Is Calvinism's TULIP Biblical?

[This is based on a post I found online: What's wrong with Five-Point Calvinism?  I was going to send a copy of that post to my relative who is in jail awaiting trial, but I ended up adding so many of my own notes that it became a whole new post.  (But there are still some very similar parts, and I give credit to the author of that post for what he wrote.  Read it.  It's short and good and worth reading.)  My relative (who dabbled in, if not embraced, Calvinism, at least back in the day) shares what I send with the women on her floor, doing their own little Bible study.  And so I figured, "Why not send them my thoughts on Calvinism since I know they will read it?"  And as a bonus, the cops have to read every letter that passes between us, and so they will have to read it too!  A captive audience!  (Ha Ha!  Bad joke.  But if I don't laugh, I'll cry.)  Anyway, this is what I sent to her, a "brief" look into Calvinism's TULIP.  I will repost it later in three smaller sections.  But this is the whole, long one.]

There is an aggressive cancer that’s invading the Church and many Christian colleges and seminaries today.  It’s called Calvinism, an unbiblical theology that stems mostly from John Calvin's view of Scripture from the 1500’s.  (Most of his beliefs come from Augustine.)  It is spreading into the Church with little awareness or opposition.  In fact, most people in the Church today are ignorant about what this theology is and how it differs from and contradicts the Bible, and so most do not recognize it as a danger or know enough about it to question it.  (And sadly, many Christians have not studied God’s Word for themselves well enough to know what the Bible really says.)  And the spread of Calvinism thrives on this ignorance, on people who allow themselves to be manipulated into accepting it.  

(I recently found my 20-years-old "Required Books" list for my college classes - a college that's well-known for training today's preachers - and for my Intro to Theology class, we had to read books by Grudem, Piper, and Packer.  All huge Calvinists.  But I had no idea back then.  I assumed that since they all taught from the Bible, they must all be biblical.  Well, you know what happens when you assume things!  For a big list of Calvinists, see this post.)

Briefly, on the bottom line, Calvinism is a theology which believes that God has predestined who goes to heaven (and consequently, who goes to hell), that Jesus only died for those He predestined to heaven, and that God (in His sovereignty) essentially preplans, causes, and controls everything that happens, including our thoughts, choices, and sins, to make it all work out just like He predestined.  (And most of Calvinism's hundreds of pages of theological writing is an attempt to cover those bottom-line ideas up, to make them sound better and more reasonable and more biblical than they are, to try to force Scripture to teach these things when it really doesn't.)  Calvinists have said that if there was even one speck of dust that God didn’t actively control, then He wouldn’t, couldn’t, be God.  

Calvinist preachers often use deception and manipulation to spread their theology.  (And once you see it, you can't unsee it.  Maybe it's my training as a counselor that helped me see it when others didn't.)  They deceive by using the same words, concepts, and verses that all Christians use, but they have very different meanings which they keep hidden for as long as possible so that they can reel you slowly and stealthily into Calvinism.  And they manipulate by making those who agree with them feel smarter, more humble, and more godly, and by shaming those who would disagree with them.  (I watched it happen firsthand.)  

[Many pew-sitting Calvinists do not think of themselves as being deceptive though and are not necessarily trying to be deceptive; they’ve just been taught the Calvinist answers so thoroughly – and embraced them as Biblical Truth – that they themselves can’t even see the errors, contradictions, or deceptions in it anymore.  They're repeating what they've been taught, confident that the Calvinist teachers have taught them correctly.  It’s sad.  

While I will call Calvinism heretical, I do not like to call Calvinists themselves "heretics" because that's getting too personal.  Many of them are good, godly, fellow-believers who are just as saved as I am, and they are doing their best to try to live the faith as they've been taught.  They just don't realize they've been taught things that contradict the plain truth of Scripture.  They truly think it's just a "deeper" understanding of Scripture.  It's sad.  And I think these people need to be helped, not condemned as heretics.

But the teachers of Calvinism, the leaders, well, that's a different story.  They are the ones pushing these heretical views on the trusting masses.  And so my fight is not with the average pew-sitting Calvinist whom I believe has been manipulated and trapped into Calvinism, but it's with the Calvinist preachers and teachers who are doing the trapping and manipulating, the ones who should know best what the Bible really teaches because they've spent years in school studying it.  They will be held doubly-accountable for leading others astray.]

Such as, Calvinists will agree that “For God so loved the world …,” but what they really believe is that “God does not love all individual people, but He loves all kinds of people, the elect (the people He predestined to heaven) from all over the world.”  (Or they break God's love up into 2 different kinds: a saves-your-soul one for the elect but merely a gives-you-food-and-sunshine one for the non-elect.)  But they hide this so that you think they’re really saying that God loves all people.  They don’t reveal too much too soon of their real beliefs so that people don’t reject Calvinism or push back.  They need time to slowly reel you into Calvinism, without you even realizing it.  (I have even read of Calvinist pastors bragging about doing this.)  

[We noticed that the Calvinist pastor in our ex-church always says this: "God loves people.  He loves peoples."  Why does he always follow up "people" with "peoples"?  And why does he stress the word "peoples"?  Because he doesn't mean "all individual people" when he says "people."  He means "all people groups, all kinds of people" - peoples - which he confirmed once when he preached "God does not love all people, and He doesn't love all people the same."  See "Calvinism 101: "Free-Will Choice" is not really "Free-Will" or "Choice" for more like this.  ("People" sounds like a funny word when you say it over and over again.)]

Calvinist pastors also manipulate people into Calvinism by praising those who agree with them, making you think you’re more humble, intelligent, and God-glorifying than those who believe in free-will, convincing you that you’re learning/accepting the “deeper truths” of Scripture if you agree with them, making you feel like you’re with them on the “elite” level of Christian intellectuals.  And they manipulate by shaming anyone who might disagree with them, painting those who will disagree as unhumble Christians who oppose God’s Truth, steal God’s glory, resist God’s authority, deny God's sovereignty, and take credit for their salvation, ensuring that people will be afraid to speak up because no one wants to be accused of that or have others view them as "bad" Christians.  And this manipulation often starts early, when the pastor gets into a new non-Calvinist church and starts to “reform” it (to turn it into a Calvinist one), and it often starts before they even reveal their Calvinism, to pre-condition people into accepting – or at least not vocally opposing - whatever they are going to teach.  I've seen it happen.  [See "Predestination Manipulation" for more.] 

But to know what’s wrong with Calvinism and why we should oppose it, I urge you to compare Calvinism’s Five (main) Points to the plain, commonsense, easily-understood teaching of the Word of God.  As you do this, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into truth.

I once heard this from someone who opposes Calvinism: All that really needs to be known about the gospel - about Jesus, God’s love, how to be saved, etc. – can be understood by a child.  I love that!  It’s so true!  But Calvinists would have you think that you need to do months and months of study with a Calvinist teacher, reading big Calvinist books written by highly-educated Calvinist men to understand what God really meant to say.  

