Let’s make this as simple as we can so that people can understand us. Calvinism wishes to totally remove all concept of moral activity for Christians. Say what they may say about holiness, sanctification, and leaving off sinning, the truth of the matter is that their teachings (if believed and followed lead their followers) push people strongly down the road of moral inactivity to a state of spiritual bankrupcy. There is no other alternative if you follow Calvinism. You may not be as advanced as “a 5 pointer”, but you are on the same road, no matter what you say or think.

Calvinism teaches that man has no ability to do anything morally acceptable before God. This is the doctrine of total inability. The biblical doctrine of moral depravity (which is in the Bible, and which Calvinism uses to twist it into a monster) has to be limited to and refers to the concept of doing morally good works with which we become acceptable before God, or the concept of “buying our salvation” by doing good works. The Bible teaches that there is nothing morally acceptable before God that a man can do in order to purchase, obtain, or procure his salvation as an exchange of these good works done for the salvation. The Bible does teach this, but this is a far step from the Calvinist’s doctrine of total inability.

What we need to carefully sort out is the Calvinist’s “bait-n-switch” tactics. First he says that his pillar doctrine is “Total Depravity”, but what he really means is total inability, and Calvinist writings abound with the references linking the two to be the same thing. While old Calvinists have carefully not taken all this so far, modern Calvinism fears nothing, and blatantly states that there is nothing good in God’s eyes that man can do. Ever.

If you follow carefully the Calvinistic doctrine here, neither before salvation, neither in salvation, neither after salvation, does man have anything that pleases God. According to the Calvinist, he is totally incapable (unable) to please God in any way. This is not biblical. What the Calvinist teaches is that man has nothing within him (ever, even after salvation) that is in anyway pleasing to God. To admit this would be to admit that man has some value, or that man can do something that is valuable to God. The Calvinist pushes its followers to refuse to accept anything anybody does as acceptable by God.

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Have you ever thought about how God relates to time? Is time eternal like God?

I think this is the key concept to understanding and resolving the many problems, errors, and confusion about salvation. Understanding the being of God is very important if we want to get a good grip on how God saves.

Definition of Time

First of all, we need to define time as a construct which is part of God’s creation. In other words, “time began” at creation. Time is a lineal treatment of events and circumstances. We consider or define time as past (previous to now), present (now), and future (after now). We are lineal time dependent creatures (at least for the moment).

Limitations of a Time-limited Being

A “time-limited” being is a being which does not dominate, control, nor has the ability to override time’s restraints. We cannot go back in time, nor forward, nor can we “know” the past nor the future, except through testimonies to events in the past (somebody who tells us, or scientific evidence like a video tape). Being a time limited being, our relationship with time is that it dominates us, and we don’t dominate time.

God is not a time-limited being. He is God, and as such, He dominates time, controlling it, making exceptions if He so desires, and like all the rest of his creation, He dominates it.

When did/does God save a person?

I think that the greatest mistake a Calvinist makes is that he presumes that God is a time-limited being. God isn’t. So what is the difference and how does it affect our understanding of election?

Basically there are two understandings of election: election happens when a person believes God to be saved, 1) being based on that person’s actions at the moment (God’s election becomes foreknowledge), or 2) it is based on God’s decision in eternity past when God elected every person ever to be born. Hard core Calvinism extends this election of the saved (which is the biblical idea of the term) to include an election to hell for the rest (the correct Calvinistic term here is “perdition”).

But both of these concepts don’t take into consideration that God exists outside of time. In other words, think of time as a construct which God made for man, and specifically has to do with our world, i.e. the rotation of our planet around the sun, and spinning on its axis, but also as a sequential arrangement of conditions, circumstances, events, and actions. (Here the angels are equal with man, time-dependent beings.)

So to understand this better, consider that God has set all creation (things as well as constructs like time) in a setting of a mountain with a high lake, which flows through a river (time) until it reaches a sea (the end). Time is the river, and each point on the river curves around this great mountain. God sits on the mountain, and with a single glimpse, He sees the high lake, the entire river, and the sea. All points are equal to Him, and equally “near”. At one point Jesus entered the river of life for a section of its course, and later returned to the mountain, and He sent the Holy Spirit to take his place in the river. God sees all things, but is not physically “in it” except as he leaves the mountain (heaven), and then comes back, but His interaction with it is constant and intense.

The most important point in understanding this timelessness of God is that no point (present, past, nor future) is any nearer or farther from him. God lives in a constant “present” like we are able to act and move and have interaction with our world only in the present, so likewise God relates to all time as if it were present. This means that God doesn’t relate to past nor future events differently than he does to “His present”. He acts in a unified manner, across all as if they were all a “present”. God also acts as a divine being, acting in all areas, parts, places, and with all people equally. God’s treatment of Abraham and David is parallel with his treatment of me. God’s judgment on man is equal with his judgment on the fallen angels. This is in a timeless aspect, but God has placed man and angel in a time restraint for now (until the end or time runs out) in which God will judge, and we literally enter the timelessness of eternity with God (we go up to the mountain top with God).

So the most distance past you can conceive, probably an eternity before creation began, this point is equally “near” and “active” to God as the equally far from us point of eternity future.

If God lives outside of time and in eternity, and if this means that God’s eternal nature also reveals a constant presence and activity and power in all time, present, past, or future, then when were we elected is a mute question. We were elect before the creation existed, we are elected at the moment of being saved, and we are elected in the future, because none of these accurately represent the truth that God lives in all “times” equally active, powerful, and interactive with creation.

How does the Bible speak of our election and salvation?

The very important point here is that God is in a way “outside” or “above” time, and being in that position, he deals with us, actions, and events, and history and mankind in general in a wholistic manner. But when speaking of salvation, nobody is referred to as “saved” until after that point in time in which they repent and have faith to be saved. The “roots” of this go backward into the depths of time, really before time, and before creation when God alone existed, and in this state of existence, God has a plan.

Another bothersome thing that Calvinists seem hell bent on doing is restricting God. Through their deductions from deductions from deductions of a minor comment of Scripture, they seem hell bent on making God impossible to be a person. People live, act, think, decide, etc. All of this is highly squashed in Calvinism’s concept of God. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, they seem to think that God cannot think, act, “change his mind”, or do any other “person things.” God’s personality comes to bear in a relationship with His creation, and especially individually with man.

Sure, we can think that God knows when I sin, God’s response of punishment, and then my repentance, and therefore God planned it all, and none of it has any active element. God made me or preprogrammed me through my sinful nature to sin without my will or consciousness really being involved, and with God’s eternal election preset, God decided to cause me to repent, etc.

However you want to try to make this situation, in the end, it has to check with what God (a God that only tells the truth) tells us in Scripture. God does not present that our decision to sin or obey God is predecided, but rather God exhorts us to obey, and not give in to temptation. Everything is not predecided, at least as how we live and understand our world.

God makes an offer to man to turn and live. This offer is based on reality as our truthful God presents it to us, and although God knows and God works (controls, influences, causes, and prevents), there are elements that are very important in God’s presentation of truth to us. We are responsible, and God offers us a decision and action of our will to change our state of rebellion or obedience before God. This truth cannot be buried.

God living in timelessness interacts in all times as though it is present for Him, because it is present for Him. This does not mean time doesn’t exist for us. We live bound by time, and our life is sequential, not multi-dimensional.

Having grown up under Calvinism now for about 50 years and having studied it for most of that time, I observe and study what they say with my Bible in hand. I find problems that I cannot accept in their statements, conclusions, and presumptions. One of these things is their use of the concept of “covenant”.

Basically all Calvinists, Reformed, and Presbyterians highly use the concept of the covenant. The Presbyterian side of things really make a great deal of the fact that “entering into the coventant with God”, you and your children are saved. How is that entering into this coventant “begun”? According to Calvinism, it is in eternity past in election, and you have nothing at all to do with it.

