Well, I have to admit that God reminded me how good He is today. Also, how good He has been to me in the friends that I have. WM and JP both took the time to reply to my last post.
...and I was forcefully reminded that this whole exercise is kind of pointless. Not fully, but enough that I'm not going to bother with the last point of Calvinism. Here is why:
My posts would have to be SOOOOO long just to make sure I cover all the ways that the point can be defined. Traditional Calvinism is what I was mostly basing these posts on, but there are more "modern" views...although it's hard to call it Calvinism because the terms are defined VERY differently from what it was before. In fact, as I mentioned on my Facebook post, the definitions that my friend gave would be better termed as a Baptist-ized Calvinism....which really isn't Calvinism to me, but that is just my opinion.
Which means that there is no way I can do a fair justice to these topics at all. I don't want that. I understand that it is a controversial topic, but it can only be made more controversial by not presenting all sides enough.
Two quick things though.
1. Traditional Calvinism will have the 5th point as "Perseverance of the Saints" which, in my view, removes eternal salvation. I have heard some modern Calvinist-Baptists use the P as Preservation instead of Perseverance. This changes it from man-centered to God-centered which is a good change.
2. There were a couple comments on one of my posts about how justification and faith might be simultaneous. I said I didn't agree and I wanted to quickly just touch on a single verse for this. Romans 5:1. The ESV says "...Since we have been justified by faith..." The Greek word here ek and it literally means "out of" or "from." I don't see this as being able to be simultaneous since this verse, at least, puts faith as what justification comes out of.
I hope this made sense to everyone. Feel free to leave comments as usual. I love to get feedback. That's how Iron sharpens Iron!
To God be the glory!
...and I was forcefully reminded that this whole exercise is kind of pointless. Not fully, but enough that I'm not going to bother with the last point of Calvinism. Here is why:
My posts would have to be SOOOOO long just to make sure I cover all the ways that the point can be defined. Traditional Calvinism is what I was mostly basing these posts on, but there are more "modern" views...although it's hard to call it Calvinism because the terms are defined VERY differently from what it was before. In fact, as I mentioned on my Facebook post, the definitions that my friend gave would be better termed as a Baptist-ized Calvinism....which really isn't Calvinism to me, but that is just my opinion.
Which means that there is no way I can do a fair justice to these topics at all. I don't want that. I understand that it is a controversial topic, but it can only be made more controversial by not presenting all sides enough.
Two quick things though.
1. Traditional Calvinism will have the 5th point as "Perseverance of the Saints" which, in my view, removes eternal salvation. I have heard some modern Calvinist-Baptists use the P as Preservation instead of Perseverance. This changes it from man-centered to God-centered which is a good change.
2. There were a couple comments on one of my posts about how justification and faith might be simultaneous. I said I didn't agree and I wanted to quickly just touch on a single verse for this. Romans 5:1. The ESV says "...Since we have been justified by faith..." The Greek word here ek and it literally means "out of" or "from." I don't see this as being able to be simultaneous since this verse, at least, puts faith as what justification comes out of.
I hope this made sense to everyone. Feel free to leave comments as usual. I love to get feedback. That's how Iron sharpens Iron!
To God be the glory!
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