sung to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas)
On the 12th day before Christmas, Bible Geek Gone Wild gave to me a Calvin book and a Greek book and CD……
Welcome to day 12 of Bible Geek Gone Wild’s 12 Days Before Christmas. Many thanks to Kathryn Mcintier at P & R Publishing, Andrew Rogers at Zondervan for providing the prizes for today’s contest. Today’s winner will receive:
Twenty leading Calvin scholars exhibit a firm understanding of and passion for Calvin’s work, covering each part of the Institutes and providing essential background information on the Institutes as well as a bibliography of Calvin resources. This long-needed work will serve as the natural companion to Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion for classes, students, pastors, and others for years to come.
For making Calvin known today as well as once he was, and in every age deserves to be, this really is a major step forward.”—J. I. Packer, Professor of theology, Regent College, Vancouver
Contest for Day 12
The objective for today’s contest is two-fold. First, finish the sentence, “You might be a Calvinist if….” and write a short paragraph or two talking why you are or are not a Calvinist. Please post your paragraph or two as a comment to this post. The winner will be announced on Friday. Good luck! Merry Christmas!
Terms and Conditions
- This contest will be limited to residents of the 48 state continental United States.
- Contestants may submit one entry per contest per day.
- The winner or winners will be announced following the close of each contest.
- Prizes will be shipped within several days of the close of each contest.
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6 users responded in this post
“You might be a Calvinist if…spring flowers excite you.”
I find myself a Calvinist because I start from a framework of God’s sovereignty. I find the idea that we somehow choose, and that God simply foresees the choice or knows that we will make the choice does not match the biblical texts. I have not found the idea of prevenient grace to be a compelling or substantiated argument.
So I am left with the thought that none can be saved if God does not call – we simply won’t choose him until he does something. So it is completely up to him, and we naturally and willingly respond to his call. And since he made the initial choice, I believe he is faithful to sustain that choice by his promise.
Okay, I really am excited about the Calvin book on this one….
Here goes.
You might be a Calvinist if… you hide a tulip in your wife’s wedding bouquet (like my brother did at his wedding performed in a non-Calvinist church)!
I’m a Calvinist because I was willing to study the issue out, and the scriptural evidence for it finally overwhelmed me. If faith and repentance are gifts, then what can we do to earn them? If faith is given to a non-believer, how is that not free grace? It is totally a work of God to change the heart of one who is unable to please God, into the heart of one who loves Him and trusts Him.
I’d list some verses, but I’ll provide a link to a categorized scripture list which details the Scriptural support for each point of Calvinism: here’s the link.
Now we’ll have to be satisfied with just the gifts of Christmas. No more freebies from Shaun! How sad
You might be a Calvinist if…
You own Berkhoff, Hodge, Grudem, Strong, and Boyce sytematic theologies.
You might be a Calvinist if…
You devote six months of expository preaching to John chapter six.
I am actually not a Calvinist. I am still working my way through all of the issues. I find both freedom of choice as well as unmerited election in the Scriptures. I am satisfied to live with the tension between the two because Calvinists must do the same.
I have learned much from Calvinists, though. Especially have I learned to regard the Scriptures highly, and value and enjoy God intensely.
Jason
You might be a Calvinist if…
…the Almighty God of heaven and earth in his inscrutable and immutable will hath sovereignly predestined you to be one [of the elect, a.k.a. a Calvinist] from before the foundation of the world.
I’m not a Calvinist because I don’t believe that it makes the best sense of Scripture. For every answer provided I can find more problems. I’m not convinced that any single system of theology can make sense of all the Bible says but I am convinced that so-called Arminian soteriology makes the best sense of what the Bible says about salvation.
And might I also add that I plan to pick up a copy of Calvin’s Institutes in 2009 and this more than any other was the prize I was most excited about (I even said so on my blog 12 days ago). If God hath sovereignly decreed from all eternity that I would win this contest than I shall respond with much appreciation and glee!
You might be a Calvinist if you frequently go about humming “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” from the movie…THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH…*: )
I am a Calvinist, because after almost 47 years as a Christian…When I review my life in light of scripture…it is the only system of theology that still makes sense to my simple mind. For the greater part of these years, I would never have espoused any particular system of theology outside of the fact that Father God made a promise to me to change me into the likeness of Jesus and I promised to let Him. The sanctification process, or what I like to call mind renewal is still progressing and fills my heart with wonder and awe daily!
You might be a Calvinist if you think you’re off the hook regarding prayer and evangelism. (“might” is the key word)
You might be a Calvinist if you argue against the word “everyone” in the Bible by mentioning something about the phone book.
You might be a Calvinist if you don’t think “world” means “world”.
You might be a Calvinist if NT = John 6, Romans 9 and Ephesians 1-2. Everything else is just interesting reading or stuff to argue about.
That was all tongue in cheek of course.
I used to be either Arminian or Semi-Pelagian and I came to Calvinism kicking and screaming after carefully going through Romans. And like another poster coming at it from the view of God’s sovereignty. Now I see these doctrines all over Scripture, not just the usual proof texts. I don’t like all the typical arguments for it or using other people’s reasoning to adopt it. Like I said, I see it in Scripture. But I would like to read much more of Calvin.
I hope it’s OK to enter twice. If not that’s fine. Thank you very much.
Jeff
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