How did you arrive at Calvinism?

I don't think I ever arrived at Calvinism, if you mean a follower of John Calvin.
I was raised in a free will church (what some coin "traditional" Baptist). I went to a college that taught unlimited atonement and praying the sinners prayer to "get saved."
God brought some significant grief into my life and because I thought I was the person whose words and actions were the reason a person would be saved, I was devastated to have my best friend die in his sins. I took full blame and refused comfort. I thought I had failed God and as a failure God must hate me. I was at the brink of suicide, but God caused me to just read the Bible.
I read Romans and saw grace. When I read Romans 7, I related with Paul. "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Then came Romans 8, that blessed chapter. "Thanks be to God, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
The phrase "in Christ" caught my eye. I wanted to study that phrase, so I got a concordance and Bible dictionary to learn what it meant. I looked up every place where the Bible said in Christ. From there I started seeing the word "chosen." I wanted to know more. The more I studied, the more I saw that God determines our salvation, but he uses Christians and the Bible to speak the message of reconciliation. The more I read scripture the more I saw God choosing from Adam onward. It was probably 5 years or more before I heard someone call me a Calvinist when I was talking to them about faith. So, I looked it up and what I read looked like what I had come to believe. Am I a Calvinist? I haven't read much that John Calvin wrote. I have read and listened to various pastors and teachers who are labeled Calvinists. People like John Piper, Alistair Begg and Voddie Baucham. I am enamored with the Supremacy of God and God removed all my guilt. I have been learning to say like Paul, "In everything I am content." I never thought I would ever be at this point. I thought I would be dead, because I thought I deserved it. But God...made me alive with Christ.
My favorite verse is this:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
~ Galatians 2:20

 

Careful reading and belief of the Scriptures, over a significant period of time.
It took a while for all of it to sink in.

I saw "eternal security" early on, probably in the early '80's ( I've been a believer since 1978, when I heard the Gospel in a "Traditionalist" Independent Baptist church during a revival meeting at the age of 12 ).

Then I saw individual election in 2003 after a friend of mine showed me three passages:
Romans 8:29-30
Ephesians 1:4-5.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.

I had been a believer for about 25 years before I saw these, due to my neglect of the Scriptures over that time period.

Added to that I found:
Psalms 65:4.
John 6:29.
John 6:64-65.
John 10:26
Acts of the Apostles 13:48.

and many others.

My favorite verse is in my signature.
But if I had to choose another, it would be the one @Particular has listed.

Like him, I've not read much of John Calvin, if at all.

I've only recently begun listening to men like Rolfe Barnard, DJ Ward, Voddie Baucham, Henry Mahan, Don Fortner and others on Sermon Audio / Free Grace Radio, and I find their preaching very refreshing in these last days.

But, I've never felt that I needed anything other than God's word, truthfully.
Preaching like these men do is simply icing on the cake.

 

I didn't arrive at Calvinism, I was brought up in it... I started going with my folks and family at the age of seven when they joined the church... I sat under this doctrine and heard the true doctrine of Sovereign Grace, preached from the KJV and joined the saints of God at the age of 22, and never looked back.

I never needed to search for the truth because I grew up in it... No one had to teach me TULIP because that is all, the preachers, preached... True Sovereign Grace doesn't allow for a works doctrine, no matter what any man says... God is Sovereign and man is not... Like kyredneck a good friend and brother said on here awhile back, until you understand Total Depravity, you will never understand TULIP... I've been Sovereign Grace and embraced TULIP for over 50 years... Brother Glen

 

Isn't the only true answer:

"God predestined me to be a Calvinist?"

 

"I was at the brink of suicide, but God caused me to just read the Bible."

Typical "Rock-Bottom Convert". Expects everyone else to go through just as worse and be just as worse.

So vanity and pride insists everyone else must be as depraved as they are.

 

Do you think this is what God thought of me?

 

"Please be a mind reader. Start with God."

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

What do you think? Was utilyan's thoughts about me what God thinks about me?

 

When I became a Christian I was in a segment of Christianity that treated Calvinism and John Calvin as "He who shall not be named." There was never any debate for or against the merits of Calvinism, just disdain and ridicule. This carried over to a Bible college I attended. I began to wonder what all these critics were afraid of. No debates. No wrestling with the text. Just condemnation. I began to ask questions about Calvinism and TULIP and was told how dangerous they were. Being told to avoid something without a reasonable explanation just increased my curiosity, so I began to study the issue. It began by reading the book of Romans followed by reading Ephesians. I never had a "light go off in my head" moment. My study of scripture began to increase my questions. Since there were no honest answers forthcoming from my pastor and deacons, I had to seek counsel elsewhere. Reading Charles Spurgeon had a tremendous influence on my thinking. Eventually, I saw the answer to my questions in scripture. Like Spurgeon, I began to understand the term "Calvinism" from a Baptist perspective. The term was synonymous with the Reformed view of predestination and election (a.k.a. the Doctrines of Grace), not everything else John Calvin believed. I became convinced that the Calvinistic view of predestination and election was what the Bible taught. The rest is, as they say, history.

The response to my theological change ran the gamut from disappointment to outright vitriol. While the resistance I received did not make my changed understanding correct, the fact that no one tried to change my mind by reasoning from scripture convinced me that they did not know why they believed what they believed. So, in the end, it was the study of scripture that changed my mind.

 

Oops...

 

But I know churches that claim to subscribe to the 1689 Second London Baptist of Faith and conduct themselves in a completely different manner. I consider them 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith to be a trustworthy commentary on the major doctrines and church practices found in scripture. It is not scripture and should be viewed as such. It is a man-made document that is a useful tool. Its usefulness ends there.