Calvin did not invent the doctrines of grace

God predestined to life and irrevocably willed only those to be saved.

sinners for whom likewise the Son of God neither assumed a body nor prayed, I say that he did not shed [his] blood nor was in any way crucified for them.

he thoroughly does not want them in any way to be eternally saved.

he thoroughly does not want them in any way to be eternally saved.

Calvin did not invent the doctrines of grace...


He just perverted it beyond all recognition, presented it as a license to sin, and postulated that it only applied to him and the others in his special "master class".

Provide which book, chapter and verse in the Bible that states this verbatim.

You get a choice because saying you are chosen is saying there is something about you that made you choice. God didn't choose you because you're special. He offered salvation to all. It was the plan of salvation and the cross that was predestined. Whosoever will is predestined to be conformed to His image. That's how were taught in Bible college. The conforming was predestined. Which is how the verse reads with the entirety of Scripture.

Your statement "That's how were taught in Bible college." is your problem. It is what the scriptures state that is what we are to believe, not what some Bible college teaches.

Calvin did not invent the doctrines of grace...


He just perverted it beyond all recognition, presented it as a license to sin, and postulated that it only applied to him and the others in his special "master class".

Saint Augustine of Hippo [354-430 AD]"In this redemption, the blood of Christ was given, as it were as a price for us, by accepting which the devil was not enriched, but bound: that we might be loosened from his bonds, and that he might not with himself involve [us] in the meshes of sins, and so deliver to the destruction of the second and eternal death, any one of those whom Christ, free from all debt, had redeemed by pouring out his own blood unindebtedly; but that they who belong to the grace of Christ, foreknown, and predestinated, and elected before the foundation of the world, should only so far die as Christ Himself died for them, i.e. only by the death of the flesh, not of the spirit." Augustine, On the Trinity XIII:xv:19, trans. Arthur West Haddan, in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series, ed. Philip Schaff, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, repr. 1988), p. 178 https://cprc.co.uk/articles/covenant3/

The Canons of the Council of Orange 529 AD
CANON 3. If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle who says the same thing, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me" (Rom 10:20, quoting Isa. 65:1).
CANON 4. If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit himself who says through Solomon, "The will is prepared by the Lord" (Prov. 8:35, LXX), and the salutary word of the Apostle, "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).


"Gottschalk of Orbais [803-868 AD] was the first, since the council of Orange (529), to apply so consistently the principles of later Augustine. He taught that God predestined both the elect to eternal life and the reprobate to eternal death. Several centuries would be needed until Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1290-1349), Gregory of Rimini (d. 1358) and John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384) could voice the same ideas. Gottschalk’s life, rich in dramatic events, is an integral part of the cultural and political life of Germany, France, Italy and Croatia at the dawn of their history. However, Gottschalk of Orbais still remains in the shadow of his more famous contemporaries. Indeed, if a bibliography of the works that treat on Gottschalk is rather large, it can hardly be said that his life and teaching are thoroughly researched." http://gottschalk.inrebus.com/intro.html
See also: https://www.kerux.com/doc/2203A4.asp

Also: "All those impious persons and sinners for whom the Son of God came to redeem by shedding his own blood, those the omnipotent goodness of God predestined to life and irrevocably willed only those to be saved. And again all those impious persons and sinners for whom likewise the Son of God neither assumed a body nor prayed, I say that he did not shed [his] blood nor was in any way crucified for them. In fact, those whom he foreknew were going to be very evil and whom he very justly foreordained unto eternal torments into which they should be cast, he thoroughly does not want them in any way to be eternally saved.
Therefore, I very faithfully believe, very confidently speak, and likewise most certainly and fruitfully confess and most truthfully profess that our omnipotent God, the creator and maker of all creatures, has deigned to be the gratuitous repairer and restorer of all of the elect alone, but willed to be the Savior of none of the perpetually reprobate, the redeemer of none, and glorifier of none." https://prisonerofjoy-kirk.blogspot.com/2014/08/all-those-impious-persons-and-sinners.html

Martin Luther [1483-1546] Bondage of the Will: Sect. 101 - "What do I hear! Are we now inquiring whether or not God loves and hates, and not rather why He loves and hates? Our inquiry is, from what merit it is in us that He loves or hates. We know well enough, that God does not love or hate as we do; because, we love and hate mutably, but He loves and hates from an eternal and immutable nature; and hence it is, that accidents and passions do not pertain unto Him.

