Christian Testimony: Gordon - "How I Became a Christian"

This is Gordon.  He is a new believer in his 40's (I believe).  I love that!  I love to hear when adults come to the Lord.  Children believe and trust much more easily, but adults have so much that gets in the way of believing and trusting.  And so whenever an adult comes to the Lord for the first time, I find it amazing and inspiring.  And I love to hear about where they came from, what drew them to the Lord, and how it changed them.

Click here for Gordon's testimony (6 minutes long).  

And click here for his view on what's really going wrong in the world today.  He's got it right.  Such great wisdom and insight for a new believer.  If only all Christians had this accurate perspective and focus - about the reality of the spiritual world and the spiritual battle - then maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we are in!

Welcome to the Family, Gordon!  And God bless you!

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"Neo-Calvinism vs. The Bible" - Andy Woods

This is just a quick post to share a series from Andy Woods against Calvinism: Neo-Calvinism vs The Bible | Andy Woods Ministries I've only listened to the first three so far, but I found this one quite intriguing:   Neo-Calvinism vs. The Bible 003 | Andy Woods Ministries In that one, he gets a little into the Catholic roots of Calvinism and the errors of Calvinism related to prophecy.  As he says, Luther didn't believe Revelation was inspired by God (and he considered it satanic to take end-times' prophecy literally), and this explains why many Calvinist churches don't address prophecy much.   And he also says that Calvin believed in amillennialism.  And to me, this would explain why the EFCA - which I believe has been taken over by Calvinists - removed the belief in premillennialism from their statement of faith, allowing for pastors to preach things like amillennialism. He also gets into the damage that Lordship Salvation - with John MacArthur at the for...
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List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

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Leaving Calvinism: Comments from Ex-Calvinists #11

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Tony Evans Preaches on Prayer and God's Will

I am always thankful for Tony Evans' preaching.  He understands the Word and God's character correctly.  He preaches a view of God and Scripture that accurately reflects truth, that affects us and our faith in practical ways, that fills me with hope, and that  makes sense ! Unlike Calvinism.  Unlike my Calvinist pastor.   I have been so discouraged by the constant hammering of Calvinism at our church - the sick twisting of Scripture, the damaging distortion of God's good character and amazing gifts, the hopelessness that Calvinism is - that I don't listen to our pastor anymore.  Because when I did, it would leave me angry for days.  (Angry ... but motivated to see what the Bible really says.  So that's a good thing.) And so I listen to Tony Evans' sermons online instead.  And it feels like a breath of fresh air.  Like I can breathe again.  Like I am not so crazy for disagreeing with Calvinism.  Because Calvinism is wrong! ...
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Ah, yes, praise God for hell-bound vipers!

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In a recent Reddit Reformed post, a Calvinist celebrates the birth and dedication of another  wretched, depraved, hell-bound viper-in-a-diaper   wonderful little innocent baby ! Of course, I myself believe that babies are wonderful little innocent blessings from God, and so  I celebrate the birth of all babies and congratulate parents on baby dedications. But I can... because I'm not a Calvinist. Calvinists, however, hmm?  I know they truly love their children and praise God for them, feeling like they are (I hope) blessings and sweet little bundles of joy.   But I wonder if Calvinist parents have ever read these quotes of Calvinists' own views and teachings about babies and young children.  (I've already shared many of these before, but a bunch are new.  FYI: I'll also repost this in smaller individual posts soon, bite-sized pieces.) Because if they did, then maybe they wouldn't be so quick to view them as sweet little bundles of joy, but ...
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Series by Andy Woods: "Neo-Calvinism vs. the Bible"

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Troublemaker? (#1 The Gospel; #2 Stealth Calvinism)

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Should I be making such a fuss over Calvinism, calling it out as strongly as I do?      Every time I wonder if I'm too strong, too harsh, in my criticism of Calvinism - if I should be gentler, more tolerant, more "let's just put our arms around each other's shoulders and sing Kumbaya around a campfire" (which, trust me, I'd  love   to be, because I'm not someone who enjoys rocking the boat, offending people, or fighting about things) - I just think again about what (and how ) Calvinism teaches about God, the gospel, Jesus's sacrifice, and people's eternities... a nd I go, "Nope, can't do it!  No mushy tolerance or ooey-gooey Kumbaya for me.  No blurring the lines." "Oh, but can't we all just get along?," asks the kind-hearted, well-meaning Christian .  "It's not really that big of a deal, is it?  Aren't we supposed to be unified as a church and not be divisive?   And aren't we all basically saying the sa...
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The Gospel Project: Calvinist or not?

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Disclaimer: I have never gone through The Gospel Project for myself, and so this post is based on articles I've read about it and - mostly - on my knowledge of Calvinism and how it operates.  And this post doesn't even have to do just with The Gospel Project, but with anything Calvinists write or teach, especially if they claim that they're not trying to teach Calvinism. UPDATE 12/29/2025: I swapped the parts of this post, putting my answer to MPenny before my notes about Calvinism in general.  My answer is the shorter part, so I figured I'd get that out of the way first.  Also, here is a "part 2" to this post, exposing the Calvinism in their podcast:  "The Calvinist Gospel Project? (their podcast/the gospel)" . I had a question come in the other day  on my  "comment corral" blog   from a reader called  MPenny: " The Gospel Project: Do you or anyone here have specific wordage or examples of non-biblical or calvinist material within th...
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Calvinism in the Evangelical Free Church

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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