The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum What brought you to a Calvinistic Theology?

Reading the scriptures brought me to the doctrines of grace, though I didn't know it had a name. I had been warned in my SBC and AOG churches about "cold-hearted, head-knowledge-only 'Christians'" known as "Calvinists."

"The worst sort of people, who don't believe in evangelism and missions, Calvinists are to be avoided and kept at a distance!"

Yet the Scriptures point so clearly to the doctrines of grace that they are unavoidable. Asking my pastor about the things I was finding in scripture was no help at all, and in our last such meeting he accused me of having been "in cahoots with some damned Calvinist."

I left determined not to go go back, and not to tithe another penny to a church that wasn't even willing to search the scriptures. And I wondered, "Are my discoveries in the bible Calvinist?" And I looked up Calvinism and was like, "Omygosh, what have I become?"

I was someone who accepted what the bible says, no matter how distasteful to my EGO, to my FLESH, to my high opinion of myself and other fallen, corrupt, thoroughly evil sinners, deserving only the justice of a thrice-holy God. And here's the big difference for me:

The doctrines of grace give ALL the credit and ALL the glory to GOD ALONE. Redeemed sinners do not share the credit as if they "chose to become alive" from death and "chose a new Master" while still in chains, bound by sin, guilt, fear, and their own corruption. Salvation begins and ends with God, who shares His glory with no creature. All we have and ever will have is what our sovereign King gives. Whether we receive His justice for our sin or His mercy, is entirely at His discretion, and was decreed before the worlds were created.

Soli Deo Gloria!