If You Are Rejecting God ... (and "What is Calvinism?")

If you find yourself rejecting God because of some of the terrible or confusing things others tell you about Him, and you don't want anything to do with Him because you don't think you can trust a God like that ... it might just be that they are telling you about the Calvinist God.  It might be that you are simply rejecting Calvi-god, because you sense that something's very wrong with him.  

 Well, I say that you're right.  Something is very wrong with him.  And he is not the God of the Bible!



Calvinists will say that Calvinism IS the Gospel, that they are one and the same.  (For more on what Calvinism teaches and why it's wrong, see some of the links to other people's Anti-Calvinist writing, farther down the list after the links to mine, in "Links to other Anti-Calvinism Posts".)   
But do you want to know my brief answer to "What is Calvinism?"...

 It's Satan disguised as Light.  It's a wolf in sheep's clothing.  It's cleverly-packaged lies, twisting Scripture so subtly that people aren't even aware they are being led astray.  It's so willingly accepted and easily spread because it makes people feel like they are being truly humble, like they are honoring God, if they accept that twisted theology without any questions or push-back.  It's using God's Word against God.  

 It is demonic!  
And it does enormous damage to God's Truth, God's character, Jesus's sacrifice, and people's faith.  In fact, I think Calvinism bears some of the blame for the atheism that's out there today.  Because who wants to get close to a "god" like that!?!  Who can trust a "god" like that!?!
(See "Calvinism - A Different Gospel" and "Why is Calvinism So Dangerous?" and "If Calvinism is true, then God is a liar!")



But before you reject God altogether, I suggest getting to know the God of the Bible first.  Yes, the God of the Bible can still be scary and a bit confusing.  But even when He's hard to understand and His ways are hard to accept sometimes, He makes sense.  And He can be trusted, if you get to know Him for who He really is. 

 Throw out Calvi-god, and read the Bible to see who God really is.  (And I would say start with the New Testament, so you can see what God in the flesh (Jesus) is like, before trying to understand the God of the Old Testament.)  

 Do not lose your chance for eternal life by letting someone convince you that Calvi-god is the God of the Bible.  "But I didn't like the God of Calvinism, and so I rejected You altogether" will not be an acceptable excuse when you stand before God and give an account for why you didn't believe in Him.  Throw out the Calvinism, and take the time to find out who God really is.  It's worth whatever time it takes.  Because your eternal soul depends on it!

 See: 
"Starting your own relationship with Jesus Christ (And Why We Need Him!)"
"'Why is the God of the Old Testament so angry?' is the wrong question"



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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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[Topics in this post: The lack of God's love; spiritual PTSD; what's sin and injustice for us to do is okay and justice for God to do; liar; and "non-Calvinism is disgusting and immoral."  Click here for part 1 ] #13:   This is not a snippet from anything but just a thought I want to add, now that you see what Calvinism teaches.  Calvinist pastors preach often about how depraved and wretched and sinful we are, about how we should fall on our knees in gratitude that God chose to save anyone at all when we are all so terrible, and how we should be okay with God's right to predestine people to hell because  (according to them) God gets glory for it and because  they deserve it even though God predestined it.  Blah, blah, blah. But do you know what we don't hear much about from Calvinists: God's love (unless it's for "the elect").  The two greatest commandments: Love God and love others. Calvinists are so overly-focused on their doctrines of tota
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Before we left our church because of Calvinism, we sent a long letter to the elders , expressing our concerns.  However, none of the elders cared enough or were concerned enough to do anything about it.  And so we left our church home, the place we had been at and loved for almost 20 years, the church we raised our kids in. After awhile, I became concerned that maybe the Evangelical Free Church, in general, didn't realize that there were dogmatic Calvinist pastors taking over their churches, blocking other views, manipulating people into agreeing with them.  And I thought maybe they would want to know this, especially since it seemed to contradict their "official stance" about this issue, which I believed was supposed to be a middle-of-the-road approach, falling under the heading of "significance of silence" (where they don't let the small controversial issues become big divisive issues).  I figured that if a pastor in one of their churches was manipulat
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