Why I am a Calvinist (and you should be too)

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/life/daytoday/why_i_am_a_calvinist_and_you_should_be_too/

[sydneyanglicans] 26 Dec 2009--In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace… (Ephesians 1:4-6)

Like all the most fervent Calvinists, I began my spiritual life with a profound hatred for the doctrines linked to his name. But the Spirit, inexorably it seems, subdued my will to the plain teaching of Scripture - that God is sovereign over this world, and that He chooses those whom He will save, according to His own good pleasure and grace.

As a young Christian I was captivated by the message of the cross, and many other doctrines of Christianity too. But predestination seemed a hateful thing to me, an ugly blot on an otherwise beautiful landscape. I believed in free will - more, I believed in the absolute sovereignty of the human will. Though a Christian, a part of me still wanted to be “captain of my fate” and “master of my soul”.

Actually, I was not comfortable with God’s sovereignty over anything at all. The idea that God was the author of history was alien to me. I was content with Him sticking His fingers into the mix every now and again, but I rejected the idea that He ran the whole show.

How blind I was! I knew full well at the time that I was struggling to put to death numerous sins of the flesh. But it never occurred to me that my mind, also, was inclined to rebel against the will of God, and that it too might have patterns and habits that would painfully clash with the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

My resistance to the idea of predestination was just such a clash. My rebellion against “Calvinism” (as these doctrines of grace are commonly called) was really a rebellion against God; it was a desire to “hold out” on Him, and reserve one final piece of myself for myself. Looking back, I’m struck by how immature my thinking was - I was like a child, stubbornly insisting on my own way.