Saturday, February 9, 2013

The Beauty of Calvinism

The beauty of Calvinism is the humility it impresses on it's adherents, and the way it moves moral calculation in the right direction. For Calvinists can never make assumptions about their own salvation, and so cannot feel puffed up about being one of the chosen who are going to Heaven. Or if you are Calvinist of a stripe that believes that faith is a freely given proof of salvation, it cannot bring you to pride for you still likely hold to total depravity and to the view that your faith is neither a moral nor intellectual achievement you can lay claim to. If I KNOW I am totally depraved and additionally think my salvation was none of my own doing, then I cannot rightly be very egoistic about it can I? Or at least no more egoistic than any other person, since we are all equally screwed up.

Additionally a predestinarian cannot fall into the trap of doing good solely for everlasting reward. For our final destiny is already vouchsafed no matter what we do. Calvinists generally believe in unremovable grace. No, a Calvinist's moral focus is not heaven or hell but simply love of God. It is about doing the right thing because of that love. These virtues of Calvinism draw me in, and I find myself unable to turn away from them. My own theology has a heavy Calvinist flavor.

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