What do Calvinists believe?

[Lik3]

I am just curious. I heard so much about them but what are their beliefs and why are they so controversial in the church?

 

[phoenixdem]

I am just curious. I heard so much about them but what are their beliefs and why are they so controversial in the church?

They believe in the sovereignty of God in the affairs of God's universe. They are controversial because their beliefs oppose what many others believe.

 

[Lik3]

Thanks.

 

[DeaconDean]

Subscribing to see the fireworks.

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[Keachian]

Calvinism from my understanding (a brief skip through the TULIPs)

Total Depravity - Belief in the inability of man to turn towards God
Unconditional Election - Belief that those who are saved are saved by the will of God
Limited Atonement - Belief that atonement is only for the elect
Irresistable Grace - Belief that no one can deny grace
Perseverence of the Saints - Basically once saved always saved.

The above is what is known as the 5-points of Calvinism there are also four point Calvinists and Hyper-Calvinists as two other common expressions, the most common is 5-point iirc.

The way I look at it is as a 5-dimensional spectrum between this and Arminianism and most of soteriology has Christians landing somewhere in this spectrum

 

[BBAS 64]

I am just curious. I heard so much about them but what are their beliefs and why are they so controversial in the church?

You will find your answers here from a Baptist point of view:

http://www.spurgeon.org/calvinis.htm

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bcof.htm

 

[ThatWhichIsnt]

Calvinist simply believe God is sovereign over all things, including the salvation of man.

 

[Osage Bluestem]

I am just curious. I heard so much about them but what are their beliefs and why are they so controversial in the church?

We are depraved since the fall, our nature is wicked and we can only will things within our nature = We need a savior, Jesus. We cannot obey God's law. [SIZE=+0]Total Depravity[/SIZE]

Before the world began God elected some to be saved based on his good pleasure and love at his discretion alone for his perfect flawless purpose alone because he always does everything the best way it could ever have been done = Why Christ died for us. What the Father did for us to adopt us into his family. [SIZE=+0]Unconditional Election[/SIZE]

Christ willingly died for his people because it pleased God that he suffer infinite wrath in their place = What Jesus did to make us right with the Father. [SIZE=+0]Limited Atonement[/SIZE] - [SIZE=+0]Best extrabiblical book on Limited Atonement Ever Written The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen[/SIZE]

Since we are by nature depraved since Adam we are unable to respond to the gospel in a positive manner. We can only reject it. So the Holy Spirit works a miracle of Regeneration and gives us a new nature that will believe and repent so as we come to the cross most willingly. = What the Holy Spirit does to make us right with God. [SIZE=+0]Irresistible Grace[/SIZE]

All God's elect will persevere because God said so and he preserves them forever in his grace and adopts them into his family for his name's sake alone. = What God does to bring the good work he began in us to completion. [SIZE=+0]Perseverance of the Saints[/SIZE]

 

[Osage Bluestem]

<staff edit>

Did he do it or not? A person only does what he wills to do given all of the options available to him.

 

[sheina]

Things Hard to be Understood
Matthew 26:39

&#8220;And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.&#8221; - Matthew 26:39

Our Lord referred to the awful burden of the sins of the world when He prayed these words. Never had He for a moment, from all eternity, been separated from His Father; and He knew that, when he bore the curse of sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), His holy Father would have to turn His face away from the Son. That is why there was darkness on the earth when He was crucified. That is why the Son of God cried out on the cross, &#8220;My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?&#8221; Yet all the while, from all eternity, the Son had planned to die, knowing that this moment of separation would come; for David prophesied this very agonizing cry hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. (See Psalm 22:1.) In that same Psalm David, writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, also foretold the whole crucifixion--&#8212;the extreme thirst; the shameful death; the scoffing; the pierced hands and feet; the broken heart; the casting of lots for His vesture--&#8212;all this is graphically foretold in this Scripture, which was written long before crucifixion was known as a means of execution.

The real agony of Gethsemane and the cross is found in the fact that our Lord's holy soul shrank from being &#8220;made sin for us ... who knew no sin&#8221; in Himself. Into this suffering we can never fully enter (Louis Talbot).

 

[GQ Chris]

Salvation is entirely a work of God.

 

[ChristianT]

<staff edit>

He did it because of both.

willing to do something =/= no reason to do something

 

[sheina]

<staff edit>

I believe both (willingly and obedience to the Father).

