Calvin - Faith

Once again as we look deeper in the teachings of Calvin we find him fully integrating knowledge or Gnosis into his doctrines. Here we find Calvin attempt to explain what faith is and once again the sad thing is it is nothing close to Faith as described in the scriptues.

Hebrews 11:1-3
1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Now we can compare biblical faith to that of Calvin.

Calvin’s Faith
12. Although faith is a knowledge of the divine favor towards us, and a full persuasion of its truth, it is not strange that the sense of the divine love, which though akin to faith differs much from it, vanishes in those who are temporarily impressed. The will of God is, I confess, immutable, and his truth is always consistent with itself; but I deny that the reprobate ever advance so far as to penetrate to that secret revelation which Scripture reserves for the elect only.

So faith according to Calvin is KNOWLEDGE of the divine favor toward us, and a full persuasion of its truth. This sounds more like the Mormon concept of the "Burning in the Bosom" than that of biblical faith, and we can see that Calvin even explains the difference with " though akin to faith differs much from it".

He closes with "but I deny that the reprobate ever advance so far as to penetrate to that secret revelation which Scripture reserves for the elect only".

Secret Revelation? This is nothing less than Gnosticism and is totally unbiblical.