This is a useful summery for those who wonder why the Calvinists harp on Roman Catholicism.
The problem with systematic theology is that it injects human ideas and wisdom into areas God has not expressly revealed. More time reading scripture and applying it to one’s life is preferable to any amount of ‘theology’.
Scripture clearly teaches that we can do nothing to save ourselves. It teaches that God has reached down and made salvation possible. It teaches we must respond in faith, and if we do so truly, we are born again - a new creation. That new creation is changed, but sin still holds us back. The call to obedience isn’t one of ‘let God do the work’, but to accept the work God has done and try to obey Him.
If your life goes unchanged, you are not a Christian no matter how much faith you claim. If you are a Christian, you will still struggle with sin, and scripture is full of exhortations to obey. If it was easy, there would be no need for the exhortations.
The problem with works is that no man can work his way to heaven. The problem with faith is that many claim faith but refuse to take up their cross and follow Jesus.
Paul said it well:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” - Ephesians 2
I harp on Roman Catholicism without being a Calvinist
A friend and I were talking yesterday about celebrating Lent. We both agreed we don’t need Lent. Jesus’ sacrifice is enough. My sacrifice would never be added to His because of my sin. The sacrifice I could ever give is my living my life the way Jesus wants me to. I don’t approve of the way we are looking to Roman Catholicism for what we should be celebrating at Resurrection time.
“Warning, this post has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with bigotry. All Catholic and Orthodox Catholic posters, as well as all Christians of good will, are advised to avoid such threads as they are here to generate hate, not the love of Christ.”
"Wherever the knowledge of justification is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished, the Church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown" -- John Calvin's Reply to Sadoleto, Tracts I:41
It's to distract from themselves.