Thoughts on Calvin?
Thoughts on Calvin?
he was certainly no Arminius
I think calling him Jean Cauvin gives him a little class. He could be the next Guenon.. who knows.
Don't listen to them, if you have a Calvinist discord please link me.
Calvin is the only one that unifies all of the Gospel knowledge into something that makes perfect sense. Parable of the tares + parable of the sower only make sense under Calvinism.
Excellent beard.
It should already make sense by saving our souls. That is enough. Even the simplest man can be sufficiently blessed. And Jesus told us ourselves that unless "we become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven". Nor is intellect or this sort of digging part of the process at all. It is spiritual. It is revelation of the Word and Spirit, with no part other than our own spiritual quickening. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
I'm of the belief that there is predestination however.. don't get me wrong. But it's a great mystery of God on how he works with our will. And we shouldn't focus on it. It's not edifying and has nothing to do with where our focus should be (namely, the Gospel or conducting the affairs of his church. Perhaps Calvin deserves more attention for his thoughts on these things, rather than the rest. I'm not a Protestant, but I do not like so much "noise" and innovation in the church, like he did. We should all become a little more stripped and primitive).
But where he was primitive on church government, he was not on theology. Like (scholastic) Catholics, Calvinists have a bad habit of simply not accepting Mystery (because Calvin WAS a scholastic at heart) and they mistake the Christian endeavor as partly being an intellectual endeavor.
It's all vanity. Know nothing except Christ crucified. And may we all have our intellects and egos crushed, when we ask "why" and "how" too many times. And then may we respond as Job did: "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth."
I've always wondered, why do Prots anglicize this Frenchman's name? Is it just that Dutch and Anglos are embarassed to admit they follow a Frenchman?
Moving post/10 tbqhwufam
People of every language refer to him by a transliterated variant of his name. The Italians call him Giovanni Calvino, the Spaniards Juan. Transliteration of names was the standard back then.
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong but is your overall point of contention about Calvinism is that it's too definitive and is a scholastic attempt at understanding the sovereignty of God? If so then I would reply that can Calvinism does not in fact give you a good and clear way to view predestination and God's sovereignty. You can be a Calvinist yet also believe in some form of free will. When Calvinist, like myself, say there is no free will what we mean is that there is no will that is free from influence and can be truly called free. We are all subject to our culture, bias and nature and the Bible talks about the helpless state of our flesh in Ezekiel 37:1-6