Since I know Calvinism is such a hot topic on this campus, I thought I would try to be of some help in clearing up any confusion about Calvinism. (Okay, so maybe I won’t be any help, but these resources will!) And since I’ve already been labeled the class Calvinist, why not be the one to share these awesome articles with you all? So here they are:

God’s Sovereignty and the Human Will
http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/articles/full.asp?id=110255
(A. W. Pink)
Practical Implications of Calvinism
http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/articles/full.asp?id=110222
(Albert Martin)
What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1985/1487_What_We_Believe_About_the_Five_Points_of_Calvinism/
(John Piper)

In Cicero’s work entitled On Duties, he names four cardinal virtues that he believes are to be kept above all others. These virtues are: wisdom, justice, courage, and seemliness. He defines wisdom as the learning of truth. He says that it is the “knowledge of everything divine and human.” He holds it in such high regard as to say that there is nothing more “desirable,” “distinguished,” or “worthy of a man.” He believes that everyone should pursue it. Justice, he believes, is the most important of all the virtues. Under this virtue, he speaks of social justice. This, to him, means that no man should harm another unless he has been provoked by injustice. He then goes on to describe justice as the keeping of faith and liberality. He adds that justice defies national boundaries, meaning justice must be extended to aliens and passing travelers in one’s country and not just the citizens of the country. Justice should be practiced by all of mankind toward one another. Courage is defined as greatness of spirit, and seemliness is also known as temperance or moderation.
The early church fathers exemplified Cicero’s four virtues in their lives and their deaths. They were committed to the spread of the Gospel and to stopping heresy. They were very knowledgable of Christian truths and the words spoken by Jesus Christ and the apostles. They meditated on these truths daily to the point where the Gospel was ingrained in their very being. Every breath they took was to the glory of God, and they never backed down from His Word, especially in the face of opposition. They were committed to excellent Christian living, which included justice and moderation. Courage was definitely easy to find in their lives as many of them were martyred for their faith. They stood bold in defense of Jesus Christ and willingly lost their lives for what they knew was the truth. Even those who were not martyred underwent severe persecution. Some were tortured, and others, such as Athanasius, were excommunicated a number of times.
Athanasius lived in Alexandria, Egypt, which at the time was the chief center of learning in the Roman Empire. He was noticed as a young boy by his bishop to have great potential in the Church. One day, the bishop looked out and noticed boys playing together. They were playing “church,” and Athanasius was performing baptisms. When Alexander asked him what exactly he said, it was decided that the young boy had actually performed legitimate baptisms! He grew up under the wing of Bishop Alexander, and when he died, Athanasius took over as Bishop of Alexandria. He went to school in Alexandria, which, as previously stated, had the best education in the empire. He learned not only the fundamental truths of Christianity but also all the other arts that were held in high esteem at the time. In other words, he was well-rounded in his education.
In his youth, a man named Arius broke off from the orthodox church and started preaching Jesus as a created being. Athanasius vehemently opposed this idea and fought long and hard against it. Emperor Constantine ordered a Council to come together at Nicaea to work out some sort of understanding among the Christians. Athanasius was the chief spokesman, and ultimately, the majority of attendants at the council agreed with his view. Thus, they wrote the Nicaean Creed, stating that Jesus Christ was not a created being but was in fact God come in the flesh. Some years later, after Rome acquired a new emperor, there was still unrest among the Arians and the rest of the Christians. The Arians still held to the belief that Jesus was created. Unfortunately for Athanasius, the new emperor sided with the Arians, and because of the former’s neverending arguments against this idea, he was banished from Alexandria. In fact, through the course of his life, Athanasius was banished five times, being called a “trouble-maker.” Nevertheless, he continued to voice his disagreement with this skewed version of Christianity.
As the Bishop of Alexandria, he was to send out an Easter letter every year, telling all the bishops when the exact date for Easter was that year. In these letters he was sure to include his arguments for Christ’s divinity. Because of his unwavering faith and relentless criticism of Arianism and other incorrect ideologies, the phrase “Athanasius contra mundum” or “Athanasius against the world” was coined. Certainly Athanasius was a man of great courage. He stood firm in his beliefs even when it meant being excommunicated for a fifth time. The persecution against him could have been much worse, considering what the earlier Church fathers went through. Even if he had been persecuted in a more violent way, we can be sure that he still would have stood his ground, and that would have given him even more confidence to stand up for the truth.
As stated, Arianism was not the only thing Athanasius openly fought against. His many writings include: On the Incarnation, Against the Heathen, Life of St. Anthony, Love and Self-Control, and On Sickness and Health, to name a few. On the Incarnation basically refutes the arguments of all of the various sects and religions of his time regarding Christ’s divinity, death, and resurrection. He explains how Jesus, as God, had to come in the flesh and literally die to save us sinful humans. There was no other way for our salvation. He refutes the Jews who are still waiting for the Messiah, saying that “no longer…is prophet raised up nor vision revealed among them” because Jesus Christ fulfilled the previous prophecies, thus ending the need for any more. In his other works, he writes on the high virtue of Christian living, the extreme courage of the martyrs, and God’s grace.Athanasius and the rest of the Church fathers really exemplified Cicero’s four virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. Cicero held wisdom in high regard, as it is also held high in the Bible. The book of Proverbs begins with thoughts on the subject of wisdom. It says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7, NKJV). The Church fathers were highly educated, especially in the Biblical texts and words of Jesus and the apostles. They lived their lives dedicated to the spread of the Gospel. They were strong and courageous in the face of death and all danger. They stood their ground and never once backed down from what they knew to be the truth. They knew that the Word is lifesaving, and shying away from it just once could cost an unbelieving listener his life. Athanasius especially stood out among these brave men and women as he fought hard against Arianism. Though he was exiled, he continued to preach the Gospel to everyone who would hear.

