What's in a Name? Part 2

So we're still looking for a label for me. We've presented Puritan and Lutheran for consideration. Let's look at another possibility today.

How about Calvinist. A name that can get you thrown out of many churches today. Should I proudly display a TULIP tattoo around my bulging deltoid like a warrior band that was so popular when I was in college. It's interesting how a brilliant theologian born 500 years ago, wrote volumes on his study of scripture including his Institutes of the Christian Religion, is known only by the five points in the acronym TULIP (used to refute the 5 points of the Arminian Remonstrance at the Synod of Dort in 1619) by many modern Calvinists. Opponents of Calvin like to portray him as a brutal murderer and violent to those who opposed him.

Can I be called a Calvinist. I believe in man's total inability, the absolute sovereignty of God, salvation by His grace alone, and "that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." So I hold the 5 points of TULIP not only as true, but to discount even one (much less all) of the points is a crass and fatal demonstration of arrogance and self righteousness. God calls for us to humble ourselves.

Am I a Calvinist? Maybe. But let's keep looking. As I am early in my pilgrimmage, my study of Calvin is limied. The five points of TULIP I hold as undeniable. Calvin was a paedobaptist, as I said in a previous blog I believe to be a practice not laid out in scripture. I also do not condone any type of violence, torure or murder, against those who do not have eyes to see or ears to hear. Only God can change hearts. So if anyone wants to refute Calvinism by pointing to his violence, save your effort and repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.