The Anti-Calvinist Rant

Here's a comment from a reader named Melissa (from this post on my comment blog ): Hi Heather, thank you for the time and effort you put into your blog exposing Calvinism and also how to heal from it. About 9 months ago, after moving, my husband searched for new churches using 9Marks.  The priority was expository teaching vs topical (our previous church was non-calvinist, and had topical teachings).  I was completely unaware he was being pulled into Calvinism during the new church search.  Neither of us ever heard of Calvinism nor talked about it before.  The church he chose, that we are now members of (I was pressured into), is fully Calvinist - it is outlined in their "Our Beliefs" section of their website, the Pastors graduated Masters Seminary and each week, the sermons include some/all aspects of TULIP.  The Pastors from the pulpit frequently use phrases like other denominations are not real christians/the True Church, and that their doctrines are the only...

(A just-for-fun post that I'm slipping in between the regular posts here.)  This is a section from a previous post  which shows this painting I once did: This was my favorite one, the first one I painted in this way.  (I like it, but no one else has to.  I just paint for fun, not for quality.)   And it graced my wall for a few years... until I gave it away to a dear online friend from Australia,  Juni Desiree  (we met online in the comment section of a blog she used to have).  It was the only way to say "thank you" for something amazing she did for me: dedicating to me a book she published of pictures she drew about her mental health journey.   Here's a YouTube video on it:  The Art of Mental Health: Book Launch!!!!  (at 5:04 you can see the "Dedication: For Heather" page"😊).  (It used to be available for purchase, but I don't know if it is anymore or not.)    Ironically, she never knew how very much it mea...

[I'm still taking a short break from writing until September, but - for easier reference - here's the second half of the previous post: Calvinism's Systematic Theology (and how to fend it off) .] How to fend off Calvinism's Systematic Theology Alternative title: "Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps" [Of course, I don't really think that there's anything truly easy about debating or destroying Calvinism.   It's such a tangled web of errors, with a cult-like vice-grip on people's minds, that it can't be defeated with just a few verses or rebuttals.  Its errors are so complex, interconnected, and deep-rooted that it needs to be completely dismantled idea by idea, wrong definition by wrong definition, misinterpreted verse by misinterpreted verse, false dichotomy by false dichotomy, etc.  And this takes lots of time and patience, with grace, compassion, and respect for the struggling Calvinist.  It took lots of time and effort for them to get ...