This book provided a look at war, the Crusades, and killing in the name of religion from a very different perspective than what we’re used to. The Caners recounted the long history of the church’s involvement with the government and showed the average Americans reading this book that we can identify with Muslims in this respect. The book begins by giving us a picture of “Tom,” a terrorist lying in the bushes, waiting for the perfect moment to rid the world of a few supposed Devil’s workers. Whenever we think of a scenario like this one, we inevitably think back to September 11, 2001 when Muslim terrorists attacked America by running planes through some of our most prominent buildings. Why did this happen? They believed it was justified killing. They were killing in the name of Allah and believed they would gain an eternal reward for it.
These unprovoked, heinous hate acts turn our stomachs, but one point the Caners make in this book is that, looking back at our own history as Christians, it shouldn’t be anything new to us. They go into detail of the church’s own horrifying cruelty to “pagans” and talk about how the stance on religion being a part of the government has been constantly changing throughout history. The early church fathers took a pacifistic stance on war. The first thing that comes to mind when talking about the early church is that it produced a lot of martyrs. Because the Christians would not fight back and were also immensely passionate in their faith, they were subject to tortures of the worst kind. The killers had no way of being stopped since the Christians obviously weren’t stopping them. Slowly, though, Christians became more and more involved in wars up to the time of Constantine, when the church leaders themselves were calling Christians to join in the fighting.
Then came Augustine. He took the middle stance in this issue. He was not for complete pacifism, nor did he encourage believers to resort to violence immediately all the time. Instead, he advoacted the position that we must try every possible peaceable option to work out our differences. If all of those have been exhausted, we may fight, but it must be jusitified and honorable. While this was a wonderful thought, like all thoughts, when carried out it was not completely followed. “The Just War criteria had been replaced by a theology of retribution.” This is evidenced in the Christian Crusades.
The horrors produced by Christians is staggering. It is obviously a very dark time in Christian history, one that we ought to be ashamed of but also must remember. Sadly, the Caners say, too few Christians even know about this. And those who do only know a very watered-down version of the event. The increasingly gung-ho attitude for the Christians toward violence led up to the climax of the Crusades, when the government was finally run by the church. So much for pacifism and the separation of church and state. Viscious killings commanded by the church continued as they tortured non-Christians, just as the enemies of Christians in the early church had done. Deception and trickery ran rampant in the church. The persecutions continued well into the 18th century and were finally defeated on a large scale by the Spanish Constitution of 1869. Of course there have been disagreements and persecutions between different religions and sects since then, but not to the same extent. The main point of this book can be summed up in this: “Though it took several centuries to completely remove church-state association and allow each to perform their function properly, it did happen. Vestiges of state-supported churches and the exclusion of dissenters from general religious rights finally ended. Much blood was shed, but not in vain. The men and women who gave their lives for the faith have not only been rewarded in heaven by the heavenly Father, they also gave us a gift which is priceless as well.” The Caners hold to the view that the church needs to be almost completely separated from the state. They say that Christians can take part in government, but the government should have no control whatsoever on the church. Likewise, the church itself has absolutely no place to make decisions in the government.
This book obviously had a lot of thought and emotion put into it, but it has a few weaknesses. It is apparent from their ad hominem attack on Martin Luther and John Calvin what their stance is. These two great leaders of the faith obviously should not have advocated murder in any circumstance. However, I think the message of the book gets lost in these ullustrations. The Caners wrote this book to define the relationship between church and state. In the instances of these two men, the government is not involved whatsoever. What was the point of inserting them in this book? Apparently just to slam them. Ah, the war of words. As Augustine would say, was it justified? In the same way, the Caners tend to lose their focus throughout a lot of the book. I often found myself asking, “What does any of this have to do with the separation of church and state?”
This book started out with good intentions, but the blatant anti-Luther, anti-Calvin, pro-Anabaptist speeches toward the end were just ridiculous and unnecessary.
One memorable quote that I just can’t neglect to put in here would be this one: “Whereas Luther’s writings changed a Church, Hubmaier’s writings – in due time – helped change the world.” Wow. So in the Caners’ mind, Luther’s contribution to the very practice of Christianity was insignificant? Ouch. And obviously this Hubmaier guy was infinitely more influential than any church reformer. I mean, look at the world! Everyone is Christian now!
*I probably shouldn’t be writing so sarcastically about the Dean of my own school…oh well.

In conclusion, I was not very impressed with the writing or arguments in this book. I expected a lot more from such prestigious professors.

I suppose it’s about time I finally put up my biography…wow, I’m bad.

I have two older brothers. The oldest is 10 years older than me, and he and his wife are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year! They have 4 children (Adam – 8, Jasmine – 5, Andrew – 3, and Michael – 1). Ther had another child, Joseph, after their first, but he died within a few hours of being born. Fortunately, we had known throughout the pregnancy that this was going to happen, so it wasn’t a surprise. My other brother is 3 years older than me. I love my family, expecially the kids!! I love being Aunt Stephanie!!

Well, that’s more than anyone ever wanted to know about me, but hey, this is my bio, and I’m going to tell you whatever I want!
God bless!

~Stephanie Brannon

I have two older brothers. The oldest is 10 years older than me, and he and his wife are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year! They have 4 children (Adam – 8, Jasmine – 5, Andrew – 3, and Michael – 1). Ther had another child, Joseph, after their first, but he died within a few hours of being born. Fortunately, we had known throughout the pregnancy that this was going to happen, so it wasn’t a surprise. My other brother is 3 years older than me. I love my family, expecially the kids!! I love being Aunt Stephanie!!

Well, that’s more than anyone ever wanted to know about me, but hey, this is my bio, and I’m going to tell you whatever I want!