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Good Calvinists don't have a single book of interpretation, but nonetheless agree on much more than I think many others are willing to give us credit for. We do not follow the one man Calvin or the one man Luther, and everything they said. Our faith is not in them. Our faith is in God in Heaven, and scripture on earth, and we are attracted to how these men (and many others, later) explained and brought ideas together that are clearly found in scripture, as the Spirit has revealed it to us. That's all, no veneration.

Amen! And that which we disagree on is not a matter of essential doctrine. It says a lot for the unity that Christ called for that we agree on essentials and can still respect one another in matters of disagreement because we know that the other party has taken Scripture seriously. Such was my experience at seminary. We agreed on the essentials. We agreed on many if not most of the secondary doctrines. But where we disagreed, we could sit down and debate about them and still come away without an ounce of ill-will in us because of the high view of Scripture held by the other party. Where I begin to lose respect is when people will take whatever the Jesus Seminar or a similar organization says to degrade Scripture and announce that Scripture is unreliable. If one does not have Scripture as one's base, then it is all just human invention and we have no foundation period.

If one does not have Scripture as one's base, then it is all just human invention and we have no foundation period.

Amen and absolutely. Good post, Blogger. Even on an issue as "big" as baptism itself, I have no problem with others of like minds who have different views. We all agree that it's not salvific.