The Anti-Calvinist Rant

(This "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" series is a breakdown of this much longer post: "We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism," which was written last year but updated July 2020.  All memes were created with imgflip .) The inevitable has finally happened, the day we hoped would never come: The day we officially resigned from our church because of our pastor's dogmatic Calvinist preaching (May 20, 2019).   (From now on, I will try to call him our "ex-pastor."   And for the record, it was an Evangelical Free Church, which are being  taken over by Calvinism  all over the place.  So be wary and educated. ) It's been a long road.  He came on board about 6 years ago, and began introducing his Calvinist views here and there.  Just a little bit at a time, never really exposing the ugly parts of Calvinism.  Just subtle points that didn't really alarm us.   And he's not a mean guy or bad guy or anything.  He seems genuinely nice and like

(From my post "We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism." )              It's common to hear Calvinists say, "We uphold the Scriptures above all!"   My Calvinist pastor (of our ex-church) loved to say (all the time), "I am teaching right from the Scriptures.  We always have to go right to the Word.  Always ask 'What does the text say?'"  (And this always made me start singing "What does the fox say?" in my mind.) I disagree with Calvinism, but I agree with my pastor ... When a Calvinist tells you what a Bible verse teaches,  go right to the text  (or if they don't provide a verse but just give you a general "It's what the Bible teaches," demand to know the verses they are referencing).                Go right to the text to see what it says, what it doesn't say, what they added or are assuming, how they are twisting it or taking it out of context, etc.                Example: My pastor (and all Calvinist

Here is Cyrus' Testimony (7 minutes):  "Why I Converted from Islam to Christianity" This is one enjoyable guy.    So fun to listen to.   And  I am glad he shared his story, showing how God works in some of the most interesting, amazing ways.   

[A repost: Updated July 2020 with lots of new stuff, including memes.  (When do I ever write anything short?)  For the text-only version, no memes, click here .   For the memes only,  click here .  For the links only, click here .  Also,  I broke this long post down into smaller posts, so click here for all the links to the "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" series .  All memes were created with imgflip .] The inevitable has finally happened, the day we hoped would never come: The day we officially resigned from our church because of our pastor's dogmatic Calvinist preaching (May 20, 2019).   (From now on, I will try to call him our "ex-pastor."  And for the record, it was an Evangelical Free Church, which are being taken over by Calvinism all over the place.  So be wary and educated.) It's been a long road.  He came on board about 6 years ago, and began introducing his Calvinist views here and there.  Just a little bit at a time, never really exposing the