Hot answers tagged calvinism
17
It should be noted that Luther and Calvin thought pretty highly of one another, despite their disagreements. Also keep in mind that when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door, Calvin was less than 10 years old. It must also be remembered that a lot of what is taught under the banner of "Calvinism" today was not necessarily taught nor believed by Calvin, ...
11
I think the issue here is that you are trying to examine one point of doctrine outside of the context of the whole system of doctrines that it fits into. If you take the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination by itself and tack it on to a generic pseudo-protestant view of salvation, you'll end up with a problem such as the one you describe. God becomes ...
11
First of all, Calvinists do believe in free will. This point is often mis-understood by non-Calvinists; but the position that men don't actually have free will and control over their own choices is not Calvinism but hyper-Calvinism -- a deterministic view that goes far beyond that of it's namesake Calvin and the general constituency.
With that out of the ...
10
This is a good place to start:
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous
deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. -- Isaiah 64:6, ESV
Btw, the Hebrew for "polluted garment" is more literally "menstrual rag".
But I think there is a lot of misunderstanding ...
10
What is the difference between the doctrines of “Perseverance of the Saints” and “Eternal Security?”
Put simply, perseverance of the saints refers to the Calvinistic view that since Christians are chosen (or "elect") by God prior to conception, it is impossible to lose salvation - if we have it, we've always had it, if we "lose it," we never had it to begin with.
Eternal Security (Also known as "Free Grace") is the view that once someone believes in Jesus ...
9
No. Even as a Calvinist, one has to understand that it takes more than one verse to put together a complete picture of how we understand salvation to work. The verse you reference in Timothy is indeed very helpful, but it really only proves the part about his purpose as the author of salvation was conceived before we were.
In order to defend the doctrine of ...
8
When the five points of Calvinism are looked at as distinct entities, then there does seem to be a bit of redundancy in there. Part of the reason, though, for that is that the five points are emphasizing bullet-point highlights of a comprehensive theology, and they were done so as a retort to the five points of Arminianism, which follows:
Five Articles of ...
8
It largely depends on which Calvinist you ask :)
The author of one of the more famous Systematic Theology works (can't remember if it was Shedd, Berkhof, or Hodge... I remember reading it in a defense of Classical Arminianism by Picirilli) said that predestination is not unto faith. This indicates that predestination is unto regeneration.
So what is ...
8
Martin Luther and John Calvin followed the tradition of St. Augustine in abhorring any theoretical belief in a state of sinlessness, whether for a moment, day, year, or whatever.
They seem to have regarded sinless perfection as the vain imagination of human pride and a result of our sinfulness. For example, commenting on Psalms 106:6, Calvin said:
How ...
7
Augustinianism is not nearly as specific as 5-points, Dordt Calvinism. For instance, I don't know of anyplace where Augustine specifically addresses limited atonement.
The largest difference is that Augustine held to single predestination (God chooses the elect, but does not actively reprobate anyone - he simply "passes over" them), while Calvin held to ...
7
While I agree with warren's answer, I do believe like Ray points out that this is mostly about the original sin, transmitted from Adam to all of his offspring.
Total depravity goes beyond that, as it states that we are not only sinners, but that we are not even righteous enough to accept Christ on our own.
On the fact that all have sinned, we can refer to ...
7
My Thesis
While you won't find many modern Calvinists preaching firebrand sermons of this sort, that has more to do with the change in American culture than with a change in theology. The point of the sermon is not to rejoice in the suffering of sinners, but to warn of the very real danger (under Calvin's theology) of falling into hell. Edwards was ...
6
In Calvinism, it's a paradox. God absolutely chooses whether a person can be saved, but a person is also responsible for his choice to serve and obey God.
Obviously, it's crazy to deny any free will at all - Christian or Non-Christian, we make choices every day, some good and some bad. Total Depravity tells us that we will always (and effectively this means ...
6
On free will, Calvin says:
"Free will does not enable any man to perform good works, unless he is assisted by
grace; indeed, the special grace which the elect alone receive through regeneration."
For him, there is such a thing as free will, but it is not necessarily the same thing as what others mean by the term. This quotation says that our ...
6
Unconditional Election refers to God's choosing of people to be the object of his grace or otherwise fulfill his purpose.
There are a couple of versus specifically that are associated with this.
