I'm in the process of carefully reviewing a recent massive post by David Ponter, full of quotations from English translations of John Calvin's writings and preachings. My initial impression upon skimming through the post was that it was simply cherry-picked quotations designed to convey Ponter's basic thesis. Having looked into the matter a bit deeper, it appears that Ponter has tried to include all the quotations he could find that he thinks are relevant.
At any rate, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he has not purposely omitted quotations that he believes indicate that Calvin held to the traditional 5 point Calvinism taught by Turretin, Owen, Hodge, Shedd, et al. On the other hand, I'm not sure what Ponter's methodology has been - and I don't think he specifically states it in his post. Indeed, I might be mistaken, but I think that Ponter may be in the process of continuing to expand on his lists - though how he is obtaining his quotations is somewhat obscure. Perhaps it is by personal reading of Calvin's writings? Perhaps it is by the collective readings by those in his limited/unlimited-intention circle?
I hope to provide a bit more detailed response shortly, if God wills, followed ultimately by a very detailed response to a few interesting issues that the post presents.
-Turretinfan
Monday, April 14, 2008
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5 comments:
Has the debate come over here? I haven't been up on things lately but was there ever a resolution on limited and unlimited where that debate was being handled?
The last time Seth contacted me, he was planning to get back to the debate at some point. I haven't seen any indication from him that he is ready to continue, since about the time that David Ponter stopped posting his comments on the debate.
-TurretinFan
Well that's disappointing!
I was up for a surge in thrusts of the Sword!
Well, DP and you seem to moving in some direction in any event!
I seriously doubt that DP would risk another open debate with me.
I see I can't even type a clear thought!
It seems to me that DP and you seem to "be" moving in some direction in any event.
I am not implying you and he are moving in similar directions, yet. Although, repentance is a change of direction, last I thought about it.
I seem to myself to be repenting a lot these days. I still stand my ground in any event and assert that no dead man ever had to worry about the direction he was going at least from God's point of view seeing only dead men are raised up from the dead and conjoined to Christ by God Himself! Cf Eph. 2:5 and Col. 2:13.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick and when my hope is realized, well, I will have left this temporal tent for my eternal abode!
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