I just wanted to say "thank you" for the excellent article on Calvinism/Arminianism on your bible-truth.org website. It is one of the best, easiest to understand pieces that I have ever read on Calvinism.
I was floored when I came to the end of the article, because you made several statements which confirmed things that I believe that God had been showing me for the past several months. First, like yourself, I reject the notion that a Christian has to be a Calvinist or an Arminian. That is intellectually dishonest and just plain silly. I am neither one nor the other, but simply a Bible-believing individual.
Then, you made the statement that you were beginning to believe that Calvinism is a cult. I could not agree more wholeheartedly!!! It has only been over the last few months that I have believed that myself, after watching what the "Reformed Baptist" doctrine is doing to my son and his family.
Third, I see clear parallels between Calvinism and Mormonism. Actually, I have known many more Mormons than Calvinists during my life, and when I began to get exposed more and more to Calvin-believers, I was shocked at the similarities -- the arrogance, the intellectual dishonesty, the refusal to discuss Scriptures which shed doubt upon their beliefs, and, most strikingly, the total lack of JOY among both groups. Also, interestingly enough, both groups just can't stand ANYTHING they cannot explain, so they come up with absurd explanations for passages and concepts that the Lord clearly doesn't expect us to understand in our current fleshly existence-- in other words, they hate the concept of "mystery" in the Scriptures.
Anyway, thanks for an enlightening article. It made me feel good to know there is someone out there that is seeing the same things I am seeing.
Thank you, sir. I too had been stunned by the man's doctrine called Calvinism. What a blatten heresy. I was sick for 2 weeks, couldn't sleep or eat. I was bothered by it taking away the loving Savior I had known all my life. Creating puppets forced into salvation. Salvation is a free gift from
God. You can't work for it or it wouldn't be free. You can't force someone
to take a free gift. Thank you so much for your article. It is what my
family and I knew in our hearts as true the moment we were confronted with
calvinism, but still had to dive into the scriptures for reassurrance. I am
most shocked at John Mac Aurthur being a hyper-calvinist. Was he always like
this? I have listened to him for years in the 1985-90's and never caught on
til a couple of months ago.. Thanks again. Bless you!
It is obvious that you would side with the rights of Herod,Pontius Pilate,Hitler,etc,over against the rights of Jehovah. The rights of sinners to receive grace trumps the rights of God to give grace. Now the Arminian god agrees with you that Calvinism is evil. After all,He wills as man wills. But the Calvinist God laughs at you. He sees the arrogance of men trying to manipulate Him. Does God predestinate sinners to hell. You bet. Count yourself fortunate if He hasn,t predestinated you there.
[My comment to this criticism: Can you not see the mean spirit in this person's comments. Instead of reading the material and discussing as a Christian, this person resorts to name calling and degrading comments. Note this man compares me to Hitler!? This is the same type of response I get from the cults. Cooper Abrams]
I apologize for having to write to you on this matter, but I feel I must. I am a 23 year old non-Christian living in Oklahoma. I have been studying the claims of Christ for a while now and am about ready to take the leap so to speak and believe in Christ. However, I stumbled upon the teachings of 5 point Calvinism and it shattered me. My question to you is, am I able to make a choice to follow Christ? If I want to follow Christ, can I do so? Or is it not my choice?
I feel odd trying to put this question into words, but I've tried. The bottom line is, if I wished to become a Christian today, tomorrow or whenever I feel I am ready, can I do so?
Calvinists have tried to tell me that I have the inability to call upon Christ, and that if not one of the elect, I won't be saved. Please help!
COMMENT BY COOPER ABRAMS: I have several times received e-mails such as this one in which a person who was struggling with salvation came across a Calvinist and was dissuaded and confused. This is PROOF POSITIVE that Calvinism is a false and hellish doctrine and any person professing to be a child of God should immediately beg God's forgiveness and repent of the sin of believing in Calvinism....!!! Jesus said, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matthew 7:20)
Here is a young man trying to respond to the urging of the Holy Spirit and Satan sends a Calvinist to confuse him. I had a young mother recently write that she refused to have any children because she was afraid that God would predestine them to hell, so she would not have any!!!!! My article helped her get out from the this hellish teachings. I wonder just how many people Calvinism has destroyed...?!
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I just read your treatise on election. God bless you my brother! What a wonderful
essay you have written. It is clear. It is concise. IT IS BIBLICAL, and true. Thank you for putting into such a clear essay, what is so often taught wrongly and so often passed over.
I have spent the last year studying both the Calvinist view of eternal security and
the Arminian view. As you pointed out, both are in error, and I had such a time trying to come to some godly understanding of these issues. I was saved in a Baptist church, and have attended "Arminian" churches. I have always figured I must be an Arminian by belief, but wanted to make sure that it was Biblical to be so. Obviously what I found was that neither of them are completely correct (When in doubt, GO TO THE SOURCE...THE BIBLE, Huh?!).
I had pretty much come to exactly your conclusions, but figured I must be the only
one, and of course my Calvinist vs. Arminianist friends were happy to point out that I
could not believe in both! Thank you for being a voice in the wilderness. At least I
know that someone else went to the Scriptures for their answers and came out with the
same answers I did. It is a confirmation for me, I believe from God Himself. Again,
thanks. I will continue to come to your website for more great reading. God bless you in your work. I used to live in Idaho, and I often drove through Tremonton on my way to Salt Lake City. I know what hard, stony ground you might find there.
Thank the Lord for your website. I read your article on Calvinism vs. Arninianisim.
This article finally shed light on the struggle I have been having, in trying to reconcile
my Calvinistic beliefs with the "whosoever" passages that are readily apparent in scripture concerning the salvation that is offered to all men through Christ Jesus.
