cts of the Apostle, Calvin divided church organization into four levels:
             • Pastors: These were five men who exercised authority over religious matters in Geneva;
             • Teachers: This was a larger group whose job it was to teach doctrine to the population.
             • Elders: The Elders were twelve men (after the twelve Apostles) who were chosen by the municipal council; their job was to oversee everything that everybody did in the city.
             • Deacons: Modeled after the Seven in Acts 6-8, the deacons were appointed to care for the sick, the elderly, the widowed and the poor.
             The most important theological position that Calvin took was his formulation of the doctrine of predestination (Cottret 114). The early church had struggled with this issue. Since God knew the future, did that mean that salvation was predestined? That is, do human beings have any choice in the matter, or did God make the salvation decision for each of us at the beginning of time? The early church, and the moderate Protestant churches, had decided that God had not predestined salvation for individuals. Salvation was in part the product of human choice. Calvin, on the other hand, built his reformed church on the concept that salvation was not a choice, but was rather pre-decided by God from the beginning of time. This means that individuals were "elected" for salvation by God; this "elect" would form the population of the Calvinist church (Cottret 337).
             According to R.L. Dabney the system of Calvinism adheres to a very high view of scripture and seeks to derive its theological formulations based solely on God's word. It focuses on God's sovereignty, stating that God is able to do whatever He desires with His creation. It also maintains that within the Bible are the following teachings: That God, by His sovereign grace predestines people into salvation; that Jesus died only for those predestined; that God regenerates the individual where h...