Intellectual Calvinism is...

whitenine, I acknowledge the possibility of you ignoring my comment, but I'll be posting this anyways. For you, and other brethren that come across your deviation and my comment.

Your pic revolves around misguided straw-man argumentation, and your description merely attacks Reformed believers as opposed to attacking their beliefs. That is called ad hominem argumentation, and honestly, it's really not a good approach to take to make your case against Calvinism. BTW, can you clarify for me what you mean by "Intellectual Calvinism"? Is there a difference between that and just plain old Calvinism?

As a devout Christian and Calvinist, may I also ask that you provide me with a thorough and exegetical reading of John chapters 6, 8, 10, and 17, Romans chapters 5, 8, and 9, Ephesians 1, a Greek analysis of John 3:16 and 1st John 5:1, and Isaiah 10:5-17 WITHOUT concluding Reformed Theology to be a biblically sound doctrine? There are many other passages throughout the entire Bible that do in fact teach the doctrines of grace. I merely gave you a list of my personal favorites. Here's a little something I'll do for you. I'll explain one important belief testified to in Scripture and held by reformed Christians.

Man is spiritually dead (Romans 5; 8:5-8, Ephesians 2:1-3). It's that plain and simple. The controversy here revolves around how spiritually dead man is and how that affects his life and the choices he makes throughout it. The depth and magnitude of man's spiritual deadness is emphasized in Romans 8:5-8, which says:

"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Without a doubt, exercising belief/faith in Christ is pleasing to God. And yet we see that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. The Greek says, "Theo aresai OU DUNANTAI", literally, "To God to be pleasing NOT THEY ARE ABLE." Those who are in the flesh are utterly unable to please God, not just simply unwilling.

So, it is the Reformed belief and Biblical teaching that man's corrupt nature due to his spiritual deadness renders him completely incapable of coming to Christ on his own and/or doing anything pleasing in God's eyes. This is what is commonly known as "Total Depravity", the first of the five points of Calvinism summed up by the acronym, T.U.L.I.P.

So what must happen in order for the unregenerate man to be able to be freed from his own corrupt nature and have the new-found will to please God and come to Christ? He must first be born again. This belief is not only held and embraced by reformed believers, but also found in Scripture. And here's the evidence.

Let's take a look at the first half of 1st John 5:1. It says:

"..everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God..." (ESV)

What is this verse talking about? Obviously, the relationship between belief (and belief in a specific thing, that Jesus is the Christ) and being born of God.

According to Scripture, which comes first: belief, or being born of God? Let's look at I John 5:1 again, but this time in Greek. I have written the verbal parallels "believing" and "born of God" in capital letters:

"Pas ho PISTEUON oti ho Iesous estiv ho Christos, ek tou Theou GEGENNETAI..."

Let me give you a literal translation:

Pas ho pisteuon, "Everyone the believing,"
oti ho Iesous estiv ho Christos, "that Jesus is the Annointed,"
ek tou Theou gegennetai, "by the God has been begotten."

In the Greek text, pisteuon, "believing", is a present tense verb. Which means it is an active, and continuous belief. For that is the nature of true faith.

The Greek word gegennetai, "has been begotten", is a perfect tense verb. Which means it is something that happened in the past. Now, when you have a perfect tense verb with a present tense verb in the same sentence, the perfect tense participle will always occur before the present tense one. In Greek, perfect tense verbs are specifically verbs that were completed in the past WITH PRESENT RESULTS.

This means that I John 5:1 teaches that being born of God precedes belief. Since pisteuon is a present tense verb while gegennetai is a perfect tense verb, this indicates that first we are born again, and the result of that is belief. It is actually God's divine act of regeneration that causes us to believe unto salvation. Therefore, regeneration, being born again, being born of God, call it what you want, it occurs before belief.

This is a sovereign and divine act of God upon the unregenerate and totally depraved man of his choice. Left on his own, in his natural state, man will ALWAYS choose to reject God and live a sinful lifestyle. For God to even CONSIDER saving such a creature is an act of love beyond degree and understanding. You see, God would be perfectly just and perfectly holy, if he chose to save just one person out of all creation. He would also be perfectly just and perfectly holy if he chose not to save anyone. Why? You may ask? Because he is NOT obligated to save anyone. THAT is why grace is indeed amazing! THAT is why grace is called grace! Grace is unmerited favor from God to the sinful man that doesn't deserve it, at all!

You might remain unconvinced, so here's another verse you can compare 1st John 5:1 to, which is in the same book:

The next one we'll look at is the second half of 1st John 2:29.

".....everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him." (ESV)

I haven't an ounce of doubt that everyone reading this would agree that our having been born of God precedes our doing righteousness. Let's look at this again in Greek:

"Pas ho APOION ten dikaiosunen ex autou GEGENNETAI."

Here's the literal translation:

Pas ho apoion ten dikaiosunen, "Everyone the doing the righteousness,"
ex autou gegennetai, "by Him has been begotten."

We have here the exact same type of verbal parallel. The Greek word apoion, to practice righteousness, is a present tense verb. And gegennetai, to be born of God, is a perfect tense verb. So it happened in the past.

Do you still insist in 1st John 5:1 that by first believing we then cause ourselves to be born of God? If so, then you can twist 1st John 2:29 around in the same fashion and say that it is also by doing righteousness that we cause our being born of God, since their grammatical structure is exactly the same in Greek. You don't want to do that. I can see Roman Catholics and Mormons going for that interpretation, but not Christians. It is inconsistent with the Greek text, and also goes against many verses throughout the Bible, such as Romans 3 and 4.

I hope this has been helpful to you. God bless, and take care.