Bernoulli and Calvin

Lately I have been consistently challenged by my dependence on Calvinist Teachers. Every week I listen to Mark Driscoll and Matt Chandler preach. In the last few weeks I have also been listening to a ton of Francis Chan Sermons. Chan isn't as "out of the closet" with his Calvinism, but there are many undertones that are still embedded in the way that he preaches.

I attend a church that is predominately Arminian, and many of the views I have adopted from these teachers are a bit foreign when I articulate them. I have to be careful to remove the Calvinist vocabulary or the topic can quickly descend away from the scripture at hand into a futile chicken and egg type discussion of predestination or the like.

If you ask a pilot how an airplane wing works, there are two acceptable explanations that you are likely to receive. One is the Newton explanation, which indicates the air hits the surface, and causes and equal and opposite reaction. Others will say that the air flowing over the wing has a to move a longer distance, and therefore becomes less dense. The relative vacuum pulls the wing up. According to most physicists, both are correct. It seems to me that we have a complicated system, that really cannot be easily articulated. Some simplify it, and give newton explanation, and other simplify it abstractly and give a Bernoulli explanation. I once saw a pilot explain how the rudder and elevator work using the Bernoulli explanation, and I was dumbfounded. It seems so simple to me that the rudder blocks the wind flow on one side, and there is an equal and opposite reaction that yaws the plane. But his explanation was that the wind on the one side had further to go, and therefore created a vacuum and pulled the rudder around.

It is difficult to explain how an airplane flies. It is even more difficult to explain how God changes hearts. When something is complicated we tend to build a more understandable model to make it explainable.

Without hacking all of the way through the TULIP, I simplify it this way: In many ways the Calvinists are much like the Bernoulli guys. God calls people. He pulls us to him. The Arminian are giving the more simple Newtonian explanation that we make a choice for God in reaction to our environment. Both are true. It is a complex system that can be modeled in many ways. Arminians remind the Calvinists of the importance of the great commission and Calvinist remind Arminians of the sovereignty of God. God keeps both around to keep the other humble.

All in all, I think the reason I tend to be drawn to the Calvinists preachers is because they are more bold. They are not afraid to cut people when they wield the sword of truth. When I study God's word, I want it to slay me. In truth, that is the only way I know that I am truly alive.