Monday, March 17, 2008

Brethren, we are not Muggletonians!


We ought to once again emphasise that Calvinists do not think that we can infallibly recognise the elect. The only person we know of in Church history who has claimed that power was Lodovic Muggleton (left), founder of the Muggletonian sect in the 17th century. The Muggletonians had nearly nothing in common with Calvinists, but they did hold that God's providence was not universal, so obviously they left a lot of room for free-will!
But then they also believed that heaven was six miles above the earth, that God had a physical human body, and that when Jesus (the only God they believed in) was on earth, he left the universe in the care and keeping of Moses and Elijah (they came down on the Mount to give their report to Jesus).
The last Muggletonian died in 1979, much to the surprise of historians, who had thought the sect already extinct. His family were quite shocked too, they'd thought he he was Church of England.

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