What is calvinism?

Answer 1

At the far right Calvinism is viewed as GOD does everything. All we do is breathe.

Answer 2

Calvinism is a very uncomfortable theology that tells man just who he is before an almighty God. If you'll head over to www.reformed.org, the apologetics section will give you an overview that easily refutes the claims of "heresy". Take a look at it, and you will come away with a new perspective and a conviction that Arminianism is the heretical view, not Calvinism!

Answer 3

Calvinism is a theology developed by John Calvin that everything is predestined, nothing happens that is not God's will and there is no free will. There is much more to the theology but thats basically it.



Anti-Calvinist Christian

Answer 4

It is the teachings of a heretic named John Calvin. The doctrines of Calvinism are doctrines of demons. He taught that everyone was predestined to heaven or hell. Very unbiblical. There is no free will. Calvinism gave us the wretched protestant work ethic.

Answer 5

Calvinism, I believe, is the belief that our fates are predetermined. Thank you, Calvin and Hobbes. They often talk about the subject of fate.

Answer 6

Emergence of Calvinism

34 The reform work in Switzerland moved ahead under the leadership of a Frenchman named Jean Cauvin, or John Calvin (1509-64), who came in contact with Protestant teachings during his student days in France. In 1534 Calvin left Paris because of religious persecution and settled in Basel, Switzerland. In defense of the Protestants, he published Institutes of the Christian Religion, in which he summarized the ideas of the early church fathers and medieval theologians, as well as those of Luther and Zwingli. The work came to be regarded as the doctrinal foundation for all the Reformed churches established later in Europe and America.

35 In Institutes, he set forth his theology. To Calvin, God is the absolute sovereign, whose will determines and rules over everything. In contrast, fallen man is sinful and totally undeserving. Salvation, therefore, is not dependent on man’s good works but on God—hence, Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, on which he wrote:

“We assert, that by an eternal and immutable counsel, God has once for all determined, both whom He would admit to salvation, and whom He would condemn to destruction. We affirm that this counsel, as far as concerns the elect, is founded on His gratuitous mercy, totally irrespective of human merit; but that to those whom He devotes to condemnation, the gate of life is closed by a just and irreprehensible, but incomprehensible, judgment.”

The austerity of such a teaching is also reflected in other areas. Calvin insisted that Christians must live holy and virtuous lives, abstaining not only from sin but also from pleasure and frivolity. Further, he argued that the church, which is made up of the elect, must be freed of all civil restrictions and that only through the church can a truly godly society be established.

36 Shortly after publishing Institutes, Calvin was persuaded by William Farel, another Reformer from France, to settle in Geneva. Together they worked to put Calvinism into practice. Their aim was to turn Geneva into a city of God, a theocracy of God-rule combining the functions of Church and State. They instituted strict regulations, with sanctions, covering everything from religious instruction and church services to public morals and even such matters as sanitation and fire prevention. A history text reports that “a hair-dresser, for example, for arranging a bride’s hair in what was deemed an unseemly manner, was imprisoned for two days; and the mother, with two female friends, who had aided in the process, suffered the same penalty. Dancing and card-playing were also punished by the magistrate.” Harsh treatment was meted out to those who differed from Calvin on theology, the most notorious case being the burning of Spaniard Miguel Serveto, or Michael Servetus.—See box, page 322.

Answer 7

I think that Calvinists believe that God predestines certain people to be saved. While I believe that God predestines certain people to be saved, I also believe that everyone has the opportunity to be saved and that God gave us free-will. A verse in either 1 Peter or 2 Peter says that God "is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". So that is one reason that I believe that everyone has the opportunity. So to make a long story short, what I believe is that God is completely sovereign and predestines us based both on His sovereignty and foreknowledge, and also that we have free-will, the ability to either choose God or reject God. So I believe both in predestiniation and free-will. www.equip.org

Answer 8

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