• Calvinism

    by Published on 09-21-2011 07:33 PM     Number of Views: 4820 
    1. Categories:
    2. Calvinism

    The 6 Major Sins of Calvinism

    (1) You're unwilling to let go of control over self to place your trust in the sovereign Lord since you refuse to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated. To maintain hold over self, you cling to an idol called Total depravity which says you can't repent and believe in Him so you don't. To rationalize your selfish stance, you accept the evil spirit's imputation to pridefully assume you were irresistibly selected. Thus, you never genuinely come to the cross as a helpless sinner to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior to be saved.

    (2) You worship a cruel and sadistic god who sends people to Hell for being born into sin that was not their fault and blames them for not responding when he made them that way apparently. Your god is evil, incompetent and impotent to be able to provide sufficient grace to all to have the free choice.

    (3) You worship a tyrant that irresistibly imposes regeneration on people which is not much of a gift since it can neither be accepted nor refused. There is no opportunity for salvation in Calvinism just the evil dictates of a non-sovereign god. How impersonal and quite unlike the relational God of the Bible who says, "ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer. 29.13).

    (4) As you are doubleminded so is your god who contradicts himself with his two wills, declaring openly he wants all to be saved, but secretly he doesn't. If something is a secret then by definition Calvinists can't make any claim about it or even if it exists so they are just pretentiously asserting themselves with their doublespeak. The Bible says be "not doubletongued" (1 Tim. 3.8).

    (5) It's wrong to give people false hope that they can be saved when your god prods them on yet makes them unable to respond. There is no way around this abusive behavior, duplicity and charade.

    (6) If there were two people drowning would it be right to let one drown and save the other? If you could save both but didn't in our society you would be guilty and go to prison for negligent homicide. But this is the way the Calvinist god operates. The Calvinist claims he can save both, but is perfectly just in not doing so. When I get in a pickle, I hope I am not standing next to a Calvinist. The question is, how can God's morals be below our own? How can the Creator have a morality that so against our own sense of right and wrong?

    Cain and Abel
    Did Cain and Abel have the free choice to give God a proper offering? Were they totally depraved? Was Cain preteritioned? Was Abel irresistibly made to give a lamb as an offering? God provided them with sufficient grace to have the free choice. Grace that is not sufficient for all is deficient. The Calvinist's lust for an explanation why Abel gave a proper offering goes unanswered. Instead of having the humility to accept he currently doesn't understand and be comfortable with that, he inserts into the text that which is not explicitly stated in order to make it agree with his committed position to try to comfort his soul. But it is not lasting because self cannot help but be puffed up, begetting more self, with the prideful assumption of being irresistibly selected.

    What is the proper response to a Calvinist when he asks, why did Abel choose God and Cain didn't? Simply say to him that they were both made in God's image, born into sin, and by the grace of God sufficient for all gave us the free choice so it was their choice. What caused their choice? They did it. It was their choice afforded to them by God just as God has free choice, ability or free will whichever term you prefer. God made us in His image with this attribute He has. The god of Calvinism can't do that so you know the god of Calvinism is not just impotent and lesser but some evil spirit, possibly even Satan himself.

    Conclusion
    The Calvinist's main issue is he can't fathom how God can have infinite foreknowledge and reconcile that with free will. Well, I don't know how God gives me self-consciousness and God-consciousness either, but I know He does it, since He says so in His word. They are not trusting in God's word. It is even verified in our own experience what scholars call "proper basic beliefs" that are self-evident and common to us all. Because Calvinists can't understand how God does this, they assert God causes everything so nobody has the free choice to do anything (a facade), leaving the human race without any moral imperative. A person's conscience has nowhere to go but down from there. Shouldn't a true and lasting faith strengthen man's conscience?

    Next time you come across someone who pleads with you and implores you to do something which you obviously cannot do, have not been supplied with the ability to do so and not given a choice in the matter (prevenient grace), just think of that person like the evil god of Calvinism who is being unloving and twisted.
    by Published on 07-08-2011 03:23 PM     Number of Views: 2347 
    1. Categories:
    2. Calvinism

    "Man's will has its proper place in the matter of salvation," declared Spurgeon. "When a man receives the Divine Grace of Christ, he does not receive it against his will.... Nor again, mark you, is the will taken away. For God does not come and convert the intelligent free agent into a machine." Yet he also declared, "Where is free will? Man is so depraved, the way of salvation so obnoxious to his pride... that he cannot like it... unless he who ordained the plan shall...subdue his will."

    If God must subdue our will, why does He ask us to choose (Joshua 24:15)? Calvin declared that "those who...seek for free-will in man...labour under manifold delusion." Yet Jesus said, "If any man will to do his [God's] will, he shall know" (John 7:17). God said to Israel, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured" (Isaiah 1:19–20). Why such language that clearly puts the responsibility on them, if no one in Israel could will unless God did the willing?

