***Then what are they essential for? What happens if the Reformed do no works at all?
That’s easy! God doesn’t want them to! Don’t you get it? The rich are rich because God wants them to be rich. And the starving are starving because God wants them to starve. And the evil and cruel ones are doing their work because God uses evil,among other things, to fulfill His “plan.” It’s all part of the “plan.”***
It’s certainly one of the gaping holes in Reformed theology. The claim is that works are essential; the question is asked: essential for what? Blank out.
Well, why do you think Luther tried so hard to get rid of the Book of James!? He realized the unbridgable problem with this. I don't think he could bring himself to admit that God is the source of evil. But, lawyer Calivin had no problems with that, and neither do his saints.
If works through faith are required, and are part of God's "plan," theh they are essential, unless God just wants people to keep busy...
The Calvinists do not ask why. They just "submit" like the Muslims. If you are rich, it's God 's will. If you are poor, well God made you poor, so that His Glory may become evident through your poverty...(see the story of the blind man).
That's why you have pastor Hagee, who endorsed McCain just yesterday, who says that Katrina was sent by God because New Orleans planned a gay parade the following week. He also calls the Catholic Church a "cult" and the "Great Whore." I hope not a single Catholic votes for McCain after this.
All in all, they are pretty Muslim and pretty medieval in everything but name.