A Website Worth Visiting: Hoppers Crossing Christian Church

I recently found a good website that has lots of information about the dangers and errors of Calvinism: Hoppers Crossing Christian Church (and click here for blog link). 

I decided to leave a comment for them, telling them a bit about my church's experience with Calvinism and thanking them for speaking against it.  It's always encouraging to find others who have come to the same conclusion about Calvinism that we did, simply by comparing it to what the Bible says.  

And they replied with a long, well-written response which I think should be out there for people to read.  They gave me permission to post their response here.  And so here is our brief exchange on Calvinism.  

  

My comment to them:

Thank you for taking the time to research Calvinism so thoroughly and for being bold enough to speak against it.  I am currently trying to do the same thing (https://mycrazyfaith.blogspot.com).  I'm sure my story is similar to other ones you've heard.  We recently got a new pastor, a dogmatic Calvinist, who slowly started introducing Calvinist ideas into his sermons (but never calling it Calvinism).  The more he preached things that conflicted with the Bible, the more I researched and discovered how wrong (and horrifying) Calvinism is.  I heard he requires all the elders to go through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology with him, and that other members are invited to go through it with him in small groups.  So he is slowly spreading it, one person at a time.  

The last straws for me were when he gave a sermon about God causing all things for His glory, even child abuse, ... and his manipulation tactics (shaming people into not disagreeing with him by telling them things like "This IS what the Bible teaches.  Humble Christians will accept it.  There are only three possible responses you can have to it: ignore it, get angry about it, or accept it.") ... and when he (or at least someone in the office) deleted a biblically-accurate comment I left on his blog post about predestination, disagreeing with his view that the Bible clearly teaches it and that we simply have to accept it.  

Because of these things, my husband and I decided to write a long letter to the elders (most of whom are Calvinists), sharing our concerns.  So far, nothing has come of the letter, except that the pastor has gotten more vocal about his views (which I predicted would happen).  And now we are shaking the dust off our feet and working towards leaving that church, considering possibly a home church.  But one good thing is that it has caused me to deeply research this issue and speak out against it.  It is slowly infiltrating churches everywhere, unnoticed and unopposed.  So I always appreciate when I see others writing against it too, like you. Keep it up, and God bless.

Their reply:  

Thank you for your kind words of support for our work on this website. The encouragement is much appreciated.

We don’t get much response from calvinists these days (although many must read our pages, and just recently a big effort – probably militant calvinists – was made to hack into our site to crash it). Calvinists just don’t like the Bible alone (sola scriptura) to be used because without the input from their calvinist hero writers they cannot justify their false doctrines. In reality they hate and fear sola scriptura. Calvinists only take up the battle openly when they think they cannot lose. If they think they might risk losing a debate, then they almost always just ignore us and hope we’ll go away one day! Most calvinist teachers are cowards who never fight unless they have all the firepower! And if you know your Bible, you will always have more firepower than any calvinist.

It is good to hear of the experiences of others. People who are neither calvinist nor Arminian nor anything else but just biblical have to stand together against this wave of aggression from the servants of satan, false teachers. And keep on encouraging others to join the battle against this insidious heresy. The truth must be made known, and only the truth will set people free.

I’m sure there are many others experiencing the same problems, but so many give in to pressure rather than try to cause disruption in their churches. And calvinists do play on the keeping of the peace to keep dissident people from rocking the church boat too much. They will try to focus on common ground so that others find it difficult to argue. After all, how do you argue if some of what they say is true. Most will simply surrender!

Wayne Grudem is a contributor to the ESV Bible that the calvinists love, and general editor of the ESV Study Bible. But keep in mind that fundamentalist Bible-believing Christians used to strongly condemn the RSV Bible for its twisting of Scripture, yet the ESV is simply a revision of the RSV. It’s just that calvinists prefer a Bible with lies built in that can be twisted more easily.

It is also common for calvinists to initially work with individuals and small groups in a church until they get sufficient support to push their heresies upon the whole congregation. And they never call it calvinism until most have been converted. Calvinists teach that calvinism is the gospel (as per Spurgeon) yet never preach this calvinist gospel until after the person is saved using the biblical gospel (often before the calvinist came on the scene). The main mission field for the calvinist today is the non-calvinist biblical church.

