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.  It's only unhumble people who don't like it.... People in other countries don't have a problem with submitting to God's sovereign control; it's just us proud Americans who have trouble with it because we like our freedom and independence too much.... There are some people who believe in free-will [and he inserts an audible scoff here, a snort of derision] who like to think they are in control of things.... God wants us to be humble like children, and that means not questioning Him and simply accepting His right to do whatever He wants with His creation, even if it doesn't make sense to us.... If you disagree with this [the pastor's teachings] then you are disagreeing with God.... There are only three possible responses to the 'truth' of predestination: ignore it, get angry about it, or accept it.... You don't have to like it but you do have to accept it because it's what the Bible teaches.... [About his idea that God "ordains" all sins but still holds us accountable for it:] We are mere humans and can't understand all of God's mysteries.  There are some things He doesn't explain to us and so we just have to accept it.  The Bible doesn't have any tension between these 'truths,' so why should we?," etc.  

From the beginning (before he began to clearly insert his Calvinism), he began to define anyone who would disagree with him as unhumble, proud, fighting God, resistant to God's authority, etc.  This makes it so that no one will want to speak up against him and that everyone will want to agree with him so that they are "good Christians" who are "biblical, submissive, and humble."  It's manipulation from the very beginning.  And it's the first thing I noticed that alerted me to the fact that something was wrong.  (Maybe I noticed because I am a licensed counselor, trained to look for manipulation, for the meaning behind the words people use, and to discern what's being said between the lines.)


2.  He started small group "Calvinist indoctrination classes" with the elders and more prominent men, studying Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.


3.  He quotes from many Calvinist authors in his sermons.  During one sermon, he quoted many Calvinists but not one Bible verse.  And in the church library, they display the "pastor's picks," almost all of which are from Calvinist authors.  And he strongly pushed the ESV (MacArthur's ESV Study Bible, I think) as THE Bible to use.


4.  He is a strong, educated, charismatic preacher, and so he sounds confident and "right," causing people to eagerly suck up everything he says and wanting to be identified with him, to the point of even shouting out "Amen" at some of the worst things he says, such as "God sovereignly controls all things, even all the tragedies that happened in your life, for His glory.  He loves Himself most, and so everything He does is for Himself, for His own glory."  (And other than saying that some people believe in free-will, he never brings up the fact that there are many people, over centuries, who have disagreed with Calvinism.  He never lets the people know that there are other ways to view this issue.)


5.  He was very careful to never use the words Calvinist or Calvinism or Reformed.  (It took him several years to mention Calvin or TULIP.)  He just kept calling his theology "biblical truth/doctrine" and "what the Bible says."  This way, no one knows his theology has a name and so they can't look it up online.  (Apparently, when he interviewed for the head pastor position, the elders knew he was a dogmatic Calvinist.  But no one told this to the congregation when we had church-wide meetings.  And I think they did this on purpose.)


6.  Early on, he did a nine-month series in Romans to push his Calvinism over nine long months.


7.  The last straw for us was when he wrote a post about predestination on the church blog and I left a comment where I disagreed (respectfully and from the Bible) with his views on predestination.  My comment showed up for a few hours (it was only a God-thing that I even bothered to check - during a Christmas party we were at - to see if they posted it), and then it was deleted a few hours later.  My guess is that the office staff posted it, but then the pastor saw it and deleted it.  We realized then that disagreement would not be tolerated and that they wouldn't allow the church to be exposed to views from "the other side."  And so we knew we had no choice but to leave.


8.  After our letter to the elders expressing our concerns about how dogmatic he is about his Calvinism and asking him to tone it down so that he doesn't repel those who disagree, he got even more vocal about it, pushing it even more aggressively.  It was almost like since the secret was out then he may as well expose himself more fully.


9.  And after we left, they joined the 9marks and Gospel Coalition church-finders, diving even deeper into the Calvinist cult/gangs.


These are some of the cult-like things I noticed at our church.


Also, in response to another post you wrote where MacArthur claims to have always been a believer (never having made an actual conscious decision to put his faith in Jesus), I found this quote from a Calvinist commenter on another blog that should concern all true Christians, because it exposes the very unbiblical way Calvinists are "saved."  I am going to paraphrase it because I don't know your policy on quoting from other blog's comment sections:  "The way the Holy Spirit regenerates the elect is similar to giving someone a drug.  In both cases, the person is changed by something happening to them that they can't resist, not by them doing anything.  The person doesn't know what happened or how it happened.  All they know is that they hated God one minute but that they love Him the next minute.  The Holy Spirit made the person born again without their knowledge, making it irresistible."

In Calvinism, you don't do anything to become saved, not even want God or seek God or choose to believe or even know that you are choosing to believe.  It just happens to you, without any thought or knowledge on your part.  You wake up one day and realize that you were always one of God's elect.  What a demonic lie!  Teaching people that they have no control over and can't do the ONE THING God tells us to do to be saved: to believe in the Lord Jesus.  How can anyone truly be saved the Calvinist way if they deny what God told us to do (our responsibility) to be saved?

Thanks for this post.  I am going to link to it on my blog in a future post about the cult-ish side of Calvinism.  God bless!

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