He basically said that this bit from my blog wasn't clear:
"There's a lot about predestination-type stuff, which a lot of people are not too fond of in regards to its "Calvinist" interpretation. I think that can be, at least in part, attributed to a lack of knowledge on the real "Calvinist" position (i.e. what it is really about)."
And he was right, that was pretty messy. Haha! I was planning on explaining it more later in the post, but never really got around to it. So here's what I said to him:
I think people tend to believe that Calvinism is just about predestination, and they get really caught up on that because they don't like the idea. But from what I understand, Calvinism is really essentially about God's Sovereignty in EVERYTHING, and all the other doctrines within it come from that. I put Calvinism in quotes [in the blog post] because people also take the fact that the doctrines are named after Calvin and insist that Calvin made them up, though I believe that God made them up [I should maybe clarify that statement too]. I never really got around to clarifying that though. Sorry... I'll make another post that says this. Thanks for your concern and input!
Calvin did not "make up" the doctrines of Calvinism. They had pretty much always been around. Calvin basically united them under the essential doctrine of the Sovereignty of God and expressed them in ways that others could understand. So he became known for them, and they became known as Calvinism.
I myself am not a staunch Calvinist, so I sincerely apologize to my Calvinist friends if I am misrepresenting Calvinism. There are people all over the "spectrum" of Calvinism, and everybody seems to have their own take on it. I personally believe the doctrines of Calvinism, though there are some things I have a hard time understanding as they relate to Scripture (i.e. limited atonement and 1 John 2:2, or perseverance of the saints and Hebrews 3, 4, and 6). So yeah. There ya go.
Any comments welcome! God bless!
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