It does not bother me personally, but others may actually read such misinformed opinions and take them as fact.
Judging by the things many non calvinists present, it happens way to often to allow it to go unchallenged
Not entirely related to your post PETE, but, I wanted to mention that if anyone is so vehemently opposed and angry over a belief system, chances are, they feel personally challenged by it.
Why get so wound up over a system of belief just because it's wrong? There are lots of wrong belief systems, more than we have time to fight... Why pick one in particular to dwell on and "hate?" My guess is anyone who does so, does so precisely because there is fear... fear that such a system may, in fact, be accurate.
Whether it's protestants who are hating on the RCC, cessationists hating on Charismatics, or Arminians hating on Calvinism, I think it all stems from a need to control what we fear will control us if we don't get it first.
I'm with John Piper, who emphasizes that it may take people years to come to believe these "truths" as I see them, or they may never arrive there in life on this earth. Although I believe very deeply in the basic truths behind the 5-points of Calvinism (without obsessing over the particulars of exactly how we define them to a T), I spent most of my Christian life believing in something else. I believed what most of the people I meet believe... that God gave us free will, that we freely choose whether to come to him or not, and then whether to follow him or not. I believed that salvation wasn't just the synergy of God and man working together in a sense, but relied mainly on the decision of the individual man or woman, whether he or she would choose to believe.
I believed like that for years. When I believed like that, I didn't run around saying "Man is sovereign!" or any such thing. I prayed, I talked about God's sovereignty, I read the Bible, I went to church, I worshipped with others, and all that good stuff. It's not like being an Arminian (believer in the necessity of man's own decision to come to God) made me a heathen or anything. Most of the people I met then and still meet today believe that.
However, it was a chance encounter with a friend that challenged me. What he said, although brief and limited, really seemed just so far out there that it couldn't be right. "What!?!? God chooses us? God changes our hearts, THEN we believe? Man, you got that backwards, dude!"
Sure enough, after a few months of searching through the Bible, interacting with other believers, and finally, looking at my own heart, I came to realize what I believe is the truth; that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. That, apart from the Holy Spirit coming into my heart and converting it from stone to flesh, I can't see and recognize Christ's beauty and acknowledge him as Lord. Only when God raises me from spiritual death can I do so.
I came to LOVE the book of Ephesians. I try not to play favoritism with parts of the Bible, since that is often what twists our doctrine and forms extremism, but I just can't get around how succinctly I feel the book of Ephesians tells us the story of who we are before and after Christ, and even a little bit of that moment when he comes to us for the first time.
Ephesians is, IMO, the most "Calvinist" book in the Bible. Other than perhaps the gospel of John and Romans, no other book is so clear to me about the truths of what has come to be known as the "5-points of Calvinism" or TULIP.
I'll be straight with you all. I've never read Calvin's writings. I don't even care to, and I probably never will. I know precious little about the man, and that doesn't bother me in the least. I appreciate the work he's done, at least I think I do, but I don't like to make any non-biblical figure a central person in my "religious life." I don't want to put any mere man on a pedestal of any sort, and I don't want to make a man a central figure in my mind when I talk about my Christian faith... except Jesus. With an exception for men like Paul and Peter, who are key figures from the Bible and helped write it, I try not to "centralize" any man in my doctrines.
So if you don't like Calvin, I don't care. If you can't stand a particular church, I guess it doesn't matter much to me.
What matters to me is that you seek the glory of God above any other thing's glory, and that we emphasize God's sovereignty and glory to the point that it's Biblical; no more, and no less. Though when it comes to his glory, it's hard to imagine emphasizing it too much... that just may not be possible.
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So next time you meet a "Calvinist" who takes the sovereignty a bit further than the Bible makes clear, cut him a little slack. Don't demonize him, don't label his beliefs as "evil," don't try to cast demons out of him. Try to recognize where he's going and what he's trying to do... Most likely, he's trying to fight a system of belief that he thinks robs God of the glory he is due, that doesn't ascribe to God the fullness of his sovereignty, and thus, doesn't ascribe the fullness of his glory. Even if he takes it a bit too far, he's got some very, very good intentions.
Oh... and remember... although we all fall short of this, NEVER forget:
2 Timothy 2:24 And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
Lord knows I've been there, I've been that contentious man who throws wood on the kindling fire... sometimes gasoline. It's hard to do in a theology debate forum, but if someone comes in with guns blazin' and talking trash about the other guy, Arminian or Calvinist it doesn't matter, he should be promptly ignored.
Even if it's me... ignore me. Don't feed the trolls they say, right? Well, don't feed the contentious man.
) through birth into a fallen world - Adam. Christ is our spiritual forebearer (firstborn from the dead/mortality) and offers the potential for all to receive this inheritance as potential in baptism (restoration) and the spiritual life.
