What did it for me [Calvinism]

[SoliDeoGloria]

When I first became a Christian in 94 and before the notion of not having a free will just seemed rediculous to me. I had heard that there was debate over this issue but never really studied it until a few years ago.

I have read the Bible front to back about 6 times and during one of those times, I started to notice contradictions in the idea that God is sovereign and humans having free will. I then read a debate over the subject in two issues of the Christian Research Journal between George Bryson and James White and that was the straw that broke the camels back. The arminianist side seemed to have no more than putting down Calvinistic theology by trying to come up with what they felt was logical conclusions and John 3:16 was their only scriptural back up. The Calvinist side made what was to me an excellent explaination of their side with numurous scriptral refferences and gave a better explaination of John 3:16. After further study, Calvinism (at least the most popular tenets of it) just makes more sense philosophically and Biblically. Now, I would like to add that I don't agree with everything that John Calvin preached, take for example, what he belived when it came to infant salvation and I am actually embarrassed at some of the people that claim Calvinism as their theology. Take for instance, Harold Camping promotes Calvinism, and I think the guy is a complete lunatic and I am not ashamed to state that. I would highly recommend reading "Chosen by God" by R.C. Sproul gives a good explaination of what Calvinism truly is and what it isn't. Sproul does an excellent job of distinguishing between Calvinism and Hypercalvinism.

Sincerely,
SoliDeoGloria

 

[Mister Emu]

SoliDeoGloria,

I have a question, that I have wished to ask a Calvinist for a while. Do you believe that there are people who are good Christians, in all senses of the word, that won't get to heaven because they were not pre-ordained to go?

 

[SoliDeoGloria]

I have a question, that I have wished to ask a Calvinist for a while. Do you believe that there are people who are good Christians, in all senses of the word, that won't get to heaven because they were not pre-ordained to go?

In Clavinism, "a good Christian" who didn't get to go into heaven is an oximoron (or as David Letterman put it "a Jumbo Shrimp). If you can't get into Heaven, then obviously, you weren't a "good Christian"

Sincerely,
SoliDeoGloria

 

[Mister Emu]

Ok, thanks. The church that I goto used to have a preacher that was Calvinist(I was too young to remember), and I heard it said that he preached at one point that no matter how much you beleive in God and Jesus, no matter how good a christian you were, some people were just not predestined to goto heaven. Also on the reverse side, some people are predestined, no matter how much sin or blashpemy you do, to end up in heaven.

 

[SoliDeoGloria]

That sounds a whole lot more like Hypercalvinism which gets confused quite often with Calvinism, but is truly heresy.

Sincerely,
SoliDeoGloria