Romans 8:29:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to
the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among
many ...
6
There are several scriptures that illustrate that God draws his elect to him.
These were cribbed from this site
John 6:35-37 States that those the Father gives will come to him. Not that they might come. That they will come.
35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will ...
6
The Westminster Confession of Faith (the doctrinal standard for many Presbyterians), Chapter III, makes it clear that at least one well recognized portion of Calvinists firmly rejects the claim that God is the author of evil (emphasis added):
I. God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain ...
5
The idea of Common Grace is that the grace of God is accessible and granted to all people (ie "common" to all people). This is different from "special" or "saving" grace in that special grace is extended only to the elect.
More clearly, it's the idea that there is grace available and inside everyone. It can be seen in such verses as:
Matthew 7:9-10
9 ...
5
An alternative interpretation of this passage is that it refers to corporate election. Corporate election is often used as an alternative interpretation of passages dealing with election.
It is the belief that God elected the Church itself to be the body of Christ and to receive salvation. For example:
For the grace of God that brings salvation has ...
5
According to most independent, fundamentalist Baptists, (and to the best of my knowledge, the groups that you mentioned) justification is a one-time event that happens at the moment of conversion, when a sinner repents on his or her sins and puts their faith in Christ for salvation.
This would be in line with a Calvinist view. Justification is a result of ...
5
Five Point Calvinism teaches is based on five key points:
Total Depravity
Every member of the human race is corrupt in heart, mind, and soul.
Unconditional election
God has chosen (solely of his own will) some for glory and some for damnation.
Limited atonement
Christ died only to forgive the sins of those who are called by his name.
Irresistible grace
...
5
As a Calvinist, I believe God's Sovereignty to mean God has actively decreed all that will come to pass, and has done so for His glory in all things. God knows all that will come to pass because He has determined it, however not in the passive sense like I determine the temperature of water by touching it. Rather, God has actively determined all that will ...
5
My friend and bible study teacher Patricia Peterson has written 2 wonderful books about the order of salvation/redemption history, election and God's decree. The Ordo Salutis (her 1st book) & Whatsoever Comes to Pass ~ The Absolute Nature and Precious Comfort of God's Decree. I pulled some of this from her 1st book The Ordo Salutis.
Faith comes from ...
5
This word is clearly defined here.
Basically Supralapsarianism is a big word meaning 'before' 'fall' i.e before the fall. Calvin was what many call today extreme Calvinists or 'High Calvinism'. It refers to those people who believe God chose who will be saved and who damned, sealing their fate, before Adam sinned. Low Calvinists just hold predestination of ...
5
With all due respect to Mark Hausam, the logic just doesn't hold water. That sounds like a category error.
Category Errors
These fallacies occur because the author mistakenly assumes that the
whole is nothing more than the sum of its parts. However, things
joined together may have different properties as a whole than any of
them do ...
5
To be fair to Calvin, why not go straight to the horses mouth. Calvin did not believe this kind of verse (1 Tim 2:3) implied God's desire to save every man. Here is where we discover limited atonement as proposed by Calvin and is various different ways supported by the most eminent Calvinists that have ever lived, including in my mind one of the greatest ...
5
Approaching the throne of grace is an inward action and would actually be a natural part of going to one's brother to be reconciled (perhaps along the lines of "Thank you God for bringing this issue to mind and please give me the proper words when I go before my brother.").
If one was coming before one's king, who is renown for his love of justice, to ...
5
Doing a little bit of searching through Christopher Hitchens' own book "God Is Not Great", he seems to be attributing this ditty to an English satirist. The reference is as follows:
Calvin's Geneva was a prototypical totalitarian state, and Clavin himself a sadist and torturer and killer, who burned Servetus (one of the great thinkers and questioners of ...
4
Salvation is absolutely of the LORD. In this text we see Christ revealing the true affection of this young ruler. While the ruler is convinced he's kept the law since his youth, Jesus reveals the true object of this man's affection, his possessions.
Calvinism, specifically the depravity of man, states only that man (left to his natural desires) will not ...
4
Romans 9:10
"as it is written, THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;" (a quote from the Psalms)
and Psalm 51, especially verse 5
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me."
are generally the first references for the doctrine.
God's reason for destroying the world with water in Genesis via the flood was that ...
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