What is Calvinism? by B.B. Warfield

Calvinism is total dependence upon God for salvation! Calvinism implies a NEED of salvation, a profound SENSE of this need, a profound sense of HELPLESSNESS in the presence of this need, and an utter DEPENDENCE ON GOD for its satisfaction. Its type is found in the publican who smote on his breast and cried, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" No question there of saving himself or of helping God to save him. No question of anything but, "I am a sinner and all my hope is in God, my Saviour." This is Calvinism! Where this attitude of heart and mind is found, there is Calvinism. The Calvinist is the man who has seen God and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God's presence as a CREATURE, and much more as a SINNER, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder that, nevertheless, this God, in Christ, is a God WHO LOVES AND RECEIVES SINNERS. He believes God without reserve and is determined that GOD IS GOD in all his thinking and feeling, willing (in the entire compass of life's activities) that God is God in all of creation, providence, and salvation. He who can cast his soul wholly on the free grace of God, who through the merit of His Son, is both just and justifier, is, by the very necessity of the case, a Calvinist! by BB Warfield