The alternative of hypothetical universalism, according to which Christ's work is sufficient for all but efficient only for the elect, was alive and well in early Reformed thought. Moreover - and importantly for our purposes - this view was not regarded as an aberration but as a legitimate position that could be taken within the confessional bounds of Reformed thought. But that means that the Five Points aren't the non-negotiable conceptual core of Calvinism after all.

How many people in the pews know that [ Jonathan Edwards] is both a founder of evangelicalism and, say, an idealist who denied that the material world exists?

[John] Calvin is often identified with his account of predestination. Yet that appears in the third book of his Institutes, not the first.

God shows us in Christ what he would have to do if he were to punish us for our sins.

We may think that our tradition is exactly the same as it has always been, but that is an illusion.

I think everyone who has an interest in Reformed theology, or just in Christian theology more generally, should read John Calvin Institutes.

[ Jonathan] Edwards is one of my heroes. I've learned much from him over the years.