and better religion?Catholicism.
Augustine understood that statue worship, prayer to dead spirits, unconditional election, a powerful priesthood, and other errors are pagan doctrines, and he sought to blend them with Christianity. While rejecting unconditional election, Catholicism kept many of Augustine?s other pagan beliefs, making him a ?Doctor of the Church.? His defense of murder as a tool of evangelism is so brilliant that the Catholic Church used it to justify the Inquisition.
The first reason why Calvinists need man-made creeds?Because unconditional election is a pagan doctrine, Calvinists cannot accept the Bible as their only creed.
In the third century AD, Mani announced that a gigantic angel had told him that he needed to merge the best of all religions into a new superior religion?Manichaeism, which became one of the world?s great religions, and survives today as Reformed Theology. The angel taught Mani, among other things, the doctrine of unconditional election.
Correctly understanding that unconditional election is a pagan doctrine, Mani?s new religion made it a part of the rejection of Christianity.
A century and a half later, the Manichaean philosopher St. Augustine, forced to convert to Catholicism (he never converted to Christianity) wrote a fairy tale account of his conversion and went on to became the greatest of the Manichaean philosophers. Believing that Christianity is an inferior religion, St. Augustine sought to merge the best parts of various religions into a new and better religion?Catholicism.
Augustine understood that statue worship, prayer to dead spirits, unconditional election, a powerful priesthood, and other errors are pagan doctrines, and he sought to blend them with Christianity. While rejecting unconditional election, Catholicism kept many of Augustine?s other pagan beliefs, making him a ?Doctor of the Church.? His defense of murder as a tool of evangelism is so brilliant that the Catholic Church used it to justify the Inquisition.
The first reason why Calvinists need man-made creeds?Because unconditional election is a pagan doctrine, Calvinists cannot accept the Bible as their only creed.