By Jordan Burgen
Question:
Just curious if Flatirons prescribes to a Calvinist or Arminian philosophy? I know this is way too "churchie" for flatirons but I am just curious. I am currently much of the Arminian philosophy but if Flatirons is Calvinist it will in no way affect my love of your messages and services. I love you guys!
Thanks for reaching out! I wouldn’t say that Flatirons prescribes fully to either one of those philosophies, but more of a mixture. We believe fully in the sovereignty of God, and that no one comes to the Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44) but we also believe that God desires ALL people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). We also believe people have the free will to respond to God’s drawing in the way that they choose (ie. Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden). We believe that God has predetermined the way to salvation (grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone) but we believe that he gives us free will and always gives us the space/distance to respond to Him (Adam hiding in the garden…hiding from Him or coming towards Him) in making our own decisions about whether we are to do that, even though in his sovereignty and omniscience, he knows what we will choose. We also believe that God, in His sovereignty, can choose for reasons beyond us to harden a person’s heart, as he did with Pharaoh in Exodus. In the end, these philosophies are man’s attempt to explain the unexplainable, and both will inevitably fall short. We do not use a person’s belief in one over the other to determine if they are saved or not. They are not litmus tests for salvation, and there are people that attend our church and are on our staff that
