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Originally Posted by CalvinandHodges  Hi:
I thought the best defense of Calvinism was Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Wasn't Gill a hyper-Calvinist?
Blessings,
-CH |
The Institutes by Calvin are the best defense of Reformed theology against Popery, but not against Arminianism. However, by Calvinism I meant the five points of Calvinism, as opposed to the Arminian position. Arminians will agree with a lot of the content in the Institutes, except for the five points, and perhaps a few other things here and there.
Another defense of Calvinism I know is Lorraine Buettner's "The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination," but his is not an exegetical treatise, and leaves a lot of paradoxes and questions unanswered before the Arminian attacks.
Spurgeon also wrote a defense of Calvinism, but I think it is only 32 pages, and is not a scholarly work. Like I said, John Owen's "Death of Death" is an excellent defense of definite atonement, and his "A Display of Arminianism" is a good critique against early Remonstrance, but not to the same exegetical level as his "Death of Death," and Gill's "The Cause of God and Truth." Interestingly, Gill's exegesis is often very much in line with that of Owen and Calvin.