[rodgertutt]

Originally Posted by shibboleth

Rodger, do you happen to know which book the quote from Calvin is about hell being a span long with infants? The reason I ask is that it was used as a proof text on an ET site that Calvin believed babies went to hell and the guy who quoted it and I couldn't find it in Calvins writings. Do you know exactly where it came from? Also, didn't Jonathan Edwards say babies went to hell in his writings? We couldn't find that one either.

Although I don't know in which of his writings the statement is written, it does make sense that Calvin believed it since he believed in Unconditional election not depending on human choice, and in a Limited atonement that was only efficatious for the elect who were chosen by God to be saved. His belief in the Total depravity of humans would also place non-elect infants in hell since I am not aware of any evidence that he believed in annihilation. Also the wording "infants a span long" is unique and if Calvin didn't say it, some other theologian probably did. I first heard that Calvin said it back in the 1950s when I was going to Bible school.

I had not heard that Jonathan Edwards said it although I wouldn't be surprised since he had a very cruel perception of God as manifested in his writing Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.