Three Leaves just like a real Tulip has
Three Petals (Not Fake Five)
- By James Sundquist
The Synod of Dort that launched TULIP couldn't even count. A
Tulip has only 3 petals not 5 (even ULIP is only 4). Holland
sells 1.5 billion tulips a year and there was not one wise among
them that would stand up in the council or ever sense and say
"Wait a minute, a tulip has only 3 petals, so why are creating
a fake flower acronyms of 5 points in TULIP?" If you are
going to practice numerology or magic arts, at least get your
figures right. So forget the Apostle Paul's warning about myths,
let's press on a perpetuate this myth until the Lord comes! And
forget Liberty in Christ, that Paul declared. Only difference
between Communism and Calvinism is one is Atheist but both are
Absolute Power which corrupts absolutely! Totalitarianism must
reign and Truth is disposable!
About three years ago after purchasing our house, after spending
hundreds of hours restoring the interior, we went to work restoring
the property and grounds surrounding the house. One of the projects
involved removing all of the brush, weeds, and poison ivy. We
even brought in a professional landscaper and crew to clear and
haul away all of the debris. But even after all of this work
and expense, there were still patches of poison ivy in various
places and on the adjoining properties. So I went to Home Depot
to get advice. They told me to get this chemical that you have
to spray on the leaves. Then you have to wait a number of days
for the leaves to change color, turn brown, dry up, and eventually
shrivel away.
-
- This would purge our property of
this threat. The poison ivy was easy to identify because of the
three leaf clusters, I learned when I was a kid growing up by
the woods in Oregon. Don't be fooled by this lethal trinity.
There it was poison oak. Some weeks later my daughter had a
friend from school come and visit her. They played in the yard
and hid in the bushes for fun. But one of these bushes had poison
ivy growing inside of the bushes, not readily detectable.
-
- At the time, I was not concerned
that the kids were playing in back yard. After all, I had cleared
out any danger of poison ivy, right? A few days later her face
turned red and starting itching horribly. She was in agony. So
we took her to the doctor and got her a prescription of Prednisone.
She eventually healed, but not without a great deal of torment.
This reminded of what happened to my mom when I was growing up.
We had chopped down all of the poison oak in the woods across
the street from our house. We gathered all together and made
a big bonfire. (Back then burning was allowed).
-
- My mom was not even involved in the
cleanup or gathering of the poison oak to burn. She was just
standing nearby cheering the family on and giving us all moral
support. But the smoke from the fire started blowing around her
and towards her face. And like with our daughter, no one was
really concerned or wary, even though we all had an almost reverence
for how wicked poison oak is. Well a few days later her face
and neck became as red as a radish and her whole head swelled
like a basketball. My father was a physician and immediately
knew that this was an emergency and took her to the hospital
and gave her Penicillin and antibiotics. She was in great misery
and we all felt for her as her beautiful face was all distorted
and she was in anguish. She almost died. It was a close call.
So I am very familiar with this evil.
Back to our home. One day, weeks later, thinking all of the
poison ivy had been eradicated, I went down to remove the remaining
weeds and roots still sticking out of the ground. The hoe had
poison ivy oil on it because it was on my gloves. But thank God
we remembered to scrub down the hoe. I even had gloves on and
a long sleeve shirt for protection. But while pulling, digging,
and hoeing roots were sticking out of the ground, one root sprang
loose and grazed my wrist…it didn't hurt and I didn't even
see a mark. I didn't think anything of it…just thought it
was an ordinary branch…and thank God it was removed so that
the entire yard looked great now. It appeared to be safe for
habitation, friends, and fellowship. But it was NOT an ordinary
branch, rather it was one of the remaining roots of the subterranean
poison ivy network.
-
- There was nothing the naked eye could
see to cause any alarm, even with my expert knowledge of identifying
poison ivy. Days later a nasty rash broke out on that very place
on my wrist and got worse by the day, that itched so badly, I
wanted to claw my arm off. Brother Jimmy at church, who also
once had a nasty battle with poison ivy, gave me some medicine
to clean and help the itching and burning. It was very helpful.
And I was very grateful for this gift. But the pain and suffering
did not disappear immediately. But how could this have happened?
I was so sure this dangerous threat to my family and friends
and clients that visit our house, was over. Boy was I wrong.
Scripture warns us that you can't get figs out of a thorn bush.
The reason is that the tree or vines can only produce what the
roots are:
"For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns
men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes."
Luke 6:44
It does not matter how much you till, water, fertilize, or
kiss (I pray that you don't kiss the leaves) the roots, it will
ONLY produce poison ivy. It will NEVER produce fruit that is
good.
-
- Though these are all true stories,
they are also a parable of what has happened to the church with
the root system of Sovereign Grace Ministries, 9Marks Ministries,
the Gospel Coalition, Biblical Counseling Coalition, Ecumenism,
Emerging Church, and Old Calvinism (John Calvin), Reformed Theology,
and New Calvinism. The root system of Sovereign Grace Ministries
is the shepherding movement. The root of Calvinism is Theocracy.
Combine the two, you have a demonic alloy of two metals that
are even stronger when these principalities are combined. My
term for this bondage and abuse of spiritual authority, poison
ivy must come. But failure to heed the warning signs is a dereliction
of duty of the watchman and steward, to be once informed and
then do nothing. But it is even worse to then blame the messenger
for sounding the alarm and defaming that person's good name and
reputation.
-
- So who is really the one who "troubleth
his own house"? The one who removes the roots of the poison
ivy, or the one who refuses to remove them and blame the messenger?
And God forbid that we should make a green salad with either
the leaves of poison oak or poison ivy and call it healthy eating
or give it to your guests at your home or church and called being
"hospitable to strangers" or those you compel to come
to your feast that you meet in the streets."
"Calvin is dead, but his legacy lives on to this day and
is still considered by many to be the Pope of the Reformation.
His DNA is to this day embedded in white supremacy in South Africa,
and yes the U.S., with people like legendary Reformed Theologian
Robert Lewis Dabney who stated: "colored men . .
. should not be ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry,
simply because they belong to the negro race."…1.5
million died in the Civil War, almost destroyed our country.
To this day churches are divided into black churches and white
churches, in spite of desegregation. The PCA states this about
Dabney: "PRINCE AMONG THEOLOGIANS AND MEN."
-
- Dabney was serving a prince all right,
the Prince of Darkness. And David Engelsma's denunciation of
Dabney in America would be found where? And had Reformer Calvinist
heirs obeyed Scripture to name names and mark them (i.e., Calvin),
it might have prevented or at least mitigated the plague of racism
in the name of Jesus and the spiritual E. Coli Bacteria that
spread worldwide, that Calvin was a great "servant of God",
or God forbid that we give him the title of Hero of the Faith,
as defined in Hebrews Chapter 11, or simply remain silent in
the face of his iniquity, as was the case in Engelsma's sermon
on Calvin in Angus Stewart's church. Regarding the Belgic Confession,
I find it extraordinary that Calvin and Calvinists would adhere
to the 5 Solas of the Reformation, one of which being Sola Scripture,
and even insert it into the confessions, but then add a whole
bunch more traditions of men requirements and thereby go beyond
what is written, condemned in Scripture."
|