Especially the classic verse; John 3:16. That verse always raised questions and doubts in my mind as to the validity of the Calvinist mantra; T.U.L.I.P There are of course other verses that completely disassemble the five points of Calvinism.
But I was always afraid to stray to far from T.U.LI.P for fear of committing the Arminian heresy of man's direct involvement in his own salvation, as a work, not of God's sovereign good pleasure, based on the Arminian belief in mans innate goodness, and from this goodness he can choose salvation, without the supernatural conviction of man's sinful condition by the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the fact that God is still in control. Man becomes so despondent at having his sin revealed that it is not a work that he should boast, but a humbling of man's spirit, a contrition of the heart, that actually brings one to make the choice out of the revelation of the complete and utter hopelessness with one's life, and the knowledge then presented of the complete destruction that awaits all at that the Judgment Seat. If that does not soften ones heart towards Jesus Christ unto faith and salvation, then one is truly like the Pharisees, the sons of their father the devil.
The article you wrote has settled my soul on this issue. As a bible studies teacher, I feel that I can now
begin to properly approach the rather difficult subjects of foreknowledge, predestination and election, without falling into
into Calvinism or Arminianisim.
Just finished reading your excellent article which refutes both Calvinism and Arminianism...and resolves a host of questions and contradictions. I wholeheartedly agree with you!
I might add that Local Flood advocates like Dr. Hugh Ross, whom Rick Warren promotes to the exclusion of Ken Ham and ICR, Global Flood advocates, uses the same arguments that "all" doesn't always mean "all" but "all kinds" and that the word "world" does not always mean the whole world, but the known world as in the case of the Roman World when Augustus decreed his tax to promote a local flood and discredit GLobal Flood proponents. And it is true, that sometimes these words have those means. But the context and hermeneutic rule that the specific rules the general demolishes the stronghold of their arguments for both Calvinism and a Local Flood. I refute Dr. Hugh Ross in this article: http://www.christian-astronomers.org/articles/godtime.htm
Thank you for being a good contender and defender of THE Faith.
What a fantastic article! Thank you for articulating everything that those of us who reject the debate between the extreme positions on this matter wish we could articulate so well! Thank you for taking an honest, biblical approach to this argument, not polluted by the pride of Arminianism or the elitism of the Calvanist view.
God bless!!
My name is Len -----. I truly enjoyed the article regarding Calvinism and Arminianism. I too, reject adopting the label or title of either; rather I am a sinner saved by grace, with a great hunger to study the Word of God. I trust the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal to my heart of understanding, that which God would have me to understand; not ANY bias opinion of man. Scripture proves scripture, so long as we stay within the proper context of the text.
Thank you for the presentation deliniating Calvinism versus Arminianism, very inciteful and well-done, particularly for those of us who know in our hearts neither theory is exactly right.
So answer this question, Did jesus paid for the sin of those in hell right now? The bible does say that jesus died for the sins of the world and therefore no one will pay for there sin because jesus already paid the penalty.
I greatly enjoyed your article on Calvinism and Arminianism. It was very informative. I have a quesiton about it though. You quote the following "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) as a justification for the statement Scriptures teach that Christ died for all men everywhere and desires all men to be saved. What did Christs death accomplish? Did it attone for the sins of all men (the whole world)? Certainly not or all would be destined for heaven and the Bible would not speak of souls in hell. If Jesus' death attones for the sins of the whole world everyone should be saved. Certainly it doen't "open up the opportunity for salvation" b/c the Bible speaks clearly of the falleness of man and his inablilty to choose God. God must, for His own glory, have predestined sinners to be saved. He must have sent His son for the express purpose of saving those elect sinners. Otherwise Jesus death either failed for some people or God failed in his desire for all men to be saved.
This next part of scripture, which I must humbly submit to though my soul does not inherently like the idea that God prepared people for destruction, shows that God is in control of every humans salvation. He does not want everyone to be saved. It is all to his glory because it is all about his mercy.
(Note From Bible-truth.org: He quoted Romans 9:1-23 as his proof.)
Doesn't it just delight your heart to know that God is in control. Doesn't God get so much glory from the fact that he saved people headed for destruction. I believe that this is not systemizing God's plan for saving His people but is simply showing us how great and merciful He is.
I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the article by Cooper Abrams on predestination. It was just the sort of balanced Bible-based approach that I was looking for to clear up the issue for myself. Having just read one of MacArthur's books, I was glad to see that someone else had taken issue with being categorized as 'prideful' because I had issues with the doctrine of election. The whole notion that the doctrine could be true was starting to remove all zeal and desire to share the gospel, lest I should happen to find myself preaching to a room full of 'non-elects' and thus waste everybody's time!
Thanks for your paper on Election, I found it by doing a search on the internet. I've been struggling with this doctrine lately, especially with the idea that God would pre-destine people to Hell with no chance of salvation. It seems counter to the act on the cross, and I appreciate the scripture that you used to show that God did not pre-destine people to hell.
I also agree with you on how Calvinists try and frame the argument, most times I find them to be intellectually dishonest. Calvinist paint people opposed to them as prideful, and ones that question Gods sovereignty. By framing the argument this way the Calvinist simply concludes that since God is sovereign they must be right. It reminds me of those who are pro-abortion and try to frame the argument to be about women's rights, and not the right of a person to live. In other words, those who are against abortion are against women's rights and not for life. In the same vain, the Calvinist would say those opposed to their view are rejecting God's sovereignty and man's sinfulness, certainly not what the Bible actually teaches.
Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to put together your paper, and for providing lots of scripture to back up your view. I too agree that God has made easy to understand, and it is Man not God who has made is complicated and divisive. Take care,
