J. I. Packer continues
:
In the first place, Calvinism is something much broader than the “five points” indicate. Calvinism is a whole world-view, stemming from a clear vision of God as the whole world’s Maker and King. Calvinism is the consistent endeavour to acknowledge the Creator as the Lord, working all things after the counsel of His will. Calvinism is a theocentric way of thinking about all life under the direction and control of God’s own Word. Calvinism, in other words, is the theology of the Bible viewed from the perspective of the Bible—the God-centred outlook which sees the Creator as the source, and means, and end, of everything that is, both in nature and in grace. Calvinism is thus theism (belief in God as the ground of all things), religion (dependence on God as the giver of all things), and evangelicalism (trust in God through Christ for all things), all in their purest and most highly developed form. And Calvinism is a unified philosophy of history which sees the whole diversity of processes and events that take place in God’s world as no more, and no less, than the outworking of His great preordained plan for His creatures and His church. The five points assert no more than that God is sovereign in saving the individual, but Calvinism, as such, is concerned with the much broader assertion that He is sovereign everywhere.
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I like the quote that Calvinism is “a theocentric way of thinking about all life…”. I believe that’s what ones worldview comes down too, either it’s centered around God and His Word, or about Man and his feelings.
I really like that quote too, debese!
Wow! Thanks for sharing this James. I have never seen Calvinism presented in this manner.
“The five points assert no more than that God is sovereign in saving the individual, but Calvinism, as such, is concerned with the much broader assertion that He is sovereign everywhere.”
Except of course in that little niche in my mind that I call my will
“As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore.”
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
David’s great sin was that he forgot this: that in Him we live and move and have our being. To the unbeliever this is a terror, to the children he has called by name, it is comfort. If I could retreat to that corner where it is without him, there I would find that I have been cut off from the land of the living. There I would be alone. What peace there is then to know the vail of ignorance has been rent and that we now have access, we are home, who would want to leave?
I have looked at the “L” and found myself amazed, for in it we find this omnicience which is never without his presence and power. This one seems to be the stickler, the stumbling block, but from it alone flows all else. To deny it is, when followed to its final conclusion, to deny the very God that saves.
Anyway, it has been, that when pushed on the meaning of God’s foreknowledge, it is here that the waters part. Woe, then to those who do not know the baptism of the Lord. Those waters mean death and not all come out of them alive.
[...] March 26, 2008 by thomastwitchell Packer’s First Point « 2 Worlds Collide [...]
Quinn: You bet! Look for more to follow.
Thomas: I love your humor, man! “Except of course in that little niche…” Funny stuff!!!