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Ask a Calvinist!

JM

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I wanted to start a topic to help explain calvinism, one that would allow people from 'other' backgrounds to probe a little. With the help of others on this forum (brothers and sisters, I'll need your help), I'm hoping we can offer a bit of an apologetic and a whole lot of Gospel. I've done my best in another forum (here ya go guys) but I find I have a hard time expressing my beliefs without getting bogged down...

Any starters?
 

cygnusx1

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Street Preacher said:
I wanted to start a topic to help explain calvinism, one that would allow people from 'other' backgrounds to probe a little. With the help of others on this forum (brothers and sisters, I'll need your help), I'm hoping we can offer a bit of an apologetic and a whole lot of Gospel. I've done my best in another forum (here ya go guys) but I find I have a hard time expressing my beliefs without getting bogged down...

Any starters?
Calvinism is a nickname for the doctrines held by most Christians relating to unconditional Election unto Salvation,which John Calvin,along with hundreds of other theologions/preachers held.

Those doctrines are also called the Doctrines of Grace.

Later (after the Reformation) those doctrines were ironed out at the Synod of Dort,which gave birth to the acrostic ,TULIP.Otherwise known as the 5 points of Calvinism.

T........Total Depravity of fallen man
U.........Unconditional Election unto Salvation
L..........Limited Atonement
I...........Irresistable Grace
P............Perseverance of the Saints.

These 5 points are not exaustive, they were written up in response and against the 5 points of Arminianism.
 
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kimber1

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gah i don't want y'all to think you're being ganged up and i ask this honestly b/c i was reading on the similarities of Calvinism and Catholicism last night but i remember seeing someone say they were a 14 point Calvinist. what is that?
 
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JM

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Carly said:
Okay, but I think our question is more of why does God want the Gospel proclaimed if it doesn't matter in regards to people's salvation or lack thereof?
For His glory, plain and simple. The better question is, why did God create man? It wasn't 'just' to redeem us, but to show forth His glory with creation. Keeping this in mind everything is done for God's glory...
 
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JM

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cajunhillbilly said:
Yes Calvinists try to win people to Christ. Why? Because God commands us to, and also because that is the normal way that God draws His elect to the Saviour, through the preaching of the Word.
I can't speak for cajunhillbilly but many Anglicans are calvinist and if I'm not mistaken, the 39 Articles (in the BCP) are calvinist.
 
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JM

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servant4ever said:
What is a 7-point Calvinist?

Hope this helps.
The "sixth" point, double predestination, is simply the flip side of unconditional election. Just as God chooses whom He will save without regard to any distinctives in the person (Ephesians 1:5-6; Acts 13:48; Revelation 17:8), so also he decides whom He will not save without regard to any distinctives in the individual (John 10:26; 12:37-40; Romans 9:11-18; 1 Peter 2:7-8). By definition, the decision to elect some individuals to salvation necessarily implies the decision not to save those that were not chosen. God ordains not only that some will be rescued from his judgment, but that others will undergo that judgment. This does not mean that someone might really want to be saved but then be rejected because they are on the wrong list. Rather, we are all dead in sin and unwilling to seek God on our own. A true, genuine desire for salvation in Christ is in fact a mark of election, and therefore none who truly come to Christ for salvation will be turned away (John 6:37-40).

So just as God doesn't choose to save certain people because they are better than others (unconditional election), neither does he choose not to save certain people because they are worse than others (unconditional reprobation, or double predestination). Rather, everybody is lost in sin and no one has anything to recommend them to God above anyone else. And so from this mass of fallen humanity, God chooses to redeem some and leave others.

The "seventh" point, the best-of-all-possible worlds, means that God governs the course of history so that, in the long run, His glory will be more fully displayed and His people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world. If we look only at the way things are now in the present era of this fallen world, this is not the best-of-all-possible worlds. But if we look at the whole course of history, from creation to redemption to eternity and beyond, and see the entirety of God's plan, it is the best-of-all-possible plans and leads to the best-of-all-possible eternities. And therefore this universe (and the events that happen in it from creation into eternity, taken as a whole) is the best-of-all-possible-worlds.

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/theological_qa/calvinism/seven_points.html
 
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cygnusx1

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Street Preacher said:
I can't speak for cajunhillbilly but many Anglicans are calvinist and if I'm not mistaken, the 39 Articles (in the BCP) are calvinist.
Indeed they are , though I have yet to meet an anglican Calvinist...:wave:
 
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cygnusx1

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Carly said:
Colacomb is a Reformed Anglican, I believe.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:clap:

I was confirmed as an Anglican and I am a Calvinist,but I find the whole denominational thing a bit :sick:

I think denominations are started by men,it is always the way of the flesh to divide and rule................rule what;)
 
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cajunhillbilly

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cygnusx1 said:
Indeed they are , though I have yet to meet an anglican Calvinist...:wave:
Hi there. :wave: I am an Anglican Calvinist. :priest: So is J I Packer. It is true that many evangelical Anglicans tend to be Arminian, but that is not surprising since the majority of evangelicals tend to be Arminian since that's all they know.
 
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