Posts in the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" Series

I will post this at the beginning and end of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series.  (This is the beginning of it.)  

 These four are the really long posts that I broke up into smaller pieces for the series:
These are the smaller posts of the "predestination vs. free-will" series, in order:
Can You Lose Your Salvation?


Most Popular Posts Of The Month:

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 t...
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How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist (simplified version)

(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...
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Alana L. 5V (the twisted ESV)

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This series  is  loosely   based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist      Point #5 still :   V:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     Sidenote: The Calvinist ESV In a previous post ( 5Q: Robots ), I said I'd do a post like this... and now I'm finally getting around to it. In this post, I want to show you something about the Calvinist ESV, how I believe th at the Calvinists who worked on the ESV made sure their translation fits with Calvinism:  with their incorrect view of mankind's free-will (which is not really "free" at all in Calvinism, as we've seen in previous posts) and  with their incorrect view of God's sovereignty, that He preplans, decrees, orchestrates, causes, controls everything, including our thoughts, actions, sins, evils, unbelief, destinies, etc. (but just  try to find "sovereign" defined that way in the Bible, especially in the KJV, whi...
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Is The ESV (English Standard Version) a Calvinist Bible?

Just in case anyone missed this post (the longer title made it easy to miss the "ESV" part) ... "A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?") In that post, I write about a bunch of verses that I believe were intentionally translated to be more Calvinistic or based on manuscripts that were too corrupt to be trusted (click on it to see the verses).   And why would I think that the translators of this Bible version would do that? (From that post...) The ESV and ESV Study Bible are majorly preferred by Calvinists.  In fact, it's often considered "The Calvinist Bible."   Why?  And why would translators of a Bible make these kinds of Calvinist tweaks to Scripture? Wayne Grudem and J.I. Packer were editors on the  ESV Study Bible   (this is for the ESV Global Study Bible).  Grudem and Packer are both popular, strong, dogmatic Calvinists.  Very Big Names in the world of Calvinism.  Grudem in the General E...
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The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult

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[For the shortened version of this post,  click here .  For the tiniest version, click here .  And since this whole post will take you about 3 hours to read, h ere are links to the individual chapters:  #1 deception  ...  #2 hidden agendas  ...  #3 multiple layers  ...  #4 strategic tactics  ...  #5 isolation/control  ...  #6 fear/coercion  ...  #7 mind-control/thought-reform  ...  #8 gaslighting  ...  #9 authoritarian narcissists  ...  conclusion and links ] A  Psychology Today article -  Understanding Cults: The Basics  - shares some characteristics of cults and how they operate (my paraphrase; I've condensed some of them here to three main points):  1. No one knowingly, voluntarily joins a cult, but they are "recruited" into it by cult leaders who take advantage of the vulnerabilities of the recruits, using deception and manipulation to suck them in. 2. ...
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Concerned Christian at The Comment Corral

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Here's a comment from a reader called Concerned Christian (see this post on my comment blog): Hello. I am new to this site and hope I follow the comment rules appropriately.  I was saved (believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blood atonement for my sins) a few years ago.  Finally got the courage to attend a Baptist church and even did my research to make sure it was not a reformed or calvinist church.  Nothing on the website points to calvinism.  After a year of attending this church I can not deny my convictions.  The pastor is constantly giving quotes from popular calvinist preachers of today and names former calvinist theologians without ever using the term "calvinist".  The pastor preaches from the KJV but a very telling sign for me is that every single piece of literature, (tracts, pamphlets) on display are from Crossway publishing and provides a website to the ESV site and is authored by known Calvinist preachers.  Everyone at the church se...
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Melissa at The Comment Corral

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...
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"But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!"

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If you point out to Calvinists that Calvinism's view of sovereignty - that God fore-ordains and orchestrates everything that happens and we had no ability to do anything differently - makes God the cause (and truly the only  voluntary cause) of all sin and evil, they'll probably respond with something like "That's not what we're saying.  You're putting words in our mouths.  And you don't understand Calvinism."   When they do that, show them a few of these quotes -  Ca lvinists' own words about their beliefs of God's sovereignty and how He preplans, wills, ordains, orchestrates, directs, controls (code-words for "causes")  everything  that happens.   And then ask them if they still think you're really misunderstanding them.  (Bold emphasis added)   [Note: Even "foreknows" means "causes" in Calvinism, because Calvi-god only foreknows what will happen because he first predetermined it would happen, and then he ca...
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Fending Off Calvinism (a.k.a. Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps)

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[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 ...
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Snippets to Ponder, part 3 (#14-19: total depravity/parables)

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[Topics in this post: C.S. Lewis; Restrictions on Calvinist wives; Total depravity; Calvinism IS in the Bible; Cults and hobbits; parables and the non-elect.  Click here for part 1   and  part 2 .] #19:  #18:   Be careful, Calvinist wives, about what books or resources you read in front of your husbands, especially if he follows Calvinist  Joel Webbon  (Right Response Ministries, see Faith on Fire's video  "Pulpit Narcissism vs. Godly Women" ):  "Husbands, be very vigilant with your wives and what they are reading and what they are listening to... one of the primary and most common ways that good, godly women get derailed is women's Bible studies.  They go to a study  without men .  And a woman is teaching this study, and she is not only teaching but also being taught... and little by little by little, the study is not sound.  It's not faithful to the Scripture.  And the husband thinks he's doing his duty because he's...
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