The "cup" must be interpreted by our Lord's own use of that symbol in speaking of His approaching sacrificial death Matthew 20:22; John 18:11. In view of John 10:17-18, He could have been in no fear of an unwilling death. The value of the account of the agony in the Garden is in the evidence it affords that He knew fully what the agony of the cross would mean when His soul was made an offering for sin, Isaiah 53:10, in the hiding of the Father's face. Knowing the cost to the utmost, he voluntarily paid it. (1917 Scofield Reference Bible Notes)

Matthew 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

John 18:11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

John 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

John 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

 

[Reformed Baptist 1689]

I am surprised how many people define Calvinism by the five points of the Tulip acrostic. That acrostic is of a very a recent origin, it is a100 years old at most. Yes it is a summary of the Canons of dordt, but again these canons are not Calvinisim, for they are a negative polemical tool - a response to certain teachings put forward by the remonstrants. They are not a sum of what the calvinist believes in relation to soteriology, they are rather five responses to certain specific objects that the remonstrants had against the biblical soteriology of the reformation. To defend Calvinism on the basis of these five point alone is to concede ground in the debate.

Calvinism is, at it's core, the biblical teaching of God's total sovereignty in man's salvation. It speaks of Christ Jesus' succesful sacrifice which actually acheives the salvation of all of God's chosen people. It sees God as the author and finisher of our salvation. It therefore puts man in his rightful place and glorifies God.

 

[Hammster]

I am surprised how many people define Calvinism by the five points of the Tulip acrostic. That acrostic is of a very a recent origin, it is a100 years old at most. Yes it is a summary of the Canons of dordt, but again these canons are not Calvinisim, for they are a negative polemical tool - a response to certain teachings put forward by the remonstrants. They are not a sum of what the calvinist believes in relation to soteriology, they are rather five responses to certain specific objects that the remonstrants had against the biblical soteriology of the reformation. To defend Calvinism on the basis of these five point alone is to concede ground in the debate.

Calvinism is, at it's core, the biblical teaching of God's total sovereignty in man's salvation. It speaks of Christ Jesus' succesful sacrifice which actually acheives the salvation of all of God's chosen people. It sees God as the author and finisher of our salvation. It therefore puts man in his rightful place and glorifies God.

Calvinism does cover more than the five points. However, what is usually discussed is the five points, and the sovereignty issue is the overarching theme.

 

[Skala]

I am just curious. I heard so much about them but what are their beliefs and why are they so controversial in the church?

Calvinists are simply Christians that believe a certain set of doctrines. All Christians believe in doctrines. For example, trinitarians believe in the doctrine of the trinity.

Calvinists believe in doctrines about salvation that other Christians do not believe in.

The major issue is that they believe God chooses who is saved (through the means of the gospel of course). The bible speaks of God choosing us an predestining us (Rom 8:29-30, Eph 1:4-11, etc)

Important to understand is that this doesn't mean people are saved who don't want to be. Nor does it mean that if a person wants to be saved, he cannot be, as if God didn't choose him to be saved.

But rather, if a person wants to be saved and believes the gospel, it is because God has chosen them for salvation.

In other words, whether you believe the Calvinist doctrines or not, the same group of people are saved: those who believe in Jesus.

Calvinists simply say that ultimately people believe in Jesus because God chose them to be saved. This, they believe, gives God all the credit and glory in salvation, and removes all grounds of human boasting, per the Bible's teaching.

Hope this helps!

 

[Skala]

I am surprised how many people define Calvinism by the five points of the Tulip acrostic. That acrostic is of a very a recent origin, it is a100 years old at most. Yes it is a summary of the Canons of dordt, but again these canons are not Calvinisim, for they are a negative polemical tool - a response to certain teachings put forward by the remonstrants. They are not a sum of what the calvinist believes in relation to soteriology, they are rather five responses to certain specific objects that the remonstrants had against the biblical soteriology of the reformation. To defend Calvinism on the basis of these five point alone is to concede ground in the debate.

Calvinism is, at it's core, the biblical teaching of God's total sovereignty in man's salvation. It speaks of Christ Jesus' succesful sacrifice which actually acheives the salvation of all of God's chosen people. It sees God as the author and finisher of our salvation. It therefore puts man in his rightful place and glorifies God.

Omgosh, it's RB!