SOURCE: "Christ and Election in Calvin's Theology," in The Will of God and the Cross: An Historical and Theological Study of John Calvin's Doctrine of Limited Redemption, Pickwick Publications, 1990, pp. 64-88.

In the following excerpt, Rainbow treats Calvin's views on Predestination in contradistinction to Arminian theologians like the seventeenth-century Frenchman Moyse Amyraut. Rainbow shows that the doctrines of Divine Election, Limited Atonement, and Assurance of Salvation, are intricately knotted together in Reformed theology.

There is no single place where Calvin addressed the extent of Christ's redemption in a systematic fashion. The absence of such a locus in the Institutes has led some scholars to think that it was not important for him, but this was not the case. Calvin, unlike Bucer, was never much involved in controversies about the extent of redemption; like Augustine, his most significant statements are to be found in biblical exposition and preaching. This...