Intro to the "Calvinist Bad Logic" Series (with links)

(In this "Calvinist Bad Logic" series, I will be breaking up "When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic' Traps Good Christians" into smaller, bite-sized posts.  It will take up all of December.  To find all the posts in this series, click on the "'Calvinist Bad Logic' Series" label in the side-bar on this blog.) 
Calvinism ... I'm just gonna come right out and say it ... is built on bad logic.  Really, really bad logic!

 Calvinism is not build solidly on Scripture as it was written; it's built on their own presumptions, assumptions, and misconceptions about who God is and how they think He has to act in order to be the kind of "sovereign" God they think He is.  It's built on their own ideas of what verses must mean if they perceive God to be a certain way, totally missing what the verse is really saying because God is really not the way they think He is.

 Calvinism is about as stable as building a house of cards on a foundation of Jell-O.

 But ... Calvinism is so convincing because no one stops to question the bad logic that it's built on - the presumptions, assumptions, misconceptions, and twisted Scripture.

 And if you buy into the foundational "bad logic" then you're lost already!

 You see, people trust that a Calvinist who seems so educated must be right.  People trust Big Names, feeling like they can't dare question what a Big Name, Highly-Educated Theologian says, even if it doesn't seem to fit with Scripture.  And if people do question what the theologian or pastor is saying, they simply convince themselves that they themselves must be misunderstanding something, that they are not smart enough, that they "just don't get it."  (You know who else were "Highly-Educated, Big Name Theologians"?  The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.  And look how blind they were to the Truth.  Even when He was standing right in front of them.)

 In fact, baby Calvinists are taught that it's humble to accept the illogical inconsistencies and contradictions of Calvinism, to not question them or look too deeply into them because that would be like questioning God Himself and doubting His Word.  They're taught that "truth is truth, and you don't have to like it but you do have to accept it."  They're taught that these illogical inconsistencies and contradictions are "mysteries" that belong to God, and "Who are we to try to understand the deep mysteries of God that He alone has the right to know!?!"  They're told that questioning Calvinism shows that you don't want to submit to God, that you want to be in control.  But that accepting this nonsense without qualms, without "talking back" to God ... well ... that shows you are humble and trusting and submitting to God's sovereignty.

 And this traps so many good Christians who just want to honor God and do right by Him.

 It's satanically brilliant!  It really is!

 How else can you get a whole bunch of God-fearing, well-meaning Christians to buy into a completely backwards theology that twists Scripture, flips the Gospel on its head, and destroys God's character, convincing them that it's humble to "simply accept it without question," to defend it, and to spread it to others!

 Satanically-inspired garbage!

 (I know what you're thinking, "Gee, Heather, tell me how you really feel!")



Anyway, what I want to do in this series is look at some of the bad logic Calvinists use to manipulate good Christians.  How they trap others, sucking them into their philosophical views of God and faith and the Bible.  (Their views really shouldn't be called "theological."  They should be called "philosophical" - because it's all built on their own ideas and reasonings, on their own thoughts of how things "should be" when their own beliefs are used as the foundation for their theological views.)  



[I'm not saying the Calvinist is consciously trying to trap others.  Sadly, the Calvinists themselves fully believe the garbage they're teaching.  And they think they are being "good, obedient, God-glorifying Christians" to spread it to others.  And that's almost scarier than if they were deliberately lying.  Because people can generally tell when they are being lied to, and they resist it because they know it's a lie.  But if someone truly, passionately believes the falsehoods they're spreading ... well, that can be convincing to a lot of people.  

 FYI: I will not cover the other ways they trap Christians, such as blocking opposing views, forming small group studies of Calvinist theology books (Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology), shaming and manipulating people into not disagreeing with them, convincing you that their beliefs are all about upholding God's glory, etc.  (How glorifying is it to God to believe that Jesus didn't really die for everyone, that God doesn't really love everyone, that God causes sin but punishes us for it, and that He created most people specifically so that He could hate them and send them to hell because it "brings Him glory"?  Yep, sounds pretty glorious and God-honoring to me!)  But if you want, you can find out more about this in these posts: Predestination Manipulation and Why Is Calvinism So Dangerous? and What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views?]
(Also, I want to highlight a post from Hoppers Crossing Christian Church which I think is excellent:  Why Are Calvinists Afraid To Answer Simple, Straightforward Questions?  Read these slowly and thoughtfully.  It gives a great look into Calvinism's illogical nonsense and how it can't fit with Scripture.)
And so in these posts, you'll find some examples of Calvinism's deceptive "Bad Logic," the stuff that traps good Christians into a false "theology."
For easy reference, here are the posts in this series (I'll add them as I post them):

 Calvinist Bad Logic #1: Never Let A Calvinist Define The Terms!
... #2: When A Calvinist Says "Ordains"
... #3: Proving God Causes Sin?
... #4: God's Foreknowledge of Man's "Choices"
... #5: Does God Love "All" People?
... #6: All Animals Are Monkeys
... #7: False Dichotomies
... #8: Two Different Types Of ...
... #9 and #10: "Causes To Work" and Negative Inferences
.... #11: God "Wants" All People To Be Saved?
... #12 and #13: "Repent?" and "Free-Will Equals Same Choice"
... #14: Why Pray?
... #15: Contradictions
... #16: Accepting Jesus?
... #17: No Choice = Moral Accountability?
... #18: How God Shows Love
... #19: What They Really Mean

