Calvinism

Faith is not a work... we are saved by faith. Faith does not precede regeneration. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word.

The Calvinistic teaching has wrongly exaggerated the effects of man’s fallen condition resulting in a misinterpretation of man’s responsibility in light of God’s clear revelation. Calvinists say they believe men are “responsible” but they do not mean what most people think when they hear the word “responsible” (able-to-respond freely and thus guilty for that response).

What Calvinists mean is that mankind is justly punished even though they were born “unable-to-respond” willingly to God’s revelation. They do not mean that mankind is morally capable of responding to God’s appeals to be reconciled from their fallen condition (as implied in 2 Cor. 5:20, John 3:16 and elsewhere).

Calvinists insist that man is born dead in sin and therefore “corpse-like” in his abilities to respond to God’s life-giving truth. Therefore, according to their logic, God must bring the corpse back to life so that he will certainly believe God’s revealed truth.

Some Calvinists will argue that the order of regeneration and faith is a logical order, not a temporal one, meaning that the two happen simultaneously within time. They teach that at the moment a person is born again he will come to faith. The moment he is regenerated he also places his trust in Christ. It all happens in an instant of time. Yet logically as we think about this transaction, we must put a causal order to it. Does the Bible indicate that a person must be regenerated so that he can believe or does the Bible teach that a person must believe in order to be regenerated? Do we need life in order to believe or do we need to believe in order to have life? That logical order is what is in dispute.

What is not in dispute is that regeneration is the sovereign act of God whereby He imparts His very life and His very nature to the believing sinner (John 1:12-13; Titus 3:5). Man’s first birth is natural; his second birth is spiritual and supernatural. His first birth makes him a member of a fallen race; his second birth makes him a member of a redeemed race. His first birth gives him a depraved nature (Eph. 2:3); his second birth makes him partaker of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The moment a person is born again he receives a new life (John 6:47; 1 John 5:12) and a new position as a child of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1-2). In short, he is a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

We can all affirm these truths.

Calvinism

The Idolatry of Calvinism

There are those who have established all of their hope of salvation upon the teachings and doctrines of a misguided theologian by the name of John Calvin. It is common to hear Calvinist go on and on, and defend this particular man who lived in the 15 hundreds!

Birth Date: July 10, 1509

Death Date: May 27, 1564

So to what credit do we give this man? Did he ever walk, or live where Jesus walked and lived? Did he ever walk and live where the apostles walked and lived? Did he ever have faith in Christ to the degree that he was fulfilling the declarations of Christ?

John 14:12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

You will very seldom ever hear Calvinist preach a strong message of total commitment, love, abandonment to Jesus Christ. John Calvin is their HERO more than Jesus Christ. Idolatry is a sin that many Calvinist will not repent of. Their Calvinistic doctrine of the five tulips is a mixture of some truth, filled with lies. I call it a cow pie sandwich. What is a cow pie sandwich? It is two pieces of homemade bread, with a cow pie in the middle.

You can give them Scripture after Scripture after Scripture of what Jesus boldly declared, and it seems to just fall off of them like water off a duck back. Their number one warcry is No Works, nor Works, nor Works. Yet they completely ignore that when Christ spoke to the seven churches in the book of Revelation he said over seven times: I Know Thy Works! On my, what shall be done for these poor souls who have swallowed the lie and become a worshiper of a man, instead of a lover of Jesus Christ? Only God knows where they will end up?

Calvinism

Calvinism in ALL its guises teaches the following_

God CONTROLS all things.

This is THE Calvinistic definition of sovereign, a word not found in scripture.

They also say that God ORDAINS all things, but they cannot say which of the 15 words in Hebrew and Greek, translated as ordained, they mean, since it is not scriptural.

So here is the next error, but ALL versions of Calvinism teach it

God's will cannot be disobeyed.

immediately they are debunked because sin is specifically prohibited by God, thus not what he wants, not what he controls people to do.

Their response is that God has a SECRET will. and it is the SECRET will that cannot be disobeyed. In any event, they do claim that God controls all to sin and ordains 100% of sin, his desire for sin occurring is to glorify him.

So when a saved person sins, they claim God gets glory from it.

When Paul rebukes the Jews in Romans 2, telling them that God is BLASPHEMED because of the Jew's hypocrisy, they claim he is glorified by being blasphemed.

Each time they make a claim their claims are debunked so they fall back to another invented, anit-christian doctrine.

They claim that the reason for sin is so God can show ALL his attributes, including wrath. The problem is, wrath is not an attribute, it is a reaction. His Holiness is an attribute, and so is mercy., so is love.

Thoughts on Eternal Security and Arminian and Calvinist Positions - Resources - Eternal Perspective Ministries

Thoughts on Eternal Security and Arminian and Calvinist Positions - Resources - Eternal Perspective Ministries

John Calvin

 I am not a fan of John Calvin, but not because I dislike him; don't know too much about his personality, to be honest. Abusive, insulting, harsh? I am pretty sure some people could have said this about Paul the Apostle as well. He sounds pretty defensive in 2 Cor 10-13. Be that as it may, it does not automatically make Calvin heretic. Ad hominem fallacy alert?

Calvinism, Predestination, and Assurance