Posted on 09/24/2013 1:43:25 PM PDT by Rashputin
CALVINISM’S FALSE DOCTRINE
Posted on September 14, 2007 by Cathy
“Calvinism” is very popular and many Christians, though they would not identify themselves as Calvinists, may have embraced some of Calvin’s doctrine without realizing it. The doctrine is named after a man named John Calvin, a reformer, who lived in the 1500′s. Calvinism propagates error. Knowledge of error helps us to be discerning when listening to or reading Christian material. If a teacher is a Calvinist, all that they teach will be taught through the lens of Calvinism. The result of this Calvinistic “bent” will be teachings that are dangerously distorted.
This is just a simple outline of Calvinism . . .
T.U.L.I.P. is an acronym used by Calvinists to describe the main five points of Calvinism.
T stands for TOTAL DEPRAVITY – This “Calvin” doctrine propagates the error that that man is so depraved and corrupt that he is not capable of making a choice to follow the Lord. It is taught that God is the one who predestines some to believe in Him and be born again, and predestines others not to believe in Him. The ones who are not predestined to believe will perish in hell. This doctrine denies free will. They say it doesn’t, but it does.
SCRIPTURE CLEARLY TEACHES that an individual has the God given ability to choose:
Matthew 11:20 “Then began he (Jesus) to UPBRAID the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:”
(UPBRAID – Find fault with, or reproach severely. dictionary.com)
Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but YOU WERE NOT WILLING!” (NKJV)
Romans 1:18-20 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, FOR GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE,” (NKJV)
U stands for UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION – This “Calvin” doctrine propagates the error that some individuals are elected/chosen to salvation, and some are not. It is taught that God’s choices are unconditional.
SCRIPTURE CLEARLY TEACHES that Christ is the chosen, Christ is the elect. When we believe the gospel we are then called chosen and elect because we are “in Christ.” It’s not about us, it’s about Christ.
Matthew 12:18 “Behold my servant, whom I have CHOSEN; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.”
Luke 23:35 “And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the CHOSEN of God.”
Isaiah 42:1 “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine ELECT, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.”
L stands for LIMITED ATONEMENT – This “Calvin” doctrine propagates the error that Christ’s atoning work on the cross was only for certain individuals.
SCRIPTURE CLEARLY TEACHES that Christ’s atonement is available to all people.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Luke 2:10 “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL people.”
Luke 2:31 “Which thou hast prepared before the face of ALL people;”
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Revelation 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.”
I stands for IRRESISTIBLE GRACE – This “Calvin” doctrine propagates the error that when God calls a person to salvation, that person cannot resist God’s call.
SCRIPTURE CLEARLY TEACHES that it is possible to resist the Holy Ghost.
Matthew 11:20 “Then began he (Jesus) to UPBRAID the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:”
(UPBRAID – Find fault with, or reproach severely. dictionary.com)
Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but YOU WERE NOT WILLING! (NKJV)
Acts 7:51 “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, YE DO ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY GHOST: as your fathers did, so do ye.”
P stands for PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS (also known as “Once Saved Always Saved”) – This “Calvin” doctrine propagates the error that a person can never fall away from the faith.
SCRIPTURE CLEARLY TEACHES that it is possible to fall away from the faith.
John 8:31 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, IF YE CONTINUE in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;”
1 Timothy 1:19 “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away CONCERNING FAITH HAVE MADE SHIPWRECK:”
2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have KEPT THE FAITH:”
2 Peter 2:20-22 “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have KNOWN the way of righteousness, than, after they have KNOWN it, to TURN from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is TURNED to his own vomit again; and the sow that WAS WASHED to her wallowing in the mire.”
* * *
A Christian sister once said . . . “the Lord draws, but we have the free will to respond, or not to respond, to that drawing.” True. We are not robots. Also, with Calvinism, a person is left to wonder if they are one of God’s chosen ones. How can anyone ever have any peace wondering if they are one of God’s elect. Our peace comes from the atoning work of Christ on the cross. There is stability at the cross. There is nothing to wonder about. Jesus said “whosoever will” may freely receive salvation. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17 You can have peace and assurance that Christ is the chosen One, and when you believe in Him you are chosen in Him. This leaves the door to salvation open for all people, as God intended it to be, and as the scripture declares.
Believing truth, and continuing to do so, will give you peace because your assurance is firmly based upon Christ’s finished work of atonement. Understanding Calvinism helped me to understand that the doctrine of “once saved always saved” is a false doctrine. This was something I struggled with for many years. Why did it help me? Because I understood that the root of the “once saved always saved” teaching is Calvinism’s doctrine “irresistible grace.” The two are obviously connected. Error begets more error. As we have seen, it is possible to resist the Holy Ghost, and what a serious thing it is to do so.
Calvinistic teaching superimposes itself upon Scripture. It is man’s teaching, not God’s. I have written this because I love the Lord, and I love the brethren. False doctrine is harmful, and causes division among God’s people. My prayer is that we, the followers of Jesus Christ, will be guided into all truth. As the scripture says in John 16:13 “. . . when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
That's a great illustration - mind if I use it in the future?
