"The Whore Of Babylon"

I have several problems with theology.

2 Timothy 3: 16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" Doctrine simply means a body of teachings. It's plain - you read God's Word, you believe God's Word, you follow God's Word.

I'm not here to disprove Calvinism, because I'm not smart enough for that. I'm not fluent in Greek or Hebrew, and I don't have access to the original scrolls. I'm simply finding out why I don't believe in something. Namely, Calvinism.

John Calvin has many other credits to his name, but what he's remembered the most for is his building on Augustine & Luther's concept of predestionation. He says in his, The Institues Of The Christian Religion:

[In conformity, therefore, to the clear doctrine of the Scripture, 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. In the elect, we consider calling as an evidence of election, and justification as another token of its manifestation, till they arrive in glory, which constitutes its completion. As God seals his elect by vocation and justification, so by excluding the reprobate from the knowledge of his name and the sanctification of his Spirit, he affords an indication of the judgement that awaits them.]

That's downright scary.

Even the fall of Adam and Eve, with all its consequences, in the Pauline theory, to the human race, "was ordained by the admirable counsel of God."

This is what I don't understand. I know that God allowed sin in the world through the fall, because how else would we know His goodness & His power & His triumph if we couldn't see it being contrasted by evil? However, algebraically speaking, this would make God the author of sin.

Calvin admits that predestination is repulsive to reason, but he replies, "It is unreasonable that man should scrutinize with impunity those things wich the Lord has determined to be hidden in Himself." Yet, he professes to know why God so arbitrarily determines the eternal fate of billions of souls: it is, "to promote our admiration of His glory," by the display of His Power. (pt 23)

Calvin also admits that this is, "a horrible decree," (decretum horribile). "but no one can deny that God foreknew the future final fate of man before He created him, and that He foreknew it because it was appointed by His own decree." (http://www.eternalsecurity.us/calvinism_and_arminianism_compar.htm)

Others might argue, like Luther, that the guture is determined because God has forseen it and His foresight cannot be falsified; Calvin reverses the matter, and considers that God foresees the future because He has willed and determined it. And the decree of damnation is absolute; there is no purgatory in Calvin's theology, no halfway house where one might, by a few million years of burning, wipe out his, "reprobation." And therefore, there is no room for prayers for the dead.

we might suppose that on calvin's assumptions, there would be no sense in any kind of prayer; all being fixed by divine decree, not an ocean of orisons could wash away one jot of this destiny. However, Calvin is more human than his theology: let us pray with humility and faith, he tells us, and our prayers will be answered; the prayer and the answer were already decreed. Let us worship God in humble religious services, but we must reject the Mass as a sacrilegious pretense of priests to transform earthly materials into the body and blood of Christ. Christ is present in the Eucharist only spiritually, not physically; and the adoration of the consecrated wafter as literally Christ is sheer idolatry. The use of graven images of the Deity, in clear violation of the second Commandment, encourages idolatry. All religious pictures and statuary, even the crucifix, should be removed from the churches.

The true Church is the ivisible congregation of the elect, dead, living, or to be born. The visible Church is composed of, "all those who, by a confession of faith, an exemplary life, and participation in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper" (Calvin rejected the other sacraments), "profess the same God and Christ with ourselves."

Outside of the church there is no salvation.

Church and state are both divine, and are designed by God to work in harmony as the soul and body of one Christian society: the Church should regulate all details of faith, worship, and morals; the state, as the physical arm of the Church, should enforce these regulations. The secular authorities must also see to it that "idolatry" )largely synonymous with Catholicism in Protestant usage) and, "other scandals to religion be not publicaly set forth and broadcast amonth the people," and that only the pure Word of God should be taught and received. The ideal government will be a theocracy, and the Reformed Church should be recoginized as the voice of God. All the claims of the popes for the supremacy of the Church over the state were renewed by Calvin for his Church.

To sum all of that up - Calvin didn't want to be subject to the Catholic church. I'm not saying that He wanted to be a leader - a "pope" of sorts - but there was definitely a spirit of pride about him.

I'm going to dig further into his life, why he wrote the Institutes, what exactly happened when the Reformation came about and how it affects us today, what exactly IS Calvinism, and whatever else piques my interest. :)