Yahwehist

I would most likely get kicked out of theological school for this because of my stance against the theological debate of calvinism and armenianism. I actually attended a Biblical College and in my introductory theology class we learned about these two sets of systematic theology and the basic beliefs behind them. A lot of the people that were in my class were calvinists and some of them were armenianists and you could sense a tension in the room as the professor was talking. There was something that was said that made me turn my head. The professor made the statement that "if you don't believe in Calvinism or Armenianism, if you don't agree with either of the systematic theologies presented, you are a theological idiot." If you haven't guessed yet, I would be a theological idiot according to my professor. Don't get me wrong, I love the man and he is an amazing man of God and is so knowledgable about the Word of God. But that day kind of shocked me. He is normally a very patient man and doesn't really make dogmatic statements like this one that he made. So, I started thinking about his statement and didn't agree with it.
The main reason that I don't agree with his statement is because John Calvin and Jacob Arminius are both men. Yes, they are great men of God and knew a lot about Jesus' Word and with their lives made huge impacts on people for Jesus. I praise God for them! But I also believe that they tried too hard to put God in a box with their systematic theologies by proclaiming to know exactly how we receive eternal life, if it is predestined for certain people and not others or if we choose it but also have the ability to lose it. Those are the basic points that other Christians argue about when these topics come up: Predestination vs. Free Will and Eternal Security vs. Falling from Grace. I believe that both arguments are moot. Predestination and Free Will are taught in Scripture, but we are too stupid to figure out exactly how to make them work. I also see that people that believe you can lose your salvation once you have it misinterpret Scripture, especially the one about falling from grace in the book of Galatians.

So, what do I believe in? What kind of theological system do I place my beliefs under? Yahweh's. Simply put, I don't follow what another man says about God, but rather take what God says about Himself. Yes, I believe there is great value in what others say and I also believe that there is truth in their arguments, but they are still men. They can mess up. They do not have all knowledge like Yahweh does. The first time I heard this term was in Bible College when one of my professors used it and said that we all ought to strive to be Yahwehists, followers of God and doing the things that God called us to do. What is interesting is to think about when the name Yahweh was first used for God's name. The name literally means "to be". God is ever-existing and is self-existing. He is always here, has always been here, and will be here forever. He is alive and works in this world even today in our messed up world. He is not a "lame-duck Lord". God is the ruler of all and has His hands in the events of this life. People ask "what about all the evil in the world?" First of all, to take a quote from one of Ravi Zacharias' friends when he was talking to his friend's boss, the thing we need to ask is, "what about the evil in ourselves?" Too many people blame God for the evil of this world, when it is really human beings that are messing everything up, just like we started doing since Adam.
Sorry, that was a little tangent. Back to what I was saying about the first time that "Yahweh" was used in Scripture. Yahweh sent Moses back to Egypt to free the nation of Israel. From this, we see that Yahweh is absolutely involved in the salvation of people and desires them to be free. Jesus came to this world to heal the sick and comfort the broken-hearted and to save those who are lost. Jesus and Yahweh are the remedy (to take the idea from David Crowder). As Yahwehists, we are focused on living lives that are pleasing to God and use our time to teach others about Jesus and live like Jesus and tell others about Jesus. We follow Jesus, not John Calvin or Jacob Arminius. They did not die for us and give us eternal life, but Jesus did through Yahweh's will.

With all of this said, I do read about theology and agree with some theologians on their own convictions of God and the way that He may work, but I always take God's Word over their word because they aren't perfect like Yahweh is. There are things in this life that we will never understand, like how Predestination and Free Will (which are both Scriptural doctrines) work together. I hope that I always stay away from arguments with my brothers and sisters in Christ about these issues because all it does is divide the Church. May we as followers of Jesus be much more interested in edifying one another and having uplifting conversations about our Savior. If exhortation needs to be given and the truth needs to be told to someone about their lives, do it in love and truth, but don't completely destory their spirit. May we work together to tell the world about the glorious grace and mercy and forgiveness of Yahweh through the wonderful work of Jesus. Father, help us!