Calvinism and Thomism: Friend or Foe? 

What is your point? That the law of non-contradiction is problematic?

@@Acek-ok9dp Using syllogisms depends on your premises.

@@jamessheffield4173 St. Thomas considered the law of non-contradiction as a principle and principles of logic are self-evident for him. All these authors you enlisted were pre-Kantian, so meta-logical questions were not posed.

@@Acek-ok9dp Again, the premises differed that explains the different conclusions.

You likely know this, but inequality with regard to destination, is distinct from equality regarding a common anthropology, or common physical capacities for rationality, or common ethics consistent with a common anthropology for our neighbor. We all, elect and reprobate, are regardless of natural offices, subject to God’s laws since we’re all equally from Adam. Not sure how you’re arguing the connection between CRT and Calvin, in light of that common anthropology for all classes of people. Only with regard to the secret decrees of God are we not equal- Calvin’s not making a statement on corresponding inequities in our anthropological natures, just in the freedom of God to rescue out of Adam whoever he wants to in unit king them to Christ.

@@georgeluke6382 Thank you for the courtesy of your reply which consists of one paragraph in four sentences, the latter of which are now each answered individually: 1st Sentence Response: Agreed. 2nd Sentence Response: Agreed, if you are referring to God's laws in (A) the Decalogue given by God to Moses and (B) as interpreted by Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. However, I have a concern with the terms 'elect' and 'reprobate' through the prism of Calvinism which appears to indicate that God, by an eternal and irrevocable decree, selects some to be saved and some to be damned, particularly that He directly wills the damnation of a certain percentage of the human beings He has created. 3rd Sentence Response: My argument regarding the potential ease of connecting Calvin and CRT goes as such: If God directly wills the damnation of a certain percentage of the human beings He has created per the Institutes 3.21.5, why couldn't someone who believes this also go ahead and "immanentize the eschaton" by further deriving that God has directly willed that a certain group of people with physically identifiable characteristics are inherently racist or are inherently superior, etc. etc.? 4th Sentence Response: Part I - Completely disagree, in that I believe all human beings are entirely equal in being chosen by God to be with happy with Him forever in eternity. However, some may choose to reject this desire of/offer by God through their own free will. This is their free will informed by their reason which combined together have confirmed their own selfish interests over those of God, resulting in an eternal separation from Him. This decision usually comes after a lifetime of them violating certain aspects of the Decalogue as interpreted in the Sermon on the Mount. I don't believe that the identities of who is 'elect' and who is 'reprobate' are your "secret decrees of God", but rather that their identities are illuminated and made perfectly clear by Jesus Christ in Matthew 25: 31-46. Part II - John Calvin was perfectly fine in articulating some of your "secret decrees of God" by identifying who he perceived as 'reprobate'. All of the early Protestant Reformers and particularly those with continuing ecclesial traditions such as Martin Luther (Lutheranism), John Calvin (Reformed), John Knox (Presbyterianism) and later John Wesley (Methodism) all taught that the Pope, the Catholic Bishop of Rome, was the Antichrist. In Book IV, Chapter 18, Paragraph 1 of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin states, among other things, that: (1) the Pope is "the Roman Antichrist" and (2) the Mass, center of Catholic worship, "offers the greatest insult to Christ." The 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith and 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith confirm this Protestant and Calvinist tradition which continues into the 21st century with some Southern Baptists in the Founders Ministries translating a modern English version update of the latter whose Chapter 6, Article 4 reads: "The Pope of Roman Catholicism cannot in any sense be head of the church; rather, he is the antichrist, the man of lawlessness, and the son of destruction, who exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God. The Lord will destroy him with the brightness of his coming" (alluding to 2 Thessalonians 2:2-9). So in this Calvinist tradition, the papal line of the Catholic Bishops of Rome are all Antichrists, therefore 'reprobate', and this will continue until Jesus Christ destroys him at the Second Coming. As well, since in the same article John Calvin states in so many words that the Catholic Mass "offers the greatest insult to Christ", wouldn't his teaching also reveal more of your"secret decrees of God" regarding the 'reprobate' that includes those Catholics who knowingly worship in accord with what their church teaches? Part III - How can God be of two minds regarding the creation of human beings if he directly wills, as Calvin taught, that some are to be saved and some are to be damned, when, except for the opposition of relations in the Holy Trinity (The Father is not The Son and vice versa, The Father is not The Holy Spirit and vice versa, The Son is not the Holy Spirit and vice versa), the One God, while being infinite and eternal, is also entirely simple, being pure potency and pure action? "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

@@annakimborahpa did Calvin ever advocate for killing a pope based on identifying him as the Antichrist? Do modern ministries, like Founders do so? Relative to your belief in physical characteristics tied to secret degrees of election or reprobation, I don’t doubt some professing Christians somewhere have tried to eliminate a group base on physical characteristics. But the issue is whether that’s a Calvinist thing, or an issue from another system of assumptions- like explaining the sons of Ham as being perpetually deserving of enslavement under the offspring of Japheth, and identifying Ham with Africans, and Japheth with Europeans. For your own beliefs, how do you understand Paul’s argument in Romans 9? I used to hold to a system where our free wills determined our salvation, but Calvin’s argument just seems to reflect Paul’s- we all have some innate knowledge of God that condemns us (Romans 1-2), and we find out our sin sickness is so bad that we cannot be rescued out of it by being ethnically Jewish- instead, God has to choose us, as he chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and choose us individually for the exercise of faith in a preacher that’s sent to us (Roman’s 9, Roman’s 10). No baptism into a covenant, outside of faith uniting us to Christ’s righeousness (Romans 4-5) will keep us in the covenantal connection we really have with Christ and from which we can really apostatize (Romans 11, Hebrews 10). As covenant members, we’re told to render the obedience of faith, congruent with what baptism means - hence the whole discussion on circumcision of the heart, the believer’s circumcision of Abraham, and similar connections to baptism (Romans 2, Romans 4, Romans 6). It’s in contemplating the depths of this wisdom and mercy that we get the engine needed to do good works as Christian living sacrifices (Romans 12).

