IT IS AN INTERESTING QUESTION. If John Calvin were alive today, would Calvin be a Calvinist? Oxford reformation scholar, Diarmmaid MacCulloch, doesn't think so.
"It is a mistake to see predestination as the
dominant idea in Calvin’s theology, although for some of his Reformed
successors, it seems often to become so. Rather it was part of Calvin’s growing
conviction that he must proclaim the all-embracing providence of God in every
aspect of human life and experience, so just as affirmation of a double
predestination grew in Calvin’s successive remolding of the Institutes, so did his positive and
comforting discussion of providence.”
Oxford church historian, Alister McGrath agrees.
“Far from being a central premise of Calvin’s
theological ‘system…predestination is...an ancillary doctrine…Calvinism places an emphasis upon this doctrine (predestination)
which is largely lacking in Calvin’s thought.”
It must
be stressed that at no point does Calvin himself suggest that Christ died only
for the elect.”
Labels: calvin, calvinism, predestination