Calvinism Is Back

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Bit of a puff piece. Though I say that as someone who lives in a land of deconsecrated kirks.

I agree.  Calvinism is by no means prominent where I live (a tad ironic, considering New England is home to a number of historically prominent and influential Calvinists... Jonathan Edwards being one of them), but I see no evidence suggesting that it is 'on the rise.'  All this article appears to say is, "We're big because we're right and we have a lot of well-known followers and stuff."

But if people are going to church every week just to hear how bad they are, I see little incentive in going to church at all.  The other night I was transcribing a sermon by a man whom I assume was a staunch Calvinist (judging by his constant invocations of "the Elect" and whatnot), and it left me feeling neither good nor hungry - it left me feeling no better than dirt.

And hey, maybe that's the aim of those who preach it.  Maybe that's what's considered 'theologically correct' in certain circles.  Yet, it left me no desire to move on to the man's other sermon and transcribe that as well, lest I lose every remaining ounce of sanity I had left.

And that's just one sermon.  To personally realize that there are people who have been forced to listen to this hour-long bunk every Sunday since childhood worries me deeply, to say the least.  You seriously cannot escape without feeling some effect of brainwashing going on.

Now to be fair, this man probably isn't representative of a majority of Calvinist preachers, though I can't say for sure since I've never been to a Calvinist service, but I don't see any reason that people choose to listen to that stuff every week other than that they've been truly brainwashed.

EDIT: I read this over a couple times and I fully realize that I just made this thread about myself.  Do forgive me.

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If you know you're going to heaven, why not kill yourself and get it over with?

Because you trust that God will see to it that you die at the proper time?

If I knew I was going to heaven, I'd probably jump off a cliff. The proper time can go  itself.

But then you would not be trusting God and thus would have no assurance of heaven.

But would that suicide have not been predestined by God?

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The extent to which Calvinism is 'back' is also the extent to which it was never really gone. I don't think the size or influence of mainline Calvinist denominations has really fluctuated all that much in recent years (DC Al Fine or Mung Beans or somebody can correct me on this if I'm wrong about that), and as Tweed mentioned generalized conservative evangelicalism is prone to a sort of cyclical theological faddishness.

There's a cycle between Calvinism and Arminianism within the Baptist movement. Calvinism is definitely on the upswing right now. You're right though. There isn't any massive growth in the Reformed faith. We're growing yes, but it's slow.

The way I understand it, God, in Calvinism, simply plays Duck, Duck, Goose with people ("You go to Heaven, you go to Heaven, you go to Hell, you go to Heaven..."), and we can do literally nothing to influence His decision in one way or the other. I'm not trying to be a dick, but what exactly draws people to Calvinism? Is it the idea that you can commit as many sins as you want, because you just may be one of the Elect, and, if you're not, you had a good run anyway? I'm very curious.

I'm sure that is a part of it to some degree, but Calvinism has many other ideas (democracy within the church, etc) that is not within Lutheranism (the Lutheran Church has a bishop system).

Another is that I expect that the people drawn to Calvinism are likely to believe that they are part of the elect and aren't particularly looking for a "get out of Hell free" card to commit as many sins as they want .  One of the attractive features of Calvinism compared to Arminianism is that you don't have to worry about falling out of grace.  God won't let you do that.

I'm a bit surprised by socialisthoosier's criticism. Usually we're attacked for being Puritan prudes . Ernest is correct though, election and perseverance of the saints are the most comforting parts of our theology.

How do we know who the elect are?

We don't know. Well, you can know your own salvation, but it's not like I can tell who is saved or who is damned.

That seems like a bizarre way to live life.

How is that bizarre? It seems far more bizarre to think that any human would have the knowledge or power required to judge the eternal fate of another, a task that I would expect most religious people to reserve to their god(s).

Well, I meant more of the idea that certain people are automatically saved or dammed, and that you have no idea who is which, and that you can't do a thing (good deeds, for example) to change that.

Calvinism embraces the idea that there is no such thing as a good person because committing one sin is tantamount to committing all of them so the gossiper is just as damned by his actions as the murderer, therefore no one is saved by virtue of his/her actions.  Only God can decide who is and isn't chosen to be saved and there's not much (anything) you can do to sway that judgement.

It can be a very bleak idea, but the dyed in the wool Calvinist would say that it doesn't matter if it's bleak or not, it's how it works.

Yes and no. Total depravity is the idea that our sinful nature touches every facet of our being, even our good works.

Remember when Jesus says "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others."? This is a good example. Confession and praising God are good things, but Jesus is calling them out because they are doing those things to look good and pious in the eyes of men. Therefore they are violating the first commandment by putting themselves before God. The hypocrites' sinful nature sullies his otherwise good works.

This ties in with the Calvinist idea that all sin is just a violation of the first commandment in one way or another. So while we don't think the gossiper commits the same evil act as the murderer, they have the same evil intention; putting something else ahead of God in their lives.

Be careful not to confuse intentions for effects.  When a person commits murder, the effect may be that they are putting their own evil desires ahead of God.  However, typically that never enters the mind of the perpetrator.  People commit murder for all sorts of reasons and little of it involves God in one way or another, putting aside things like holy wars and jihads.  In order for an action to go in violation of the First Commandment, that action must be done with full knowledge that the law is being broken, otherwise the perpetrator is not giving his or her full consent.  Therefore, we cannot apply the First Commandment to all sin.  If it were that simple, the remaining nine commandments would be unnecessary and redundant.

However, that being said, Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two - loving God and loving your neighbor.  If the sin doesn't go in violation of the first order, it goes in violation of the second and vice-versa.  That is why murder and taking the Lord's name in vain, while both sinful, cannot be attributed to the same broken law.  It is dangerous to suggest that committing one sin is equivalent to committing all sin, or that all sins are of similar measurement.