"Well yes, but actually no"

 

































Most Popular Posts Of The Month:

List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

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...
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How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist (simplified version)

(For the extended version of this post, which I recommend, click here .  It is loaded with lots more information.  This simplified one is just the highlights.  And feel free to copy this and share it with others, to help them learn to identify Calvinism when they see it.  Just make sure to share the link to this blog so that they can find the original post.  Thank you.  New : For the super-short version, click here .  And FYI: I found a couple times when the Calvinist author of an article I linked to changed their article after I linked to it.  So if their article doesn't seem to match what I said about it, it may be because they altered it. ) We just left our church of almost 20 years because of the dogmatic Calvinist pastor who recently came on board.  ( Read my "Letter to Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing in Our Church" here.)   And I was thinking about what precautions I might take to make sure we didn't end up in another...
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Is The ESV (English Standard Version) a Calvinist Bible?

Just in case anyone missed this post (the longer title made it easy to miss the "ESV" part) ... "A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?") In that post, I write about a bunch of verses that I believe were intentionally translated to be more Calvinistic or based on manuscripts that were too corrupt to be trusted (click on it to see the verses).   And why would I think that the translators of this Bible version would do that? (From that post...) The ESV and ESV Study Bible are majorly preferred by Calvinists.  In fact, it's often considered "The Calvinist Bible."   Why?  And why would translators of a Bible make these kinds of Calvinist tweaks to Scripture? Wayne Grudem and J.I. Packer were editors on the  ESV Study Bible   (this is for the ESV Global Study Bible).  Grudem and Packer are both popular, strong, dogmatic Calvinists.  Very Big Names in the world of Calvinism.  Grudem in the General E...
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Concerned Christian at The Comment Corral

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Here's a comment from a reader called Concerned Christian (see this post on my comment blog): Hello. I am new to this site and hope I follow the comment rules appropriately.  I was saved (believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blood atonement for my sins) a few years ago.  Finally got the courage to attend a Baptist church and even did my research to make sure it was not a reformed or calvinist church.  Nothing on the website points to calvinism.  After a year of attending this church I can not deny my convictions.  The pastor is constantly giving quotes from popular calvinist preachers of today and names former calvinist theologians without ever using the term "calvinist".  The pastor preaches from the KJV but a very telling sign for me is that every single piece of literature, (tracts, pamphlets) on display are from Crossway publishing and provides a website to the ESV site and is authored by known Calvinist preachers.  Everyone at the church se...
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Why Is Calvinism So Dangerous? (re-updated)

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Because it  appears  to teach biblical truth while actually teaching  the opposite  - while using  manipulation and cult-like tactics to suck you in!  And it's spreading.  Stealthily, fast, aggressively. (We watched it happen firsthand in our church, which is why I wrote this blog.  See  "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?"    Sadly, we ended up  leaving that church , a place we attended almost 20 years.) [ I updated this November 2022 to try to shorten it.  I failed.  But I hope it's more readable and streamlined at least.   If you only read one anti-Calvinism post of mine, I think it should be this one.  But I'm warning you, this post is long.  Very long.  So pack a lunch and bring a sleeping bag.  But it has to be long because Calvinism is so deceptively convoluted that it takes time to peel off the layers so that you can see it for what it really is.  ...
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The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult

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[For the shortened version of this post,  click here .  For the tiniest version, click here .  And since this whole post will take you about 3 hours to read, h ere are links to the individual chapters:  #1 deception  ...  #2 hidden agendas  ...  #3 multiple layers  ...  #4 strategic tactics  ...  #5 isolation/control  ...  #6 fear/coercion  ...  #7 mind-control/thought-reform  ...  #8 gaslighting  ...  #9 authoritarian narcissists  ...  conclusion and links ] A  Psychology Today article -  Understanding Cults: The Basics  - shares some characteristics of cults and how they operate (my paraphrase; I've condensed some of them here to three main points):  1. No one knowingly, voluntarily joins a cult, but they are "recruited" into it by cult leaders who take advantage of the vulnerabilities of the recruits, using deception and manipulation to suck them in. 2. ...
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Alana L: 5W (educated into Calvinism/Calvinism's success)

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This series is  loosely   based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist      Point #5 Still: W.   I agree with Alana that Calvinism contradicts the plain, clear, commonsense understanding of Scripture. And that we have to be taught to find Calvinism in the Bible because it's not there.   And even the Calvinists know this.   In  Doctrine of Election , Calvinist A.W. Pink says  " Unless we are privileged to sit under the ministry of some Spirit-taught servant of God, who presents the truth   [the doctrine of election]   to us systematically, great pains and diligence are called for in the searching of the Scriptures, so that we may collect and tabulate their scattered statements on this subject. It has not pleased the Holy Spirit to give us one complete and orderly setting forth of the doctrine of election, but instead 'here a little, there a little'...  No novice is ...
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Alana L. 5V (the twisted ESV)

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This series  is  loosely   based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist      Point #5 still :   V:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     Sidenote: The Calvinist ESV In a previous post ( 5Q: Robots ), I said I'd do a post like this... and now I'm finally getting around to it. In this post, I want to show you something about the Calvinist ESV, how I believe th at the Calvinists who worked on the ESV made sure their translation fits with Calvinism:  with their incorrect view of mankind's free-will (which is not really "free" at all in Calvinism, as we've seen in previous posts) and  with their incorrect view of God's sovereignty, that He preplans, decrees, orchestrates, causes, controls everything, including our thoughts, actions, sins, evils, unbelief, destinies, etc. (but just  try to find "sovereign" defined that way in the Bible, especially in the KJV, whi...
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Leaving Calvinism: Comments from Ex-Calvinists #11

Here is the last of the ex-Calvinist testimonies.  The first one is from this post:  X-Calvinist Corner .   (It's an Arminian website, but I am not Arminian.)  I am going to highlight some of the comments that stood out to me the most.  If you want to read everything that everyone said, click on the link above: Dana Steele writes: I grew up in a Calvinistic Baptist church from age 11.  The 5-points of Calvinism (TULIP) were taught regularly with great enthusiasm ... But it wasn’t until college that I began to understand and embrace the “Doctrines of Grace” and TULIP more fully....  I also learned to love the doctrine of election because it meant that God loved me personally and specifically in a unique way.  Though it made me a little embarrassed to think that God did not love everyone this way, I was content to leave this as a mystery.  Who am I to question God?  I was just glad I was one of the lucky (I mean chosen) ones. ... [As ...
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The Calvinist ESV: Lam. 3:37

Finally adding another verse to my list of verses about the ESV being a Calvinist translation : #102.   Lamentations 3:37 in the KJV says "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?"   Maybe I'm wrong here... but, to me, this sounds like Jeremiah is saying that we can't force our plans to happen if God has decided it's not going to happen.   This would be similar to James 4:13-15 (NIV): "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.'  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow... Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" It's about knowing that we can only do what we do if God allows us to do it, if He chooses to not stop us. But here it is in the ESV (and others):  "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?" To me, ...
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