Why I Won't Believe in Predestination, in Calvinism!

Because I refuse to believe that anyone is beyond the reach of Jesus!  I refuse to believe that Jesus didn't die for everyone, that He didn't die for all sins, that He doesn't love everyone, that there are people without hope!

 If other people want to believe that, then that's their problem.  But I refuse to believe it because ... I don't think it's what the Bible teaches.

 I believe Jesus died for all, that every person can find hope and healing and salvation in Him.  I believe He loves all people and wants a relationship with all of us.  I believe that His death made salvation available for all people, but it's up to us to decide if we will accept Him or reject Him.

Calvinism - the idea that God has already predetermined who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, and that there's nothing we can do to change it - is a Bible-altering, faith-damaging, soul-deadening theology.  And I've had enough of it!  It makes me sick to hear how it destroys Jesus's sacrifice and God's love and God's grace, to hear that God causes unbelievers to reject Him but then holds them accountable for rejecting Him, to hear that God doesn't love all people the same, that Jesus didn't die for all people, and that it somehow brings God glory to predestined most people for hell.

It's sick!  It's insanity!  And it completely destroys the love, justness, righteousness, and grace of God.  It destroys the Gospel!

I think about this when I watch my favorite Christian movie "Do You Believe?"  After getting sick to my stomach with all the research I've been doing into Calvinism and after dealing with years of Calvinist preaching from our Calvinist pastor (whom I won't listen to anymore), it's so good to watch this movie.  Because it shows that we're all broken, yet we all matter to God.  That there's hope for all of us.  That no one is beyond His love.  No one is outside the reach of His healing hand, His saving grace!

No matter the life you've lived, the sins you've committed, the pain you carry in your heart, Jesus has already paid for your sins on the cross so that you can find hope, healing, forgiveness and salvation in Him.  If you will accept it!  If you will accept Him into your heart as Lord and Savior!  
I remember when I went to go see Unbroken: Path to Redemption (the rest of the story to Unbroken) at the theater awhile ago.  (Go see them, both of them!  Great movies!)  We're watching this broken, hurting man struggling with his fears and anger and hopelessness, and I couldn't help thinking, "How can anyone believe that there are hurting, broken souls who are beyond the reach of Jesus, that there are people who were deliberately created to never find eternal hope or healing, to suffer eternally!?!"

 What a horrible, horrible theology Calvinism is!  That some people - most people - are created by God to be lost and broken, to hurt forever, never to be found and healed.  That Jesus doesn't love all people.  That He only died for the "elect," not for everyone.  That if you are predestined to hell, you can't do anything about it because Jesus's grace was never meant for you, and that your eternity in hell was determined by God because it will bring Him glory somehow.  

I refuse to believe that!  And I think it does a grave injustice to the Gospel.  It destroys God's grace.  It turns God into the cause of evil, of sin.  It turns God into a liar.  It turns God into a monster.  And ... it's simply not what the Bible teaches.  

 I believe every person is loved and pursued by God.  Every person's sin was covered by Jesus's death.  That's the Jesus I believe in and love and worship!  

 Every person matters to Him!  Eternally!

He is holding out His hand to all of us.  He cares for and about all of us.  He is calling to all of us.  But will we hear and respond?

 Forgiveness, healing, grace, faith, and salvation are available to all.  But will we accept it?

 Jesus cares more about where you're going than where you've been!  He wants you with Him in heaven.  He loves you with an amazing love, enough to die in your place so that you can live with Him in heaven.  He's reaching out His hand, saying, "Grab onto Me!  Believe in Me!"    

 Will you reach out and grab His hand?

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List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist" posts).  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.]    And so here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinists," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify as a Calvinist, I tried to figure it out based on the statements of faith of the groups/churches they belong to, the books they write, the things they say o
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Because it  appears  to teach biblical truth while actually teaching  the opposite  - while using  manipulation and cult-like tactics to suck you in!  And it's spreading.  Stealthily, fast, aggressively. (We watched it happen firsthand in our church, which is why I wrote this blog.  See  "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?"    Sadly, we ended up  leaving that church , a place we attended almost 20 years.) [ I updated this November 2022 to try to shorten it.  I failed.  But I hope it's more readable and streamlined at least.   If you only read one anti-Calvinism post of mine, I think it should be this one.  But I'm warning you, this post is long.  Very long.  So pack a lunch and bring a sleeping bag.  But it has to be long because Calvinism is so deceptively convoluted that it takes time to peel off the layers so that you can see it for what it really is.  My hope is that with this one long post, I can show the deceptiveness of
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[A.k.a: Snippets to Ponder, part 4 (#19-20).  This is such a long "snippet" - too many horrific quotes, couldn't resist adding them - that I decided to just make it a whole post.  (I might break this down into smaller pieces in future posts.)  Topics in this post: Calvinism, babies, and unreached people. Click here for snippets  part 1 , part 2 , and  part 3 .] #19: Calvinist comments about babies   [ buckle up, hang on tight, and have a barf-bag ready] : About the suffering and abuse of babies and children:   [ And remember that these are not my words.  These are Calvinist's own words , and so you can see that we are not misrepresenting them or putting words in their mouths.  This is hard stuff to read.  Really hard.  But you need to read it.  To know that they really do teach this garbage.  (And "garbage" is the nice word.  I was gonna use a stronger one.  Oh, yes, I was!  Note: A ll bold emphasis in all quotes has been added by me. )] a.  Gordan H. Clark
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(For the extended version of this post, which I recommend, click here .  It is loaded with lots more information.  This simplified one is just the highlights.  And feel free to copy this and share it with others, to help them learn to identify Calvinism when they see it.  Just make sure to share the link to this blog so that they can find the original post.  Thank you.  New : For the super-short version, click here .  And FYI: I found a couple times when the Calvinist author of an article I linked to changed their article after I linked to it.  So if their article doesn't seem to match what I said about it, it may be because they altered it. ) We just left our church of almost 20 years because of the dogmatic Calvinist pastor who recently came on board.  ( Read my "Letter to Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing in Our Church" here.)   And I was thinking about what precautions I might take to make sure we didn't end up in another Calvinist church (that is, whe
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A friend of mine recently sent me a link to an article that she says is one of the best overviews of Calvinism and its errors that she's read.  And after reading it, I agree.  I think it's a great one to share with others because it's got all the basics in one place: The Bible vs. Calvinism: An Overview by Patrick Myers There are some great rebuttals to Calvinist proof-texts in here, and some eye-opening quotes from Calvinists.  Something like this might help Calvinists understand what their theology really teaches and what the Bible really  teaches - and that these aren't saying the same thing.   FYI: If you click on the "about/contact" link at the bottom of the article, you can send him an email to request a PDF copy of his article.   And after I contacted him by email to tell him how much I appreciated his article, he graciously put a link to my blog at the bottom.  Thank you, Patrick, that was very kind of you. 😊
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