> Refuting Errors <
1.
Calvinism/Reformed Theology
Our rating: Extremely dangerous, heretical
Who practices?:
Many
Christians
What others say?:
Why I am not a Calvinist?
Why Calvinism is unbiblical
Why do many think Calvinists are arrogant jerks?
Why are Calvinists so mean?
How to deal with Calvinists
Why are some Reformed people such jerks?
Calvinism destroyed my friendships
Five points that led me out of Calvinism
A lead pastor leaves Calvinism
Exceptionalism and racism manifest in
Southern Baptist politics
The Evangelical Church Is Falling Apart
Problems With Calvinists view of Election
The Insecurity of Calvinism
Check this>> SALVATION According to the Bible
Calvinism's number one problem is with logic itself, let alone exegesis or proper biblical theology. If God can control everything, why did He let evil happen which only happened or happens by the choices made by His creatures?
How to be saved? Repent and be saved. The ability to turn around and the knowledge of right and wrong also known as conscience has been given to all human beings and is not restricted to a certain group of people. Click here to see all the Bible verses about this topic.
"God will grant repentance" to those pre-selected to be saved say the Calvinists. What this really means is a total mystery though. Does this mean that God will repent for man for man to be saved or does this mean that man will repent on his own with God's help for God to save him? If it is the latter, then man still needs to choose to be saved logically and practically speaking.
So, Calvinists believe that "repentance" is given by God to a select group of people and not all mankind. They talk about God "granting repentance" to some as though it is a one sided deal in which the select saved cannot and will not say no to which then amounts to the concept of "irresistible grace" which is another false teaching as this conflicts with man's active freewill to choose to be saved or not. The correct way to understand "God granting repentance" is that God gives the opportunity for ALL to repent and then it is up to every individual to actually do the repenting or turning around. 2 Peter 3:9 states: "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."
Check these articles to understand the idea of "God granting repentance" correctly: Article 1, Article 2
The problem to understand with die-hard Calvinists is that one false teaching leads to another, and one lie leads to another. Therefore, beware of their deadly delusions. Their arrogance is manifested by a feeling of being the "elect" or "select" and therefore, an entitlement to feel that they cannot be wrong. This is the very characteristic of Satan himself who has been referred to as the "father of all les" (John 8:44). In other words, lying is the mother of all sins. This kind of attitude is even manifest especially in American politics by those who claim to be always right and "exceptional" and exempt from all accountability as they think that God has already elected or selected them to be "saved" so they think that they can really do no wrong. This kind of pride ultimately precedes self destruction. History has shown this time and time again starting with the fall of Satan himself from heaven.
If God already saved some people before they were born, what is there to repent of? Why should anyone "trust" God or have "faith" in Him if they have already been chosen and saved? What is the point of preaching and teaching the Gospel which amounts to "good works" if God already saved some people even before they were born? This kind of belief is not biblical but is extremely heretical as it is also self-contradictory.
Calvinists also emphasize God's
sovereignty above all else, so then If God is
sovereign and therefore can "control" everything, why can't He save everyone
as He has such power to do so anyhow? The
simple answer is that God does not save anyone against
their will to be saved. God did not prevent
Lucifer or Adam and Eve from sinning for example.
He did not override their choices to do whatever they
wished to do. Therefore, our actions have
consequences and we are not made as robots but created
as free moral agents with the ability to make our own
choices. However, we are held accountable to the
choices we may make.
Does God save anyone against their will or choice to be
saved? If some are already saved before they were
born and made a choice to be saved, what is there to
repent of?
Repent and be saved it says in the Bible. Can those
elect or select saved before they made a choice to be
saved be "eternally secure" no matter what they do in
life? If the answer is a yes to these questions,
it is not salvation but subjugation to some grand cosmic
scheme and this is not Christianity but total insanity.
Central Teaching: The doctrine of "Predestination".
Key texts used to support this belief:
Romans 8:28-30,
Cross references of Romans 8:29,
Eph. 1:4
Note: The supreme attribute of God is
LOVE and not SOVEREIGNTY as Calvinism promotes.
God is Love most of all and all other attributes fall
under this single attribute including His "Sovereignty".
God is sovereign of course and has control over all
things but God's sovereignty does not extend to override
man's choices regarding issues of personal salvation.
Simple explanations to refute this error:
Romans 8:28
"All
things work together for good to
them that love God,.."
(choice has to be made first to love God and all men
have an inner ability to respond one way or the other.)
Romans 8:29
"For
whom he did
foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed.." (God
foreknows or foreknew those who will love Him and
therefore predestined all those who believe and repent
to be saved).