What do you think?  Do you think God intended His gospel message (how to be saved) to be easily understood by all in a plain, clear, commonsense way ... or do you think He wrote one thing but means another, that He has secret, deeper, hidden layers underneath the surface layer (and that contradicts the surface layer, the plain, commonsense meaning of a verse) and that He expects us to discover the hidden "truths" by spending months reading Calvinist books or listening to Calvinist preachers telling us what they learned from Calvinist books?

John 20:31: “But these [the Scriptures] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Does God mean what He says and say what He means ... or not?  When God says He loves all people and Jesus died for all people, does He really mean all people ... or not?  When He says "seek Me," does He mean it's possible for people to seek Him ... or not?  Etc.?

[If you're a Calvinist who's getting worried right now because you're thinking "Oh no!  I've been believing a lie all this time!  What do I do?  What should I think?", let me just say this: Don't worry, because the true biblical truth is even more beautiful than what you've been told by Calvinists.  What God did for you, He can do for anyone.  

God loves all people and wants all people to be saved (not just the elect).  Jesus died for all people, paying for all men's sins on the cross (not just the elect).  And He offers the gift of eternal life to all people, for anyone to accept.  No one is beyond God's reach, beyond His love, grace, forgiveness, healing, salvation, etc.  It's for all people, not just the elect.  And so no one is hopeless.  No one is predestined to hell, unable to be saved.  God loves all, Jesus died for all, and God offers salvation to all (but He leaves it up to us to accept it or reject it).  

But in Calvinism, God truly loves only the elect, Jesus died for only the elect, and God offers salvation only to the elect and so only the elect can/will be saved, and so the non-elect have no hope at all, no chance to be saved.  

The truth biblical truth of the gospel is so much more wonderful, hope-filled, gracious, loving, etc., than what Calvinism teaches, because in the Bible, no one is beyond hope.  Anyone can be saved.  

(Not to mention that in the Bible, God is not the cause of sin and unbelief, but He gives us the ability to choose our own decisions/actions and then He responds accordingly.  But in Calvinism, He is the ultimate cause of all sin and unbelief but then He holds us responsible for it, for what He predestined and caused.  Can you see the damage this does to God's character and to people's faith in Him and trust of Him?)  

The truth of the Bible is so much more beautiful and hope-filled and life-giving and "for all people" than Calvinism ever could be.  And so don't worry.  When you give up Calvinism for the plain teachings of the Bible, you get something so much better!]  

Another bit of manipulation that Calvinist pastors use (among many others) is that they will remind us that God wants the church to be unified, and then they will accuse those who disagree with them of being “divisive,” of trying to cause trouble, of trying to split the church.  This makes people afraid to speak up.  Yes, God wants unity, but He doesn’t mean He wants us to be unified around an unbiblical theology.  In this case, “division” - causing “trouble/split” - is necessary.  You don’t treat cancer by trying to live in harmony with it, by giving it room to grow.  Well, Calvinism is a cancer, and so we need to do our best to “cut it out,” to keep it from destroying God’s Truth and infecting the rest of the Church.

2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths.”

Galatians 1:8: “But even if we or an angel should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”

2 Corinthians 11:13-15: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.  It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.  Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

Calvinist Loraine Boettner has said that if you prove any one point of Calvinism true then you have to accept the whole thing (because all points hinge on each other) but that if you prove any one point false then the whole system must be abandoned.  Calvinists try to get you to swallow Calvinism whole by convincing you that if you agree with their first point (Total Inability) then you must agree with all of it.  But according to Mr. Boettner’s own advice about Calvinism, if you find any one point of Calvinism to be wrong (to contradict what God plainly said in His Word) then you should and must abandon the whole thing.

And so what are the Five Points of Calvinism, which are known as the acronym “TULIP"?  (Did you know tulip bulbs are poisonous and can cause death?)  They are:

1. Total Inability (also called Total Depravity, but it's really Total Inability)

2. Unconditional Election

3. Limited Atonement

4. Irresistible Grace

5. Perseverance of the Saints (I agree with Calvinists that true believers cannot lose our salvation, but not for the reasons they say.  I will explain later.)

This will not be a deep study of these points or an examination of the Bible verses Calvinists use to support Calvinism.  (Always look up the verses they use - read the whole chapter too, with the help of a good concordance - to see if they're using them correctly and in-context.  The more you do this, the more you find that they twist verses out of context to try to support Calvinism.  See 'Defend Your Calvinism' Challenge" and "According to the concordance... It's NOT predestination" and "A Quick Study of Calvinism's Favorite Words" and "Is the ESV a Calvinist Bible?" for more insights, tips, and help.)  This post is simply to help the average Christian who wants to know the basics of Calvinism, the deceptions they use, and how Calvinism contradicts Scripture.

(FYI: The God of the Bible and the god of Calvinism are not the same God.  Keep this in mind when Calvinists talk about “God.”  Their version of God – how He acts, how He saves, what He expects from us, how He treats us, what Jesus’s death accomplished, etc. – is very different from the Bible’s God, which is why I often call the god of Calvinism "Calvi-god," to help you know when I'm referring specifically to Calvinism's distorted version of God.)  

[And for the record, I'm not saying you can't get a lot of good teaching from a Calvinist preacher.  95% of what they teach could sound great, setting off no alarm bells.  And I think there's enough truth in there that unaware people could find the Lord through it.  God can use anything, good or bad.  But when you know what the last 5% is - the bottom-line of Calvinism, the hidden layers they cover up with the 95% good stuff - it all becomes tainted, and you can't listen to even the good stuff from them anymore because you understand what they really believe and how deceptively they present it.] 

Now, onto the points (and FYI, my version shows you Calvinism as it really is, unvarnished, with the sugar-coating taken off, stripping off the nicer-sounding layers that Calvinists add when they try to make it sound more biblical than it really is):

1.  Total Inability

Calvinists don’t believe in free-will, that God gave us the ability to make decisions for ourselves (within boundaries, of course) or that He gave all people the ability to believe in Jesus.  In Calvinism, mankind is so totally depraved that there is nothing good inside us, nothing to make us want good or God.  We are so spiritually dead and depraved that we are totally unable to do anything to be saved, including wanting/seeking God, repenting, believing in Jesus, or even wanting to be saved.  They think that “believing in Jesus” is a “work,” and since we can’t work our way to heaven then it must mean that we can’t choose to believe in Jesus either.  Therefore, since we have no ability to believe in Jesus, God must make us do it, and He only makes the elect do it.

