Pilgrim,

Muchos Gracias, merci beaucoup etc etc. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I will read it as soon as I can.

You know, I have been looking and looking for something that Spurgeon said, but I just cannot find it.. so you all will have to suffer with my own little dopey interpretation for now lol.

For a long time, I thought that anyone that didn't hold 100% to what I thought was true was a heretic. I remember when I read Luther's 95 (or was it 96?)theses, I called him a heretic, and wondered how in the world he became so very famous! Well.. I have since changed my attitude (obviously) and I came across something that spurgeon said about him. It made sense, and I had to reassess my thinking. I was also much more softened in some areas! But he said that while Martin Luther was not correct in a lot of his doctrine, he was so wrapped up in, enamoured with, and happy about the fact that we are saved by grace, through faith. That it was him who was the beginner of these things..the breakaway from the Roman Catholic church.

I know I made absolute mincemeat out of what he said! I am sure I will find it.. it may just take awhile lol. I have a friend too, who thinks everyone is a heretic. Everyone but her that is. It's just a tad scary. She has also never heard of the process of sanctification. I thought that was strange. She is the one who told me of Calvin and how he condemned a man to death, and told them to get the greenest wood possible so that he would die a horrible death. She said that she could never follow a man like that. That he did not have the holy spirit.

After awhile, I found some writings on this. And read for myself that it was not so. So, I thought, "okay, here is this gal, who is my friend, who does not put herself under the authority of any, has lied over and over, slandered people I know, and has given me this information about John Calvin. Who should I believe??" Well.. duh. lol.

So what Pilgrim wrote sort of reminded me of all that. What I am wondering though, are you (saved1.. I am pretty sure!) trying to attack Calvins character and question his salvation in order to prove a point? Like that covenantal succession is true? Or what?

Michele