Is Calvinism a form of Gnostic Christianity?

No, Calvin himself says that God directly ordained sinful inclinations. But Calvin does not call this a sin on God' part and he actually says that it is not a sin.You, Faith, are the one who is saying that God directly ordaining sinful inclinations would be a sin on God' part.That is a rejection of Calvinism, which says the opposite of what you say.

Some say God allowed for the possibility of evil but that humans chose to actualize it. Sinful inclinations would be defined as the possibility of evil, whereas the actualization is up to us.

That's fine, but those people are not Calvinists.

But so far none of the quotes I've seen say that. The inclination was already present, something to do with the nature of things, and God directed it. That's what I keep seeing.But if what you are saying is correct and Calvinists see it that way I'll have to find it out later, from those who have studied this more thoroughly.But there's going to have to be some other way of resolving it than the Arminians' way because that just makes God weak.

There is your problem Faith, and it is a nearly universal error in how you learn. Stop listening to sermons, reading the apologists or what people think. To learn about Calvinism read what Calvin actually wrote.To learn what the Bible says don't listen to sermons or read apologists, read what the Bible actually says, not what you know it really says but rather what is actually written.To know what Tacitus or Josephus said, don't believe the sermons or the apologist, read what Josephus and Tacitus actually wrote.Throw the sermons away.Throw the apologists away.

I read Calvin years ago. I had some problems with him but not this particular problem. But the advice not to listen to preachers is very wrong. They were given to us to make up for our own lack of gifting in understanding these things. And it is always safer to learn from many teachers rather than confine yourself to your own abilities, or even just to one or two teachers. A good case could be made that you, for instance, went so far off the track from trusting your own reading of the Bible that you are now lost in deep jungle from which you may never return.

Yet I post the actual passages for all to read instead of links to some sermon.Make the case if you can Faith but to learn you need to begin with the actual content and then test whatever you hear from so called pastors against what is actually written.

Open your eyes and read. Calvin says that the perverse things that men do are of God and that the wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined.God has exactly destined even the will of man. Every single thing that man does is because God chose that he would do it. For being someone who calls themself a Calvinist, your awfully ignorant of what Calvin actually says.Perhaps you should learn about things before claiming to be a part of them. Sure, there's the Calvinism way: God making us sin is not a sin, itself.Why do you reject the Calvinist way and then still call yourself a Calvinist?And how does the Arminians' way make God weak? I'm not familiar with their stuff.

This is cursory but will get you started.

'Makes God weak' is Calvinist speak for believing in a God who fails to micromanage all of man's history to the point of deciding whether you end up in heaven or hell before your grandmother was even conceived.

The summary that AZ Paul posted is good as far as it goes but the crucial thing is which of the systems follows the Bible and that page says nothing about that. The reason to accept one or the other is entirely because it's more biblical and that's why I've regarded myself as a Calvinist.The most glaring way Arminianism is not biblical is in its idea that God and humanity both have a part in salvation, whereas scripture clearly says we are saved by the grace of God through faith, and not by works, meaning any effort of our own.As for Arminianism making God weak, If God merely foresees what a person will do, such as choose or not choose salvation, rather than ordaining the event He foresees, the person has more power than God. Just as with the idea that we contribute our own works to salvation we therefore "can boast" which scripture says we can't do because everything that saves us is done by God.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Perhaps you are a Calvinist. In that you case, perhaps you should read more about the doctrine to find out what it is you've bought into. In the meantime, I'm having a pretty good laugh watching you deny stuff that professed Calvinists whole-heartedly embrace. It appears that I'm not alone.And there is no real reason or force to adopt Calvinism or Arminianism if those doctrines have flaws. If they are only approximations ("it's more Biblical") to scripture, then all of the non-scriptural portions ought to be abandoned. If God were just a powerful human, perhaps He would be concerned about His Mercy and long suffering being taken for weakness by mere mortals. But (John 3:16, 10:9, 5:39-40, Luke 18:16) apparently He's bigger than you and I.For those of us who are parents, we can know that there is nothing particularly weak about preparing our children to make their own choices. The idea that God granting man free will and still being able to accomplish anything God wants represents some kind of weakness is something I find laughable. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

How can you reconcile these two statements? Do you believe that God is weak?

That version of Calvinism is called Hypercalvinism. The Bible tells us to evangelize, that's what the Great Commission is, and Calvinists evangelize too of course, and of course exhort people to believe. This is a problem with these discussions which is one reason I hate to get into them. From our point of view we are the choosers and the doers and we don't feel we are restricted in our choices psychologically. Psychologically we can't place our own experience within God's sovereignty. Anyway, our job is to do our best to persuade people and leave the outcome to God. He decides the outcome, we don't but we have the responsibility to spread the word. Someone who has seemed to leave the faith can still come back to it.There are two levels always going on simultaneously, our perspective and God's. They don't interfere, we are IN God and nothing happens without Him, but if we get too hung up on the theology of it it interferes with normal life. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I'm sorry, but you've lost me. Which statement of the two embodies Hypercalvinism? Your own statement quoted from another forum relating to the pray away the gay preacher. Or the purported criticism of Arminianism. If it is the latter, then what is your actual beef with Arminianism? Calvin himself, if you are to be believed, was a hyper-Calvinist because he believed in total depravity and unconditional election; a doctrine which is easily demonstrated to be non-scriptural. A theology no one should live by. How useful is that? And according to Calvin, there is not diddly squat a human can do. Well, given that we are instructed by scripture to do otherwise, so who needs Calvinism.