Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Calvin didn’t write that….I have read Calvin.”

Paul,

It seems you have finally stated our position accurately. I would go to the stake to defend the doctrine of “perpetual” justification. Perpetual means ” Neverceasing; continuing forever or for an unlimited time; unfailing; everlasting; continuous.”  Once God has declared believers to be righteous in his sight, we cannot and need not do anything to perpetuate that standing. “Through whom [Christ] we have an access into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” This bears no resemblance to “progressive justification.”

Paul: It’s perpetual only as long as one lives by faith alone in sanctification.

C: Your statement makes no sense whatsoever.

Paul: Why is that? What’s so hard about the concept of keeping yourself saved by not obeying the law in “your own efforts” in sanctification because a perfect obedience is needed to maintain justification. What is so hard for you to understand about that concept?

C: There is nothing difficult about it except that no one believes it. You are clearly confusing concepts and statements and putting them together in a statement that is sheer nonsense.

Paul: Calvin clearly taught that any Christian who believed that they can please God by keeping the law in sanctification are condemning themselves (CI 3.14.10). Calvin Also taught that sin in the Christian life “separates” us from the “grace” of God.” Got that? Sin in the Christian life SEPARATES us from God’s GRACE. And moreover, that forgiveness for the grace-separating sin has to be continually sought in the church “daily” in order to “keep us in the family of God” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. 45: Catholic Epistles). Give it up dawg, the gigs up. Calvin was a stark raving heretic.

C: Calvin didn’t write that. He did not teach that sin in the believer’s life separates us from the grace of God. Give me the quote.  Even if he had taught that, it doesn’t mean Calvinists have followed him in that belief. Calvin believed many things that Calvinists don’t believe. If you want to discuss real quotations, I would be happy to do that. Don’t just try to tell me what Calvin wrote. I have read Calvin.

Paul:

John Calvin: Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles. The Calvin Translation Society 1855. Editor: John Owen, p. 165 ¶4

“Secondly, this passage shows that the gratuitous pardon of sins is given us not only once, but that it is a benefit perpetually residing in the Church, and daily offered to the faithful. For the Apostle here addresses the faithful; as doubtless no man has ever been, nor ever will be, who can otherwise please God, since all are guilty before him; for however strong a desire there may be in us of acting rightly, we always go haltingly to God. Yet what is half done obtains no approval with God. In the meantime, by new sins we continually separate ourselves, as far as we can, from the grace of God. Thus it is, that all the saints have need of the daily forgiveness of sins; for this alone keeps us in the family of God”

C: …. you need to remember that Calvinism did not come from Calvin. His body had long been decayed in the cold ground when the system we know as “Calvinism” was born. The Scriptures, not the Institutes, are our authority. I would not spend a second of my time defending Calvin or his writings. However, he was used of God to revive important truths that had lain buried for centuries. He was not inspired, but he was hardly a heretic.

Calvinism didn’t come from Calvin? Really? And sorry, this, “Calvin didn’t write that….I have read Calvin.” is more than one second.

paul