It is generally a synonym. Some use it because they dislike being named after john calvin.
Yes, and some Calvinists, er, doctrine of grace adherents intentionally obfuscate their theology so as not to be too overt about limited atonement and/or unconditional election.
I ran into this at the church I had been attending for several years when the pastor took another position in another state and the church was interviewing pastor candidates. There was an open Q&A session where the candidate was very evasive answering questions regarding TULIP. I even asked him point blank:
Me: "What, if any, responsibility does the individual have in salvation? Can a person know that they are saved?"
Candidate: "You know the Puritans simply assumed that it was up to God to save them. They believed that they wouldn't know if they were truly saved until they died."
It didn't take a seminary professor to deduce his true stance, one merely had to look at his list of favorite preachers and theologians--Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, etc.
He was hired and shortly thereafter the choir was gone, the building was "modernized", Sunday night worship was dropped, relatives were hired into ministry positions, the name Baptist was dropped from the church name (though he said he would never do that at the Q&A session), the beautiful pipe organ was no longer heard, contemporary music was the only type of music heard complete with barefoot band members. I left within months.
BTW, 12Strings, I have nothing against contemporary worship music, but the way it was executed here was offensive to me.
