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'To Whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life'.
(2)
Some Systems of Doctrine and / or Practice
Calvinism.
This word is sometimes incorrectly spelt 'Calvanism', but the system of
doctrine thus indicated takes its name from John Calvin, a Reformer, born at
Noyon in Picardy, July 10th a.d. 1509. The 'Five points of Calvinism' are
the following:
(1)
Particular election.
(2)
Particular redemption.
(3)
Moral inability in a fallen state, called also 'universal
depravity'.
(4)
Irresistible grace.
(5)
Final perseverance.
Many Calvinists were 'Necessitarian', and the doctrine of
Predestination became to all intents inexorable fate.
Arminianism.
This must not be confused with the word Armenian. The doctrine known
as Arminianism is named after Arminius, the Latinized form of the
surname of Jakob Harmenszoon, a Dutch theologian born a.d. 1560.
Arminianism opposes the five points of Calvinism, by five points of its
own.
(1)
Foreknowledge enters into God's predestinating and electing
Grace.
(2)
Christ died for all the world, although only believers can
benefit from it.
(3)
Man must be born again by the operation of the Holy Spirit.
(4)
God does not compel a man to be saved against his own will.
(5)
Sufficient spiritual strength to continue is found in Christ, but
whether any can fall away is not a question we can answer. Whitfield
became the father of Calvinistic Methodists and Wesley the father of
Arminian Methodists.
Baptists.
Anabaptists, a mediaeval sect, who rejected infant baptism and were re-
baptized as adult believers. General Baptists differ from Strict and
Particular Baptists in that the latter restrict communion to believers who
walk orderly, and who hold Particular redemption as Calvinists as opposed to
Arminians.
Methodists.
This name was given originally in a taunting spirit to the followers of
Wesley, because of the precise and methodic nature of their religious duties.
'The first rise of Methodism' says John Wesley, 'was in November 1729, when,
four of us met together at Oxford'.
Non-Conformists.
This term, as now used, includes all who absent themselves from the
worship of the Church of England on the ground of conscience, and in that
sense is synonymous with the word Dissenters. In the strictest sense it is
applied to those ministers who were ejected from their livings on their
refusal to submit to the Acts of Uniformity passed by Charles II in 1662.