During my days of formal theological training I was approached by a fellow seminarian and asked, “Are you a follower of John Calvin?” I replied, without hesitation, “No, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is my Savior, who died for the forgiveness of my sins. Calvin didn’t do that, nor could he, but he is my brother in Christ and I agree with him on many things.” Over the years I’ve heard various people say that “Calvinists” do not believe in evangelism or missions and that they gleefully anticipate Hell being lit with the souls of babies. I would reply, without hesitation, that if Calvinists believe those things then I am definitely not a Calvinist.
So, what do I believe regarding “Calvinism”? Here, in part, are some things I believe. I affirm these five articles of faith (no, not those five):
1) God Has the Right to Condemn All
Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been His will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the Apostle Paul declares:
The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God (Romans 3:19);
All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God (Romans 3:23); and The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
2) God Has Manifested His Love
But instead of condemning all, this is how God showed His love: He sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
3) The Proclamation of the Gospel
In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends messengers of this very joyful message of God’s love to the people He wishes and at the time He wishes. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless they have been sent? (Romans 10:14-15).
4) Responding to the Gospel
God’s anger remains on those who do not believe this gospel. But those who do accept it and embrace Jesus the Savior with a true and living faith are delivered through Him from God’s anger and from destruction, and receive the gift of eternal life.
5) The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith
The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not at all in God, but in human beings. Faith in Jesus Christ, however, and salvation through him is a free gift of God. As Scripture says, It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). Likewise: It has been freely given to you to believe in Christ (Philippians 1:29).
Poor Calvin.
It’s a weird phenomenon, at times folks have to distance themselves from him to shed the myth that we got our slooge from Calvin.
There’s a fine line. We love and respect the man and he was greatness. But, we got our doctrine from the same place he did, the Bible.
I’m sure he’d not be a fan in the least of folks calling the theology in question “Calvinsim.” Of course, Spurgeon said that’s just a nickname for The Gospel, but “Calvinism” is such a loaded term that it’s natural to shy away, especially when so many never actually read Calvin anyway.
I like the slooge you mentioned. I hope that doesn’t make me a Galyonist or a follower of James Galyon, since He didn’t die on the cross for me.
Nonetheless, I like the Five Points of Galyonism … very much.
The points of Galyonism will be given in a post sometime in the future, perhaps. The five articles / affirmations are not the “Five Points of Galyonism,” however.
Their origin will be discussed in upcoming posts.
The oddity of it is that we have been told not to follow the traditions of men, but that is precisely what the modern Reformed do, is follow the traditions of men, men like Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, Arminius etc., and not to His Church. The admonition was not to follow tradition, but not to follow the traditions of men.