“Anyway, as long as things don’t get contentious, don’t avoid the debates. We’re all suppose to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. God wrote about it in His Word so we can think about it and talk about it. Come, let us reason together according to the Scriptures.”
I would love to; but I don’t have ‘Spurgeon’s Lectures’ in my Bible, and that is ultimately, in my experience, what is presented as canon in these conversations.
That's a good observation.
Calvin's Institutes are very complicated and were written in Latin - Surgeon's crib notes are shorter, easier to read, more reductive and are the usual primer for Anglophone Calvinists.
“I would love to; but I don’t have ‘Spurgeon’s Lectures’ in my Bible,”
Spurgeon is often cited; because he is really very good. Also he is a famous Baptist who was also Calvinist in his theology.
But it is entirely possible to reason about man’s depravity, God’s election of us, Christ’s atonement, the irresistability of God’s grace, and God’s preserving His people without citing Spurgeon.