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In an age where to be Reformed is equated with an adherence to "five points," Dr. Muller asks the question, "How Many Points?"

I once met a minister who introduced himself to me as a "five-point Calvinist." I later learned that, in addition to being a self-confessed five-point Calvinist, he was also an anti-paedobaptist who assumed that the church was a voluntary association of adult believers, that the sacraments were not means of grace but were merely "ordinances" of the church, that there was more than one covenant offering salvation in the time between the Fall and the eschaton, and that the church could expect a thousand-year reign on earth after Christ's Second Coming but before the ultimate end of the world. He recognized no creeds or confessions of the church as binding in any way. I also found out that he regularly preached the "five points" in such a way as to indicate the difficulty of finding assurance of salvation: He often taught his congregation that they had to examine their repentance continually in order to determine whether they had exerted themselves enough in renouncing the world and in "accepting" Christ. This view of Christian life was totally in accord with his conception of the church as a visible, voluntary association of "born again" adults who had "a personal relationship with Jesus."

In retrospect, I recognize that I should not have been terribly surprised at the doctrinal context or at the practical application of the famous five points by this minister — although at the time I was astonished. After all, here was a person, proud to be a five-point Calvinist, whose doctrines would have been repudiated by Calvin. In fact, his doctrines would have gotten him tossed out of Geneva had he arrived there with his brand of "Calvinism" at any time during the late sixteenth or the seventeenth century. Perhaps more to the point, his beliefs stood outside of the theological limits presented by the great confessions of the Reformed churches—whether the Second Helvetic Confession of the Swiss Reformed church or the Belgic Confession and Heidelberg Catechism of the Dutch Reformed churches or the Westminster standards of the Presbyterian churches. He was, in short, an American evangelical.

You can read Muller's full article reproduced from the Calvin Theological Journal, Vol. 28 (1993): 425-33 over at the Riddleblog.

"Whenever you hear someone preach, ask yourself this question: Why did Christ need to suffer and die on a cross in order for this sermon to make sense? And pastors, it wouldn't hurt for you to ask yourselves the same question." from White Horse Inn.

What role do you think your temperament plays in determining your view of God and the kind of Christianity you live out?

Well, I'm sure it has a role. And I suspect that that's both dangerous and good.

And I suspect also that's why God ordains that there be a Body of Christ with members who are members of one another, because the way you're wired will cause you to gravitate towards certain aspects of God's being. And the way another person is wired will cause them, probably, to gravitate. And we probably need to see God through each others' eyes in order to know God as fully as a human can know God.

So I think I would want to confess right off the bad that it's influential, that who I am by genetics and by upbringing affects significantly how I see God and how I feel about God, and then how I draw inferences from God to living the Christian life.

So, having said that and owning up to how things are shaped by who we are, I want to say that my aim is to be as biblical as I can. In other words, to constantly be reading the whole scope of Scripture to see God for who he really is. And then listen to others to say, "Well, what about this and what about this? Are you going soft on this, or are you beating that drum too much?"

So my effort to save myself from myself in distorting God would be to just immerse myself in the Bible completely.

For example, whether it's by wiring or by immersion, when I'm reading these days through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, there are dimensions of God's authority and God's justice and God's fury in those books that I see and I want to own and not let anybody sweep under the rug.

Is that me? Piper really likes a big, strong, just, powerful God, and so he sees those things and he emphasizes those.

But when I read in 1 Thessalonians that Paul was with them as a nurse, like a nursing mother caring for them, and his affections were huge for them, or when Paul in Philippians 1 bases his whole leading first argument on, "It is right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart. God is my witness what affections I have for you. They are the affections of Jesus"—when I read those I say, "Yes! Make me a sweet, kind, tender, loving shepherd that can help a dying member die well and can have the little children come screaming to me after the first service at the North campus and glom on to my legs and say, "I love you little kids so much!"

So I want to watch God be all that he is in his massiveness and his tenderness, and let my innate bent be shaped by that.

So that's kind of a "yes and no" answer.

It's a really enlightening article and I just feel blessed and refreshed after reading it.

It is an error to think that those who flee worldly affairs and engage in contemplation are leading an angelic life... We know that men were created to busy themselves with labor and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when each one attends to his calling and studies well to live for the common good.

Woah ho ho, no escape! :P

1 hour and 21 minutes, no kiddin'. But persevere and you will reap the harvest.

"That's not what you mean, but that's the way it's coming out."