Can God fix or orchestrate events or things in advance? YES. It depends on what they are. Creation itself was created in a certain fixed way in the beginning. Other things are not fixed or orchestrated in advance like the choices that man may make. God did not orchestrate Lucifer's fall from heaven or Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. If God created man in His own image, then it can very well be concluded that man by his own nature does not fix everything in advance but some things he can and does fix in advance because of the creative nature that was given to him or her.
Calvinists believe that before the Creation of the world, God already selected/elected/predestined those who will be saved no matter what and those who will be lost no matter what. Those select saved will supposedly go to heaven no matter what immediately after death, and those select to be lost will go to hell immediately after death and burn forever no matter what, all because God is sovereign.
This belief sounds like a fantasy horror doctrine of man who thinks that for God to be sovereign, He has to be a puppet master playing on both sides of good and evil engaged thus in a giant cosmic puppet show. This means that God is the author of both good and evil and therefore, His creatures are in reality stuck in between like pawns and lacking any personal choice as their fates are predetermined in eternity. This theological position then gives rise to the question of if there can be any personal responsibility taken by any person for good or bad choices made in life. Further, why would God reward good works and bad works if He is the author of both good and and bad and therefore should take the responsibility of those acts fully? This kind of theology is at best contradictory not only to itself but to the Bible. According to John 3:16, God is portrayed as not just a sovereign being but also a God who is supremely loving and gives a choice to all those who wish to be saved and forsake sin or wrong doing. God is therefore LOVE, JUST, COMPASSIONATE and MORE and not just an authoritarian SOVEREIGN who orchestrated everything in the minutest of detail everything that would ever happen long before the Creation of the world.
Simple questions to answer:
If God is sovereign, why didn't He
predestine all to be saved by overriding the individual
choice of all?
Did God predestine some to be lost? If so, isn't this
cruel and unusual for God to do this?
If God already fixed your fate to be saved or lost, why
repent or go to church to do anything?
Consider the parable of the
prodigal son:
At one time the son was not lost. He then
chose to be lost and then later chose to come back on
His own to His father as he had a sense or conscience of
right and wrong which is in every human being implanted
by God Himself. This is in essence the story of mankind.
Free choice is involved to be lost or saved till the
very end of each person's life.
Refuting the five points of Calvinism's T.U.L.I.P.
Total Depravity:
Man is so depraved that on his own, he cannot
respond to God.
Answer: If man is so depraved after sin, mankind
could have self annihilated pretty quick right in the
beginning. The Bible says that even though all
have come short of the glory of God according to
Romans 3:23, mankind did not die immediately
physically or spiritually. A gradual dying started
taking place. God has by His grace from the very
beginning did not let man be totally depraved and devoid
of any sense of
right and wrong, and unable to distinguish between good
and evil. If there was total depravity the minute
sin was committed, (a black and white understanding of
sin or anything else for that matter) then there would
not have been a sense of guilt or shame or remorse for
man to even understand what has happened.
Therefore, the position of "total depravity" is totally
unbiblical and a false teaching at best and is best to be
forsaken.
Romans 2 (KJV)
14 For when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things
contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a
law unto themselves:
15 Which shew the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while
accusing or else excusing one another;)
Romans 12:14-15 (TLB)
He will punish sin wherever it is found.
He will punish the heathen when they sin, even though
they never had God's written laws, for down in their
hearts they know right from wrong.
God's laws are written within them; their own conscience
accuses them, or sometimes excuses them.
Unconditional Election: God
chose some or elected some to be saved and therefore
their salvation is not based on their personal choices
to be saved.
Answer: This position runs counter to the nature of man
which is that he or she is a free moral agent. God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that WHOEVER believes will be saved.
The Bible does not say that whoever GOD chose before
Creation will be saved and consequently whoever He does
not choose will be lost. It is God's supreme will
that no one is lost and that all will come to repentance
and be saved. The opportunity to be saved has been
extended to all.
2 Peter 3:9. Besides, if God is sovereign as
the Calvinists claim, why would He choose only some
before they were even born to be saved no matter their
own individual choices?
Once saved are you always saved?
Once saved, you can always be saved or even lost because you do not lose your power to choose right or wrong after you are saved. Salvation is not a single event but a series of events consisting of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification. As far is God is concerned your salvation is eternally secure but as far as you are concerned, you still have the choice to be unsaved as God does not override your free choices once you are saved. Check the verses below:
Gen. 2:17 -"...for when you eat of
it [if you disobey Me] you will surely die."
Ezek. 33:18 -"If a righteous man turns from his
righteousness and does evil, he will die for it."
Luke 8:13 -"They believe for a while, but in the time of
testing they fall away."
Other points to be discussed later. This is a work in progress. Feel free to point out any errors.