Calvinist Bad Logic #16: Accepting Jesus?
Bad Logic #16: In Calvinism, "accepting Jesus" is works. They believe that God has to do everything for our salvation, even deciding who believes and who doesn't and causing the believers to believe, or else He's not really a "sovereign" God. (Once again, it's all based on their faulty view of sovereignty.)
And so they believe that we cannot "accept Jesus as Lord and Savior" because "accepting" is an action we do which would be us working for our salvation, instead of it being all God's doing. According to them.
And to get you to believe this, they accuse us - those who believe we decide whether to accept Jesus or not - of "taking credit for our salvation." They mock us for acting like we "saved ourselves."
But this is just manipulation! Getting you to feel ashamed of the idea that we can accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The fact is, the Bible is full of calls to believe in Jesus (which mean nothing to a Calvinist because Calvi-god controls whether you believe or not) and to choose whom you will serve and to choose obedience, etc.
I think it's very wicked indeed to deny that people can choose Jesus as Lord and Savior when the very reason He came and died for us was so that we could choose Him as Lord and Savior!
And besides, if someone planted a tree, grew the tree, cut the tree down, sawed the tree into boards, made the boards into a beautiful bookcase, and painted it … and then they lovingly offered it to you because they wanted to do something special for you ... and you accepted it in thankfulness and gratitude ... would someone accuse you of "working for" that bookcase, of "trying to earn it," of "taking credit" for it?
No, of course not! That would be ridiculous! You are simply humbly and thankfully accepting a free gift that someone made for you.
So then why would Calvinists say that accepting all the work that Jesus did for us is "taking credit" for our salvation or "trying to earn it/work for it"?
Do you know why they do this?
Because of their faulty view of how "dead" we are (that we can't do anything at all unless God causes us to do it) and of God's "sovereignty" (that God isn't God unless He controls all things that happen). And so if He doesn't control our thoughts, our decisions, our actions, whether we get saved or not, then He isn't God, according to Calvinists. If we get to make any choices, then He isn't God!
They twist the whole Bible - what God clearly, plainly tells us in His Word and the examples of how He has chosen to act and how He responds to men, etc. - to fit their faulty view of His sovereignty. They are so busy telling God how God has to act in order to be God that they fail to see how He tells us He is, as evident all throughout the Word.
And what damage it does to Truth and to His character and to our view of man's responsibilities!
Denying that we can choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior and making people feel ashamed for thinking that we can choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior will stop people from choosing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Do you not see how satanically-brilliant this is!?!
Kevin from Beyond the Fundamentals (in “Calvinist Tactics Exposed”) points out that one problem with Calvinism is that they take a biblical idea and then they expand it or shrink it, beyond what Scripture says. Such as, if it's good to say God is "sovereign" then they'll expand it to say God is so sovereign that He causes and controls everything, going beyond what Scripture shows about how God exercises His sovereignty. And they convince you it honors and glorifies Him to see it this way.
Or if it's good to be humble, to be dependent on God, then they shrink humans so low to say that we are so helpless that we are dependent on Him for everything, even for the thoughts we think and the decisions we make.
But ... is it humble and God-glorifying to twist what the Bible says in order to fit your views? To add secondary "secret" layers to verses to fit your views, contradicting what God clearly, plainly said?
Pay careful attention to the assumptions, presumptions, and misconceptions that Calvinists start with, that they build their whole theology on. This, I believe, is the essence of Calvinism. It's not a biblical theology. It's a philosophical belief system built on their own ideas. And then they find and twist Bible verses to "support" their views.
And so they believe that we cannot "accept Jesus as Lord and Savior" because "accepting" is an action we do which would be us working for our salvation, instead of it being all God's doing. According to them.
And to get you to believe this, they accuse us - those who believe we decide whether to accept Jesus or not - of "taking credit for our salvation." They mock us for acting like we "saved ourselves."
But this is just manipulation! Getting you to feel ashamed of the idea that we can accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The fact is, the Bible is full of calls to believe in Jesus (which mean nothing to a Calvinist because Calvi-god controls whether you believe or not) and to choose whom you will serve and to choose obedience, etc.
I think it's very wicked indeed to deny that people can choose Jesus as Lord and Savior when the very reason He came and died for us was so that we could choose Him as Lord and Savior!
And besides, if someone planted a tree, grew the tree, cut the tree down, sawed the tree into boards, made the boards into a beautiful bookcase, and painted it … and then they lovingly offered it to you because they wanted to do something special for you ... and you accepted it in thankfulness and gratitude ... would someone accuse you of "working for" that bookcase, of "trying to earn it," of "taking credit" for it?
No, of course not! That would be ridiculous! You are simply humbly and thankfully accepting a free gift that someone made for you.
So then why would Calvinists say that accepting all the work that Jesus did for us is "taking credit" for our salvation or "trying to earn it/work for it"?
Do you know why they do this?
Because of their faulty view of how "dead" we are (that we can't do anything at all unless God causes us to do it) and of God's "sovereignty" (that God isn't God unless He controls all things that happen). And so if He doesn't control our thoughts, our decisions, our actions, whether we get saved or not, then He isn't God, according to Calvinists. If we get to make any choices, then He isn't God!
They twist the whole Bible - what God clearly, plainly tells us in His Word and the examples of how He has chosen to act and how He responds to men, etc. - to fit their faulty view of His sovereignty. They are so busy telling God how God has to act in order to be God that they fail to see how He tells us He is, as evident all throughout the Word.
And what damage it does to Truth and to His character and to our view of man's responsibilities!
Denying that we can choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior and making people feel ashamed for thinking that we can choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior will stop people from choosing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Do you not see how satanically-brilliant this is!?!
Kevin from Beyond the Fundamentals (in “Calvinist Tactics Exposed”) points out that one problem with Calvinism is that they take a biblical idea and then they expand it or shrink it, beyond what Scripture says. Such as, if it's good to say God is "sovereign" then they'll expand it to say God is so sovereign that He causes and controls everything, going beyond what Scripture shows about how God exercises His sovereignty. And they convince you it honors and glorifies Him to see it this way.
Or if it's good to be humble, to be dependent on God, then they shrink humans so low to say that we are so helpless that we are dependent on Him for everything, even for the thoughts we think and the decisions we make.
But ... is it humble and God-glorifying to twist what the Bible says in order to fit your views? To add secondary "secret" layers to verses to fit your views, contradicting what God clearly, plainly said?
Pay careful attention to the assumptions, presumptions, and misconceptions that Calvinists start with, that they build their whole theology on. This, I believe, is the essence of Calvinism. It's not a biblical theology. It's a philosophical belief system built on their own ideas. And then they find and twist Bible verses to "support" their views.
But if you look past all the twisted, out-of-context verses that supposedly "support" their views, you'll see that their theology is actually built on their own ideas of who God has to be in order to be God and how He has to act in order to be the kind of "sovereign" God they think He is, according to their definition of "sovereign". (See also "Problems in John Calvin's Institutes ...". A very, very long post. And on a different note, if you're interested, read "Starting Your Own Relationship With Jesus Christ.")
(For all the posts in this series, see the "Intro ..." Or look for "'Calvinist Bad Logic' Series" in the labels on the side-bar. Or find the whole series in one post, "When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic' Traps Good Christians.")