    "If ye offer a sacrifice...unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will" (Lev. 19.5). "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" (saiah 1.19-20). If a person couldn't offer would not God have said so? That is sort of an important point to leave out. See Lev. 22.18; 23.38; Numb. 15.3; Deut. 12.6; 2 Chron. 31.14; Ps. 119.108. "Whosoever is of a willing heart" (Ex. 35.5); "who his spirt made willing" (v.21); "as many as were willing hearted" (v.22); "a heart with a willing mind" (1 Chron. 28.9; "who then is willing to consecrate his" (29.5); "offered willingly" (v.9); "I have willingly offered all these things" (v.17); "willingly offered himself utno the LORD" (2 Chron. 17.16); "princes gave willingly unto the people" (35.8). The NT contains many similar phrases: "The spirit indeed is willing (Matt. 26.41); "Pilate [was] willing (Luke 23.20); "Ye were willing" (John 5.35); "The centurian [was] willing" (Acts 27.43); "They were willing of themselves" (2 Cor. 8.3); "a willing mind" (v.12); "not by constraint, but willingly" (1 Pet. 5.2).

    Are we to believe that that these Scriptures actually mean either man has no will or God causes him to be willing? Calvinism treats man as a puppet that God makes willing, yet the Bible gives man credit for having a willing heart as though the willingness were his own. The judgment seat of Christ, His promised rewards, the Great White Throne judgment, and the lake of fire are meaningless if all is of God and nothing is from the heart of man. The many statements about the person being willing from his heart become nonsensical.

    (Debating Calvinism, pp. 336, 338-339, by Dave Hunt)
    by Published on 06-11-2011 05:13 PM     Number of Views: 2871 
    1. Categories:
    2. Calvinism

    (1) Selfishly, you refuse to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated by erecting an idol called Total depravity which says you can't, so you don't.

    (2) Presumptuously, you worship a god who sends people to Hell just because they were born into sin which is not their fault. Without any opportunity to be saved, they could do nothing about it. Such a god is impotent to be able to provide sufficient grace to all to have the choice.

    (3) Evilly, you worship a tyrant that irresistibly imposes regeneration on people without affording them the choice (not much of a gift). "Someone made to do something against their will is of the same opinion still," Dave Hunt.

    (4) In your own selfish image, you've created a double minded god who contradicts himself with his two wills, declaring openly he wants all to be saved, but secretly he doesn't. If something is a secret then by definition Calvinists can't make any claim about it or if it even exists, therefore, they are just pretentiously asserting themselves.

    (5) It's wrong to give people false hope by delivering the gospel to them when your god makes them unable to respond. There is no way around this abusive behavior, duplicity and charade.

    (6) The god of Calvinism you allege could save all but doesn't; in contrast, God of the Bible doesn't save all because most people refuse His love, e.g. Calvinists. God won't save you selfishly.

    Ref: http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/James_White_Unsaved.htm

    Picture two children playing in quicksand. Of course, they don't realize it is impossible to get out of the quicksand. The god of Calvinism comes along and yanks one of the children out with a hook and lets the other perish. Whereas God of the Bible extends His arm out to both, pleading with them, having given them both ample grace to respond positively, but sadly only one grabs hold.

    If you believe in the former rather than the latter, I can confidently say you are not born-again (regenerated). Fact: most people who claim to be Christians are not, and this applies even to a greater extent to those who preach a gospel starkly similar to the gospel of salvation though is nothing of the kind looking down the road to eternity shown to us in the word of God. Test the spirits. Prove all things and that which is good.

    "God is the Savior of all men [sufficient grace for all to have the choice], specially those who believe" (1 Tim. 4.10). "That he might have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11.2). "Who would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2.4). "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9). "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3.19). "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5.1). "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24.15). "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2.2). "And every one whom his spirit made willing" (Ex. 35.21). "Come unto me...and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11.28). "I have given you the choice between life and death.... I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you...might live!" (Deut. 30.19) "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Tit. 2.11) speaks of the sufficient grace given to us all to have the choice.

    "Unless you believe that I am who I say I am, you will die in your sins" (John 8.23,24). Worshiping a false Christ of your own making or following the one devised by Calvin, Spurgeon, Augustine or Luther won't save you one iota.

    Much thanks goes to Jacob Arminius, a protector of the faith, who taught that God predestinates by foreknowing our free-choice: a conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, for preservation of the saints (OSAS). My prayer is if you have not done so already, to give your life to the God who keeps for we can't keep ourselves saved, nor is God an evil god that irresistibly imposes regeneration and preteritions others. What love is that?