According to them, way back in eternity past, God chose all the people who would go to heaven (the elect), and He causes all of them to be “born again” by giving them the Holy Spirit who makes them “spiritually alive” (regenerating their spiritually-dead hearts and minds), giving them “saving faith” that causes them to seek/want God, to repent, to believe in Jesus.  Everyone else is “non-elect,” predestined for hell, never able to believe or be saved because God withholds faith/salvation from them, causing them to be unbelievers, to remain unrepentant sinners.  There is nothing we can do about whether we go to heaven or hell because God made the decision for us, controls our thoughts, and causes it to happen.

However, Acts 17:30 tells us that God “… commands all people everywhere to repent.”  And if He commands it, then He expects us to do it, which has to mean that we can do it, that He made it possible.  And 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."  God truly wants all men to be saved, and so He made it possible for all men to be saved.  Do you think God would give us commands but then cause us to disobey them?  Would He predestine most people to hell but then say that He wants all men to be saved and no one to perish?  Does God make a mockery of us and of His commands by telling us to do things that He prevents us from doing?

Calvinists would say that, yes, God can and does command people to do things (repent, believe, obey) that He prevents the non-elect from doing, and that He commands us not to do things (sin, disobey, reject Him) that He then causes us to do.  [But they disguise the word “causes” as much as possible to hide it, to make it sound like Calvi-god doesn’t cause sin when he really does.  They will say “Of course, we have free-will and choose what we want to do,” but they mean that God gives each of us the will, the nature, He wants us to have, which comes with the specific desires He wants us to have (to repent or not, to sin or not, to seek God or not, to believe in Jesus or not, etc.), and these desires cause us to “freely choose” to do what He predestined us to do, and we couldn’t choose to do anything different.  But how in the world is that “free will” or “choice”?  So deceptive!]

They will say “Yes, God commands all people to repent, but that doesn’t mean that all men can repent.  God can command people to do things but then prevent them from doing it and punish them for not doing it - because He is sovereign and can do whatever He wants, for His glory.  Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”  (Can you hear the manipulation?)  

But does this sound biblical?  If it were true, what would it do to God’s character and Word?  Does God say He wants us to do one thing when He really wants, preplans, causes us to do the opposite, but then He punishes us for what He caused?  (Calvinists say "yes.")  Does that sound like a holy, loving, righteous, just God who can be trusted?  (Calvinists say "yes.")  Can we trust any of His commands then, that they are what He really wants us to do?  [Example: God says to not sleep with your neighbor's spouse.  But if you sleep with your neighbor's spouse, Calvinism would have to say that it was ultimately predetermined/caused by God for His pleasure, plans, and glory, and that you couldn't have chosen differently.  And so I ask, "What was God's true Will for you: His command (to not sleep with your neighbor's spouse) or the thing He predestined/caused you to do (sleep with your neighbor's spouse)?"  Can you see what a theological mess this causes?]  And why give commands to us anyway if we have no ability to decide to obey them or not?  What a mess!  And what an attack on God’s Word, Truth, commands, and character!

Calvinists will say “Yes, God wants all men to be saved and no one to perish, but He has ordained that there will be people in hell anyway because He gets glory for displaying His justice and wrath against sin.  And so even though it makes Him sad that there will be people in hell, He does it for His glory.”  But is it really justice to punish people for something they had no control over, for what He predestined/caused them to do?  Can an unjust God be trusted?  And what would it say about God if He was glorified by causing evil, sin, and unbelief?

“Oh,” the Calvinist says, “but God gets to define what’s justice and what’s not, and we can’t understand it with our limited understanding.  And so justice might look like injustice to us.  But to God, it’s justice.”  But if there is no discernable line between justice and injustice, doesn’t it just mean that justice and injustice are essentially the same thing to God?  That good and evil are the same?  And then how can He tell us over and over again in His Word to seek/administer justice if there’s no way to tell the difference between the two?

[Oh, and Calvinists tell us that we should not/cannot use human logic to evaluate God's Word (they mean their view of God's Word: Calvinism), that we can't subject His Word (their Calvinism) to logic, meaning that we cannot ask the kinds of questions I'm asking in trying to determine if Calvinism is biblical or not.  And why would they say this?  Because they know that Calvinism falls apart under logical scrutiny, and so they have to shame you into not asking questions like these, while presenting themselves as so humble and God-honoring for doing so.  Very cult-like manipulation and control!] 

So now let's look at some of the concepts that are part of this first TULIP petal and that lead to the Calvinist misunderstanding of Scripture: 

What is "Sovereign?":  One of Calvinism’s big, fundamental flaws is that they misunderstand “sovereign.”  Calvinists might deny it (but listen to how they talk), but they define “sovereignty” as: “Since God is all-powerful and in-control, He must preplan, cause, and control everything that happens, even sin and evil, or else He wouldn’t, couldn’t, be an all-powerful, in-control God.”  (Telling God how He has to act in order to be God is a foolish, dangerous thing!)  

But really and biblically, “sovereign” isn’t about how God has to act or use His power; it’s about the position of power and authority He has.  He is the highest authority there is, and He can use His power and control however He wants to, even deciding to not actively control everything, to give men free-will, to simply allow (not cause) various things to happen (and then working it into His plans).

So, what do you think the Bible teaches about how God has chosen to be and to act, to exercise His power and control, to interact with people, and about the responsibilities and freedoms He has chosen to give to mankind?  Can you find biblical examples of free-will, of God not preplanning, controlling, causing everything?  Consider these verses (I haven't yet seen a Calvinist adequately address these or incorporate them into their theology):

Hosea 8:4 (God's words): "They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval."

Jeremiah 19:5 (God's own words): "They have built the high places to Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind." (So, who causes and is responsible for our sins: us or God?)

Isaiah 30:1: "Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine..."

Psalm 33:10: "The Lord foils the plans of the nations ..."  (Does God first cause us to have plans but then He foils the plans He caused us to have?  Silly and contradictory.  What kind of a God is that?)

Acts 14:16: "In the past, he [God] let nations go their own way."

1 Kings 20:42: "He said to the king, 'This is what the Lord says: 'You have set free a man I had determined should die.''" [So Calvi-god predetermined that they didn't carry out his predetermined plan!?!  Does that make any sense to you?  How "sovereign" can Calvi-god be if the thing he predetermined to happen didn't happen?  And then which one was his true Will: kill the man or don't kill the man?  If it's "kill the man," then Calvi-god caused the people to not do his Will (he willed that his Will didn't get done).  But if it's "don't kill the man," then he gave a command at first to put the man to death that he didn't really mean.  Either way, he's untrustworthy and nonsensical.] 

Exodus 13:17: "When Pharoah let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country.  For God said 'If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."  [I don't even need to tell you how this totally contradicts and disproves Calvinism, their idea that God preplans, causes, controls everything we think and do.  You can see it clearly for yourselves.  They can't, but you can.]

And if God alone controls every single movement that everyone and everything makes, then why would He need to put "boundaries/limits" around things, such as when He put a boundary around the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden, and a limit on how far the sea can go in Job 38:11, and a protective hedge around Job and limits to what Satan could do to him in Job 1?  Boundaries/limits are only needed when there is freedom to move within those boundaries.

