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Showing posts with the label Calvinism

Geneva Theses (1649) and The Formula Consensus Helvetica (1675) Against Some of the Common Beliefs of Reformed Believers

  Geneva Theses (1649) and The Formula Consensus Helvetica (1675) disprove some of the common theories that reformed teachers have been teaching their congregations. These commonly taught theories are: God’s universal desire, wish, will, and intention for the salvation of all the reprobates, God’s universal love, kindness, goodness, mercy, and common grace towards all the reprobates, Christ’s universal death for all the reprobates in a certain sense (i.e. Christ died sufficiently for all without exception).  The Geneva Theses were written to refute the errors as taught by the Saumur Academy in France at the time, namely that of John Cameron, Moses Amyrald, JosuĂ© de la Place, and Louis Cappel, commonly called Hypothetical Universalism, or specifically Amyraldianism [1] . The Formula Consensus Helvetica, though written later, was also written to refute the same errors. These two confessions prove that the above theories commonly held by many modern reformed believers are the frui

A Brief Thought on the Origin of Moral Evil

  The origin of moral evil has baffled many Christian theologians throughout the ages. For many years, I have been thinking a lot about the topic of theodicy. If God is good, why is there moral evil? Many Christians have concluded that God is the creator of everything except sin or moral evil because the infinitely good God cannot be involved with sin in any way. Satan and man are the sole causes, founders, and creators of sin. For many Christians, that’s the safety mark. This article is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject and it is also by no means to give anyone a license to sin. This article is nothing but a meagre attempt to explain the most controversial eternal metaphysical working of God which I believe the Bible has revealed. Many theories have been thought of in the attempt to protect the goodness of God from the stain of sin or moral evil. However, many have intentionally or inadvertently denied His omnipotence and omniscience.    Moderate or hypo- Calv

Sufficient for All? Does God Wish for the Reprobate to be Saved? John Calvin Answers Georgius

  John Calvin rejects the use of the common phrase “Sufficient for all, Efficient for the elect”, especially in interpreting 1 John 2:2. That phrase is commonly understood as Christ dying for everyone without exception including the reprobates in a certain sense, but in another sense the efficacy of, or the final benefit of the atonement is for the elect alone. If the phrase means that God has the power (sufficient for all) to save everyone without exception (universalism) hypothetically if He wants to, I have no objection but apparently this is not what many moderate Calvinists understand of the phrase. I concur with Jim Ellis who concludes: “To say that Christ's death on the cross provided an atonement sufficient for all is to specifically suggest that He has atoned for the sins of all men, which is essentially a universal atonement. This is a false conception and makes us, along with those who hold to a universal atonement, say the opposite of what we mean.” He, quoting J. I. Pa

The Supralapsarian Purpose of Providence in Double Predestination

Providence is defined as that God’s sovereignty, pleasure, and omnipotent power to actively cause everything in this world to run by the means of nature (that can be empirically grasped and perceived by man) without His direct miraculous, supernatural intervention. [1] Providence, which follows upon the work of creation in the beginning, is divine power that keeps all things in existence and governs them, and the power of providence is directed by the counsel of providence, which is the wise plan of God decreeing that and how all things will glorify Him in the day of Jesus Christ. [2] Leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come to us not by chance but by His fatherly hand. [3] Double Predestination is God’s decree of election and Reprobation. There are the single predestinarians who accepts the doctrine of election without reprobation because they throw logic out of the window. Since

The Vindication of God: The Biblical Theodicy of John Calvin and Gordon H. Clark in the Face of God's Eternal Decree of Reprobation and the Existence of Evil

Many Christians cringe at the topic of the origin of evil. Where did evil come from? Many Calvinists and non-Calvinists will answer with either “don’t know” or “evil comes from the devil and man”. For the Calvinists, they agree that God pre-ordained evil before the foundation of the world, but many will deny its logical consequence that  God is the ultimate cause of or the creator of evil. God is the one who created Satan and man with the potential to sin. It was so definite, according to God’s eternal decree, that they would sin. Hence, there is no way we can ever cut the link between the origin of evil and God.  Even for the doctrine of eternal reprobation, many will say that it is conditional on man’s foreseen sin. But it is God who hardens hearts as He is pleased. Most are afraid of making God “the author of sin”, hence they’d rather not talk about it. John Calvin and Gordon H. Clark proposed a certain biblical presupposition that would vindicate God in His sovereignty to decree ev