    Apostle Troy Brooks
    by Published on 01-09-2010 10:51 PM     Number of Views: 1750 
    1. Categories:
    2. Calvinism

    A Christian writes:

    Matt Slick provides a verse for most of his arguments, but he offers no such Bible reference when he says "...this total depravity means that the unregenerate will not, of their own free sinful will, choose to receive Christ." In other words, if there was such a verse to justify it, he would have referenced it. Calvinism is built upon the premise that fallen man is "too far gone for even God to be able to reach him [and thus necessitating an Irresistible Grace]" and yet, there is no Bible verse to support this conclusion.

    I always ask the Calvinist, "Is God powerful and righteous enough to enable an unregenerate sinner to receive Him, without using an Irresistible Grace?" If Calvinists say, "yes," then the "total depravity" argument becomes moot, and then it's no longer a matter of man's depravity, but man's accountability, when enabled by God's prevenient grace. However, most Calvinists answer, "no," that God has "total inability" to enable an unregenerate sinner to receive His grace, and thus the Calvinist is shown that his position is one that denigrates God's power.

    They shift the depravity of man to follow after the grace given so the grace is not sufficient, but if the grace comes in after the depravity then it can be sufficient for all. Clearly grace follows the fall, so that man is not totally depraved.

    "If any man eat...my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6.51). "Not wishing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3:9). You are "without excuse" (Rom 1.20). "If ye be willing and obedient" (Is. 1.19). "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24.15). "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life" (Rom. 5.18). "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2.4).
    by Published on 01-03-2010 11:43 PM     Number of Views: 4108 
    1. Categories:
    2. Calvinism

    Walter Martin was great in so many areas, but he was wrong on some terms with regard to the heresy of Calvinism though he did denounce Calvinism. See the 6 major sins of Calvinism. Likely, he did not give it deep enough thought because he was so busy fighting the kingdom of the cults.

    In a radio broadcast, Walter was asked what he thought of the 5 points of Calvinism. As a typical Baptist, he held to Total depravity and Perseverance of the saints without realizing these terms are contradictory with the other 3 points he rightly held (conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace). The contradiction is proven in Choose a Theology. Now let me clarify. Not just 3 or 4 points of Calvinism are false, but all 5 points.

    I will state boldly, all 5 points of Calvinism contradict all 5 points of OSAS Arminian; and the Roman Church's non-OSAS Arminianism is irrelevant because it is plainly false since initial salvation is not by works, nor can man keep his salvation. You can't be a 2 or 3 point Calvinist and a 2 or 3 point OSAS Arminian. It doesn't work. The Bible says be "not doubletongued" (1 Tim. 3.8). Contradictions are not allowed!

    Nobody is Totally depraved, for God provides sufficient grace to us all and we all remain in God's image. How can you be Totally depraved if God provides you sufficient grace to give you the enabling choice and wooing of the Holy Spirit to believe on Jesus? After all, Martin admitted that he believes in conditional election, unlimited atonement and resistible grace. If it is conditional, unlimited and resistible, then you would need to have the sufficient grace to have the choice.

    Total depravity is Satan's lie. Make no mistake about. If a person is Totally depravity then God has to irresistibly impose salvation on some and deny others the opportunity to be saved. As Dave Hunt says, What Love is This?

    And the saints can't persevere to keep themselves saved, but we whom are saved have given our lives to the God who keeps, knowing we can't keep ourselves; so, the terminology should be "Preservation of the Saints." Praise the Lord! Amen.

    I hope this helps Norman Geisler to stop making this same mistake Walter Martin made. I don't mean to be unkind, for I hold both Norman and Walter in high regard, but a mistaken assumption is nonetheless a mistake that sows the seeds of deception and gives Calvinists food for fodder when you accept Total depravity and/or Perseverance of the saints.

    Incidentally, the pride is obvious with Total depravity thinking oneself irresistibly selected; but Perseverance exists in Calvinism because the Calvinist doesn't really know if he is saved or not because it was never his choice to receive the Lord, so he works for it and hopes it works out: he perseveres rather than being preserved.

    Praise the Lord for this discernment!
    by Published on 12-25-2009 04:45 AM     Number of Views: 1459 
    1. Categories:
    2. Regeneration,
    3. Calvinism

    "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet. 1.23,25). You are born-again (regenerated) through believing the gospel upon it being preached unto you; not regenerated then it is preached unto you to believe.