So, do you think Calvinists understand God’s sovereignty correctly or incorrectly?  And what problems does it cause and what damage does it do to view it incorrectly, the way they do?

What are the differences between a god who preplans, causes, and controls all sin and evil for his glory, but who punishes us for it (Calvinism’s god) … and the God of the Bible who gave us free-will, the right to make choices, who allows (not causes) us to sin and make bad choices and reject Him, who punishes us for sins we (not He) are responsible for, and yet who can turn all bad things around and work them into His plans for good and for His glory?  Which God can be trusted, and which can’t, and why?  Which one is truly holy, righteous, and just?  

Which God would you rather have: The god who causes all your sins and all the evils done to you (but who will punish us for it) because he really did want it to happen, for his glory … or the God who really doesn’t want bad/evil things to happen and who isn’t glorified by it but who allows it to happen because He gave people free-will, but He can and will take all the evil/sins we do and the ones done to us and work it into His plans, turning it all into something good, for us and for His Kingdom and glory?  If, as Calvinism teaches, God is the ultimate cause of all sin and evil, if He is the very reason for all our sinful traumas and tragedies and for the evil Satan works in our lives, then who could we turn to for help, healing, comfort, and justice for all these things?

Born-again when?: Now onto the order that Calvinists give to being born-again, having faith, repenting, believing, etc.  As said early, Calvinists believe the elect were chosen for salvation before time began, and so basically they were saved before they were ever born.  (In fact, they've always been saved and were never on their way to hell or in danger of hell.  And so technically, Calvi-god does not actually rescue anyone from hell.  All he does is make those who are already saved realize they are already saved.)  And then eventually, Calvi-god causes all the elect to believe in Jesus, but only after he makes them born-again (after he gives them Calvi-Holy Spirit who causes them to have faith so that they can believe).  

Do you get this?  Do you hear what Calvinism is teaching?  In Calvinism, being born-again comes before/leads to believing in Jesus.  In Calvinism, faith in Jesus does not save, but being saved leads to faith in Jesus.  As Calvinist Loraine Boettner says in his The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination: "A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved."  

So, in Calvinism, the elect are saved first and then God causes them to be born-again (to get the Holy Spirit) who causes them to understand the gospel, respond to the gospel, repent of their sins, and to have faith/believe in Jesus.  (So in Calvinism, the gospel doesn't and can't actually save anyone, because the elect are saved/born-again before being able to understand/respond to the gospel.  And the non-elect can never respond.)  Having faith in Jesus comes last, after being saved, born again, and filled with/regenerated by the Spirit. 

But what do these verses clearly, plainly say about the order of things:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Acts 16:31: “… Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved …”

Romans 10:9: “… if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  (In these three verses, which comes first: eternal life/salvation or believing in Jesus?  Which results in which?)

Acts 2:38: "Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized ... And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"  (Do we need to get the Holy Spirit first to cause us to repent, as Calvinists say ... or does repentance lead to getting the Holy Spirit?)

Acts 11:18: “… So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto [that leads to] life.”  (This verse is saying that God gave the offer of salvation, the ability to repent, even to the Gentiles, not just the Jews.  Does being born-again cause us to repent, as Calvinists say ... or does repentance lead to life/being born-again?)

John 7:39: "By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive."  (Do we have to get the Holy Spirit first to cause us to believe in Jesus, as Calvinists say ... or does belief in Jesus lead to getting the Holy Spirit?)

Ephesians 1:13: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."  (Once again, does getting the Holy Spirit lead to belief, as Calvinists say ... or does belief lead to getting the Holy Spirit?  Also notice that the believers in this verse were not included “in Christ” until they believed.  This contradicts Calvinism's view that all the elect people were pre-chosen in Christ from the beginning of time to be believers and that no one else can believe.  The believers in this verse were not "in Christ" or sealed by the Holy Spirit until after they believed, and then they joined the body of Christ alongside those who believed before them.)

John 20:31: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  (Are we saved/born-again before we believe the gospel, as Calvinists say ... or after?  Which leads to which?)

John 1:12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 3:15,36: “that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life… Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

John 5:24: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

John 6:40: “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

I don't even have to tell you how to read these verses, nor am I trying to convince you that there's some deeper, hidden, contradictory meaning to them, as Calvinists do.  I am telling you to read them for yourselves, as they are written, to see what they plainly and clearly teach.  You can easily understand them for yourselves.  There is no deeper, hidden, contradictory Calvinist meaning.  You don't need Calvinist theologians to tell you how to interpret them.  And these Scriptures clearly and repeatedly say the same thing: that believing in Jesus comes first, that it leads to spiritual life/being born-again/being saved/getting the Holy Spirit.  Not the other way around, as Calvinists believe.  Calvinists do not take God’s Word as it is written or at face value, the plain understanding of it.  They add secret secondary-layers to verses and/or reverse the order of verses to make it fit their ideas, leading to a whole different gospel.

Biblically, we are saved because (and when) we believe in Jesus (and anyone can).  But Calvinists reverse this to say that only the elect can and will believe in Jesus because only the elect are saved from the beginning of time.  What a complete lie it becomes when you subtly twist the plain teaching of God’s Word!

Choosing and Seeking: And now regarding the Calvinist view that man does not have a free-will, the ability to make decisions, or the ability to seek/come to God unless God causes it to happen (they interpret Romans 3:11 - “no one seeks God” - as “it’s impossible for us to seek God”):

John 7:17: "If anyone chooses to do God’s will …"

1 Chronicles 22:19: "Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God."

Psalm 119:30: "But I have chosen the way of truth..."

Deuteronomy 4:29: "But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Jeremiah 29:13: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart..."

Acts 17:27: "For God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him..."

Psalm 14:2: "The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God."

Hebrews 11:6: "... anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Isaiah 55:6: "Seek the Lord while he may be found ..."

Amos 5:4, 14: "Seek me and live ... Seek good, not evil."

Proverbs 8:17: "... those who seek me find me."

Joshua 24:15: "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ..."

So what do you think?  What does the Word of God clearly and repeatedly say?  Does it sound like God expects us to seek Him, believe in Him, obey Him?  Are these real commands we can follow?  Could it be that God expects us to do these things because He made it possible for us to do them?  Would He tell us to seek Him, believe in Him, and obey Him if He made it impossible for us to do so (and if He made the non-elect never able to do so)?  Is He deceptive like that?  Does He play word-games and mind-games with us?

[And so considering all the commands to seek Him (assuming they’re real commands we can follow), how else could we understand “no one seeks God”?  Should we view all those other verses as “fake commands” just to fit the Calvinist view of Romans 3:11?  Read the whole chapter in context to see if it’s teaching that it’s impossible to seek God unless/until God causes you to ... or if it’s really teaching something else, such as that Jews and Gentiles are all in sin, that no one has a right standing before God (apart from Jesus), that (left to ourselves) sinful people don't naturally pursue God which is why God pursues us (all of us), and that the Jewish people's good works and Jewish bloodlines can’t get them into heaven, which is why they, too, need Jesus in order to be saved, just like the Gentiles.]

