Ron Henzel
Puritan Board Freshman
Has anyone heard of Micah Coate, or his new book, A Cultish Side of Calvinism?
It appears to be a self-published work (apparently POD), through an outfit called Innovo Publishing.
From his Facebook page Coate appears to be a thirty-something youth pastor with an M.Div. from Phoenix Seminary serving at the Vineyard Community Church in Tucson. The portion of his book you can read on Amazon contains the following disclaimer:
His web site is poorly designed difficult to navigate. Through trial and error I learned that you have to locate a frame, click on it, and then use the page-up/down keys to scroll down for more text. I have found arrow keys to be useless in three different browsers. And even then the page up/down keys can skip over a lot of text. Hence the only way to read all of it is to open up the source code page. The "About" tab contains the following text; I had to guess at where the paragraph breaks were in the middle of it:
His all-out assault on Calvinism begins in his preface, where he writes:
He obviously has no problem with placing Calvinism on a par with Mormonism, Scientology, and Jehovah's Witnesses, which should make one wonder why he would work in a church that doesn't see Calvinism in those same terms.
The book bears about a dozen endorsements, with Arminian Tim LaHaye at the top of the list, followed by Earl Radmacher and Paige Patterson. One endorsement comes from Fred Chay, billed as an associate prof of theological and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary.
Ron Henzel, Ruling Elder
Evangelical Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Cape Coral, FL
epchurch.net
readingscripture.org
It appears to be a self-published work (apparently POD), through an outfit called Innovo Publishing.
From his Facebook page Coate appears to be a thirty-something youth pastor with an M.Div. from Phoenix Seminary serving at the Vineyard Community Church in Tucson. The portion of his book you can read on Amazon contains the following disclaimer:
The views within this book are the personal thoughts and reflections of the author and are not necessarily representative of the present church at which he serves.
His web site is poorly designed difficult to navigate. Through trial and error I learned that you have to locate a frame, click on it, and then use the page-up/down keys to scroll down for more text. I have found arrow keys to be useless in three different browsers. And even then the page up/down keys can skip over a lot of text. Hence the only way to read all of it is to open up the source code page. The "About" tab contains the following text; I had to guess at where the paragraph breaks were in the middle of it:
A Cultish Side of Calvinism was first written for the purpose of clarifying Calvinistic theology, but Coate's research led him to the conclusion that it shares significant similarities to unorthodox Christian faiths.
Coate's scrutiny will prove to be biblically balanced and practically engaging for anyone remotely interested in Christian theology. As a pastor, speaker, and hospital chaplain, Micah has experienced first hand Calvinism's effect in Christian culture. He clearly writes how you can beware the pitfalls of Calvinism's overly systematized theology.
If the rise of a cultish theology grows within Christendom, so must a true discernment of its claims and consequences. The same standard that has placed Mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, and Scientologists outside the Christian camp of orthodoxy has now, for the first time, placed the theology of Calvinism as being too cultish for comfort.
Unlike any other book on the market, A Cultish Side of Calvinism not only shows that the theology of Calvinism is more systematic than biblical, but that it is comparable to almost any classic Christian cult. Most people know that Evangelical Christianity has rightly denounced theologies that differ in the essentials of the faith. Yet, due to its foothold on Christian 'orthodoxy', the theology of Calvinism has mainly gone unnoticed, leaving many young Christians unaware of the veiled and yet essential claims of their new found theology.
The September 2006 issue of Christianity Today sums up the previous claims that Calvinism is growing among a new generation of Christians. The story's very title says it all: "Young, Restless, Reformed, Calvinism is making a comeback - and shaking up the church." If the claims of this book go unchecked and Calvinism is indeed "shaking up the church", we should fear that it will tragically break up the body of Christ even further.
His all-out assault on Calvinism begins in his preface, where he writes:
First and most importantly, as we will discover in this book, the philosophy and theology of Calvinism are not, in fact, trivial diversities in belief and interpretation of God's Word but are monumental truth claims that pose a great threat to orthodox Christianity.
He obviously has no problem with placing Calvinism on a par with Mormonism, Scientology, and Jehovah's Witnesses, which should make one wonder why he would work in a church that doesn't see Calvinism in those same terms.
The book bears about a dozen endorsements, with Arminian Tim LaHaye at the top of the list, followed by Earl Radmacher and Paige Patterson. One endorsement comes from Fred Chay, billed as an associate prof of theological and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary.
Ron Henzel, Ruling Elder
Evangelical Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Cape Coral, FL
epchurch.net
readingscripture.org