And it is this very state of the truth, that of necessity proves "Free-will" to be nothing at all; seeing that, the love and hatred of God towards men is immutable and eternal; existing, not only before there was any merit or work of "Free-will," but before the worlds were made; and that, all things take place in us from necessity, accordingly as He loved or loved not from all eternity. So that, not the love of God only, but even the manner of His love imposes on us necessity. Here then it may be seen, how much its invented ways of escape profit the Diatribe; for the more it attempts to get away from the truth, the more it runs upon it; with so little success does it fight against it!"
https://www.truecovenanter.com/truelutheran/luther_bow.html#pt2

John Calvin [1509-1564 AD] Institutes of the Christian Religion definitive edition published in 1559.

Canons of Dort [1618-1619] Second Head, Article 8 - "For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby He confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation and given to Him by the Father; that He should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He purchased for them by His death; should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in His own presence forever." https://prts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Canons-of-Dort-with-Intro.pdf

Have you read his Institutes, or have you only believed what someone has said about them? Read them to find out what he actually says. You might come out with a different view.

I believe Jesus.

This is a question of double predestination, the elect of God, and then the reprobate, the rejected ones. The rejected, the reprobation is seen in the OT as well as the NT. It is stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith thus:

"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death."

See the scriptures about the reprobates -

"It was a lengthy campaign he waged against all those kingdoms; except for the Hivites who lived in Gibeon, not one of their towns or cities came to terms with the Israelites; all had to be taken by storm. It was the Lord’s purpose that they should offer stubborn resistance to the Israelites, and thus be annihilated and utterly destroyed without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses." (Josh 11:18-20)

"The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble." (Prov 16:4)

"For the scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses." (Rom 9:17-18)

"What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Rom 9:22-24)

"and 'A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do." (1Pet 2:8)
compared with
"For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him." (1Thess 5:9-10)

"These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed," (2Pet 2:12)

"for there did come in unobserved certain men, long ago having been written beforehand to this judgment, impious, the grace of our God perverting to lasciviousness, and our only Master, God, and Lord--Jesus Christ--denying," (Jude 1:4)
it is interesting about those written before hand when it refers to the elect
"and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain." (Rev 13:8)

Of course there is far more scripture about God's elect than about the reprobate, but reprobation is certainly in the scripture.

Not one verse states, “he thoroughly does not want them in any way to be eternally saved.” Nice try though.

This is a question of double predestination, the elect of God, and then the reprobate, the rejected ones. The rejected, the reprobation is seen in the OT as well as the NT. It is stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith thus:

"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death."

See the scriptures about the reprobates -

"It was a lengthy campaign he waged against all those kingdoms; except for the Hivites who lived in Gibeon, not one of their towns or cities came to terms with the Israelites; all had to be taken by storm. It was the Lord’s purpose that they should offer stubborn resistance to the Israelites, and thus be annihilated and utterly destroyed without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses." (Josh 11:18-20)

"The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble." (Prov 16:4)

"For the scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses." (Rom 9:17-18)

"What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Rom 9:22-24)

"and 'A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do." (1Pet 2:8)
compared with
"For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him." (1Thess 5:9-10)

"These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed," (2Pet 2:12)

"for there did come in unobserved certain men, long ago having been written beforehand to this judgment, impious, the grace of our God perverting to lasciviousness, and our only Master, God, and Lord--Jesus Christ--denying," (Jude 1:4)
it is interesting about those written before hand when it refers to the elect
"and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain." (Rev 13:8)

Of course there is far more scripture about God's elect than about the reprobate, but reprobation is certainly in the scripture.

The problem with the position a few put forth is that it teaches that God gives no option to
some to choose Him, yet He will punish them eternally none-the less for not choosing Him.
How they can then fashion this into something that glorifies God is certainly puzzling .

The problem with the position a few put forth is that it teaches that God gives no option to
some to choose Him, yet He will punish them eternally none-the less for not choosing Him.
How they can then fashion this into something that glorifies God is certainly puzzling .