If the Bible makes sense when it’s read plainly, in a commonsense way, then don’t go looking for hidden, deeper meanings, and don’t let anyone convince you that God really meant to say something else.  That’s how false religions and religious cults get started.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  It’s as simple as that!  Something even a child can understand.  This is a real offer that God gives to all people, that anyone can believe and be saved.  But Calvinists say that “whoever believes” means “only the elect” … because, in Calvinism, only the elect can and will believe.  They don’t think a verse like John 3:16 is an offer to all people or instructions about how you can be saved.  They think it’s simply a statement about how the elect are saved.

But what do you think?  Overall, from beginning to end, does the Bible teach that God has given us the free-will to make real decisions (within boundaries) that have real consequences, that He holds us accountable for the choices we make, that He expects us to seek Him and find Him, that He gives us the choice about whether or not we put our faith in Jesus?  Or does it sound like it’s all been predestined, that God controls all our choices and actions, that we have no effect on anything that happens in life or eternity, and that He will hold us accountable for what He ultimately caused us to do?

I would say that, over and over again the Word tells us that if we sin, disobey, ignore God, or reject Jesus, it’s because we chose to, not because God caused us to:

John 5:40, Jesus rebukes the Jews: "yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

Romans 2:5: "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath against yourself..."

Zechariah 7:11-13, about people resisting God: “But they refused to pay attention: stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears.  They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.  So the Lord Almighty was very angry.  ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

Romans 1:18-20: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  [But wouldn’t “God caused me to not believe” be a great excuse!]

Matthew 23:37: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”

Romans 11:20,23: "But they were broken off because of unbelief ... And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in ..."

God offers eternal life to all people.  Jesus paid the price for all men’s sins.  God did everything to make salvation possible and available to us.  And all He asks us to do is to believe it, to accept Jesus’s payment for our sins.  God has opened the door of salvation up to all people, and all He asks of us and requires of us is that we walk through it.  

But Calvinism shuts the door of salvation to most people, declaring most people beyond God’s reach (by His design and for His glory), hopelessly, helplessly, eternally beyond His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and saving love.  (Don't be deceived when Calvinists say "anyone can be saved."  They don't mean that all people have the ability/option/opportunity to be saved, just that God could have chosen anyone to be one of the elect.  Deceptive!)  

How demonic!  Satanically-inspired!

I mean, who else would try to convince us that we can’t seek God or believe in Jesus or be saved unless God makes us do it … when the Bible clearly shows that it’s our responsibility to seek God (responding to the call He places on all hearts and in His creation) and believe in Jesus in order to be saved?  Who else would try to convince us that our eternal destinies are already determined and that we can’t do anything about it - that if you won the “salvation lottery” then God will cause you to believe (and so you don’t have to, and can’t, do it on your own) but that if you lost the “salvation lottery” then there’s nothing you can do about it anyway (so why bother?)?  Who else would spread the idea that being born-again comes before hearing/believing the gospel (making the gospel superfluous, inconsequential, ineffective) and that being born-again comes before believing in Jesus (which is essentially being born-again/saved without believing in Jesus)?

Sounds satanic to me!

Total Depravity: Non-Calvinist Christians would agree that mankind is depraved, but we would mean that mankind is sinful and that because of our sins, we are separated from God and cannot save ourselves or work our way to heaven, and so we needed God to make salvation possible for us, available to us.  

But Calvinists don’t just mean “sinful, fallen, separated from God” when they say "depraved."  They mean that mankind is so totally depraved that there is no part of us that can do/think/want good or want/think about/seek God or even want to be saved.  And this utter, complete, “total depravity” is why we are totally unable to come to God on our own, which is why He has to cause it to happen (for the elect only).

But once again, Calvinists start with a wrong understanding, this time of “depraved,” and then they read the Bible through that lens and twist Bible verses to fit their ideas.  They use verses about how unbelievers are deceitful, ungodly, full of evil, dead in sins, love darkness, don't understand spiritual things, etc. to support their view.  However, those verses simply describe life without God, but it doesn't say how they came to not believe in God or that they didn't have a choice about being that way or that there is no way they could become believers or that God has to cause people to believe.  Calvinists read into verses things that are not there, twisting Scripture to fit their views.  

They misinterpret "dead in sin" (I'll look at this more later) to mean not just "spiritually separated from God" (the true meaning) but to mean "brain-dead in sin, to the point that sinners are unable to think on their own or to want/seek/choose God."  

They use Genesis 6:5 ("The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.") to "prove" their idea that mankind is so wicked inside that we couldn't possible seek/want/choose God, and so God has to cause it to happen in certain, pre-chosen people.  But if you look at the verse in context, it's about the half-demonic race of people who lived on earth during Noah's time.  Their wickedness was so great that God chose to flood the earth to start over.  It has nothing to do with unbelievers being unable to seek, want, choose God unless God causes it; it's just that the generation of Noah's day was so evil (from the demonic influence) that they never would seek, want, choose God.  (And this verse actually hurts Calvinism because, if Calvinism is true, then God would have first predestined and caused them to be that evil but then punished them for it, pretending that they deserved the punishment they got.  How unjust and untrustworthy the Calvinist god is!)

Anyway, their wrong view of depravity is how they suck in many good, well-meaning Christians.  They hook you with “Do you agree that mankind is depraved?”  And since most Christians will agree (not realizing the different Calvinist view of "depraved"), then they reel you in step by step: “Well, since you agree that all men are depraved, then you agree that we are totally unable to save ourselves, which means that God has to save us, which means that God decides who gets saved and who doesn’t - and God can do this because He is sovereign and can do what He wants - which means that God has to cause the elect ones to have faith because depraved people can’t have faith on their own, etc.”  

And before you know it, you’re a Calvinist - all because you didn’t know their hidden definitions, and because you let them convince you that there’s a deeper layer to all those easy-to-understand-in-a-plain-way verses, and because you never looked up the verses they use in support of Calvinism to see what they really say in context and overall, and because you never compared their understanding of things like "depraved, dead, elect, predestined, sovereign, etc." to the Bible's teachings on it.  

Calvinism: A theology that thrives on and spreads through ignorance, deception, and manipulation!

So now, let’s go back to that advice from Boettner: Do you think the Calvinist idea of Total Inability/Depravity is biblical or unbiblical?  Does it fit with or contradict the plain teaching of Scripture?  If you say it’s unbiblical, then you would be wise to – and are obligated to – reject the other Calvinist points too, according to a Calvinist theologian's own advice.

I’m going to examine the next three points of Calvinism in one, because they’re closely tied.  In fact, they’re so closely tied that if you disprove one of them, they all fall.

