If I cannot rely on the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Confession of Faith for the system of doctrine that is called Calvinism then where ought I to look?
Umm...you can. I would say you ought to look in Scripture (it is the main, primary, and most authoritative source), but that's obvious and...cliche...? And further doesn't every "system of doctrine" make the same claim to Scripture as the source? I can already hear "who's interpretation can we trust"? God the Holy Spirit silly, or does He only guide the leet?
If the above documents are a reliable place to look for a coherent concept of Calvinism why are you complaining when I ask about specifics contained in one of them?
For one, because you asked the questions to me in a personal manner, and you are digging into matters where there is room for, and is disagreements, and differences in interpretation, etc. Further, the sections you quoted, also just so happen to involve revisions of the WCF, to which you would further take the divisive route of which version do we refer to. I wasn't born yesterday.
Ought I to look only at "the distinctives" if I want to form an accurate concept of Calvinism? If such is the case where ought I to be looking for these distinctives?
Yes, you ought only look at the distinctives, the pillars of the Reformed faith to form an accurate concept of "Calvinism". Strange, I thought I answered the question already?!?
Will the documents you mentioned give me an accurate concept of Calvinism or are you attempting to send me down a rabbit trail where only a few distinctive doctrines are discussed and when I raise questions about the content of those documents will I be told that I have an incomplete concept of Calvinism because only a small subset of the system of doctrine that is Calvinism has been covered?
Yes I am attempting to send you down a rabbit trail, beware! Why do I sense an argumentative spirit? Are you arguing with me to try and derail the whole thread? I do not post in this sub forum to get into arguments, especially with a Roman Catholic. If you seriously are looking for answers, then stop arguing and do some reading, from books that explain "Calvinism". It's not as though they do not exist, it's not as though the question has not been addressed hundreds of times in this forum.
The thread is about common misconceptions and I want to avoid them. You offered a suggestion that I read the Three Forms of Unity and then the Westminster Confession of Faith as a starting point in forming a correct concept of Calvinism. I have read the four documents you mentioned. I've asked about two specific areas in the WCF and now you appear to be objecting to the questions I've asked. Why?
I have explained why in this response, and yes I offered them as a starting point, not the ending point, or THE ultimate point or authority, but as accurate and reliable expressions of Reformed Christianity they are, and within them a coherent concept of Calvinism, which today is mostly characterized in soteriological terms.
Now allow me to quickly show you something as an example. It is often thought that Calvinist deny "free will" but in the Westminster Confession of Faith we read:
CHAPTER 9
Of Free Will
1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined to good, or evil.
2. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God; but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.
3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.
4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
5. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone, in the state of glory only."
No honest person can after reading that, stand there and say that Calvinists deny "free will". The WCF is THE major, and has been an authoritative doctrinal standard of Presbyterians which historically in different branches represents the majority of "Calvinists".
Finally, if reading the confessions did not help you, and your search is sincere, then I suggest a book such as:
The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented which has been suggested previously in these forums.
