The Anti-Calvinist Rant

I've posted this one on my other blogs several times, but since it's Halloween, I am going to add a link here on this blog too:  "In 'Honor' of Halloween: My Story of Demonic Harassment."   And here are is my post "War Rooms, Praying Scripture, and Spiritual Warfare," with links to lots of posts from other people on these issues: I strongly believe that there are angels and demons.  That prayer matters.  That there is a spiritual battle going on around us all the time ... and that we need to get involved in it, actively and consciously.  (Something I haven't been doing lately.)   Regardless of if we want it or not, we are constantly facing spiritual battles.  But if we don't acknowledge them - if we stick our head in the sand and refuse to get involved, to put on our spiritual armor, to use the spiritual weapons that are available to us - we open ourselves up to deceptions, to defeat, to being very vulnerable to the strategies and attacks of ...

Understanding God's Will 9e: Humbled By Unanswered Prayer: Another problem with the “name it and claim it” interpretation is that we are tempted to bail on God, to criticize ourselves for our “weak” faith, or to question Him when we don’t get the answers that we want or thought we would get.    It confuses us, discourages us, and blows our understanding of God and His Word out of the water.    And I think that God allows this helplessness and futility so that we can learn that it’s not about us, it’s all about Him!    That He is God and we are not!    And so that we dig deeper into the Word to see who God really is and what He has to say through all of it - and not just through the few passages that we are familiar with, that tell us we get what we want when we pray.                We want to lead and have control by our prayers, whereas true faith in God says, “Whatever happens, I still believe in You....

I don't usually watch interviews with celebrities, but this is such a great one.  It's so touching to hear about the journey Justin has been on over the years, going through such pain, to finding his way back to Jesus and healing and hope and wholeness.   Those who have been to the lowest depths and back have the most meaningful stories to share!   I'm really rooting for him.  God bless him and his wife!  (And say a prayer for them.) Justin Bieber Talks About His Faith in Jesus  (4 minute clip from the full video) The full   Justin Bieber - Zane Lowe interview  (43 minutes, totally worth watching all the way to the end)   Two of the comments in the comment section really summed it up well (I fixed a minor misspelling in one): "I don't see a man that is losing his way.  I see a man fighting to find it.  Encourage him." And "Billions may know your name, but nobody really knows your pain" 

Here is an almost hour-long "Testimonies of Former Calvinists" video from Soteriology 101 .  This is a website I highly recommend and one that my family and I have learned from immensely.  (I haven't finished this video yet, but I wanted to link to it anyway before time gets away from me.  If I have comments to add to this post after watching it, I'll add them later.)  

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...