We are not interested, they (Liberals) say, in many things for which men formerly gave their lives; we are not interested in the theology of the creeds; we are not interested in the doctrines of sin and salvation; we are not interested in atonement through the blood of Christ: enough for us is the simple truth of the fatherhood of God and its corollary, the brotherhood of man. We may not be very orthodox in the theological sense, they continue, but of course you will recognize us as Christians because we accept Jesus’ teaching as to the Father God….
It is very strange how intelligent persons can speak in this way. It is very strange how those who accept only the universal fatherhood of God as the sum and substance of religion can regard themselves as Christians or can appeal to Jesus of Nazareth. For the plain fact is that this modern doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God formed no part whatever of Jesus’ teaching. Where is it that Jesus may be supposed to have taught the universal fatherhood of God?
J. Gresham Machen
Christianity & Liberalism
Our current Alienist problem in the Western Calvinist Churches is a reflection of the decline of genuinely Reformed soteriology. Biblical and Historical Calvinism has always advocated for limited damnation (particular redemption), where Christ is put forth as a sacrifice for only His people.
If God does not restrict His love so that He loves all men indiscriminately then men must be pluralists and love all men indiscriminately. Holding to the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God over all men and the brotherhood of all men destroys what the Reformed Church has taught for 500 years and that is the idea that men’s affections properly run in concentric circles outwardly from close kin, to clan and then to nation. This is the destruction of family, clan, and nations as exchanged for the embrace of an abstract love for all mankind that applies to all equally. No historic Calvinist would have ever abided with such heresy.
The connection here is that as Calvinists become weak on Limited Damnation they become strong on the Liberal Doctrines of the “Fatherhood of God over all men,” “the Brotherhood of all men” as well as egalitarianism.
Opposition to Kinism thus is opposition to Calvinism.