My Rub with Calvinistic Theology

What I perceive as a drastically heretical and satanic element and force within Calvinism is this tendency to want to arrest any spiritual activity on the part of man. Man is incapable and unable to “do” anything that pleases God. The Bible teaches that we have no spiritual merit whereby we can negotiate or bargan or “buy” salvation, this is true. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags. But this is not the same thing though.

God tells us to “do” things in order to please God, and God’s consistent presentation throughout Scripture is that if we obey God, we become pleasing in God’s sight. This commandment-obedience is not works of righteousness with which we “purchase” our salvation, but rather faith which works to change our life from sin to holiness.

Although Calvinism from its inception has always had this “bent” towards debilitating man, and making him realize and stop spiritual activity because of his inability, modern Calvinism is hell-bent on pushing this element in every way they can.

To simplify, God says “be” therefore “do” (faith in action), and Calvinism says “you are not” therefore “stop”.

The Importance of “Covenant” in Calvinist-Reformed Theology

The essential core of “hope” for Reformed-Calvinistic theology is because “we are elect” therefore nothing more matters. Our salvation hangs on only one thing, our election. Having that election, nothing more matters.

Here we need to separate two concepts that Calvinism doesn’t keep straight. One thing is God’s provision of salvation to ALL of mankind, and each individual person’s procurement of that salvation. In Calvinist theology, they have “bleed” the eternal provision of salvation into the individual procurement, and this is there basic problem. For them, a person is saved when they are elected, therefore now, in our day, there is nothing for anybody to do, because the “die are cast”, and “our lot is unchangeable”. But is this really the way the Bible presents things? Does not God say “Today is the day of salvation”? How can God in present tense present salvation as a decision which we “DO” in order to be saved? Doesn’t thing fly directly in the face of election?

The covenant concept is where the Calvinist drags everything. We are in a pact or covenant with God, therefore this covenant is “inherited” for us via election. Just as the Jew in NT times rested his faith on his being of Abraham’s seed, the Calvinist rests his faith on his election. How do you know that you are elect to heaven and not to hell?

The problem with the covenant concept as Calvinism sees it is that it arrests faith. Faith in election is NEVER A PRESENTATION OF HOW ONE IS SAVED! Salvation is by having faith in Jesus Christ, and this is both a belief (moral spiritual activity) and it HAS TO BE SEEN in actual acts. A changed life (regeneration) is an absolute required result (after salvation, or in the same moment of salvation) of true faith. Calvinism wants to make it before salvation.

When we try to place our trust, confidence, and faith in something other than Christ’s work on the cross, we are not saved. This is the essential error of the Jew. Because he is in a covenant, he is saved, and really, as a son of Abraham, he really SHOULD be like his father in Abraham’s faith, but the bottom line is, having Abraham’s faith is not what saves (because it is not emphasized as essential and life bringing in its character), but the Jew sees his covenant with Abraham as what makes him saved. The Jew sees this covenant established in one of two ways: 1) genetically before he was born in the actions of Abraham which to the Jew caused all Jews to be saved, or 2) by some actions like circuncision and entering into the covenant actively by sacraments.

Note, a sacrament is something that causes on to have the grace or favor of God. As a Baptist, I don’t believe these commandments of communion and baptism can bring salvation. To use the term “sacrament” is to declare that you believe that these activities bring salvation in some way. Within the Roman Catholican and Anglican churches, a sacrament is clearly understood this way, and it very disturbing to me to hear Calvinists, Reformed, and especially Presbyterians talking about the “sacraments.” It turns my stomach to hear Baptists use the term favorably. Presbyterians baptize babies of their members as an act of bringing the child into the covenant, and if it dies before reaching the age of accountability, then it is saved. Exactly how is somebody saved without having faith in the work of Jesus Christ? Because of the covenant relationship of their parents. Straight Roman Catholic works doctrine. Many Reformed Baptists also baptize babies of their members with like beliefs.

Sorry for being blunt, BUT NOBODY CAN BE SAVED WITHOUT BELIEVING JESUS’ WORK ON THE CROSS AS THEIR SALVATION.

Anybody tells you different, it is heresy. Don’t listen to them, and all their elaborate explanations result in the same, they overturn clear, basic, Bible doctrine on salvation.

But this point just reenforces my observation that Calvinists believe their covenant relationship is what saves them, not their faith. This brings me to a doubt. Can a true died in the wool Calvinist really be saved? His trust is not in the form and mold the Bible presents (believing in Jesus’ work on the cross for his salvation). Salvation is not anything outside of a personal one-on-one relationship between us and God, fomented upon or started by our 1) repentance, and 2) our faith, trust, and confidence in Jesus and his person and work on the cross.

What is a Covenant?

A covenant is an agreement between two people. This covenant was well establish in the OT, and for something to be a covenant, it has to have all the elements. One person can give a gift to another, and this is not a covenant. It doesn’t meet the requirements. What is a covenant then?

First, there has to be two parties. The two parties have to hear terms, one parties offering a condition or conditions, and then a promise or result of the second party agreeing to those conditions. Next the second party has to agree to the condition(s) of the covenant. The two enter into a relationship, and one (the second party) acts on the condition, and the first party has to comply with the promise promised.

Why don’t Calvnists attack the total inability of us to enter into a covenant? This hasn’t surfaced in the foolishness of Calvnism yet.

The entire crux of a covenant is the action of the second party. He must agree (good faith) and he must act. Action is at the heart of the covenant. But if this is the simple understanding of a covenant or pact, why do Calvinists insist on focusing on the inability of the second party to fulfill in any way any condition?

In other words, Calvinism destroys the base concept of “covenant” making God having to do all the activity and actions. God is who saves, God is who makes a person holy, God is who makes each Christian what he is to be, and Calvinism seeks to remove all moral activity and initiative from the human side and loads it all on the divine side of the equation.

Covenants don’t work that way. A covenant is an agreement in good faith, whereby both parties hold faith in the other to complete their duties in the covenant (man has to comply with God’s conditions, which means the entire covenant hinges on man’s actions, and God’s promises come as a consequence of man’s completion of his part of the covenant).

Calvinism totally destroys the base concept of “covenant” on the one hand, while on the other, believes personally and individually in the promise of God towards them while they don’t “DO” anything.

We are not talking about “good works” of justice or righteousness in order to be saved, but we are talking about repentance and faith. These are God’s conditions to man. God will help man by providing the forceful examples of morality (Christ, other Christians), as well as other Christians praying, and as well as providing a miraculous spiritual power, the Word of God. But in the end, the trigger of all this is not election, but the will of man. Each man must decide and act, and this focus is clearly at the forefront of God’s exhortation to man. Repent and believe, leave off sin, turn from sin and turn to God. These are the “bread and butter” of the gospel offer.

This is also not any kind of secret behind-the-scenes “God flipping the salvation switch” on according to election. If this were true, then God is deceptive in His simple offer. “Call upon the Lord and thou shalt be saved.” God’s presentation of the salvation to us, i.e. the gospel, is an action on our part WILL DEFINITELY CAUSE SALVATION FOR US, and there is no reference to a celestial master list (i.e. election).

What is the practical results of covenant theology?

All Calvinism and Reformed doctrine pushes their followers towards a single objective, inactivity. I know many Calvinists will get hot and bothered by this statement, but it is true.

If election has predetermined every man’s fate, nothing anybody can do will change anything, so why try? This is the point of Calvinism, spiritual inactivity.

Morally inactivity is also a target. Calvinists have a haughtiness about them that in essence says, “No matter what ‘little sins’ I indulge in, I am elect and will still go to heaven.” This is Jewish thinking all over again. The NT destroys this thinking left and right, and if you change Jew to Calvinist, the arguments are almost the same throughout.

We should not go to the other extreme of thinking we lose our salvation at any sin either. But true salvation is a relationship directly with God, not via geneology nor inheritance. We are saved without any option or say so by us. God conditions our salvation on our declaration and the reality of our faith in Jesus Christ. This includes his person (who he is), his work (especially on the cross), and his moral example (what he is morally). Without embracing all of these, one is not saved.

