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Reformer Influence On John Calvinism

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John Calvin is the reformer that started Calvinism.Calvin was a man who was highly influenced by Luther but then ended up making his own modified version of Luther’s beliefs.The core beliefs of calvinism are predestination, Justification by faith alone and T.U.L.I.P.This paper will outline John Calvin’s thoughts on free will along with other’s thoughts on Calvin’s theory.
John Calvin believes in predestination. Calvinism teaches that God alone decides who will be saved and humans have no way to get into heaven unless they are chosen.There is no way to make yourself seem like a better candidate for heaven because God’s choice for who will be saved is fully unconditional and he has already decided if anyone is to go to heaven or not because he …show more content…
Erasmus said “By free choice in this place we mean a power of the human will by which a man can apply himself to things which lead to eternal salvation,or turn away from them.(Erasmus pg 47), this quote shows how vastly different the two schools of thought are. John Calvin believes that humans for 1 don’t have any free will and number 2 can’t ever get saved if they aren’t already chosen as part of the elect to be saved.Where on the other hand Erasmus is taking the catholic view and saying not only do Christians have free will but they also can choose whether or not they want to live a Godly life so they have a chance of Salvation. Another major point that makes the two theologians differ is the ideas of TULIP.If people are to look at TULIP if you sum up a lot of them it is just pointing out the fact that humans don’t have free will. T- Humans have no free will because they are forever sinful, U/L/I- Humans can’t decide if they are saved or not, if they’re not saved they’re not saved,P-Even if a believer turns from God they will get into heaven, but when a believer feels they are one of the saved ones it makes them want to live a Godly life. Although the theologians have many different ideas on free will they do both agree on the fact that God has the final say on whether someone gets into heaven, God is sovereign and that there is actually an

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