CALVINISM
CALVINISM is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. Calvinists broke with the Roman Catholic church but differed with Lutherans on the real presence of Christ in the Lord's supper, theories of worship, and the use of God's law for believers, among other things."Calvinism" can be a misleading term because the religious tradition it denotes is and has always been diverse, with a wide range of influences rather than a single founder. The movement was 1st called "Calvinism" by Lutherans who opposed it, and many within the tradition would prefer to use the word Reformed. Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed are divided into Arminians and Calvinists, however it is now rare to call Arminians Reformed, as many see these two schools of thought as opposed, making the terms Calvinist and Reformed synonymous.
While the Reformed theological tradition addresses all of the traditional topics of Christian theology, the word CALVINISM is sometimes used to refer to particular Calvinist views on soteriology and predestination, which are summarized in part by the five points of CALVINISM. Some have also argued that CALVINISM as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things - in salvation but also in all of life.
Early influential Reformed theologians include John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodor Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B. Warfield, Karl Barth, and Cornelius Van Til were influential, while contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I. Packer, R. C. Sproul, David F. Wells, and Michael Horton.
The biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 80 million members in 211 member denominations around the World. There are more conservative Reformed federations like the World Reformed Fellowship and the International Conference of Reformed Churches.
First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer (1491-1551), Wolfgang Capito (1478-1541), John Oecolampadius (1482-1531), and Guillaume Farel (1489-1565). These reformers came from diverse academic backgrounds, but later distinctives of Reformed theology can already be detected in their thought, especially the priority of scripture as a source of authority. Scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's supper. Each of these theologians also understood salvation to be by grace alone, and affirmed a doctrine of particular election (the teaching that some people are chosen by God for salvation). Martin Luther and his successor Phillip Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, and to a larger extent later Reformed theologians. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther.
Due to Calvin's missionary work in France, his programme of reform eventually reached the French-speaking provinces of the Netherlands. CALVINISM was adopted in the Electorate of the Palatinate under Frederick III, which led to the formulation of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563. This and the Belgic Confession were adopted as confessional standards in the 1st synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1571. Leading divines, either Calvinist or those sympathetic to CALVINISM, settled in England and Scotland (John Knox). During the English Civil War, the Calvinistic Puritans produced the Westminster Confession, which became the confessional standard for Presbyterians in the English-speaking world. Having established itself in Europe, the movement continued to spread to other parts of the world including North America, South Africa, and Korea.
Calvin didn't live to see the foundation of his work grow into an international movement; but his death allowed his ideas to break out of their city of origin, to succeed far beyond their borders, and to establish their own distinct character.
Although much of Calvin's work was in Geneva, his publications spread his ideas of a "correctly" reformed church to many parts of Europe. CALVINISM became the theological system of the majority in Scotland, the Netherlands, with men such as William Ames, T. J. Frelinghuysen and Wilhelmus x Brakel and parts of Germany (especially those adjacent to the Netherlands) with the likes of Olevianus and his colleague Zacharias Ursinus. In Hungary and then independent Transylvania CALVINISM was a significant religion. In the 16th century the Reformation gained many supporters especially in Eastern Hungary and Transylvania. In these parts the Reformed nobles protected the faith. Today more than 3,5 million Hungarian Reformed people live worldwide from the Carpathian Basin to Australia. It was influential in France, Lithuania and Poland. CALVINISM gained some popularity in Scandinavia, especially Sweden, but was rejected in favor of Lutheranism after the Synod of Uppsala in 1593.
Most settlers in the American Mid-Atlantic and New England were Calvinists, including the English Puritans, the French Huguenot and Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the Appalachian back country. Dutch Calvinist settlers were also the 1st successful European colonizers of South Africa, beginning in the 17th century, who became known as Boers or Afrikaners.
Today, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, which includes some United Churches, has 80 million believers.
Calvinists believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, and contains all the revelations of God which he designed to be a rule of faith and practice for his Church. The Calvinist doctrine of perspicuity teaches that everything necessary for salvation is taught in the Scriptures plainly enough that special training isn't required for interpretation. Church officers are given the authority to preach what is contained within the Scriptures, but this does not permit them to bind Christians to their own interpretation. Christians are to compare interpretations with one another, and even give deference to other Christians and especially the officers ordained above them, but they are always free to personally interpret Scripture.
Following Lutheran theologians, the Reformed sharply contrast the law and gospel as "the chief and general divisions of the holy scriptures." The law contains the moral requirements of God, and is equated with the decalogue, while the gospel is the free offer of forgiveness of sin. As one author nicely put it, being under Law amounts to approaching God through Mount Sinai, whereas being under grace amounts to approaching God through Mount Calvary. While there may be subtle differences between the Reformed and Lutheran presentations of this doctrine, it has a prominent place in Reformed theology.
The law is given three uses: the political or civil use which is a restraint on sin and stands apart from the work of salvation, the elenctical or pedagogical use which confronts sin and points one to Christ for forgiveness of sin, and the didactic use which teaches believers the way of righteousness, but does not have any power to condemn. Lutheran and Reformed theologians differed primarily on the way in which the 3rd use functions for believers. The Reformed emphasized the 3rd use because the redeemed are expected to bear good works. Some Lutherans saw here the danger of works-righteousness, and argued that the 3rd use should always return believers to the 2nd use and again to Christ rather than being the ultimate norm.