A declared faith is worthless without a lifestyle to back up what you propose you believe in. The two go hand in hand. You cannot boast of your election and surety in God without seeing the actual proof in a holiness life. Where the beginning of salvation starts, or where the beginning of desire and power (iniative) for holiness is not the question. The point is YOU must put forth of your own desire and effort.

Never more true was the statement, “Work as though everything depended on you, and believe as though everything depended on God.”

Is the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity really biblical? Basically the doctrine as explained by Calvinists is that this doctrine means that “there is no good within man.” Man has no “spark of divinity within him” whereby he has something good to offer God for salvation.

We cannot “buy” salvation.

The truth of Scripture is that salvation is a product or “thing” that belongs solely to God. God gives “HIS SALVATION” to whom He desires, and on the basis or conditions that God desires to give it. As such, it is totally scriptural to say that man has nothing to offer God in exchange for his salvation. When we look at this from a procurement point of view, if man wishes to “exchange” or “buy” giving one thing (like money) to God in order for God to give him salvation, Scripture simply presents this as impossible. All of what we have is unacceptable to God in any such exchange. God did not make salvation available on the basis of a purchase type arrangement.

Most notably, much of the fume and foment of people who preach heavily on this issue is directed towards an exchange situation as taught in many religions, most notably Catholicism and Jehovah’s Witnesses. According to them, we in a sense “purchase” our salvation with good works. The error in this is that everything we are and have and can potentially due comes from God, so He is our Benefactor and Sustainer in all ways, so we are only returning to God what we have feebly messed up and we are trying to “purchase” something of great value with what the store in the first place has given away. If a store gives away free brooms to everybody who passes through their doors, and you collect 5 brooms, and you go to the store owner and try to exchange a brand new automobile for your 5 brooms, then this is the situation of a person trying to earn heaven with good works.

What Calvinism teaches and concludes

Unfortunately Calvinists are experts at “Bait-and-switch” tactics, and in so doing they disguise their teachings with other “more valid teachings” to get their conclusions accepted. To not have anything of value before God to purchase salvation is a totally different thing that “Total Inability” which Calvinism teaches.

First of all, God does not present the procurement of salvation as an exchange or purchase. You give God a thing, or a work, or some such item and God gives you a “product” salvation. The error in this thinking comes in thinking that once you “purchase” your salvation, it is yours, and you can do anything you want after that point. In other words, if by good works, we achieve or obtain salvation, and nobody (not even God) can take that from us, then we can live as we please, sinning with impugnity.

What Calvinism concludes and teaches is that all humanity is unable to respond to God in any way, shape, or form. God “turns on a salvation switch” within the person (a.k.a via election done in eternity before creation), and therefore a person is saved. Inability to do anything that pleases God is a far cry from not having inherit moral good within oneself so that he can offer that to God for his salvation. So what’s the difference?

The Bible abundantly teaches that many men and women it presents to us at some point “pleased God” with their actions, attitudes, words, etc. The fact of the matter is that many of God’s servants and children do greatly please God. So the inability to please God is simply not true. There are things which we can do volitionally through our own will that will please God.

The “doing” of these things is not a work in God’s eyes, and all the key points of pleasing God, and being able and willing (man’s will) turns on a single important point. What we “do” to please God has already been predetermined by God, because of God’s character. Therefore, the doing of God’s will is what pleases God, and makes man’s actions acceptable in God’s sight. This is not an predetermined election from eternity past as far as an individual’s destiny is concerned, because that is about man, and after all is said and done, Calvinism trips over its own man centered religion.

God existed way before man was created, and in the profound past counsels of God, the character and essence of God is what is important and central in all things. Therefore God existed, and God’s character was always set, and anything that “harmonizes” itself or makes itself one with God’s character is pleasing to God. Anything or anybody that is in “disharmony” with God’s character and essence is in sin.

Therefore, in a sense, we please God because we act as God is. We become His character on earth (holiness). Becoming God’s moral character here among men is what greatly pleases God. This is not a work that man does independent from God, no this is true. This work of holiness in its form and character is eternal because God and His character and His being are eternal. We are temporal, coming in as “Johnny-come-latelys” but even so, we imitate this character, especially as it is perfectly shown to us by the life and person of Jesus Christ, and we please God. God does not magically program us to do this as we would program a computer, but rather, man’s will is the key component here. Man must of his own will desire this character, action, attitude, etc., and this is what greatly pleases God, man desiring to be holy like God is holy. Therefore, the ability of man to do this lies directly in his will (his “free will”) because this is how God has designed things, and how God has communicated to us the eternal reality of this.

If a wicked man turns from his wickedness to follow God, God is pleased with him. There is no puppet manipulation of the man by God, but rather just the opposite, man’s will submitting to God’s will is what pleases God, and how this works.

How do we “get” salvation?

So, how do we “procure” our own salvation? We don’t do it, but God gives it to us as a basis of our submission to the plan of God (admittance of our sins before God, repentance or leaving off our sins, and faith in God’s Saviour, the Christ, who died on the cross to pay the debt caused by our sins).

Search the Scriptures from end to end, and God’s consistent presentation of “how we get salvation” is never to appeal to the divine list of the elected, but ALWAYS, ALWAYS to turn from our sins (a personal willful decision on our part) and to trust or have faith in the Saviour (the term “Christ” is technically the correct and only acceptable term here) which God has set as “THE PLAN OF GOD FOR THE SALVATION OF MEN’S SOULS.”

This acceptance of Christ is not a magical prayer or chant which in pronouncing the sounds over our lips causes us to have salvation, but this is a person to person relationship whereby the sinner relates to the Saviour. This relationship is invoked or begun by a proclamation of Christ as the object of one’s hope, but it is not a “purchase” type situation whereby once you have “got it”, you can sin with impugnity. Just the opposite, IF YOU ARE SAVED, then your declaration of Christ is an ongoing relationship which is constantly proved by your life, and constantly grows stronger, better, closer, more intimate, etc.

The idea that comes across very strongly is that things (particular “spiritual” actions do not cause that sinner-Redeemer relationship, but rather the pure simple formal asking of the sinner (in his own free will) to the Saviour to establish it. It is based on this formal asking, which has to be equally sustained by a faith or belief in the presentation of Christ as being “able” to save. Faith becomes a key figure in the sinner’s side of the equation, in order for him to procure his salvation.

Confession of sin, and repentance of what we have done wrong are essential in the truthfulness and sincerity of our presenting ourselves to God, and without these, it is doubtful or impossible that a person can be saved. But having both of these conditions is useless without faith in Jesus as that Christ, that “specially anointed one to effect humanity’s salvation.” In essence, both confession of sin and repentance fold into this same faith (i.e. passages that would only mention faith without the other two), and a turning from (repentance) other things (our past willful sins) to believe in Jesus Christ (faith) becomes a single spiritual act.

Faith is also confidence or trust, and this speaks of an on-going spiritual relationship which is what the Bible shows us in many cases. Abraham believed God, and the acts of his life (for the most part and in the most important parts) proved this trust that Abraham had in God. The believing or trusting in God rather than man and his own inventions and ability to do things is what faith is all about. But this faith is something that seems to be soundly planted in man’s will in Scriptures, and it is not something that God gives man in his salvation such as adoption, justification, or sanctification. Faith is a “thing” which man is responsible for, within his own being.

Impugnity revisited with Extreme Calvinism

Although works salvation is a blatant error of false relgious systems like Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many, many more, the Calvinist arrives at the same conclusion and end by other means. His teaching that Christians are elect “from before the creation of the world”  (specifically excluding any act or character of any man in all history) paints a reality of two groups, the elect and the reprobate. These groups are not taught per se in Scriptures, but the Calvinist uses his elaborations to hint at them, then declare them, then expand on them as though they were at the very core of every doctrine the Bible pretends to teach.

