Calvinism or Lutheranism

Calvinism/Lutheranism This is a guideline and template. Please do not use as a final turn-in paper. The main tenet that John Calvin preached was that God pre-ordained a certain segment of humanity to salvation, based on His own Grace and nothing humanity had done to deserve it. In like manner he pre-determined that another segment of humanity, because of, and in punishment for their sin, would spend eternity in damnation.

Calvinism consists of a number of beliefs that define the doctrine of salvation which is written about in the Bible. The first belief is that man's sin has spread to every part of each person's being -- emotions, will, and thinking. This is all caused by Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden, or as it is referred to, the Fall of Man.

It also says that all humans are spiritually helpless; it takes God in the form of the Holy Spirit to intervene and indwell our human bodies, or we would be lost to damnation forever. This belief is called Total Depravity or Total Inability. The second belief is that God's pre-ordaining some segment of humanity to be saved and precisely who that would be is not a result of any perceived advantage or response that God knew he would receive from these particular individuals.

It is based on nothing humans have to offer but is established only in God's own will -- human faith or repentance included. Those two are God's gifts to those He selects, not ours to Him. So, God chooses the sinner to bring through to Christ; the sinner does not choose God. This is called Unconditional Election. Particular Redemption is the third Calvinist belief.

It states that, through Christ living a perfect life on Earth as a human acting as "substitute" for those elected unconditionally by God, and by Christ suffering all the punishment for our sins, we are saved. By this act, when we are His by faith, we are associated with his righteousness and freed of guilt and punishment. This is not by any acts of man, but solely through Christ's work on Earth in redeeming us.

The fourth belief of Calvinist theology says that when God calls the elect, they cannot resist. This belief is called Irresistible Grace. God calls all people to his salvation, but with the elect he issues the call that cannot be refused. This is the internal call and is issued by the Holy Spirit, implanted in us by God when we are saved. The Holy Spirit works within the elect to bring them both to repentance and regeneration.

The fifth belief may be the most dramatic and significant one for us humans. It states that once the elect are saved, that salvation may never be lost -- "Once saved, Always saved." It is called Perseverance of the Saints. God continues the process of making the saved holy until we go to be with Him. No one is lost -- ever.

Calvinist Similarities and Differences with Lutheranism The theology that God has pre-ordained events throughout the history of the world, and has pre-ordained those who will enter a state of salvation is common to both Calvinists and Lutherans. This is called pre-destination and both Luther and Calvin strongly believed it to be truth. Both Luther and Calvin were quite involved with the question of why all men are not saved.

It became a critical issue for both of them, though Calvin spent more energy and effort on resolving it in his own mind. Both men agreed that God's will was that all men be saved, and both thought this quandary through to a solution in their own minds. In the end, Calvin resolved it by interpreting "all men" as "all kinds of human beings" rather than individual people.

In doing so, he was essentially saying that God's will for the world was that some "human beings" were meant for eternal damnation. It is the general way that many theologians got around a teaching not found in the Bible. Calvin simply got around the passage that says clearly "God predestines some to salvation," wanting to add his own verbiage that "God also determines than some will enter eternal damnation.

However, he was stymied by the fact that, in 1 Timothy 2:4, the Lord makes it definitively clear that He desires all men be saved. So that's why Calvin circumvented Scripture by limiting the "all" as we described above. Luther, as did Calvin, fought with this issue for a very long time before resolving it in a different manner -- by simply redefining how God describes salvation.

He essentially changed it from what the Bible says to a "sense of earthly welfare." He took out of context how prayer is defined in the Book as "being made for all people and rulers on earth" and illogically concluded that the salvation the Lord desires is just an earthly matter. He and Calvin accomplished what they both needed to do in dealing with this shared problem.

Calvin answers the question of "Why are some saved and not others?" By double predestination, and degrading the phrase "all men" into "some men." Luther removes this passage from the debate over universal salvation, by referring it only to temporal salvation. Both Calvin and Luther believed in Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of Saints. It must be noted, however, that Calvin's Five Points didn't really become "Five Points" until Calvin and Luther were both dead.

Regarding baptism, Lutherans believe that the grace God grants through baptism can be resisted, and a person previously saved and baptized can be "unsaved." However, if the resistance is not overt, the one baptized can still be considered saved. Presbyterians (Calvinists) believe that the grace and rebirth granted by baptism is not just offered, but actually displayed by the Holy Spirit according to God's will. Baptism is part of Salvation and neither can be withdrawn. Calvinist and Lutheran views of the Lord's Supper differ also.

This may be one of the biggest controversies between Luther and Calvin. Catholicism believes that the bread used in the Lord's Supper or Communion actually becomes the physical body of Christ when the priest holds it up at the altar and proclaims, "This is my body..." Lutherans mostly believe that the real body and blood of the Lord are physically present at the Lord's Table and are taken by believer and unbeliever.

The Presbyterian or Reformed view of this is that the body and blood of Christ are indeed present at the Communion Table, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit (within us) uniting us with Christ, and only believers partake. It is not the physical body and blood of Christ that the believer is taking, but that spirit of unity brought on by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The question that is different for each theology is whether we are raised, in spirit, during that Holy time to be in spirit with the Lord, or is He physically brought down from Heaven to us? "There is another difference between the two churches that is also substantial. It is the view of worship. All consistent Reformed and Presbyterian churches profess what is called "regulative principle" concerning the worship of God.

That principle is that "Nothing is allowable in worship which is not required in Scripture." The Lutheran position is that what is not forbidden is allowable. "Where God is silent so are the Lutherans," which allows for greater liturgical liberty than the Reformed view. So a good deal of liturgical practice is governed by this difference." There were major differences between the men themselves -- Luther and Calvin -- which transferred themselves indirectly to the theologies and to the worship itself. The two had entirely different outlooks on life itself.

While Luther was "in love" with life, Calvin believed in austerity. Luther thought men should joyously thank God for all his gifts -- from the most beautiful sunrise to a good bottle of wine. Calvin did not like nor enjoy frivolity. He called on people to turn away from all the little enjoyments of this temporal life and focus entirely on God, serving Him and preparing themselves, body and spirit, for Heaven.

Make no mistake, Calvin did not keep his ideas to himself, but clearly expressed and expounded his dour personality on Protestantism with his proclamations of the excess and damnation of drinking, card-playing, dancing, and every other little happiness that people enjoyed. Even today, Presbyterian worship is defined by its orderliness. Its services are plain, simple and dignified. The service revolves around Scripture readings, prayers and sermon. Calvin would be proud.

Why did Calvinism Become the Major International Form of Protestantism? Calvin was much more than just a writer or a theologian. He was a reformer of major proportions. He did not stop with reforming the church from the strict Catholic papacy of Europe in that day. He set out to reform society, and, in doing so, changed the structure, organization and efficacy of the church.

His most crucial involvement was in the organization of the governing of the church and the social structure of not only the church but the city (of Geneva, Switzerland). He was also a major political strategist and thinker. He modeled the.