Although the doctrines of grace have generally received the greater focus in contemporary CALVINISM, covenant theology is the historic superstructure that unifies the entire system of doctrine.
Calvinists take God's transcendence to mean that the relationship between God and his creation must be by voluntary condescension on God's part. This relationship he establishes is covenantal: the terms of the relationship are unchangeably decreed by God alone.
Reformed writings commonly refer to an intra-Trinitarian covenant of redemption. The greater focus is the relationship between God and man, which in historic CALVINISM is seen as bi-covenantal, reflecting the early Reformation distinction between Law and Gospel. The covenant of works encompasses the moral and natural law, dictating the terms of creation. By its terms, man would enjoy eternal life and blessedness based on his continued personal and perfect righteousness. With the fall of man, this covenant continues to operate, but only to condemn sinful man. The covenant of grace is instituted at the fall, and administered through successive historic covenants seen in Scripture for the purpose of redemption. By its terms, salvation comes not by any personal performance, but by promise. Peace with God comes only through a mediator, the fulfillment of which is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christ is seen as the federal head of his elect people, and thus the covenant is the basis of the doctrines of the substitutionary atonement and the imputation of the active obedience of Christ.
CALVINISM teaches that people are totally depraved or totally inadequate in their ethical nature, necessitating the sovereign grace of God for salvation. It states that fallen people are morally and spiritually incapable of following God or redeeming themselves. They see redemption as the work of God; God changes their unwilling hearts from rebellion to eager obedience.
In this view, people are at the complete and total mercy of God, who would be just in condemning all people for their sins, though God has chosen to show mercy to some, not all. Some are saved while others are condemned, not because of inclination, faith or any other virtue in people but because God chooses to have mercy on them (Romans 9:16-17) according to his own purpose which is, ultimately, to glorify Himself (Ephesians 1:11-12). A person must believe the gospel and repent to be saved, but this compliance of faith is a gift from God (Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8), and thus God completely and sovereignly achieves the salvation of sinners, including the chief (1 Timothy 1:15). In other words, faith is a fruit of regeneration, not the cause of it. God saves sinners so that they will believe, not because they believe out of their own resources. Many Reformed theologians teach that people are predestinated to damnation (as the doctrine of reprobation). There is less agreement among the Reformed regarding reprobation than predestination to salvation (the doctrine of election).
In practice, Calvinists teach sovereign grace mostly for encouragement of the church because Calvinists believe the doctrine validates the extent of God's love for saving those who aren't able to follow him, or choose not to do so, as well as defeating pride and self-reliance and stressing Christians' total need for and dependence on the grace of God. In a similar way, sanctification in the Calvinist view involves a frequent dependence on God to gain victory over sin, and experience the joy of the Lord.
Most objections to and attacks on CALVINISM focus on the "five points of CALVINISM," also called the doctrines of grace, and remembered by the mnemonic "TULIP." The five points are popularly said to summarize the Canons of Dort, however there is no historical relationship between them, and some scholars argue that their language distorts the meaning of the Canons, Calvin's theology, and the theology of 17th-century Calvinistic orthodoxy, particularly in the language of total depravity and limited atonement. The five points were popularized in the 1963 booklet The Five Points of CALVINISM Defined, Defended, Documented by David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas. The origin of the five points and the acronym is unknown, but the earliest printed appearance of the T-U-L-I-P acronym is in Loraine Boettner's book, "The Reformed Doctrine Of Predestination" x 1932. The acronym was very cautiously if ever used by Calvinist apologists and theologians before the booklet by Steele and Thomas.
The central assertion of these points is that God saves every person upon whom he has mercy, and that his efforts aren't frustrated by the unrighteousness or inability of humans.
An additional point of disagreement with Arminianism implicit in the five points is the Calvinist understanding of the doctrine of Jesus's substitutionary atonement as a punishment for the sins of the elect, which was developed by St. Augustine and especially St. Anselm and Calvin himself. Calvinists argue that if Christ takes the punishment in the place of a particular sinner, that person must be saved since it would be unjust for him then to be condemned for the same sins. The definitive and binding nature of this satisfaction model has strong implications for each of the five TULIP points, and it has led some Arminians to subscribe instead to the governmental theory of atonement. Under that theory, no particular sins or sinners are in view, but all of humanity are included in those whose sins have been taken away. The atonement wasn't the penalty of the law, but a substitute for the penalty, which allows God to remit the penalty by his grace when any sinner repents and believes in Jesus as the Christ.
This table summarizes the classical views of three Protestant beliefs about salvation.
RELATED SITES FOR CALVINISM
* CALVINISM: A Christian belief system about salvation read Calvinism
* CALVINISM - Theopedia, an encyclopedia of Biblical Christianity read Calvinism
* CALVINISM: Definition from Answers.com - Answers - The Most read Calvinism
* CALVINISM: A History: D. G. Hart: 9780300148794: Amazon.com: Books read Calvinism