The entire system of Calvinism has a central tendency, and that tendency is satanic. This tendency is always towards spiritual inactivity. Simply put, if you are a Calvinist, you are being acted upon by other forces, and your own will, actions, attitudes, speak, nothing is important, because what is important, what decides your well-being and eternal destiny is election. That is unchangeable by you, and it is unchangeable by God, because what He has already dictated (the decrees of God), even God Himself will not change.

Therefore, the Calvinist develops this spiritual passiveness or spiritual apathy as a major part of his spiritual being. If Paul teaches more about election and predestination than any other NT writer (and probably more than any OT writer either), and Paul’s understanding was direct from God in his vision where he was carried to heaven, then Paul’s understanding would be very important. Whatever Paul taught, and however you want to screw, twist, reinterprete what Paul teaches, Paul gave up his life in evangelizing the lost, and teaching those converts the word of God.

My “beef” with Calvinists of my day is that they think Calvin has more insight than Paul. They recline in their theological positions, sitting and not working and obeying God’s clear commands. This is because they are part of the Jewish elite, or excuse me, that was in Paul’s day, today they are part of the Calvinist elect elite. They will make heaven no matter what they do wrong, nor no matter what they refuse in rebellion to do. Their impugnity is based in that their name is written in heaven before creation, therefore they cannot be held responsible for what they do or don’t do, so they take the spiritual apathy position of “why do anything then?”

In fact, Calvinism has killed modern missions, evangelism, and prayer. Evangelistic preaching has been twisted into teaching the doctrines of Grace. As a missionary for 20 plus years, I can testify to the slow death of all of these in churches and individuals that embrace Calvinism. The fact that some Calvinists understand the error of their beliefs (without rejecting the system, because they are only “partial”, 2 or 3 pointers), and the fact that they will witness, pray, or minimally participate in missions (Calvinistic missionaries only) only relieves them temporarily of the guilt of their lifestyle of rebellion to God. The fact that you perfunctorarily do these things doesn’t mean you please God by doing them. You must do them actively, “with all your heart”, and this is where the Calvinist’s our system trips him up. Yes he witnesses to lost if he has to, but Calvinists are extremely well known for NOT EXERTING THEMSELVES IN REACHING THE LOST. Their gospel has been changed from the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to preach John Calvin’s gospel of the doctrines of Grace. If somebody puts them in a corner, yes they will claim the same Gospel as we see Jesus teaching, but they quickly will revert back to their favorite, the Doctrines of Grace. They “heart is not in the Gospel of the NT”. As Paul says, even if an angel from heaven delivers another Gospel, we are to reject it and get away from it.

Why do Arminianists (and I don’t claim that label for myself) think only about reaching the lost (prayer, evangelism, missions, preaching, etc)? Because it is in their heart. The old time Baptists (before being contaminated with Reformed doctrines) and the Methodists were hot for getting the Gospel out. Where do you see Calvinistic church fellowships having a soul-winning campaign? Where do you see Calvinistic ministers and people bending their knees in prayer for the lost? They have become too good to lower themselves to do these essential commandments of Scripture. “Those who are elect will be saved anyway, so we don’t have to do anything, because God will save them in His time,”  they tell us. Take a poll of 100 Calvinistic churches, where the pastor clearly and strongly asserts that they are hold the doctrines of Calvin (are Presbyterian, Reformed, etc), and ask them if they go out door to door, specifically their people doing this on a weekly basis, and their pastor in the street leading the pack. You will find nary a church that holds to these false doctrines that will be witnessing door-to-door. That kind of evangelism they leave for the Arminianists to do. But once these people get saved, the Calvinist line up to “discipline them in the doctrines of Grace.”

Excuse me, but I see Christ going out to where the unsaved live, and presenting the Gospel to them. I see His apostles and disciples doing likewise. I see Christ commanding us to do likewise. Since when can you dump the direct commands and overwhelming example of the NT to refuse to do it, and then to change it to something else totally different and unbiblical? The issue has to born hard on the Calvinists that they do not witness the Gospel of the NT to the unsaved. They just refuse in ugly rebellion to God. This is the action and character of unsaved people, not the children of God. If you are a Calvinist, you probably “shy away” from witnessing to the lost. This attitude is developed in you by these doctrines. They do not exhort you, challenge you, and motivate you to witness, but to not witness. The system does this to you, dragging you towards this spiritual apathy, and whether you let it take you there or not, it is still a corrupt, dangerous system that no Christian has any business being involved in.

My heart goes out to those few Calvinists who are religious skitzophrenics. These are people who hold to the tenets of Calvinism, knowing fully well that they are flawed. They admit to some of the TULIP, and reject others. To a Catholic that believes in the Virgin Mary as their Saviour, and rejects the Pope, I tell them “THEIR SYSTEM IS WRONG”, and the only way out of it is to reject the system entirely. Ditto that for the Calvinists.

This fatalistic, spiritual apathy that is what Calvinism produces is terrifying. This is exactly what Satan wants, religious, sanctimonious people who know a lot and do nothing, and none of their knowledge causes them to “DO THE WORK OF GOD”. At best, anything they do do is unacceptable to God because they are totally inapt at executing any spiritual commandment. Yes, they are “inapt” spiritually. Yet their haughtiness causes them to impose their inapt system and beliefs on everybody else.

Calvinism attacks those who witness, pray, go to foreign lands, or “do” anything in the work of God, hindering anyway possible the work of God, because we are “totally unable” (Total Inability) to do anything right or pleasing to God, so they come down hard on those who are working. They attack them as “heretics” because they are Arminianists (which is a label they bandy about as if every non-Calvinist believes in works salvation). Calvinism fabricates parallel systems and efforts to divert funds, prayers, energies, and even people away from the true work of God (getting people saved and serving) by presenting dummy systems. Calvinists have their own calvinistic missionaries who teach the doctrines of Grace instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So many unknowing Christians and churches (marginally in the Calvinistic movement) support them, not understanding that their donations, prayers, and help goes to help promote Calvinism among true Christian churches through these promoters of the system. Calvinism does a tremendous job at evangelism, but not the lost to Christ, but the saved to the doctrines of Calvin. They don’t have time to win the unsaved, they are too busy winning existing Christians over to their corrupt system.

Ask yourself a simple question. Do we as normal Christians really need to minimize and castrate any efforts at prayer, evangelism, preaching, or missions? This is the net effect of Calvinism. Do we really need to keep telling weak and faltering Christians that they are “unable”? What does the Bible do? Does it constantly present failure with no source of strength, no remedy for weakness and inability, no solution for people NOT DOING THE WORK OF GOD or finding personal holiness? No, even though Scripture presents us with the humanness of David’s fall into sin, it presents us with his efforts to find God, and God’s pleasure with David, a man after God’s own heart. These are goals presents to us, because they are attainable, but not with the negativism of Calvinism’s “Total Inability”. Fine. Maybe you are a “mature” Christian, who can live in Calvinism’s doctrines and still witness to others and pray “when the rare occasion presents itself”. But by your support of Calvinism, how many weaker brethren follow your same path, and they get lost in Calvinism (i.e. become a hyper-calvinist)? Find a millstone and put it around your neck and drown yourself first, because you are tripping up weaker brethern. There is no excuse for the impugnity of Christians not going out to witness, or pray. Worse for preachers of the true Gospel.

For being totally unable, they certainly are very able at corrupting others with their own false system.

The truth of all of this is 1) people who try to win the lost and conscientiously obey God’s commands are not trying to earn their salvation through good works. 2) Calvinists use the doctrine of total inability as a crutch or excuse for their spiritual apathy and lack of trying to do correctly God’s work and commandments.