2. Unconditional Election and 3. Limited Atonement and 4. Irresistible Grace

In Calvinism, God has predetermined (before He even made mankind) that certain people (the elect) would be saved, and they would be saved without having to meet any conditions.  This is called Unconditional Election.  He chose whom to save based on nothing other than His own mysterious, seemingly-arbitrary reasons, because He wanted those specific people in heaven with Him because He loved them, and they didn’t have to do anything (not even make their own choice to believe in Jesus) to get there.

And this sounds great … until you realize that the flip-side is that God then also predetermined that everyone else would be non-elect, that they would go to hell even though they didn’t do anything (not even make their own choice to reject Jesus) to get there.  (All the good-sounding parts of Calvinism are only in relation to the elect, and no one else.)  

[Calvinists will say that the elect don’t deserve heaven but the non-elect do deserve hell because they wanted/chose to sin and reject Jesus - even though they only did it because that’s all they could choose because Calvi-god made them do it, just like he predestined, and they had no ability to choose anything else.  How is that “choice”?  How is that “deserving” the punishment?]  

If you’re chosen to be non-elect, you can never become one of the elect, which means you can never be saved because Jesus never died for you anyway.  Because Calvi-Jesus wouldn’t die for those predestined to reject him.  It would be a waste of his blood.  (Find me the verse that says this!)  Therefore, Calvi-god limited Calvi-Jesus’s atoning blood to the elect only: “Limited Atonement”.  (It’s hogwash!)  

(I recently heard a Calvinist say that Limited Atonement means that only those who believe will be saved by Jesus's blood.  But that's not what it means.  That's deceptive, making it sound more biblical, more free-will, than it really is.  Limited Atonement means that Jesus didn't even die for the non-elect, but only for the elect, and that's why the elect can believe but the non-elect can't, because their sins weren't paid for and can never be forgiven.)

Calvinists believe that God does not love all people, but only the elect.  And that’s why He saves them.  They believe God saves those He loves and only loves those He saves.  And to make sure the elect are saved, He gives them “Irresistible Grace,” implanting in their hearts a gracious gift of saving faith that irresistibly pulls them to God, causing them to seek Him and to believe in Jesus.  

But He withholds this grace from the non-elect.  And so if you’re not saved, it’s not that you could have believed in Jesus but chose not to, but it’s because God never loved you, Jesus never died for you, God didn’t give you “Irresistible Grace,” and so salvation was never possible for you.  Instead, you got a “non-saving, resistible grace,” a call/offer from Him (a fake offer!) to believe and be saved which He causes you to resist because He predestined you to hell.  

So sorry, better luck next time.  Oops, there is no next time.  Sucks to be you, “salvation lottery” loser.  

(HOGWASH!  My favorite word to describe Calvinism, at least the word I can use in public.)

Can Calvinists find even one verse that clearly teaches any of this stuff!?!  No!  They cobble together various verses taken out of context to make it seem like the Bible teaches this.  

First, they tell you their Calvinist interpretation of verses/the gospel (calling it “biblical truth" and "what the Bible teaches”), and then they systematically lead you through their twisted, cobbled-together, out-of-context verses and say “See, just like I said!”  

And as I said above, they also get you to accept these points by first getting you to agree to their idea of Total Inability/Depravity: “Well, you agree that humans are depraved, right?  And depraved people can’t save themselves or do anything to ‘earn’ salvation, right?  [*See note below.]  And so God has to do it for us, giving us the faith to believe, because depraved people can’t have faith on their own, right?  And so since not all people are saved, it means that He picks who gets saved and who doesn’t, and He only gives faith to those He chose to save.  And if He knows someone won’t be saved, why would Jesus die for them?  Jesus didn’t die for those predestined to reject Him, because that would be a waste of His blood.  So He only died for the elect.  Blah, blah, blah.  Gobble, gobble, gobble.”

[*Note: Calvinists wrongly view “believing in Jesus/accepting God’s offer of salvation” as “works, as trying to earn salvation, trying to save yourself.”  And so since we can’t work our way to heaven or save ourselves, then we must not be able to choose to believe in Jesus or to accept the gift of salvation.

But what does God say?  God says that “believing in Jesus” is the one work we must do to be saved.  "Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?'  Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent [Jesus].'"  (John 6:28-29)

Contrary to Calvinism, God does not consider believing in Jesus to be “working to try to earn heaven/save yourself”: "'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'  Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to a man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:" (Romans 4:3-6)

God is saying that believing/trusting in Him is different than the other kinds of "works" people do to try to earn their way with Him.  We can't do anything to earn our salvation, to work our way to heaven, but God does require one thing from us to be saved: To willingly, consciously believe in Jesus, to make Him our Lord and Savior.  

Question: If Calvinists say that we can't do the one thing God says we need to do to be saved (believe!), then how in the world can anyone be saved the Calvinist way?]

And so when a verse says Jesus died for all or that God loves all, Calvinists reinterpret it to mean “all kinds of people, the elect from all over the world, but not all individual people.”  Or they break God’s love up into two different kinds: He has a “save your soul” love for the elect, but only a “gives you food, water, and sunshine” love for the non-elect, a “temporary grace,” a “kindness” kind of love, before sending you to hell, just like He predestined (see the *NOTE below).  

Voila!  Now they can “honestly” say “We believe God loves all people and gives grace to all people” (while hiding their two completely different kinds of love and grace).  (But when it comes to the non-elect, does that really sound like love?  Like grace?  And what would this mean for Calvinists if we’re supposed to love people like God loves them?)

But what does the Bible say about who God loves, how He loves, who Jesus died for, who God offers salvation to, and what He requires of us?

"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

"But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  And "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous [Jesus] for the unrighteous [mankind]..." (1 Peter 3:18).  [Are only the elect "unrighteous sinners"?  Or are we all?  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).]

And if that isn't clear enough: "He is the atoning sacrifice for all sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)

"And he died for all ..." (2 Corinthians 5:15)

“… [Jesus] suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9)

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!’”  (John 1:29)

"... [God is] not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."  (2 Peter 3:9, KJV)

“For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord.  Repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:32)

"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men..."  (1 Timothy 2:3-5)

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men."  (Titus 2:11. Is saving grace only for “the elect”?  Or for all people?)

Where is there room for misunderstanding here?

"For God so loved the world … Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for all sins, for the sins of the whole world. … God is not willing that any should perish … He wants all men to be saved … His saving grace has appeared to all men … whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life…"

Does anyone even have to tell you how to read these things... or is it very clear on its own?  How could the Bible be any clearer?  How could Calvinists get it so wrong?

They get is so wrong because they believe that verses don’t really mean what they plainly say, but that there’s a deeper, hidden, contradictory layer of meaning that God revealed only to them.  They say that just because God says He wants all people to be saved doesn't mean He made it possible for all people to be saved, but just the elect.  And just because God commands all people to seek Him, to repent, and to believe in Jesus doesn't mean He made it possible for all people to do it, but just the elect.  

