TEMPLE—Austin Fischer became a Calvinist because his reading of the
Bible offered him no other choice. He left Calvinism when he could not
reconcile its tenets with the self-sacrificial love God demonstrated on
the cross of Jesus Christ.
Fischer,
teaching pastor at Vista Community Church, a Baptist General Convention
of Texas-affiliated congregation in Temple, wrote about his spiritual
journey in Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed: Black Holes, Love and a Journey in and out of Calvinism. He is a graduate of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.
Like many young evangelicals, the writing of John Piper provided
Fischer’s introduction to Calvinism—a system of theology inspired by
Reformer John Calvin that emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the
depravity of humanity and the predestined election of some to salvation
and others to damnation.
As a teenager, Fischer lost interest in the “narcissistic” and
shallow idea that Christianity existed just to provide him security and
make him feel good, he said. So, his youth minister at Denman Avenue
Baptist Church in Lufkin suggested he read Piper’s book, Desiring God. Continue at Ken Camp
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