I still have nothing against the Four Spiritual Laws but I feel the full (or at least something to that extent) picture cannot be proclaimed in five minutes to an unbeliever and it be expected of him or her to start walking with God in repentance. Correct me if I am ignorantly wrong, but it seems to be that the aim of this evangelism tool is to "convert first, explain later". This process is wrong! It should be to "explain first, convert later (if the Holy Spirit chooses to convict the individual's soul in that point in time)."

What about justification? What about His wrath? What about propitiation by Jesus Christ? Yes, it IS TRUE that God loves us! He IS Love! But the focus is to be on Him, not on ME and the WONDERFUL PLAN OF MY LIFE! The focus ought to be on Him and His infinite worth and being and until we begin to desire to do that, we are quite far from being a Christian.

Being Christian isn't about being able to use the generous blessings of a loving god to enhance my living now; it's about seeing how blessed I am BECAUSE OF how CURSED the Lamb of God was in order that I may be seen legally as righteous before God. And if you truly understand how MUCH you have been forgiven, you will not want to carry on striving for your own idea of "a wonderful life-plan" and will strive to live a HOLY life.

It doesn't have to be WONDERFUL in the way you see it. You can have a life of suffering but because of holiness, you see and experience God, you will not trade that life for a bed of roses.

Martin Luther, the founder of Reformed Christianity, said this in his first of 95 theses:

"Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance."

If the whole life of believers should be repentance, do you think believers have time to work out their idea of a "wonderful life"?

For some the doctrine of election (God’s free and sovereign decision to choose a people for salvation from the foundation of the world-Ephesians 1:3-6) is an abominable thought that produces great fear and concern. However, I propose that a clear understanding of this doctrine should instead produce hope and assurance. Allow me to share some of the reasons why the doctrine of election is so precious to me.

The doctrine of election is precious to me because it is biblical. In a display of the Father’s love for the Son, He gives a specific people to the Son (John 6:37). This truth is evident in the testimony of the book of Revelation when it declares that the only ones entering the eternal heaven are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:27). John further testifies in Revelation 13:8, that these names were written in this book before the foundation of the world. In other words, one fruit of the Father’s love for Jesus, is our salvation. The Father made a free and sovereign decision to save a people as a gift for the Son and for His own glory from the foundation of the world (see also John 8:47; John 10:26-29; Romans 9:10-16).

The doctrine of election is precious to me because it secures my salvation. Jesus declared that all that the Father gave Him would come to Him and that He would never cast out any who came to Him (John 6:37). Jesus delights in receiving and keeping those whom the Father gives Him because He came to do the Father’s will (John 6:38-40), and the Father’s will is that Jesus not lose any of the ones that the Father has given Him but that He raise them all up on the last day (John 6:39).

The doctrine of election is precious to me because it encourages me to pursue holiness. Paul reminded the Thessalonians “God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13, ESV). The Bible assures us that even though now we are only gradually being conformed to the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), we will at glorification be completely conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).

The doctrine of election is precious to me because it is the basis for assurance of my salvation. Because God gives a people to the Son, and because the Son receives that people and keeps them, I am assured that I will never be cast out (John 6:37), nor perish, nor be snatched out of Jesus’ hand (John 10:28). Can you imagine such assurance?  The God who predestines for salvation (election) will insure that all whom He calls to salvation will ultimately be glorified (Romans 8:30).

The doctrine of election is precious to me because it encourages me to share the gospel and gives me hope for fruit in evangelism and missions. Not only does the Father give a people to the Son (John 6:37), and not only does the Son receive these people and keep them (John 6:37-39), but the Father also assures that those whom He gives to the Son will come to the Son. It is the Father’s will that everyone believing in the Son have eternal life (John 6:40), and these who believe can only come at the Father’s drawing (John 6:44, 65). Therefore, if the Father gives a people to the Son, and He assures these people come to the Son, then we can be assured that evangelism and missions will bear fruit (Acts 13:48), and we can find encouragement in our Lord’s words to Paul, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” (Acts 18:9-10, ESV).

Finally, the doctrine of election is precious to me because it moves me to make much of God through Christ (true worship) and little of myself (humility). May we understand election and may it strip us of personal pride and move us to worship the Sovereign Lord in all His glory and grace.

I hope you feel that hope and assurance after reading through this exposition. You may be going through the toughest of times but Paul has assured the churches in his letters that these were destined for us, that we may share in Christ's sufferings.
Of course you need to reflect to see if you're digging your own pit, but that's not the focus today. The focus in this is on Divine Sovereignty throughout whatever you have went through, may go through, or will go through.