So what do you think?  Does God say what He means and mean what He says, or not?  Does He speak clearly and commonsense-ly or deceptively and contradictorily?  Does He say one thing but mean another?  

If so, then how can we trust anything He says, such as that Jesus is God and His death paid for our sins and that there is a heaven and a hell and that we'll be saved if we believe.  Calvi-god could just as easily meant something else, like "Just kidding!  It's all just a cosmic joke for my enjoyment.  And I can do that because I'm sovereign and can do whatever I want!"  

How can Calvi-god be trusted when everything he says is a cover for something else, and when evil and good are both equally caused by him and glorifying to him, and when he says "seek me" even though he made it impossible to seek him, and when he told Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit when he really wanted them to eat the fruit, and when he commands people to repent and believe but then prevents them from repenting and believing and then punishes them for not repenting and believing, and when he commands people to not sin but then causes them to sin for his glory and then punishes them for sinning, etc.?  

I could go on, but you get the picture.  How can a god like that be trusted?  How can "the elect" know for sure that they were predestined to heaven, that Calvi-god isn't just tricking them into thinking they're saved?  How?

*NOTE: And for the record, the Bible itself tells us why God shows kindness to the unrighteous (food, water, sunshine, etc.), and it's not just so that He can say that He showed the non-elect some kinda, sorta, pseudo-love/grace before sending them to hell like He predestined, as Calvinists say.  It's because of this: "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4, emphasis added)

God intends for His kindness to lead us unrighteous sinners to repentance, not just to show the Calvinist non-elect a little “love and grace” (a very little love and grace!) before He sends them to hell for eternity.  God intends His kindness to be what leads stubborn, unrepentant, storing-up-wrath-against-themselves sinners (verse 5) to repentance, to salvation.  He never intended to save a few pre-selected people through “Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, and Irresistible Grace,” through some sort of mysterious "prechosen for heaven and then injected with faith to cause you to believe " thing.  He intends for unrepentant people to see His kindness and, consequently, to turn to Him, repent, believe in Him, and be saved.  That is His intention for all sinners, all unrepentant people.  He does not intend for anyone to go to hell.  He has not predestined anyone to hell.  He desires that we – all of us sinners - see His goodness, seek Him, turn to Him, and be saved.  (Oh, does Calvinism make me mad!!!)

"For God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him..." (Acts 17:27)

"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:29)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

For God so loved YOU that Jesus died for YOU, that if YOU believe, you will not perish but have eternal life!  He has done everything to make salvation possible for and available to YOU, to all of us.  He Himself paid the eternal penalty for all our sins so that we don’t have to.  And all He requires from us is one thing: That we believe!  The only “condition” we have to meet is to accept His free gift of salvation that He freely offers to all people, by believing in Jesus (and anyone can believe):

"That if you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:9-13)

"Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ..." (Joshua 24:15)

[It is so easy to be saved in this "age of grace," and that's probably what makes it so hard for most people to do it.  But next up is the "age of wrath," the tribulation, and most people who are saved during that time period will be martyred for their faith.  Don't wait too long!  Accept God's gift of salvation while it's still so easy.]  

If we don’t accept God's gift of salvation, if we aren’t saved, it’s not God’s fault.  It’s not God’s decision or desire or plan.  It’s not because He “predestined” us to hell or because we were unable to accept His gift because He caused us to be unable.  It’s because we chose to reject His offer of salvation, to ignore Him, to refuse Jesus’s payment for our sins, His death in our place - which means that we choose to pay the penalty for our sins ourselves with eternal death, eternal separation from God: Hell!

”Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (John 3:18)

"I [Jesus] told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be [the Son of God, the Messiah], you will indeed die in your sins." (John 8:24)

“yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” [John 5:40. Does God cause non-believers to resist Him, or are we responsible for our decision?  Isaiah 65:2-3: “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations – people who continually provoke me to my very face …”  And Matthew 23:37: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  What kind of a God would He be if He held out His hands all day to people whom He caused to resist Him, if He longs for those who are “unwilling” to come to Him when He’s the very cause of their unwillingness, because He predestined them to reject Him and go to hell?  How bizarre!  How schizophrenic!]

"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God…. so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness… Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts...” (Hebrews 3:12-15)

“But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God.  They rejected his decrees and the covenant he made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them.  They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless…” (2 Kings 17:14-15)

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)

"But they were broken off because of unbelief ... And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in ..." (Romans 11:20,23)

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)

How could the Bible be any clearer?  How could Calvinists get it so wrong?  How could so many smart, humble, God-loving, well-meaning Christians get suckered into it?  How?

Anyway, there are several big, fundamental problems, among many others, in Calvinist thinking which leads to their errors, to their warped theology and twisted view of Scripture:

1.  Misunderstanding what “spiritually dead” means: “As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).  Calvinists believe in Total Inability (which leads to the other petals of the TULIP) because they wrongly equate “spiritual death” with “physical death.”  

The Bible says that before believing in Christ, we are “dead in sin,” and so Calvinists say that since a physically-dead body can’t do anything (not even want/seek/believe in God or do anything good) but can only lay there all dead, then it must mean that a spiritually-dead person can’t do those things either but can only lay there all dead until God causes them to believe.  (Find me the verse that says this!)  Therefore, God picks whom to save, He wakes the elect up spiritually (regenerating their “dead” hearts to make them born-again), and He irresistibly causes them to want/seek/believe in Him.  But everyone else stays “dead” and is only able to sin and reject God.  (It’s funny – but not “ha ha funny” - how they think being spiritually “dead” means you can’t do anything like want/believe in God or do good, but apparently you can still sin and reject God.  Strange!)

But are Calvinists right about what “spiritually dead” means?  No!  Being “dead in sins” isn’t like being physically dead.  It doesn’t mean “Total Inability.”  It means that we are separated from God spiritually (and if we die physically in that state, we will remain eternally separated from God), and that we cannot work our way to heaven.  And so we needed God to make a way for us, which He did by sending Jesus to the cross for our sins, making salvation available to and possible for us all.

Amos 5:4: "Seek me and live...”  If the people want to “live” (spiritually), they have to seek/find God.  And so since they’re not “alive” yet, God is telling “dead people” to seek Him.  

Calvinists say “dead people can’t seek God until He makes them alive,” but God says that spiritually-dead people must seek Him in order to live.  And He can require this of us because He knows that spiritually-dead people are not brain-dead like a dead body.  We are separated from God spiritually but still have living brains that can think, reason, desire, make decisions, etc.  It’s part of what He built into mankind when He decided to make man in His own image - a free-will (within boundaries), the ability to make decisions.  And He expects us to use our free-will, our living brains, to want Him, seek Him, find Him and be saved.