 Quick List of Some Calvinist Contradictions and Nonsense

 Calvinist comment #1: God Does Not "Force"?
Calvinist comment #2: Evil Comes From ...
Calvinist comment #3: We Do What We Want To Do
Calvinist comment #4: Why Don't All Accept Christ?
Calvinist comment #5: We Can Trust A Controlling God
Calvinist comment #6: The Role of Faith and the Gospel
Calvinist comment #7: Evil is as good as Good
Calvinist comment #8: Calvin Teaches "Free-Will"?
Calvinist comment #9: Cause vs. Allow: What's The Difference?
Calvinist comment #10:  God Simply "Passed Over" The Non-Elect

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...
Read more

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...
Read more

Why Is Calvinism So Dangerous? (re-updated)

Image
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.  ...
Read more

When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (shorter, basic version)

Image
[Finally, the much-shorter version - I said shorter, not short😉 - of my "But predestination!" series.  The longer version - full of many more Calvinist comments, my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons, and my replies to them - can be found by  starting here .  But in this simplified version, I'm simply sharing the basics.  And I'll do a tiny version soon too, cutting out almost all quotes and memes.  But, oh, they add so much that it's hard to cut them out. ] At the heart of Calvinism is predestination and God's sovereignty (among other things, like "total depravity"), which according to Calvinism essentially amounts to: "God preplans and controls everything, even sin and evil and all our decisions, and so He pre-picks who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  He causes the 'elect' to believe in Him and be saved, but He made sure the 'non-elect' have no chance or ability to believe and be saved because He predetermined they'd ...
Read more

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

Image
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, will, ordains, orchestrates, directs (code words for "causes")  everything  that happens.  And then ask them if they still think you're really misunderstanding them.  (Bold emphasis added) [And before reading the quotes, here's a great, satirical 4-minute video that I think everyone should see:  Hitler and Calvinism .  Awesome!] 1. R.C. Sproul Jr.  ( Almighty Over All) :  ...
Read more

A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?")

(For just the "Is the ESV a Calvinist Bible" part of this post, click here .) In my normal Bible reading today, I came across a verse about "singleness vs. marriage" that destroys Calvinism in a few short words: "But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but who has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin - this man also does the right thing."   ( 1 Corinthians 7:37, NIV ) When you get past all the layers Calvinism wraps itself in to disguise the bad parts, it ultimately teaches - at the heart of it all - that God causes/controls  everything , even controlling our wills and causing our sins.  (But He then punishes  us  for the things He caused us to do, which would make Him unjust, no matter how much Calvinists try to deny it and cover it up.  See  this post  for some links about that.)  Calvinism ultimately teaches that everything we do is because God p...
Read more

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...
Read more

When Calvinism Infiltrates Your Church

A note I recently added to my posts on "How to tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist" : On a personal note : After having seen firsthand how Calvinism stealthily infiltrates and takes over a church, I want to share with you something that Kevin from Beyond the Fundamentals said in the video   "Stealth Calvinism in Oklahoma"  (my paraphrase): "By the time you realize what's going on and start looking up information about Calvinism online, it's too late."   Calvinist pastors who set out to take over non-Calvinist churches are banking on the fact that most people don't know what Calvinism is, giving the pastors plenty of time to weave in Calvinism in sneaky, subtle, tricksy ways before people catch on to (and research) the red flags.  (*See note at bottom about deceptive pastors.)  By that time, too many people in the church have been suckered into Calvinism (without realizing it's called Calvinism), believing that they're just...
Read more

Leaving Calvinism: Comments from Ex-Calvinists #11

Here is the last of the ex-Calvinist testimonies.  The first one is from this post:  X-Calvinist Corner .   (It's an Arminian website, but I am not Arminian.)  I am going to highlight some of the comments that stood out to me the most.  If you want to read everything that everyone said, click on the link above: Dana Steele writes: I grew up in a Calvinistic Baptist church from age 11.  The 5-points of Calvinism (TULIP) were taught regularly with great enthusiasm ... But it wasn’t until college that I began to understand and embrace the “Doctrines of Grace” and TULIP more fully....  I also learned to love the doctrine of election because it meant that God loved me personally and specifically in a unique way.  Though it made me a little embarrassed to think that God did not love everyone this way, I was content to leave this as a mystery.  Who am I to question God?  I was just glad I was one of the lucky (I mean chosen) ones. ... [As ...
Read more

The Cult of Calvinism

Here are links to a few posts that reveal the cult-like side of Calvinism: "Why Calvinism is a Cult" "Calvinism is a Counterfeit Christian Cult" "Calvinism, Cults, and Control" I left a comment at Hoppers Crossing Christian Church about their post "Calvinism, Cults, and Control."  I will also print my comment here for your information: I was reading your post "Calvinism, Cults, and Control" (2/02/20) and so much of what you said fits the Calvinist church we recently left.  Here are some of the cult-like things that happened after a Calvinist pastor took over our non-Calvinist church: 1.   From the beginning, he started laying the groundwork that disagreement with him (about his Calvinist view of predestination and God's sovereignty, in particular) was not allowed and that anyone who did disagree with him was unhumble and disagreeing with God.   Things like (paraphrases): "Humble people have no problem with God's sovereignty...
Read more