What is Calvinism?

 

Excellent short video explaining and refuting the heresy of Calvinism. In this analysis he also makes some exegetical errors of his own, which I will try to correct. He begins as follows:

“What is Calvinism? Hi! Welcome to Little Lessons. Today’s question, ‘What is Calvinism,’ is a great question. Calvinism is a theological belief about how God saves people; that is, how he keeps them out of hell, and gets them into heaven. Calvinists uniquely believe that God has sovereignly selected some to be saved, but not all. It is not God’s will for all people to be saved, in Calvinistic theology. He only selected some; in fact, he selected a minority to be saved. The rest, of course by default, he has selected them not to be saved. You can’t have one without the other, okay? Now you might be surprised about all that, but that is what Calvinism is all about. Anyone who says otherwise, doesn’t understand Calvinism at all. More specifically, Calvinists can be delineated by their five cardinal doctrines, that happen to be easily remembered by the acronym TULIP. It stands for T, total depravity; U, unconditional election; L, limited atonement; I, irresistible grace; and P, perseverance of the saints. Calvinists of course use that easy way to remember their five cardinal doctrines themselves. Let’s take them one by one. They are all really inter-related. Really if you believe one, you have to believe the others, because they are completely dependent upon each other. In fact, if you knock out one, that would knock out the rest as well.”

Very well reasoned, and excellent analysis of Calvinism. He continues:

“Let’s start with the T, ‘total depravity’. Now, you don’t have to read much of the Bible to find out that people are sinful. They fall short of the glory of God. They are rebels without a cause, and they are in big trouble because of that rebellion against God. I think it is safe to say from the Bible that people are depraved. You can even go so far as to say, they are totally depraved. But Calvinists have a unique spin on this: human beings are so totally depraved, that given the opportunity, they would never, ever repent and turn to Jesus. Of course, that is partially true, because Jesus did say that no one can come to the Father, no one can come to Him, unless the Father draws them. Apart from the Holy Spirit drawing us, none of us would ever come to Christ. But this leaves out the thousands of other scriptures that indicate that we do have a free will, and that under the influence of the Holy Spirit and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, free moral agents can exercise that will, and take that little tiny step of saying, ‘I am sorry I sinned, and I am going to make my best effort to change.’ Of course, the Holy Spirit goes right to work when you do that. This is not salvation by human works. This is salvation by grace through faith. The Holy Spirit goes right to work in someone who has, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, begun to take steps of trying to submit. The Holy Spirit helps that person submit. Okay, lots more to be said about that.”

He has got that mostly right, although still a bit wrongly influenced by his false Protestant theological baggage. He makes two mistakes there. The first is that, according to the Bible, mankind are still not quite as “depraved” as he would like to present them to be. The Bible teaches that many people are, have been, can be, and will be righteous, without first being unilaterally “regenerated” by God (see here for lots of quotes, given at the end of the post); and those who are righteous, will be saved, even if they are not “Christians” (quotes previously given and discussed here, here, and here). The second mistake he makes is that he has not understood John 6:65: “Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” correctly. He is still reading it the Calvinistic way, overlooking John 6:45: “Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me,” implying that they take the first step in coming to the Father, and learning of the Father, and then the Father leads them to Christ. In other words, the decision is not made unconditionally and unilaterally by God, as Calvinism teaches. I had previously discussed that here. He continues:

“Then U, ‘unconditional election;’ that is, God has elected certain persons from before the foundation of the world. Before any was created, Calvinists say, he selected some to be saved; and then by default, selected some not to be saved. It was an ‘unconditional’ election. Nothing he foresaw in them, like faith in Jesus, that caused him to select them. It was unconditional, just by “God’s good pleasure”, some Calvinists say. Well, the whole phrase ‘unconditional election’ is an oxymoron, right? All elections are conditional. You elect political candidates because they meet your conditions. In fact, all choices are conditional. If it is not a conditional choice, then it is not a choice at all, it is just random chance. If Calvinists would think about this, they would have to agree that people are saved not by grace; but they are saved by chance, a flip of the coin. There is nothing that God saw in anybody that caused him to ‘select’ them. He just selected them. It is random. It is not an ‘election’ at all. We ought to pray, ‘Oh, thank you for the luck that has saved me!’ But it is not luck at all. That is ‘unconditional election’. Of course Scripture does talk about the fact that we have been ‘elected;’ but again, Calvinists have added the word ‘unconditional’ before that. They have redefined what an ‘election’ is, and created an ‘election’ that really isn’t an ‘election’ whatsoever. I believe in a conditional election. God foresaw those who would, under his gracious influence, repent and make an attempt to believe in Jesus Christ, and then He went to work for them.”

