I believed God was sovereign over all His creation and a God of unfathomable Grace long before I ever heard of John Calvin. With what I now know about him and his "Institutes" and the divisiveness and division they now cause in the body of Christ, I'm thankful I never got sucked into that trap. Sorry...I know that is blunt but I have to say it as I believe it. I am sincerely sad that so many get caught up in that stuff. I have friends with whom it is difficult to enjoy simple fellowship with because everything they believe is colored or clouded with the Calvinist mantras. Very sad. That is ALL I will say about that matter here.
Bro.Greg:saint:
AMEN, Brother.
At one point, I thought about studing this issue in depth, when I first learned of it. That is, until I saw, right here on this board, just how much division and venom is displayed by many (
not all) of the more outspoken Calvin's supporters.
Educators/scholars, pastors, professing members of the body of Christ who are NOT reflecting the glory of God in their zeal to be right and everybody else is wrong. Much like the KJB issue, it appears that satan is harvesting much fruit from those who enjoy keeping these two battles raging. To promote division instead of promoting unity in Christ.
In my youth, I saw first hand how much damage is done in the church, when shouting deacons fight over the color of carpet. When
their opinions mattered more than the impact their fights had on people like myself. As I've stated before, that's one of the reasons why I drifted away from the church for so many years. The bitterness of the fruit they bore left a long lingering aftertaste.
Very similar to the fruit that, at least for right now, I don't feel led to taste again by fully immersing myself in a full study of Calvin's OPINION of Almighty God. In due time, I'll learn the truth from the author of Truth. That's what's most important to me.