    "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13.48). How were they ordained to believe? By God foreknowing their free-choice. "Seeing YOU put the gospel form you...we turn to the Gentiles" (v.46). "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate (Rom. 8.29)...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1.2). "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1.12). Who gets to be a son of God? What precedes becoming a son of God? Those who receive Him, even those who believe on His name; not by the will of the flesh (passion) or the will of man (planning) (v.13). First you must believe: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5.1). "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1.13). When is a person sealed (regenerated)? After trusting and hearing and believing. How does this election take place? "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate (Rom. 8.29)...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1.2). Salvation is promised to all ("Repent, and be baptized every one of you" [Acts 2.38]), contingent upon individual faith ("Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" [Acts 16.31]).

    "They that hear shall live" (John 5.25). "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5.40). "Every one who seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life" (John 6.40). "Believing ye may have life" (John 20.31). "Believe...and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16.31). If you are Totally unable, then why would God plead with you to hear, come, see and believe? And if you could not respond to the gospel because of an alleged Total depravity (Total inability), then God is being cruel and unjust even abusive by blaming those for not receiving Him when they were born into sin and are not responsible for the sins of their fathers. The Calvinist accuses the OSAS Arminian of a "works-oriented system" despite the fact that faith is contrasted to and the opposite of works and that the requirement of salvation is sola fide (faith alone). What glorifies God and who is really claiming, "because I was better than those who did not believe"? Those who with repentance and faith agree, "Boasting...is excluded by the law of faith" (Rom. 3.27); or those who without any prior repentance and faith, assumed pridefully, "I have peace with God because God in eternity past chose this undeserving sinner and placed His grace and love upon me"? Which do you think is true grace, peace and love? Make your choice.

    You can often sense the pride of a Calvinist as he brushes by you and when he speaks, he need not say but a few words before you are turned off. We can be confident these men were not saved. Calvinists who are not saved include Paul Washer, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), John Calvin, Augustine of Hippo, James White (today), John Fullerton MacArthur, Jr, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Fred Driscoll, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Slick (CARM) to name some popular names. And to the surprise of many even though Martin Luther restored to us Justification by Faith and denounced practices of the Roman Church what he actually meant was in the Calvinist sense, so it is highly likely Luther was not born-again either, because Calvinists don't want to be saved God's way. They prefer to assume they were regenerated that allegedly made them to repent and believe which is irresistibly imposed.

    The Southern Baptist Convention says the issue of the heresy of Calvinism is going to be the foremost issue for the next 10 years. They are not going to weed out the Calvinists they say, but they admit they will have to do something about these false Christians that continue to try to highjack their convention each year.

    by Published on 12-15-2009 02:56 PM     Number of Views: 5013 
    1. Categories:
    2. Calvinism

    It's wonderful to see when Calvinists repent of Calvinism and give their lives to Christ to be born-again. The particular ex-Calvinist in this video had been a Calvinist for 26 years, now he is an OSAS Arminian.

    In 1833 George Wilson received a pardon from Andrew Jackson. He was guilty of robbing the federal mail and was condemned to death. Wilson rejected the pardon, so they were going to execute him. Lawyers took it all the way to the supreme court, saying you cannot execute a man who has been pardoned. The supreme court justice marshal said, "A pardon unreceived is a pardon unaffected." It was provided but not received so Wilson was executed. Therefore, there is no double jeopardy committed.

    Double jeopardy has been answered by legal scholars against Calvinists who still cling to accusing Christians of violating this law. In Calvinism their own god passes over souls without grace which is itself a violation of double jeopardy because many Calvinists, embarrassed by limited atonement, place the person in Hell anyway. The Calvinist commits the very crime he accuses Christians of.

    In contrast in Christianity a person goes to Hell because he doesn't appropriate God's forgiveness, whereas in Calvinism their god could have and should have saved all yet they go to Hell anyway. What love is this to be acquitted or could have been given the grace to repent and thus be acquitted yet passed over (preterition) for Hell anyway?

    Many Calvinist embarrassed even further will try to say you do have a choice, but when confronted with the choice everyone refuses God, so that's why God has to regenerate people and then they have free will to accept God but never reject Him. How is this free will if they could never reject God? When asked, doesn't this seem contradictory? they say, it's just the way God does it and we are not to understand this mystery. This is the response all cults given when confronted about their specific cult teaching. This is what the ex-Calvinist, new born babe in Christ, realized and acknowledged he was never saved for 26 years while he was a Calvinist. Praise the Lord! He is our brother in Christ now.

    The two part Christian, two part Calvinist and one part mingled Christian/Calvinist is still an unregenerate with his heart separated from God because he still worships a god who sends people to Hell just because they were born into sin, and this evil spirit forces salvation on people. Whenever you confront a Calvinist, keep in the forefront of your mind the 6 major sins of Calvinism to protect you from Satan's deception of simulating God's redemptive design.

    ...
    Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast