Theology Series - Doctrines of Grace - Introduction

Our church, Turning Point Community Church, in Palm Coast, Florida just started its first doctrinal theology series last night for all members. Also, if you are not a member of Turning Point but live in the Palm Coast area and would like to learn more about these doctrines, you too are certainly welcome and encouraged to attend. Anyone who would like to learn more about these deeper truths of God's word is certainly welcome.

This will be a 14 week doctrinal study looking at these controversial doctrines called the Doctrines of Grace or Calvinism. We are using notes obtained (with permission), from Riverbend Community Church's Doctrines of Grace class in Ormond Beach, Florida. This course has been written and taught by Dr. Roy Hargrave for many years and has been tweaked and revised many times in order to provide the serious Bible student with some of the most accurate notes available on the topic today.

So what I've determined to do here is to share with everyone a synopsis of each week's lesson. This will in no way be an exhaustive writ on each of the 5 points of Calvinism, as the volumes it would consume would be beyond anything I would be able to undertake here. Besides, there are many websites available that deal with this subject in depth and I will allude to a few of them as we go along in the weeks ahead.

If you're not from this area but would like to follow along with our text book and workbook, we are using the book, A Journey in Grace by Richard P. Belcher. Its a great little 150 page novel about a young preacher boy in seminary who is asked by a pulpit committee, "young man, are you a Calvinist?" He does not know what a Calvinist is and so is launched on a doctrinal persuit to find out what a Calvinist is. If you're interested in obtaining a copy of our materials, just shoot me an email at rdmoritz1@gmail.com and we'll make arrangements to get them into your hands.

Before we begin I just want to agree with the statement below that Dr. Hargrave writes at the beginning of his notes. This statement will also apply to what I write here. He states:

"I am convinced that the Bible proclaims forthrightly and clearly the vital doctrines of salvation. It is not my desire to convince you by the force of my commitment or passion for these truths. On the contrary, I believe it to be a dangerous proposition to believe what any man teaches (no matter how persuasive or passionate he may be) without a careful examination of the one revelation which matters - the Bible. If you are not convinced by the Scripture that the subject matter and contents of this course are true, then you must reject it as false teaching and eschew those who would teach it. But, if you are convinced that these doctrines are set forth in the Scripture, you should gladly acquiesce to God's Word. Those who would abandon that which they know to be true in the Word of God do so at their own eternal peril. May the Lord open our eyes to see the truth that sets a man free!" Dr. Roy Hargrave.

Because this post has been a "longer than I thought" introduction, I'll end here tonight and pick up with what we learned in our first class tomorrow. Until then...

God bless

Rob