Assurance of Damnation

[Contarini]

Interesting, so this was their hindsight after they found Calvinism?

No, the people in question grew up in a Calvinist society. Parts of the Outer Hebrides are still very strictly Calvinist, I believe (the other parts are Catholic), and certainly were so 50+ years ago when my grandparents were actively involved in ministry in Scotland.

These would be folks who were baptized as infants but never experienced “conversion,” and thus came to conclude that they were predestined to be damned.

Or they may simply have been psychologically disturbed people.

Edwin

 

[mackbrislawn]

Calvinists believe, as I said earlier, that a regenerate person will (at least more or less, most of the time) be confident of his or her own election. So yes, to claim that one has been born again is to claim that one is among the elect.

The Calvinists who don’t think of themselves as “of the elect” would be Calvinists who have not yet professed regeneration (particularly in the Puritan tradition there were many such people). I don’t think this is a common phenomenon today.

My grandmother met Calvinists in the Hebrides who were convinced that they were predestined to be damned. Calvinists of my acquaintance would say that this stems from a radical misunderstanding of Calvinist teaching.

Edwin

This is something I’ve been wondering about–how does a Calvinist profess regeneration. That is, how do they know? Is it an event, an experience, feeling, or ceremony?

You would think it would be stressful for them, waiting to know if they will become regenerate. Why does God keep me in suspense…or am I of the damned after all?

 

[CHRISTINE77]

No, the people in question grew up in a Calvinist society. Parts of the Outer Hebrides are still very strictly Calvinist, I believe (the other parts are Catholic), and certainly were so 50+ years ago when my grandparents were actively involved in ministry in Scotland.

These would be folks who were baptized as infants but never experienced “conversion,” and thus came to conclude that they were predestined to be damned.

Or they may simply have been psychologically disturbed people.

Edwin

Here is a snippet on Calvinism in early days of America. Actually Calvinism required a lot of introspection, however as the article says, also a lot of self-confidence!

With its emphasis on predestination and simultaneous insistence on the indistinguishability of the “elect” (the “invisible church”), Calvinist theology might have led to the erosion of standards and values. To prevent this from occurring and to help their congregations cope with the uncertainty of unconditional election, seventeenth-century New England Puritan ministers introduced the doctrine of preparationism or “covenant theology.” Covenant theology substituted divine decree as the basis for election with a compact between God and his worshipers. In exchange for absolute obedience, God allowed human beings to prepare for grace. Preparation, however, did not guarantee election. Rather, it demanded from the believer a display of a heretofore unseen degree of self-reflection, paradoxically paired with a relatively large portion of self-confidence. To doubt one’s election was indicative of the lack of grace and revealed vulnerability to the temptations of the devil. To act as one saw fit was equally disgraceful, as human beings’ reliance on the moral faculty was not only misleading but also presumptuous. In order to gain certainty of salvation or certituto salutis, then, Puritans had to follow their “effectual calling” or fides efficax: they had to dedicate their lives to the glorification of God.

enotes.com/calvinism-reference/calvinism-223946

 

[LoyalViews]

No, the people in question grew up in a Calvinist society. Parts of the Outer Hebrides are still very strictly Calvinist, I believe (the other parts are Catholic), and certainly were so 50+ years ago when my grandparents were actively involved in ministry in Scotland.

These would be folks who were baptized as infants but never experienced “conversion,” and thus came to conclude that they were predestined to be damned.

Or they may simply have been psychologically disturbed people.

Edwin

Yes it’s one world to the next in the hebrides!

The Calvinists here seem to have abandoned the Calvinist belief in predistanation, because there is a Presbyterian “Kirk” here and visiting their website shows that they’re an “inclusive, all-welcoming church…blah blah blah”. But just 20 years ago, one would be afraid to talk to a Calvinist because they’d always bring that up.