Yes, Lord,
I believe

Of course, I'm referring to historic Calvinism, not to what most people have come to think of as Calvinism. The latter is largely a figment of people's imagination and a result of misunderstanding. Calvinists do not believe

  • that God is responsible for evil,
  • that He sends people to hell because He hates them,
  • that God is arbitrary about calling people to Christ, or
  • that He is in any sense a big meanie.
Those are all unfortunate illegitimate deductions made by those who don't yet understand the Calvinist position as a system of doctrine. Some Calvinists might be evil, hateful, arbitrary, big meanies. But that's not a valid reason to malign the doctrine they claim to believe.

The former is a nickname for a systematic soteriology based on a literal interpretation of the teaching of Jesus Christ, especially in the Gospel of John; and on the apostle Paul's exposition of the Gospel (which he got from Jesus by direct revelation), especially in Romans, Galations, and Ephesians.

Oh, for the day when the lion lies down with the lamb, and the supralapsarian hugs his semi-Pelagian brother!

Your fellow believer in Christ,

David J. Finnamore
Orlando, FL, USA
daeron@bellsouth.net