@fredsbend How can we be? I can't give birth.

or are you referring to soul and spirit?

Calling All experts on Reformed theology. I may be guilty of a category error. I notice that Calvinism is a synonym for reformed theology in our tags, but I have (for some reason) a belief that Reformed Theology includes other confessions that Calvinism. Am I wrong about that? Is Reformed Theology by definition Calvinist in nature?

@curiousdannii Please help. My brain may be misfiring.

@Caleb Advice requested on the above chat entry.

@Nathaniel Please offer Advise on my overlap concerns on Calvinist/reformed. Distinctions and differences. Thanks in advance.

Should I ask this question on the main site? My initial search turns up nothing, but I may just be searching for a question that has different keywords.

@KorvinStarmast They are not perfectly synonymous –if you were to draw Ven diagrams both circles would extend outside the other– but the overlap is so substantial that for the purpose of topical interest (tags) and question scope it's not too problematic use them interchangeably.

If you wanted to be more precise "Reformed" is a larger umbrella and "Calvinist" has more specifically to do with soteriology. So "Soteriological Reformed" is a much closer synonym to "Calvinistic" that just saying "Reformed" which also includes some general church polity things not directly relating to views on salvation.

@Caleb Ok, thanks so much. Should I edit the question to just say Reformed, or is Calvinist the better choice. I hate getting my terminology wrong.

It's somewhat confusing because there is a trend lately to slap a label "Reformed" onto churches that are not actually so, but they do happen to embrace some of all of Calvinistic soteriology. This is where you'll hear things like "3 point Calvinist" or "4 point Calvinist". Usually those kind of piece-meal things parallel some other aspect where they aren't really Reformed at all (for example non-Covenantal).

Long story short: but as soon as you start dealing with "some of this, some of that" rather than full theological systems then it gets confusing what to call people.

@Caleb OK, I'll let it go. I think the terminology is close enough in my last edit. Also, thank you for taking the time and effort on that longer answer. It really helped.

@Caleb some Reformed Baptists reject Covenant Theology, but they're still Reformed

@KorvinStarmast I think I'd consider them much tighter synonyms than Caleb.

I definitely think it's true that even though some people distinguish them, if you do so you can't assume anyone will know what you mean by distinguishing them. If you want to you need to be explicit. Both on this site and in general.

I think nowadays Calvinist means only that you are a five-point Calvinist, ala Canons of Dort. Whereas Reformed means either someone who holds to the historic Reformed confessions

Having said that, my pastor would say confessional Reformed Baptists are Reformed, because being confessional is definitely a hallmark of being Reformed, and they get most of the 1689 London Baptist Confession right, with a few errors regarding the covenant, sacraments, and polity.