Said differently, I totally believe in a freed will, but it’s responsive and resurrected by grace. Without God’s Spirit, as Paul said, we’re dead in our trespasses and sins, estranged from God, and hopeless (Ephesians 2). But if the Father plucks us like brands from the fire, and grafts us into the olive plant of the Son, not only through our baptisms which do in some way coventally connect us to him, but by faith uniting us to him, we’re in Jesus’ own hands and can’t be lost. We’ll always remain on a trajectory of fundamental and realized faithfulness to the covenant and the devil won’t be able to pluck us out of his hands (John 6).

@@georgeluke6382 Thanks again. I will replay to your three paragraphs in three answers: Paragraph One Response: No, John Calvin and his followers in the 'pope as antichrist' tradition merely 'canceled' the Catholic Bishop of Rome asserting he was a member of the 'reprobate'. Some followers of Calvin have been violent in other ways such as the French Huguenots who destroyed the tomb and remains of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, France in 1562. Destruction of Catholic art was a constant of early Calvinists as in England where nearly 100% of the churches' stained class windows was destroyed. Puritan Calvinist ruler of England Oliver Cromwell did attempt a genocide of Irish Catholics in the 17th century. Paragraph Two Response: Various different white Protestant groups in the antebellum southern United States tried to justify African slavery through an appeal to the Bible which included the highly influential Presbyterian Calvinists. Regarding human ancestry, I recommend to you the work of author Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson featured in the Answers in Genesis videos who is tracing the DNA of the human race and coming up with a number of recent surprises. Here are a some of them to the best of my recollection: (1) the African descendants of Ham included the ancient Egyptians who created and ruled the greatest civilization of the ancient world; (2) the majority of DNA from white continental Europeans and those who immigrated to the Americas is from Shem, who came from Central Asia (hence the name Caucasians) and overpowered, intermarried with, and to a measurable degree replaced the original DNA of the first Japhetic Europeans; (3) members of the Igbo tribe of southern Nigeria claim that Gad, son of Jacob and founder of one of the original twelve tribes of Israel, is their ancestor; (5) members of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, claim their ancestry is from Israel's King Saul as they have practiced circumcision since time immemorial; (6) the Chinese, as well as the Bering strait immigrants to the Americas, were descendants of Shem; (7) these Shem immigrants to the Americas overpowered, intermarried and mostly replaced the original native inhabitants that included the Mayans of Central America whose disappearance from history is a complete mystery, while the Mayans ancestry remains unknown. The Mayan facial characteristics on the faces of their statues look like they may have originated in Africa, as well as their architecture which resembles Egyptian pyramids. (8) the original Pueblo people of the southwestern United States claim that the Navaho and Apache peoples were a much later arrival by many centuries to their native lands; (9) overall, it appears that the majority of DNA presently on the earth, as descended from the three sons of Noah after the flood, is split between Ham and Shem, with the DNA of Japheth in a much smaller percentage; (10) simply put, there is one biological human race. Paragraph Three Response: I refer you to Southern Baptist and former Calvinist Dr. Leighton Flowers of the Soteriology 101 video series and his book The Potter's Promise that focuses on Romans 9, the exegesis of which convinced him to leave the TULIP. By the mid-twentieth century, Calvinism was considered dead in the USA where it had once greatly flourished. In Will & Ariel Durant's popular multi-volume series The History of Civilization which was issued from 1935-75, in their chapter on John Calvin (available on youtube) they meticulously catalogue the many talents and accomplishments of the Geneva Reformer. However, at the end of the chapter Mr. Durant makes his personal judgment: " ... but we shall always find it hard to love the man who darkened the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God in all the long and honored history of nonsense." To be fair, the resurgence of Calvinism in the late 20th century and into the 21st century appears to be an effort to salvage John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed Churches' tradition, by attempting to (A) join his double predestination theology that originally appealed through the fear of divine judgment to (B) some concept of 'non-free' free will. For me, this defies logical reasoning and violates the principle of non-contradiction. But as Calvinists usually respond: Either (a) "it's a mystery" or (b) "you just don't understand Calvinism" or (c) a combination of a & b. I'm happy to read of your contemplation of God's love and mercy, which is the end game of human existence.

"I don't believe Calvin was a Christian @ all..." Not your call.

@@Micaiah37 O YES by the WORD it IS/ 😉not my words but THE WORD is my basis 🕯️/⚖️ Matthew 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: His Fruit was manifest in the END 1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. 1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 1 Corinthians 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. 1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

@@andrewdurfee2891 Oh, I know the verses. Just not sure how they relate to Calvin.

@@Micaiah37 He went around TORTURING/ MURDERING (🔥@The stake) True Christians Just because they didn't believe in certain doctrines he did . JUST like Rome did (🤔). This IS the fruit of a Psuedo Christ!!! & He thought he was "Elect" ?! MANY are following his demonic doctrine to this day 😖& sadly with the "fruit" I've seen of the ones i know so far Many are Decieved into thinking their "elected" / "Elected UNTO Good works "!(Eph2:10) NOT Wickedness!!! & He thought He was doing God a service 😖

@@Micaiah37 BEFORE Jesus disciples were con•verted (🧠↩️) They thought like this as well Luke 9:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.