Evidence from the writings of the most eminent Calvinists that they believed that the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ is to be made to every individual sinner without any exceptions. My main source of reference are the books of my own modest library. It may be that better quotes can be secured elsewhere. However those quoted here will suffice to prove the point…that orthodox Calvinism has always believed in the free, indiscriminate offer of the gospel both to elect and non elect alike.

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Introduction

Calvinism is a true masterwork of deception, with twisting and turning of the truth, to create something other than the truth. This is never more true than in its accessment of God, man, and Satan.

God is truth

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Rev 3:7 he that is true (Christ)

In Hebrew the word for “truth” means firmness, faithfulness, strong, firm. In Greek it has a concept of “reality”, what really is. The essence of truth is the “sameness” between what a thing presents itself as, and the reality of that being or situation. The opposite of truth is a lie, a deception, a projected perception that does not correspond with reality.

A good example here is simply “hypocrite” or actor. A Hollywood actor projects himself (his character, actions, emotions, being) as something that he is not. A magician projects a false reality. He presents to his audience a woman that he puts into a box and cuts her in half, but after apparently cutting her in half, he presents her without any harm afterwards. This is presenting a false reality, and it is deception pure and simple.

It is not part of the character of God that He uses or has deception within Himself, or His character or actions.

The Moral Character of Truth.

Truth is real (has reality), but not every reality is truth. For example, a man can rape a woman, and this may be reality, but it is not moral truth. Moral truth would be to NOT RAPE the woman, but to marry one woman and be sexually pure and faithful to that woman. In that case, the man would be living moral truth.

The Scriptures make very little distinction many times in what is reality and what is moral truth. The two in many occasions just seem to be the same thing. But the big difference between moral truth and reality is that moral truth has an eternal factor in it, and every moral agent (God, Satan, angels, and men) have to take a disposition in favor of or against that moral truth.

Returning to our illustration of a man raping a woman, the truth of God is that every man should have only one woman, and he should marry that woman before sexual activity with her, and he should limit his actions and thoughts to that one woman, in what is morally correct for a man to do or how he should treat her before God. Every man has a disposition towards this truth. Even a single man will honor this concept or discard it for himself (thinking unpure thoughts towards women he sees, or just imagining women to fornicate with in his mind).

God’s character resides in truth 

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Jesus identifies himself as being “the truth” (I am the truth). This is a concept of the being of God. God is truth, moral truth, moral goodness. Truth is not “what exists”, reality, but it has certain moral elements or character that goes with it. Truth is highly related to justice.

1John 2:21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

Recognition of “the truth”, as in “the truth of God”, is very closely connected with Jesus Christ, and John can even go so far as to exclude all lies from the truth of God (Jesus Christ), and to equate denying Jesus as the Christ is to oppose God, oppose Christ (you make yourself an anti, or against, Christ), and you are a “liar” (i.e. the truth is not in you).

Rev 3:7 of Jesus, John says, “he that is true“.
Rev 19:11 Jesus “was called Faithful and True”.

“In truth” occurs 12 times in the N.T. and refers to the way of doing something.

Mat 22:16 and Mark 12:14 declare that Jesus taught the way of God “in truth”, meaning that there must be two ways of teaching the doctrine of Scripture, a truthful way, and a deceptive way. Apparently this truthful way is one in which the light of the truth is allowed to break forth, and the deceptive way somehow teaches still even so, but does not teach way or how God wants (not according to the will of God). Jesus didn’t do this as in contrast to the Jewish teachers of his day.

Scripture presents us with “the way of God” as an expression of the being and esence of God as being aligned with truth.

Ps 33:4 For the word of the LORD [is] right; and all his works [are done] in truth.
1Sam 15:29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he [is] not a man, that he should repent.
Num 23:19 God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Heb 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Deut 32:4 [He is] the Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he.

What these and many more verses like these establish is the character of God. Calvinism weaves a complicated, logical, and erroneous system (it is not true and faithful doctrine because it makes invalid conclusions that overturn clear teaching of Scripture in other places), which works to overturn what God wants His children to do and be. God does not work deceptively with us, offering us one thing fully well knowing that it is not up to us to accept His offer or not, being elected and preprogrammed. What he is and says is true. We have full confidence in Him and His promises that they are fully life and truth.

To sum up this point, God does things in a truthful, open and honest, way. His methods and ways of working are not deceptively hidden. He does not reveal everything, this is true, and not revealing everything is not necessarily evil, because it is more appropriate to not reveal all information. This is the concept of “prudence”, to only say or do what is appropriate for you and your situation. But the overwhelming teaching of Scripture is that God does not work in a deceptive way, but Satan does.

Salvation involves the integration oneself with moral truth

John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

There is a moral disposition of each individual towards the truth that identifies that person. Saved people will harken (take note of to be directed by what he hears) to the truth. In John 18:37, Jesus comes to bear witness to the truth, that is, to reveal it, and to esteem it highly for its true value. Those who “are of the truth” will therefore listen to Jesus. This idea of salvation being highly involved with true is an aspect of God, His character, His morality, that means the child of God will be like his Heavenly Father. There are no exceptions in this. When a person “responds” in the sense of accepting for himself, of installing this truth he sees in Jesus into his own personal character and life, this is the reception of Jesus which goes hand in hand with salvation.

2Thess 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Unrighteousness has a deception in its essence. The character of immorality deceives the person walking in immorality. This person is identified as “not having received the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” So salvation hinges on this desire for truth as it is in the very essence of God.

John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The concept of “doing truth” reflects exactly this moral character of truth. It is something that one “adheres to” or imposes in his own life, or simply put, “he does truth”. I am a missionary to Mexico, so I use the Spanish Bible, and I like its rendering of this verse, “But he that practices the truth comes to the light.” The idea is a constant repetition in doing the truth.

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

True worship before God involves a spiritual means of worship (worshipping in our spirit), and it involves worshipping God in our spirit, but imposes or making our being to follow God’s moral truth in a spiritual extension (not just outwardly in the flesh, but also inwardly in the spirit).

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Knowing a certain reality (truth) will not necessarily liberate a person. Even knowing the salvation of God which is in Jesus Christ, that greatest of all truths will not liberate you from the bondage and dominion of sin by just knowing (about) it with head knowledge. This kind of “knowing” that liberates us is a personal, intimate, devotional involvement. This is the same sense of “knowing” as when the Bible says that a certain man “knew” his wife. It is a deep personal involvement, that goes down to the most profound and intimate parts of a person’s beings. This kind of knowing of the truth will liberate.

Satan is the father of all deception

John 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.   And because I tell [you] the truth, ye believe me not.

The difference between how God works and how Satan works is as clear as day and night. Satan presents his “fatherhood”, desiring men to follow his deception. There apparently is a strong tie between lies (deception) and murder (harming others). The concept is that these two go together.

God presents us with the offer of salvation

In the will and way of God, He presents all mankind with the offer of salvation. Turn and live. Leave off sinning (repent), and you will have eternal life. Is this true? Is it within the hands of man to make a decision and procure for himself eternal life? The Calvinist answers no. God lied, God lies, God deceives, because man is totally incapable (total inability) to even make that kind of decision. His sinful human nature has made man incapable of accepting Jesus as his Saviour, incapable of exercising any kind of repentance nor faith that would lead him or provide him with eternal life. This trusting of Jesus (“faith” also means trust) is beyond his ability says the Calvinist.

So does God present us with the offer of eternal life? Obviously from Scripture this is true. Is God’s offer of salvation (eternal life) a lie, a deception, or a “trick”? The Calvinist would presume to inform us from his profound “better knowledge of God than what the Scriptures can tell us” that God seems to offer, but He really doesn’t. His offer is not based on what man decides, but on what the eternal lottery machine in heaven before the foundation of the world decided for that person. Calvinist have no qualms about declaring that everybody’s fate was decided by God in eternity past, and nobody is saved, nor are they lost because of a personal decision that they make to repent and trust Jesus as their Saviour. The “truth” for them is that they have to act as God has predetermined them that they have to act, and in the end they will all go to the eternal destiny that God alone has decided for them.