That of course is the Arminian point of view, which I also agree with. That is what RC Sproul used to call, “looking through the corridors of time!” That was his disingenuous way of disparaging that doctrine. The answer to that of course is that God does not “look through the corridors of time”. He doesn’t need to. There is no “time” with God. From God’s perspective, the whole of the past, present, and future is one great ever-present NOW, and he makes his choices and decisions accordingly. He then continues:

“Hurrying along here, L, ‘limited atonement’. Of course, if God has only pre-selected a minority of people to be saved, why would Jesus die for everyone? That is a great question. In Calvinist theology, Jesus didn’t die for everyone. He only died for those whom God pre-selected. Even though the Bible says that God ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Timothy 2:4). Even though John wrote that Jesus ‘is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world’ [1 John 2:2]. That is not what Calvinists subscribe to. It is amazing the lengths they go to, to undo those scriptures that I have just quoted, and many like it.”

Very well reasoned, no need to add more. He continues:

“Then ‘irresistible grace,’ that is the ‘I’ in TULIP. Those whom God has pre-selected at his chosen time, he zaps them with a grace that is ‘irresistible;’ and that is what causes them to be ‘born again,’ against their wills as it were. Even though the Bible is a book, practically from cover-to-cover, about people who resist God, and God lamenting it, and God calling everyone to repentance, and God telling us to go preach the gospel to everyone in the whole world, calling everyone to repentance. You are not going to do that unless God has pre-selected you, and zapped you with some ‘irresistible grace,’ according to Calvinists.”

Also very well reasoned. Not much needs to be added to that. He continues:

“Finally, perseverance of the saints. Obviously if God has pre-selected some people to be saved, those people will be saved. When they come to faith in Christ and are born again, they will never fall away. They will never turn the other way. Even though the Bible is full of examples and warnings of that very thing happening; because we are saved by grace through faith; and we have to continue to believing to be saved; and that is why there are so many admonitions to continue in the faith in the New Testament. But this is not a possibility in Calvinistic theology.”

Also very well reasoned, although still tainted a bit with the heresies of Protestantism and Calvinism. The “continuing in the faith” happens not just by “faith alone,” but by faith coupled with genuine repentance, which in the heresy of Calvinism is almost non-existent. The only other thing that needs to be added here is that there is an element of truth in the doctrine of the “perseverance of the Saints,” but it is not as it is understood in Calvinism. Those who persevere in the faith, and in the path of righteousness, are assisted by the grace of God to continue, and not be overcome (1 Thes. 5:23; Jude 1:1). They will not be tempted above that which they are able to bear; but with the temptation the Lord also prepares a way for their escape (1 Cor. 10:13). But the “perseverance” is not “unconditional” or “irresistible”. The choice is still theirs at any time to rebel against God and be damned, if that is what they really want to do. He then continues:

“Where do Calvinists come up with these ideas? By isolating scriptures from the rest of the Bible. That is how all wrong and bad theology is concocted. You have to harmonize your doctrine with the other 30,000 verses in the Bible. I could easily take the Calvinistic proof text, and harmonize them with the rest of the Bible, and it fits my theology quite well. Calvinists cannot harmonize their proof text, rather their interpretation of their proof text, with the rest of the Bible. They love Romans 9, of course taking that out of its context, saying this is how God chooses someone and doesn’t choose the other, whereas Paul was not talking about people being individually saved. He was arguing about the fact that if God wants to, He can sovereignly choose to save Gentiles by faith, the same way He has been saving Jews for all that time. He can save Gentiles by faith if He so desires, and he does desire. That is up to God.”

Very well reasoned, agreed! I have discussed Romans chapter 9 in more detail here and here, for those who may be interested. He continues:

“Praise the Lord! Not by works, not because of what the Gentiles did, but because of God’s love and his grace.”

Not quite. Like I said, he is still carrying some Protestant and Calvinistic heretical baggage. There is no salvation without repentance and keeping the commandments of God; and that is not the same as “works”. He then concludes with these remarks:

“I have written many articles about Calvinism, and all the specifics of it, and taken a look at all their various arguments on my website: www.DavidServant.com Just search Calvinism there. I think it will come up with at least seven in-depth articles that I have written to refute your standard Calvinistic arguments. We love Calvinists, but we don’t like their doctrine. Thanks for joining me. God bless you.”

I haven’t read his articles, but I am sure they are good, and worth a read.