John Dillenberger (1918–2008)

"Calvin, who accepted the concept of double predestination, was equally certain [as Luther] about his starting point. . . . The notion of double predestination is a last drastic guarantee against any concept of merit and a final affirmation that our destiny is entirely in the hands of God. In the passages in which Calvin most vigorously defends double predestination, the exclusion of merit is central. God's gratuitous mercy operates in election irrespective of human merit, and in damnation by a just but incomprehensible judgement. In either case, human calculation is excluded" (pp. 34-35).… (meer)