Thank you for explaining this so well. I think humans have a real problem with the idea that they are not in control of everything in their lives. Then there are those who use fear of hell to control others into jumping through their own self-devised hoops thereby maintaining their power. My personal view is that the reality of this all is outside of our present capacity to comprehend and that men like Calvin and Luther, as well as Augustine and Aquinas, did their best to put into words what small part they thought they DID understand.
God has explained many things in Scripture - and these we can grasp with the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit - but Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (John 3:11-12)
One day we will "know as we are known", but until then, I praise the Lord that he has opened my eyes and ears and heart to receive the gospel of the grace of God and has given me eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. He knew before He established the world that He would.
LOL Calvin’s heir ?
I learned a lot from all of that. It is was very helpful to really solidify my reformed faith. Not just the content, but the overall attitudes of those posting on either side.
The Huguenots, for instance, were highly tolerant. They had been victims of severe persecution themselves. The New England Calvanistic brand of Puritanism, not so much. They actually founded Harvard as as a divinity school to train ministers to promote and enforce the brand of political/religious correctness in power at the time. Ironically, the same role which Harvard plays today. Only the brand of political/religious correctness in power has changed.
My own ancestor, the Rev. John Lathrop, was run out of the Boston area because he was tolerant of the Anabaptist school of thought. He did not embrace it but tolerated it to the extent that he allowed them to attend his services and add to the discussions. Another ancestor and also Puritan minister, the Rev. John Crandall, was run out of Massachusetts Bay Colony entirely for the same reason. Both expulsions happened in the mid-1600s when Harvard had been in operation for a mere decade or so. Google either of these names and you'll find a huge number of Americans related to either or both.
The far larger group of Presbyterian branded Calvinists, the Scott-Irish, fell somewhere between the Huguenots and the New England Puritans on the tolerance scale.
I should have qualified that my initial remarks on Calvinists were directed only at the most intolerant brands. The others generally worked quite well with Americans of different faiths to ensure that the American Revolution succeeded.
The initial high profile religious conflict in America was between Calvinistic Puritans themselves (as evidenced by my two Puritan Rev. ancestors who got expelled for not following the Puritan line closely enough) and between the Puritans and Anabaptists.
The other groups mostly arrived later, post 1670 or so when America changed from (mainly) a destination of choice to (mainly) a destination to dump undesirables (the old country view, not the fact) as a result of political upheavals in Europe.
An intelligent observation which I don’t know how to explain, but maybe my post #47 helps. Let me know.
All but this extreme mouthy minority recognizes that Communism, extreme secular humanism, Atheism, liberalism, Islamofacism, etc. represent a far greater threat to mankind than a different brand of Christianity.
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 also. Does that justify continuing to war with them?
You must be referring to Hyper-Calvinists. I assume you are familiar with this article:
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/hypercal.htm
****Does that justify continuing to war with them? ***
Then why did he challenge all religions to obey HIM and threaten them even in the Missouri Wars.
If HE could not take the heat he should not have issued the challenge. He later became a very dangerous man as HE could muster a personal army bigger than the US Army at the time.
In short, they expect every criticism of their narrow dogma to be 100% accurate 100% of the time while giving themselves the luxury of excommunicating anyone from the body of Christianity who doesn't agree with them 100% of the time. It sort of reminds me of the liberal dogmatists, just that their articles of faith are different.
Not hardly.
Reviewing her page shows she is a theological midget and a tremendous legalist.
If you want to cling to her poorly developed rants, have at it.
There are far better anti-Calvinst arguments out there than this nonsense.
The initial high profile religious conflict in America was between Calvinistic Puritans themselves (as evidenced by my two Puritan Rev. ancestors who got expelled for not following the Puritan line closely enough) and between the Puritans and Anabaptists.
...........
While the Puritans do have a record for intolerance for everything from Roger Williams to the Salem Witch trials — the only anabaptist communities in the colonies were mostly in Pennysylvania and mostly German, Amish, Mennonite and Heutterite. Among these I count my ancestors. Though I’m mostly calvinist now. Pennsylvania was too far away from Massachusetts in the 1600’s for there to be any interaction at all between them. I’ve never heard of English anabaptist communities in New England.
My historical read on Harvard is that that school shifted over from calvinism to unitarianism sometime in the early 1700’s. Likely largely under influence of Newton—who was an ardent unitarian. But perhaps too because the Massachusetts colonies support for Cromwell years earlier put calvinism in bad odor with the crown. (I have no proof of that.)
I'm not aware of any communities either. But no shortage of individuals with Anabaptist school of thought leanings, or at least the willingness to entertain such alternatives. Roger Williams was the most famous of these, but Crandall, Lathrop, Anne Hutchinson and others were at least open to discussion of said school of thought.
Beautiful.
And at St. Dominic’s, the big parish here, the congregation is about a third ex Baptists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.