Recently, I had someone ask me if I was a universalist. The reason for this question was that I rejected the primary premise of the doctrines of John Calvin. This belief system is often called Calvinism or Reformed. The premise of this belief system, Calvinism, can be summarized by one big idea. Salvation is the specific choosing of God before the world was created. Every child is born with a predetermined destiny. The elect are born saved and predetermined to salvation and heaven. All of the rest are born damned and predetermined to hell.
Not Calvinism = universalism and paganism is a horrible equivalency and false dichotomy. If thats the case, the everyone up until Augustine was a universalist.
Calvinist scholar Lorraine Boettner himself said that determinism didn't exist in the church world until Augustine - a former Manichaean and himself the weaver and sower of the belief system into Christian thought.
Calvinism speaks of bondage of the will, but it doesn't speak of the bondage of the mind and soul it brings - how do I know if I'm elect? How do I know it isn't evanescence grace and I'm really a reprobate that God allows to THINK is saved (Calvin's Institutes, sect 2 and ch 11 I believe).
Calvinism is full of what-ifs and ripping texts from their context to create pretext. Its a human philosophy, of which Paul warned against.
Not Calvinism = universalism and paganism is a horrible equivalency and false dichotomy. If thats the case, the everyone up until Augustine was a universalist.
Calvinist scholar Lorraine Boettner himself said that determinism didn't exist in the church world until Augustine - a former Manichaean and himself the weaver and sower of the belief system into Christian thought.
Calvinism speaks of bondage of the will, but it doesn't speak of the bondage of the mind and soul it brings - how do I know if I'm elect? How do I know it isn't evanescence grace and I'm really a reprobate that God allows to THINK is saved (Calvin's Institutes, sect 2 and ch 11 I believe).
Calvinism is full of what-ifs and ripping texts from their context to create pretext. Its a human philosophy, of which Paul warned against.