But then God works deception in offering the plan of salvation to all men? According to the Calvinist, this is the very basis of God (the underlying truth for them is election and perdition while outward it just appears to be an offer of salvation).

Who is deceptive then? Well, according to the Calvinist, actually God is deceptive because He seems to offer man salvation as his own decision, as a decision which he has to make to get it, or a refusal with cause him eternal damnation.

Who is the innocent (righteous)? According to the Calvinist, God has preprogrammed our actions, our nature, and nobody can overrule this overbearing (“sovereign”) will of God. Therefore, Adam and Eve sinned not because they chose an incorrect course of action, but because God had preprogrammed them to fail. Sin entered the world because God who absolutely controls everything to the absolute exclusion of all other moral agents willed that sin should enter the world. Poor man, he is a sinner because God willed it. Well, what about Satan and the demons, well, equally they are not morally responsible for their own actions according to the Calvinist, so therefore, they had to sin and rebel against God. They are just “caught in the middle” like the men who are destined to perdition. This logic of the Calvinist venerates Satan and man as being puppets under God’s control, not having any other option as far as their will, and therefore God is responsible for their eternal destiny, and for all that brought them to that destiny, and all that did not happen for them to have eternal life.

WHEN YOU DENY that man was created in the likeness of God, a moral agent, able to reason, think, decide, and act as a person, free of anybody forcing him to act in a particular way, yet influenced by many others in his decisions, then you also remove all responsibility from man’s shoulders and place the blame or glory on whomever preprogrammed that person.

The Bible does not teach this. Man is responsible for his actions and decisions as well as Satan and the angels. When man does something good, then he is responsible, and his influences also receive glory (God, and other godly influences). When man sins, he is first and foremost responsible for his own actions, but also Satan, his human nature which is a constant propensity towards sinning, and other people (both unsaved and saved) that act as moral examples and influences are responsible for that person’s sinning. Even a Christian can trip up another person and cause them to sin, and therefore the concept of “having a good testimony” becomes very important in Scripture. If all moral decisions are preprogrammed by God from eternity past, then it would make no difference how we act.

The end of the game was decided before it began, so our actions are of no consequence, no matter how you look at it.

This is the end purpose of Calvinism, to convince people to moral inactivity, because no matter what anybody does, it does not change the outcome God has predecided. Calvinism teaches that God is deceptive in making it seem our actions can change anything. Satan becomes the “good guy”, because he is just an “unwilling” pawn in the plans of God. Man is likewise just a pawn, to be used without any real consideration as a moral agent.

REBUTTAL:

Many Calvinists would take issue with what I say here. Their attacks would point up the truth of Scripture, that God does hold man morally accountability for his individual life and actions. They would profusely proclaim their loyalty to Calvinism, and they would object that they don’t hold these views of Calvinism that I present here.

My answer would be this, that many Calvinists are saved, and simply cannot go down the road of Calvinism to its end, which is exactly where hyper-Calvinists are. But they are on the road, and to stop short is not to “give off the road altogether”. If God is truth, and your particular roll or brand of Calvinist (because no two Calvinists are alike, they all reject and accept, push and hide, different points), but if your brand is that election is the principle thing, and that your understanding of election is that man has no say in his eternal fate, then you have a conflict.

God either offers salvation as a choice to man, meaning that it is within the ability of man to respond or not, given evil and godly influences on both sides (truely a moral and spiritual battle raging for his soul), or it is predecided and “out of his hands.” Which is it? If it is out of his hands, then God is presenting the most important thing in all eternity in a fraudulent manner. An offer that is predecided, is a fraud. Circus and fairs have this all the time, a “game of chance” but the owner of the game predecides what the outcome will be, and the civil justice system sees this as fraud, evil, and wrong. Why would it be any different if God did?

Conclusion

God is good, Satan is bad. God does things in ways which we do not understand, but are not morally wrong. Satan deceives us offering us something perceived as good for us, but in reality isn’t.

Deception belongs to the father of lies, Satan. God doesn’t operate in this way.

What’s your beef with Calvinism?

I grew up in a church that had a “good Calvinistic pastor”. I respected him greatly, and I truly think that he is saved. I am no judge, but I remember him going across state to visit the sick just to witness to them because they were in jeopardy of dying. Unfortunately, today, Calvinism has gone into a more advanced form where it is aggressively attacking true Christianity, and to even “offer the plan of salvation” is being attacked as “decisional regenerationism”, a horrible heresy in their eyes. While some aspects of Calvinism seem to fit with what the Scriptures teach, the hard-liners of today are taking things way far from any biblical norm that it must be denounced and attacked as a false cult. Ministers who are true to God and the Word of God have no other option here.

What I see as my major “beef” with Calvinism is a hell-bent desire to attack and destroy the very foundation of Christianity, true salvation.

The Schizophrenic Calvinist

Calvinism is truly a weird belief system. I have never studied any cult or false religion that is as strange as Calvinism. If you confront a Catholic, and he says that he doesn’t believe in the spiritual authority of the Pope and Roman, but he does go to a priest to confess, and he worships the Virgin Mary with images, and partakes of Mass, what would you say to him? “Well, you have separated yourself from a grave error of Catholicism, so you must be okay.” No. You would say, “Even though you have seen the true error of the Pope in Catholicism, and you have denounced that, you do not understand that it is all connected into a big ball of heresy, one thing depending on another, and one doctrine coming from another. Mary worship is asserted from the spiritual authority of Rome. Rome’s authority is associated with its particular doctrines and practices. The pope is a priest, just like every other Catholic priest, and he just sits at the top of pyramid, while the local priest is pretty much at the bottom.

You would insist with the Catholic that you must take the whole system, or reject the whole system, and a Catholic that holds to 7 of 10 principle doctrines of Catholicism is just as wrong as a 10 pointer.

But when you come to Calvinism, this identification with error coming from John Calvin apparently makes no impression on Calvinists. I rarely find hard liner Calvinists (5 pointers), and the vast majority of Calvinists hold to something less than the full 5 points of Calvinism.

So you know where I am coming from, I denounce all 5 points and a lot more in Calvinism. Calvinism uses a bate and switch method, proclaiming one thing, and then redefining that to suit them, and if anybody attacks one of the 5 points of the Tulip (like Total Depravity), all of a sudden we drop total inability, and we are back to talking about no merit in the individual. This is a very sutle deceptive trick of Calvinists, and if you examine what they actually teach on each of the 5 points, a true biblical Christian CANNOT ACCEPT ANY OF THE FIVE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF CALVINISM.

What really has surprised me over the years is to look into the ministries and lives of preachers and pastors who are Calvinists. I really think some of them are truly saved (not the die-hard ones though), and they know in their heart and the Holy Spirit working in their conscience what they should be doing (what is God’s will), but they wrestle with their Calvinism and the logical conclusions of that thought processes (where the strong current of calvinistic thought drags them to) and what the Bible truly teaches.

What this produces in them is a kind of schizophrenia where logically their Calvinist teachings and foundations would lead them to give up any kind of effort towards true evangelism, true prayer, true exhortation, or true biblical missions. They know what the Bible teaches and they just cannot go (in their heart) where Calvinism is leading them because their soul begs the truth upon them. They pray, they witness, and they preach, but they don’t know what is the foundation of truth, or what they are any more, and they fight within themselves over where is the Bible’s true line. This is manifested by endless debates between Calvinists over these topics, but in the end, it is simply a confrontation process of truth against the Calvinist error.

The entire Calvinist system drags people away from the truth of Scripture, and even though we can debate all this and never get to any definitive conclusion, I would appeal to Christ and the apostles. Christ witnessed to many a person, presenting himself as the key to eternal life, and ALWAYS the issue is pressed by Christ upon the human sinner, repent (change), and believe in the Messiah. Somehow today in modern Calvinism, that is a great heresy. How? Being like Christ is wrong? This shows you the truth of God against the black heresy of Calvinism. Calvinism drags people into a form of life, conduct, and doctrine that is not Christ-like.

