Customer Reviews

Calvin on the Ropes

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This wonderful book reveals God's tremendous mercy and grace like no other book on Romans that I have ever seen. As a college student in the early 1980's, I almost threw away my faith in Christ because of a misunderstanding of Romans 9 and other passages. I could find no joy in a God who had no interest in saving everyone, let alone one who created people who would sin just so He could receive glory by destroying them (Calvinism). This book shows that God's power to save described in Romans 1:16 is the same power described in Romans 9. In fact, he says that this is the key verse for the whole book, and that Romans 9-11, far from being a parenthesis, amplifies Paul's thesis. Pastor Shearer shows that God's wrath and mercy are highlighted in the cross of Christ, rather than in the Calvinist view of reprobation and election. He explains that God's hardening of people is not to keep them from salvation but to help them see their need to repent. He also shows that God chose Israel, not because He has favorites or only cares about some people, but rather that they would be a channel of God's mercy to the rest of the people on earth (Gentiles); yet for the present time, those Gentiles who have trusted in Christ's death and resurrection as their only means of forgiveness are to be a channel of blessing to the Jewish people. What joy this book has given me! It makes me want to sing for joy because of such a wonderful God!
The author wrote this book with helpful diagrams and interesting illustrations from popular culture and literature. Besides being a blessing to someone struggling like me, a homeschooling parent could use this book for a high school elective encompassing the Bible, modern secular literature, and sentence diagramming for English, plus history, psychology and philosophy. He even helps the reader understand better the meaning and purpose of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, and his use of simplified sentence diagrams can help a student who wonders why in the world someone would ever want to diagram a sentence! With help, younger children can grasp the basic concepts, but the vocabulary in this book is geared more for college students. I found excerpts from this book at the authors website. I encourage everyone to read them. I am so glad Douglas Shearer wrote this book! I can't wait for the next volume!

It is of supreme importance for believers - and even the rank and file among the nations - to know this Reformation-Era disputation is neither inane nor irrelevant in today's world.

I rather conjecture that most will find Shearer's doctrinal deliberations a rather dry exercise having little to do with the real world; however, the stratosphere extends far and beyond the immediate troposphere but contains 90% of the atmosphere's protective ozone, though few ascend to its heights. You may not be aware of this exposure - but ignorance is no excuse to what makes the world what it is; and, they who bear the greater condemnation (i.e., the teachers among us), ought not to react cavalierly to so great an importance as this!

That said, this metaphorical elucidation by George Bellows wherein it would appear, that Jack Dempsey - though knocked out of the ring by Argentine Luis Firpo on September 14, 1923 in New York City - will be pushed back, with the aid of reporters, into the ring to finish off Firpo in the second round. Even so, will we ultimately witness the triumph of "sound doctrine" over the flurry of punches so powerful that they have knocked us Premillenialists out of the ring? Thankfully, we who report these matters on the ringside are determine to push Dempsey back into the ring to finish off Calvin's attempts to eliminate the true champion.

Five point Calvinism is NOT the final recourse to post-modern relativism.

Exposing the Calvinist nature of an indifferent God whose alleged harshness, void of mercy and love, is an inexplicable embarrassment embedded within the tulip fields of this theological rigidity, is Shearer's excellent contribution.

What tragedy is this: God's mercy and man's faith in the grand object of Life play but bit parts in the divine schematic? Gone are the imperatives of preaching the gospel - for the Almighty has destined those to eternal damnation; therefore, the Testimony of Jesus and the prophetic witness of the Last Days is made of none effect.

Finally, and conclusively, all traces of inner life and the inner workings of the cross of Christ, the transformation of the soul, the good fight of faith, the endurance and perseverance of the saints and, in sum, the overcomers within the churches, is made null and void as the God of Calvin transcends all expectations.

There's a reason why Time Magazine (March, 2009) names Calvinism as #3 on its list of the 10 most notable cultural influences affecting Americana today. I figure if Time Magazine took note--we better figure out what's going on here.

I say, may the Lord bless this effort to broadcast His truth through biblically-based and enlightened readings which point God's people to Christ and call sinners to repentance (Note: The graphs and charts within the text make it mandatory and essential to the understanding of the reader; thence, if you can - please read the text and diligently study the graphics - every thinking believer would do well in this exercise.).

Likewise, every died-in-the-wool Calvinist should note that their citadel of theological virtue has within its framework the seeds of eschatological disintegration and destruction - Doug Shearer has brought premillennialism back into the ring for a final knockout punch; we do well to witness, comprehend and display the profundities within the struggle and its final outcome - to which, we most certainly exclaim: TO GOD BE THE GLORY! - Doug Krieger/The Tribulation Network