Phil Johnson responded as follows:
Ack! Hyper-Calvinists to the right of me; Arminians to the left.
For those who did not pick up on it, “Iconoclast” is [name withheld–CD], one of the most extreme and vitriolic hyper-Calvinists in the history of theology. Normal rank-and-file hyper-Calvinists aren’t nearly extreme enough for [this fellow–CD]. He believes even an uber-high Calvinist like Gordon Clark in guilty of damnable heresy for daring to suggest it’s possible that some Arminians are authentic Christians despite their errors on the ordo salutis.
And what [this fellow–CD] is actually saying here is that by his way of thinking, believing that God actively makes people evil is as vital to the “gospel” as the doctrine of justification by faith.
No. Strike that. That’s much more important in [this fellow’s–CD] belief system than justification by faith, judging from the energy he expends teaching it.
Lord, deliver us from that kind of mindless, unbiblical extremism.
Anyway, hopefully, most readers will see from this comment-thread alone how prone certain people are to veer to one or the other of two extremes.
Hence my initial admonition.
Phil Johnson then closed the commenting, thus not allowing me to respond. But I’ll respond right here:
The person and work of Jesus Christ is central to the gospel, which is God’s promise to save His people conditioned on the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. Yet the absolute sovereignty of God (which means that He absolutely controls all actions and events, including the sins of men and angels) is an essential gospel doctrine. If God is not absolutely sovereign, then He is not able to keep all of His promises, including the promise of the gospel.
Phil Johnson wrote that Gordon Clark “suggest[ed] it’s possible that some Arminians are authentic Christians despite their errors on the ordo salutis.” No, Clark did not “suggest it’s possible that some Arminians are authentic Christians.” He stated that ALL TRUE ARMINIANS are saved. Not that it’s possible, not that some are saved — he said that ALL TRUE ARMINIANS are saved. See [http://www.outsidethecamp.org/evilclark.htm].
As for Phil Johnson’s false accusation that I’m a hyper-Calvinist, please see the article (http://www.outsidethecamp.org/jameswhite.htm) exposing James White’s erection of the “Hyper-Calvinist” straw man as well as his hypocrisy in speaking peace to Arminians while not speaking peace to Mormons. This could just as easily be an article about Phil Johnson, as he is just another fashionable Calvinist.
Also notice that Phil Johnson didn’t address anything I wrote, including the Scriptures. He just resorted to words like “hyper-Calvinist,” “mindless,” and “extremism.” If you can’t answer, you just come up with marginalizing names. That’s fine — any of the readers who truly has God-given discernment will see this. Phil Johnson is only fooling the ones who are truly “mindless.”
Agrammatos 