All the Marks of a Cult and Heresy

One of the strong marks of a cult is the way in which they handle Scripture, the way in which they think, and the kind of reasoning that they use. Calvinism is very adapt at twisting, turning, and redefining concepts and biblical words to suit their teaching and doctrines. When the Jehovah’s Witness twists and turns the word “God” in John 1 to make it mean anything but the true and singular real God of heaven, we all attack them for twisting the obvious and most common sense of Scripture to mean something that obviously it doesn’t mean. They (the Jehovah’s Witnesses) themselves denounce a plurality of gods as unbiblical, and yet they propose that God the Father (Jehovah) is somehow different in essence that Jesus, which they denominate “the son of God” as being inferior to Jehovah. This kind of twisting and turning we reject with the cults. So why is it now acceptable when the Calvinist does it?

I have read arguments on why the word “all” doesn’t mean all when it refers to Christ dying for all the world. Salvation for the Calvinist is not for everybody, it is only for the elect.

In the studies below, I will slowly go through as many of these problem areas of Calvinism as time and my energy permit.

Studies on Refuting Calvinism

I will gradually add more pages to these as I deal with different aspects of Calvinism.

The commonly simple (WRONG) definition

A simple definition that is commonly given and understood by people of “what is a true Christian?” is simply, “a Christian is what I am.” Although this is understandable, but it is not biblical.

At this point we have to make some very clear distinctions from Scripture here as to what is, and what is not a true Christian. Any religious group has to be judged by some criteria, and we always want to return to our spiritual authority (The Holy Scriptures) to define what is what. No group “is Christian” just because. The group is a human, earthly manifestation of a group of people gathering around some religious ideals.

Subtopics

(to be developed in the future)

Criteria for determining what a religious group “is” essentially

Defining what is true salvation

The “mixed nature” of any true Christianity

Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

When we refer to “our gospel”, this the is “good news” which is always on the tip of our tongue, which we are already ready and willing to share with others. The Calvinist will strongly deny that he has any other gospel other than that found in the Bible, but this is what he says to defend himself. In reality, he preaches “another gospel.”

The Doctrines of Grace

The “watchword” or watch phrase among Calvinists is, do you believe in and promote the “doctrines of grace”. For the Calvinist, this means orthodoxy or heresy. Anybody who lightly recommends “the doctrines of Grace”, or worse, denounces the doctrines of Grace, well they must be a heretic 7 times over. In a future study we will examine extensively what the Bible teaches about Grace. But for the moment, let us ask ourselves a question, “Is the gospel and the doctrines of grace the same thing?” Most well developed Calvinists would quickly answer, “no, they are different.” Well, they are different.

For the Calvinist, the “doctrines of grace” are principally the doctrine of election, with the cluster of the Tulip doctrines around it. This is the “good news” that the Calvinist announces when he announces something. But is this the Gospel of the New Testament?

The True Gospel of the New Testament

1Cor 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

The Gospel as Paul understood it is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins. There is no election in this gospel. There is no irresistible grace. There is nothing similar to the TULIP doctrines in this gospel. The gospel of the NT, the gospel which Jesus, the apostles, and the disciples constantly announced was the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins.

Why is it correct for the Calvinist to stop promoting this biblical gospel to focus on “the Doctrines of Grace”? It is like the Jehovah’s Witnesses who leave off this true Gospel to preach the end times, the rise of the Antichrist, etc. It is like the Pentecostal-Charismatic who likewise abandons this gospel for the experience of the Holy Spirit’s baptism. While some of what the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pentecostals teach does have some biblical truth to it, it is simply wrong and satanic to announce that as the gospel instead of the true gospel.

Moreover, Calvinism declares the doctrine of perdition, which throughout its shady history most strong Calvinistic authors, writers, and preachers have sworn allegiance to this false doctrine, but in times past, it seems as though their books and teaching on this subject was simply not put forth so publically because “it was too strong for most people.” Here we understand why, because there would be a strong reaction among true Christians against all Calvinists. It is disappointing that today this doctrine of perdition is coming out very loud and strong.

STUDY: The Doctrine of Perdition

Briefly the doctrine of perdition is the doctrine or belief that God has decided who will not be saved (the vast majority of humanity), and there is nothing that they can do to be saved, even if they wanted to. The idea behind this is simply, God has elected some to salvation, and in God’s will, He has desired the destruction in hell of the majority of all humanity, and this being the absolute will of God, nobody can in any wise change this.

Are the Gospels saturated with the Doctrines of Grace?

This is a valid question. If the Calvinist is right, then the doctrines of grace should be found excessively throughout the Gospels and Acts, and throughout the rest of the NT. If this gospel is what they preached and taught and defended and championed literally “with their lives”, then it should be very obvious and simple to prove.

The word “election” doesn’t occur in the Gospels

While the Calvinist cannot move on to other doctrines beside “election”, the actual word “election” isn’t even found in the Gospels or Acts at all. In fact, in the entire Bible, the word “election” only occurs 6 times. This is a great hardship on the Calvinist, because it is his gospel, but the NT is not saturated with the concept at every turn as we would think if it is the same thing as “the Gospel.” Moreover, the Gospels just don’t seem to have the concept with frequency.

Even the word “elect” only occurs 7 times in the Gospels (none in Acts), and it refers to a group, like the “redeemed”, or “the church”, or “the body of Christ.” This teaching is very sketchy at best in the gospels.

Election is never presented to the unsaved

The fact that election is never presented to an unsaved group or person in Scripture should be intensively mediated upon. Why not? Because it is not the gospel we are to present. The teaching of election (especially as the Calvinist presents it, some are elect and will be saved, and the rest, tough luck) is a deterant or discourages the unsaved from coming to Christ, and in no way encourages him to come to Christ. First of all, who are the elect? Am I an elect? The entire subject of election causes confusion, doubt, and represses the sinner from repentance and faith in Christ. It removes the obligation and need from accepting Christ from his shoulders, and makes him spiritually apathetic to his own sinful state.

Election will never get people saved if that is what is your gospel. In the Scriptures, election is a topic which God brings up with his children when they are undergoing or about to undergo persecution and suffering, and the idea of election is that they are special people in God’s consideration, and even the bad that will happen to them is approved and permitted by God because of this favored state before Him.

The Calvinist understands his problem, that election just isn’t a prominent doctrine of Scripture (which is why Satan has chosen this doctrine, so that he can redefine it and twist it into what he wants). So the Calvinist drops “election” as his primary push, at least in studying the passages where the word occurs, and redefines the gospel as “the doctrines of grace”.

So we ask the question again, is the doctrine of grace the same as the gospel in the NT and Acts? No. The concept of grace is one of giving, and the emphasis is not on selecting to whom the gift will be given, even though that concept has to be there, but the concept of grace is on the gift freely given. This is grace. To give a gift. The focus is not on whom, as much as being principally on giving.

So we search the Gospels for the concept of grace and the word “grace.” “Grace” occurs 15 times in the Gospels (if you search on the Greek word xaris G5485 it occurs another 12 times “favour”).

Luke 2:40; 4:22; John 1:14, 16-17; Acts 4:33; 11:23; 13:43; 14:3, 26; 15:11, 40; 18:27; 20:24, 32

Now is this a saturation of the idea in the Gospels as their principal theme? Matthew and Mark don’t even have the word occurring at all? Isn’t it strange that the Greek word xaris (grace) doesn’t even once occur in two of the Gospels? This is the heart of the Gospel?

Let’s look at some other frequencies in the Gospels and Acts:

repent – 38x
faith – 56x
believe – 161x

If the Gospel which we preach, focus on, concentrate on, and which we make central to our Christianity is election, then somehow God must have forget to make it the central teaching and preaching of the Gospels and Acts. Obviously God did what He knows is right, and the Calvinist is just all messed up and off home base.

