Originally Posted by
Lon
I see in this, a desire to preserve something, which I value, but it was always an error not to see it in traditional theology. We cannot presume order and hierarchy with His attributes. They are all so intricately part of His complete nature. If you've seen Sovereignty as imperical in Calvinist doctrine, it is merely the fact that He is God and we are but creations and trying to keep those in proper perspective. Emphasis, is not the same as driven, nor is character separate from those mentioned here. Theology, I believe, is a great revealer. You know by one's theology what is most important to him or her. Our divergence seems mostly centered either in our Love and devotion to God, or in our devotion to man. Calvinism, I believe, focuses on God to give Him preeminence in our lives. It can tromp on feelings, things taken for granted, and sensibilities, but I came to the point where I recognized my sensibilities were still somewhat ego-centric. As I began working through scripture, I came naturally to a reformed stance and began aligning what I believed to be true with Calvinist doctrines I'd rejected in the past. For about 10 years, I considered myself a 3 3/4 point Calvinist, partly because I still had to wrestle with it to understand and fit it to scripture, partly because of the resistance from my Arminian upbringing. As you might imagine, it was limited atonement but I also had trouble reconciling irresistible grace and a bit of perseverance of the saints as it related to Salvation.
Limited Atonement wasn't as big of a hurdle as I'd imagined once I understood what it was and wasn't. It took awhile to get a good explanation. OSAS isn't the same as perseverance of the saints and there is a lot of discussion always going on to clarify what we believe about saints and their perseverance and specifically how it differs from OSAS. OSAS is held by someone in all our camps and because of that, I think it is a can of worms to try and dig through.
All this to say, I had similar concerns and hadn't seen Calvinists as the loving 'huggy/feely' sort, not until I'd gotten to know a few and see a balance with His Sovereignty and Majesty. As could be imagined, most of my friends are decidedly Arminian. I tend to see our theological perspectives as differing priorities and emphasis on the structure of what is most important to us. As a Calvinist, God's love is very important to me. All of our Theology, I'd hope, would be based on His loving relationship to us.
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Yep
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."
