Goodbye Calvin, Hello . . . the Dutch?
So now what do we do without a Calvin birthday conference? I did think of one anniversary we could celebrate. This is, after all the 400th birthday of the Remonstrance. Think about it. Without those five points of the Remonstrance, we would have had no Dort, and no, centuries later, reduction of Calvin's momentous teachings on the doctrines of grace to that beloved Dutch flower the TULIP.
So let's get on with it, in the spirit of evangelical ecumenism, in the spirit of balance in the theological universe, if 2009 was the year of Calvin, then let it be in 2010: The Year of the Remonstrance.
The question is how do we celebrate? I spoke at a Calvin conference where they had a kids program complete with bobbing for heretics [apples] and another that had (my favorite) pin-the-beard-on-the-theologian. How, indeed, could we honor the Remonstrance?
I remember reading somewhere about the Flushing Remonstrance. Now that just sounds mean.
I think, though, it was an actual document that had something to do with the Dutch Reformed and their Quaker neighbors in Flushing, Queens, New York. So if we want to have the year of the Flushing Remonstrance we'll have to wait until 2057, when it turns 400.
The Dutch, apparently, like to remonstrate.
That takes us back to the Remonstrance. The only thing I can think of has to do with daisies. Have you ever heard the old joke? The Calvinist has the TULIP, the Arminian has the daisy . . .
He loves me, He loves me not.
All in jest, my friends--too much caffeine this morning?
Hope you have a blessed year ahead, despite Calvin's year being over, enjoying all the riches we have in Christ Jesus--including knowing that He is ours and we are His.
