Calvinism statistics

Hi Joman,

I would like to recommend a couple of websites to help you place "Calvinism" in its proper perspective:

http://www.apuritansmind.com/Reformation/ShortHistoryCalvinism.htm

http://www.founders.org/FJ19/article5.html

 

Also, here is a basic defnition from Nelson's New Christian Dictionary:

Calvinism System of Protestant Christian doctrine expounded by Calvin in his commentaries on the Bible and in his Institutes. Calvin himself held that the term Calvinism was a misnomer because what he taught was entirely biblical and not his creation. The bedrock of Calvinism is the Bible which, he averred, along with all other Protestant Reformers, was the inspired Word of God. It was also an infallible rule of faith and practice, the standard by which everything is judged and measured. The authority of the Scripture is based objectively in its divine inspiration and subjectively in the “internal testimony” of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is the only source of human knowledge of God, which comes through the direct revelation in Jesus Christ.
Calvinism rejects natural theology because creation is corrupt and conceals rather than reveals God’s redeeming love. Because of the discontinuity between the Creator and the creature, man’s knowledge of God is partial and clouded in mystery. Faith is the only bridge across this chasm. Implicit in this belief is the material principle of Calvinism, the sovereignty of God. Everything in the universe exists only through his providence and according to his purpose. His purpose is manifested in his sovereign will according to which he allowed sin to enter into the world and permitted Adam to fall while, at the same time, he planned the redemption and reconciliation of the elect through Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.
Calvin initially treated predestination as a mystery, but later theologians, such as Theodore Beza, made it a central aspect of the doctrine of salvation. As the struggle between the Son of perdition and the Son of God intensifies, God calls his people, the elect of God, out of the kingdom of this world into his kingdom. God bestows upon his elect the gift of the Holy Spirit, who brings them to a saving faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. After conversion, the elect grow in grace and in the likeness of Jesus Christ to be more and more conformed to his image in this life. This work is all of God and not of human beings. Thus the elect can never be lost, but shall persevere till the end.
As regards the Lord’s Supper, Calvin took a middle position between Luther’s concept of real presence and Zwingli’s characterization of it as mere symbolism. Whereas Luther made a sharp distinction between the law and the gospel, Calvin emphasized the continuity of the Old Testament and the New Testament, retaining the law as a moral guide for believers. From this position of God’s sovereignty, Calvinist ethics emphasizes human responsibility as a corollary. Human beings are the stewards of creation, and they also have the responsibility to serve and worship God. In a state of alienation from God, this responsibility becomes perverted and corrupted into a search for self-gratification, riches, and power.
After Calvin’s death, Calvinism was developed and more elaborately defined by a number of Calvinist theologians and councils. Perhaps the most authoritative document on Calvinist doctrines is the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566. It was summarized at the Synod of Dort (1618) in what are known as the five points or TULIP: 1. Total depravity of human nature, 2. unconditional election, 3. limited atonement, 4. irresistible grace, and 5. perseverance of the saints. Calvinism spread in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries throughout the Protestant world. In England and Scotland it formed the core of Puritan thought and the basis of the Westminster Confession (1648), and it was the basic doctrine of the Reformed churches in other parts of western Europe. It became the state religion of the Netherlands. Controversy over predestination led to the emergence of factions, such as sublapsarians and supralapsarians and antagonistic theological schools, such as the Arminians.
Among the great Calvinistic theologians have been Theodore Beza, John Owen, Thomas Boston, Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Kuyper, Charles Hodge, B. B. Warfield, and J. Gresham Machen. Extending beyond theology, Calvinism has exercised a formative, if often unacknowledged, influence on science, politics, poetry, visual arts, and capitalism.

Kurian, G. T. (2001). Nelson's new Christian dictionary : The authoritative resource on the Christian world. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Pubs.

 

Calvin was a fool!

 

Gee Terry, there's a telling statement.

How embarrasing for you.