Let’s look at the 27 times that grace is mentioned to see if it is obviously referring to election to salvation and election to perdition. I will arrange and group these to make this easier to digest.

Favor with God

Favor with God is not election (the person having nothing to do with it as per the Calvinist concept), but it speaks of the piety and holiness in the person (such as Mary’s selection to bear the Messiah because she had piety and holiness), and God’s reaction to that person’s life as being favorable, or giving blessings to that person. This really has nothing to do with election nor salvation. It has everything to do with God blessing a person because of what he is. The Calvinist wants us to think election is a predetermined selection by God not having anything to do with nothing the person to gain God’s favor, but that is not the concept of grace in the Gospels and Acts. God’s favor on a person’s life is directly linked to his obedience and the intensity of that obedience. It is not cut off and completely without any regard to what the man is (his character), nor broken and separated from what he does (his actions). The Calvinist wants to drill “total inability” into our heads at every turn, but this is just not a biblical concept.

Luke 1:30 – Angel to Mary about her selection as the woman who is to be Jesus’ mother. Nothing about Mary’s election to salvation here really. “hast found favor with God“. Why did Mary find favour with God? Was it related to what she was and how she directed her life before God? Or is the grace of God given to harlots and fornicators irrespective of their character and actions? No. Mary was holy, and because of her character and being, her holy lifestyle, the grace of God came upon her. Grace is not linked to a selection by God without any reference to what the person is morally. Just the opposite, God’s blessing comes to a person because they morally conform themselves to God’s will.
Luke 2:40 the grace of God was on Jesus.
Luke 2:52 Jesus increased in favour with God and man.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace* and truth.  15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace* for grace*. 17 For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace* and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:14-16 has “grace” 4x, and again it speaks of Jesus’ grace. There is no election concept in this passage, but the gift concept.

Acts 4:33 “great grace was upon (the apostles)”
Acts 7:46 David found favour before God.
Acts 13:43 Paul and Barnabas persuaded the Jewish converts to “continue in the grace of God.” The concept here fits more in the idea of “favor of God”, rather than salvation of God.
Acts 14:26 ”they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled” The idea here is more favor of God. “Recommended” is to give oneself over to something, and this is not referring directly to salvation, but in general to ministry.
Acts 15:40 ”And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.”

Favor with man

Luke 2:52 Jesus increased in favour with God and man.
Acts 2:47 “having favour with all the people”.
Acts 7:10 Joseph found favour in the sight of Pharaoh.
Acts 24:27 Felix “willing to shew the Jews a favor“.
Acts 25:3 Felix “desired favor against him”
Acts 25:9 Festus “willing to do the Jews a favor.”

A Gracious thing

The idea of, for example, “gracious words”, is not election or salvation, but rather, words which engender a favorable attitude of others towards oneself. Grace here is obviously something that the person receiving the favor does or is, and this causes the favor to be bestowed on him. This is starkly opposite of Calvinism’s definition of grace.

Luke 4:22 the gracious words that proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus.

Gratitude

Gratitude is another translation or rendering of the charis concept. Similar to the concept of “graciousness” and “favor” where the character of a person provokes blessing, access, and benefit from another, having gratitude is the counterpart of favour. It is the correct and biblical response to grace (a favorable disposition from somebody). Again, this is far from the Calvinist concept of election as it can be. Gratitude is in or on the side of the person receiving, not the giver.

Luke 6:32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank (grace) have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. (verse 34 again in the same context)
Luke 17:9 Doth he thank (grace) that servant? 

Grace related to salvation

Acts 11:23 Barnabas “had seen the grace of God, was glad”
Acts 14:3 ”the word of grace“
Acts 15:11 ”But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”
Acts 18:27 ”And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:”
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Conclusion

When the Calvinist starts talking about the “doctrines of grace”, his mind is set upon election and perdition. Grace to a Calvinist is the same thing as election. This is the principle concept in his mind if he honestly defines “grace.” If the Gospels and Acts presents to us the “gospel”, then what is this gospel? Is it principally and emphatically election? The Word of God does not indicate this. The Gospel rests upon repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, both of which God calls upon us (sinful humans) to “do this” as a condition of being saved.

Effectively the Calvinist has changed the Gospel he proclaims from the truth of God’s Word to the error of “majoring on the minors”, and thus leading astray generations of people. But these Calvinists are so forceful in their arguments and strongly persuasive in their debates, that “”insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat 24:24).

Introduction

Cults are just false prophets at work. One of the distinguishing marks of a cult/false prophet is that they have refused “out of hand” (with no exceptions) the will of God and the correct doctrine of the Bible. Their reasons are a wonder, but basically they prefer to work their will in their own way of doing things rather than submit to God’s will. This is covered up so that their followers don’t get wise to what is going on and leave the group.

After having studied a number of these kinds of groups, and talking to people personally, I think that in many cases they are “sincere” people, in the sense that they themselves are under the lie and delusion of Satan that this way that they do stuff is God’s way, or approved of God.

Truth is a commodity, not an absolute

There are two kinds or aspects of truth in the Scripture. First, something is “truth” because it is true. This refers not to moral truth, but the reality in the existing world. “A pen is on my desk.” This is either true or not. It speaks to reality in the sense of our world.

The other kind of truth is one which has a moral character to it. There is no real moral element to the statement, “A pen is on my desk.” That is “truth” in the sense that it is a fact or a “lie” (not a fact). But moral truth demands a disposition towards it from every moral being. “A man should not covet a woman.” You either agree with, and submit yourself under that truth, or you do not. You cannot be neutral or excluded from that truth or spiritual principle.

What cultists and false prophets do with truth is to remove it from being absolutes or spiritual principles which we must be submissive to or by default we are rebellious towards them if not submissive to them, and they make these spiritual principles commodities.

Truth is a commodity for them in that it is something that they buy and sell at will. These principles are not things that guide their life, but rather things that they use in order to get something they want (a commodity). They pretend to be honest and “truthful” because by doing so in their church group, that gets them respect, honor, and income. Being truthful is not something that is a moral principle that they cling to as part of their soul, part of their moral being, but rather, these things are things that they pick up and use as needed and just as quickly drop them when it is convenient for them.

Satan as the Father of Lies

Satan is the father of lies, or deceptions. Has Satan never said anything “truthful” in his dealings? Of course he has. He quoted Scripture to Jesus, and God’s own words to Eve. Satan is a master at “USING THE TRUTH” to get what he wants. Satan knows that by using truth, he gains confidence of the people. He can twist truth “out of its context”, or tell a half truth, or color the truth (like he did with Eve). He can even take truth and set it in a context of many truths, and overemphasize and carry one truth to an extreme, and by doing that, he still gets his way.

Why do people lie? Because telling the truth would not get them what they want (at least in their minds). Why does a married man tell a young single lady that he is single? Because he wants a adulteous relationship with her, and he fears telling her the truth would not get him what he wants. Lying is basically a technique by which a person manipulates other people to forceably get what they want without their wills entering very much into the deal. The liar is a person who works (deceives) another person to get something from that person, even if it is sympathy.

Truth: God’s Banner over Us

The child of God is marked as not being of “father Satan the liar”, but of being a child of God, a child of truth. What should be the identifying mark of all children of God, and much more so of God’s ministers, is truth.

Why is this not so obvious? Cults, false prophets, and a lot of supposedly “good pastors” use lying as a integral part of their ministry. Why? These ingeniously carved lies are what motives and moves people to give, to work, to sacrifice, participate in, support, etc, what they would not do if they knew the truth.

Satan has so created an atmosphere in our modern churches that make it a “nothing important” thing if a preacher or pastor lies to people. I am talking about knowingly telling people things that (1) are not true (factual), (2) are false, deceptive, or twisted in order to get people to think and do things that otherwise they probably wouldn’t do.