Many calvinists do teach that unless God ordains sinful acts, then there is no meaningful purpose in evil. On John Piper’s webpage it says: In Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, contributors John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Saint, Carl Ellis, David Powlison, Dustin Shramek, and Mark Talbot explore the many categories of God's sovereignty as evidenced in his word. (https://www.desiringgod.org/books/suffering-and-the-sovereignty-of-god)

In this book (which is edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, contributor Mark Talbot says (on Page 42) the following: In other words, it isn’t just that God manages to turn the evil aspects of our world to good for those who love him; it is rather that he himself brings about these evil aspects for his glory and his people’s good. This includes – as incredible and as unacceptable as it may currently seem – God’s having even brought about the Nazis’ brutality at Birkenau and Auschwitz as well as the terrible killings of Dennis Rader and even the sexual abuse of a young child. (This is absolute blasphemy against the holiness of God!)

By the way, predestination and the election are biblical doctrines, but the calvinists add to these truths the lie that it is all and only by the will of God alone that you are either heading for heaven, or heading for hell. They call it the unconditional election. We are indeed the elect of God, but elect by the foreknowledge of God the Father (1 Peter 1:2) and we are indeed predestinated to conform to the image of Christ but once again it is for those whom God foreknew (Romans 8:29). Thus we believe in an election and predestination that is conditional upon man’s free will and God’s foreknowledge to determine those free-will decisions to be saved. Thus both the election and predestination exist but are conditional upon your free will, not the calvinist God’s so-called “sovereign” will.

Calvinists cannot accept that man has free will to choose this day whom he will serve, and therefore they reject the biblical truth that God uses foreknowledge to foresee such personal choices to be saved.

MacArthur redefines foreknowledge as God’s special loving relationship He has with His people; he says: But what you must understand is that God predetermined in his plan to set his love upon certain people.  That’s foreknowledge.  He foreknew you. (“Chosen by God Part 2”)
And Piper says: God does not foreknow the free decisions of people to believe in him because there aren't any such free decisions to know. (“What We Believe about the Five Points of Calvinism” 1998 revision)
Calvinists hate the true meaning of the foreknowledge of God because it demands the use of man’s free will to choose to receive God’s gift of salvation, and calvinists will never permit man to receive the Saviour. Like Todd Friel, they teach that if you were saved because you prayed a prayer to receive Christ as Saviour, then you are still going to hell. You do not choose God; God chooses you! Friel says: People who ask Jesus into their hearts are not saved and they will perish on the Day of Judgment. ("Ten Reasons to Not Ask Jesus into Your Heart")

So after our two local churches that claimed to be Biblical went quite calvinist (of the MacArthur variety), we saw no option but to start our small home church and study the truth of the Bible for ourselves. That was how the original Church started in many places, and it seems to be going back to home churches to maintain our ability to seek the truth of God’s Word without interference from heretics such as calvinists.

Please continue to stand firm on biblical truth in spite of pressure that will certainly be brought to bear against you. Calvinists cannot bear to be wrong; a calvinist can never be wrong! Therefore, anyone who challenges them will be bullied by the arrogant aggression of calvinists who will not put up with any opposition; they desire a monopoly of belief (calvinist, that is!) in all churches they attend. If they have Biblical Counselling (as per the new calvinist Westminster Seminary) then they may publicly name and shame you in front of the rest of the church (it does happen) as part of their disciplinary procedures. Those whom you thought were friends may be stopped from speaking to you; you may be crossed off their social calendar. Your church leaders may advise other church members to limit (or even stop) their communications with you. If you try to contact other members individually to explain what you see happening, you may be ordered to not contact them again and to send all your church correspondence to the pastor who probably won’t answer – this happened with us.

Calvinists do not like to have the Bible alone (sola scriptura) used to oppose them. They have no effective answer if you stick to the Bible alone. All their lies may be refuted by the Bible alone.

Your website may be hacked (we had to put in extra security measures a little while back to help here). And, be careful with any links people may attach to their comments.

All these and more may be thrown at you; however, if you are testing all things and holding fast to that which is true (1 Thessalonians 5:21) then God will indeed win the victory through your trials and sacrifices.

To God be the glory, great things He hath done! May God bless you with wisdom and courage to pursue the course that God has chosen for you. Thank you for your comment and keep on fighting the good fight of truth.