Budge-
Hi there! Thanks for the questions, I'm happy to chat with you about it.
Im reading Dave Hunts book on it, well just starting. What Love Is This?
Dave Hunt's book is really a bad place to start exploring, in all honesty. I've liked some of his other works, but this one was really terribly done. He distorts Calvinism and attacks a straw man rather than really addressing his subject. There are other works that are similar. For example, I disagree with Catholicism, but I would never use Boettner's book on the subject because it's lousy scholarship. Same with Gerstner's book on Dispensationalism, it's dated and straw mannish. Calvinists sat down with Dave Hunt both before and after he wrote the book and explained to him the misrepresentations, so he really can't even claim ignorance... Millard Erickson, a non-Calvinist Baptist, does a good job in his Systematic of showing both sides, from what I remember. It's a very readable book that shows multiple views on most topics of theology.
Are Calvinists premillinial or amillenial?
This is really impossibe to answer. There are solid Calvinists of classical premillenial, amillenial and post-millenial belief. Even most Dispensationalists would come under 4-point Calvinism, historically. The evangelical Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Germans and Dutch Reformed would be generally amill, while Calvinist Baptists would /generally/ lean toward classical premill.
I know the Presbyterian church is Calvinistic, what other denoms are related to it?
There are Reformed people in virtually every section of Evangelicalism. Denominations which have a plurality of Reformed would include: Reformed Episcopal, Welsh Methodists, many Anglican churches, the Dutch Reformed, the Swiss and German Reformed, Reformed Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Conservative Baptists, evangelical Congregationalists, Sovereign Grace International, the PCA, the URS, the ARPC, the OPC, the PCRUS, many Bible churches, and others.
Calvinism was once the mainstream of belief in America. Yale historian Sydney Ahlstrom wrote that 95% of people in America at the time of the Revolution came from Reformed stock. When people talk about America's Christian heritage, it's largely a Reformed heritage. Every one of the Colonels in Washington's army was a Presbyterian with the exception of one man.
The rise of Arminianism took place through the 19th and 20th Centuries, so the landscape has changed a bit. But Calvinism still has a very strong presence in the US. And it's growing again.
And what does the Elect really mean?
The Elect are those whom Jesus was speaking about when He said "all those the Father has given me." The real drama of salvation is the Father setting apart and purifying a Bride for the Son. Those whom the Father has chosen for his Son, which is mentioned especially clearly in Romans 8, 9 and Ephesians 1, are the Elect.
Does this mean some people are LOST no matter what?
One thing that gets lost often in discussion about predestination and the like is that predestination and election condemns NO ONE. Men condemn themselves through sin and unbelief. No one ever goes to Hell because God made them. They go to Hell because they reject God's call to repent of their sins and turn to Christ. Men's hearts are blackened with sin, and their desire is to do evil continually. God twists no one's arm to make him reject Christ. We send ourselves to Hell.
People often act as if this second chance is something that is OWED by God. They often don't see that this destroys the very concept of Grace. If God's offer of salvation is an obligation, then it isn't grace. It's duty. God would have been utterly just to condemn all of us. It is amazing and glorious that He saves "many", given the depth of our sin, and the majesty of His holiness. I don't think we can really appreciate the awesomeness of our salvation until we get a vision for the depth of the sin and slavery from which we were saved, and the transcendent holiness of the God whom we have offended.
