I stumbled across this site... (about Perseverance of the Saints)

BlackSaab52 said:

I'm a Baptist, but I've been looking into Calvinism for close to a year, and yes, I have discovered monergism.com, and I'm hooked on it, too. Another site I like is http://www.internetmonk.com; it's just a site with some interesting articles on the seeker-sensitive movement, altar calls, election, and a host of other interesting topics.

I do overall believe in the concepts of election and predestination (not just foreknowledge), but I'm not sure if I should necessarily adopt TULIP. I just don't see election explained this way in the Bible (maybe it is there and I'm just not seeing it). And I'm also a bit skeptical of Calvin because of the whole burning of Servitus incident.

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Constantine switched the Imperial patronage from Zeus, Apollo and company to the Christian Church and in doing so set into motion the institution that Luther rebelled against 1200 years later. There are several excellent books on the topic, I would recommend a set by Rodney Stark, where he introduces the motif of the Church of Piety versus the Church of Power and the entanglements and trouble this entails. For this discussion it is important to see the rise of an idea of Christendom or Corpus Christianum that looks at lot like Europe in the 16thC. Coupled with Augustine's doctrine of the two swords this was a most powerful motif that actually overrode many of the related and contradictory ideas from the Scriptures and is responsible for Calvin's behavior in the Servetus affair.

For Augustine's two swords theory gave a spiritual sword to the church but asked the church to refer the worst of the offenders to the civil state for execution by the secular killing sword. This is in fact what Calvin did as expert theological witness and preferrer of first charges; he was the representative of the visible church handing over to the state a dangerous seditious treasonous person.

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