And why does God leave this up to us?  Because He is a relational Being who wants to be with people who want to be with Him.  None of us would find much joy in being with people who were forced to be with us or with robots programmed to love us, so what makes Calvinists think God would like this?

(You know who else was considered “dead” in the Bible?  The prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.  And yet he himself “came to his senses” and chose to return to his father - a father who was waiting eagerly for him with arms outstretched, eyes full of love, and a heart full of forgiveness.)

Another verse to consider: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life... he has crossed over from death to life.  I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." (John 5:24-25).  Notice that the people get life after hearing and believing, which means that before hearing/believing they are "dead," which means "dead people" can hear and believe, and then after believing they are brought to life (not before, as Calvinists say).  

[And as best I can tell, considering what the concordance says, the first two uses of "hear" in those verses are merely about sensing the words that hit our ears.  So "hear and believe" is about sensing the words and then believing them.  And "the dead will hear" is about spiritually-dead people sensing the words that hit their ears.  Therefore, spiritually-dead people (which we all are, at first) can hear the Word and believe.  But, according to the concordance, as best I can tell, the third use of "hear" - "those who hear will live" - is a different kind of "hear."  It means to yield obediently to the voice we hear - not just to sense/listen to the words, but to really hear, to take it in, to accept it and abide by it.  So taking all this together, these verses don't mean, as Calvinists think, that only certain "elect" people can sense the voice/call of God (after they are brought to life first by the Holy Spirit) and understand the Word and believe in it; it means that all dead people can "hear" the Word, the call of God, but only those who choose to believe in it, to yield obediently to it, will be saved (and only after believing are they brought to life, given eternal life).  This contradicts the Calvinist view that dead people can't hear/believe and that only certain preselected people are brought to life before hearing/believing in order to make them hear/believe.]

2.  Misunderstanding the role of the Holy Spirit:  Calvinists believe it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to make the elect born-again, causing them to want/seek God, giving them faith to believe in Jesus.  But that’s not the Spirit’s job.  

When it comes to sinners, His job is to convict the world of sin, of their need for Jesus: “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me…” (John 16:8-9).  

He reveals to all of us that we are sinners who need Jesus, and He draws/invites us all (not just a few, pre-chosen people) to believe in Him.  

John 12:32: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”  

Ecclesiastes 3:11: “… [God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men…” 

We all know deep-down that there is a God, an eternity.  And we can see God's fingerprints all over creation, enough to know we need to seek Him and find Him, so there is no excuse for not doing it: "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

Acts 17:27: "For God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him..."

But ... and this is what Calvinists refuse to believe ... we can choose to resist Him.  God allows us to choose to either heed/accept/follow His call or to resist/reject/disobey His call.  He calls to all and offers salvation to all, but He lets us decide how we will respond to the call.  And many people will reject it, refusing His offer of salvation.  

Isaiah 63:10: “Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.  So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”  

Acts 7:51: “You stiff-necked people… You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!”  

Hebrews 3:15: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”

But since Calvinists don't believe we get a choice, they believe that God chooses who will believe and He offers salvation only to them and the Holy Spirit causes them to believe ... but if you weren't chosen then you can never believe.  

But biblically, the offer is given to all and the Holy Spirit convicts all (putting in our hearts a deep knowledge that we are sinners in need of a Savior and that God is real) but God lets us choose how to respond, to heed the call or not, to accept the offer of salvation or not.  

And when we do choose to heed the call, to put our faith in Jesus, then the Holy Spirit performs the rest of His jobs, according to the Bible.  He helps us on our journey as believers by guiding us, comforting us, giving us wisdom and peace and strength and hope, etc., helping us grow in truth and in faith, helping us pray and know what to say, and He seals us for the day of redemption, etc.  (John 14:16-17,26, John 16:13, Acts 1:8, Ephesians 1:13-14,17, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Romans 8:26-27, etc.).  

These are the roles of the Holy Spirit.  But nowhere will you find a verse that says His role is to force certain pre-selected people to become believers.  (And as we already saw in the last section, believers get the Holy Spirit after they believe, as a result of their belief, not before they believe to cause them to believe, as Calvinists say.)

3. Misunderstanding the Will of God (which we’ve already looked at briefly):  Calvinists do not believe God meant what He said the way He said it or that He said what He meant.  They believe there are hidden layers (revealed to them) underneath what God said, which actually contradict what He plainly said.  

Such as, God says that He doesn't want anyone perishes but that He wants all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  But Calvinists say that God really does want most people in hell because He gets glory for it by being able to display His justice/wrath against sin.  He made some people to be elect so that He could show off His love, but He made some (most!) people to be unrepentant sinners so that He could show off His justice.  (HOGWASH!)

And how do they rationalize this?  By claiming that He has two different Wills that contradict each other, and that it's okay because He is sovereign and can do whatever He wants and we don't have to understand it but we just have to accept it.  

You see, they believe He has a revealed Will (what He says) but then He has a secret, secondary Will (what He causes), which contradicts His revealed Will.  For example, He says He doesn't want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit (His revealed Will) but then He preplans/causes them to eat the fruit (His hidden Will, contradicting His command to not eat the fruit).  They say that God decrees things (revealed Will) but then He decrees people to break His decrees (hidden, contradictory Will).  And Calvinists see nothing wrong with this.    

And so, in Calvinism, it’s God’s revealed Will that no one perishes, but it's His hidden Will that they do perish so that He can show off His “justice.”  And since they're both His Will, it's okay and we shouldn't question it.  

(But it doesn't make any sense.  And is it really justice anyway to cause our sins but punish us for it?  And if He says one thing but means another, can you really trust anything He says or commands?  Can't you see the damage Calvinism does to God’s character, Word, and trustworthiness?)  

Not only does Calvinism break God's love and grace into two different kinds (one for the elect and one for the non-elect), but now we see that it breaks God's Will about salvation into two different kinds: one for the elect (it's His Will to save them to show off His love) and one for the non-elect (it's His Will to predestine them to hell to show off His justice).    

If, in your effort to make the Bible fit your theological ideas, you have to repeatedly break up biblical concepts into unbiblical "two different types of," or create primary and secondary layers that contradict each other, or take verses out of context and twist their meanings (when they can be plainly understood in a commonsense way just by reading it as is) ... then I would go out on a limb and declare that your theology is WRONG!

[If Calvinists can find me one verse - just one! - that says the God predestined people to hell for His justice and glory, and that Jesus did not die for all sins of all people ... if they can find one verse that says any of this clearly, as clearly as the Bible says Jesus DID die for all sins of all people, then maybe I'll start to believe them.]

Biblically, God does have two kinds of Wills - but not a revealed one and a secret contradictory one about the same thing, as Calvinists say.  Because that would make God duplicitous, untrustworthy, and schizophrenic.  But as Pastor Dr. Tony Evans says (whom I think is one of the most theologically-accurate pastors out there), God has an unconditional Will for some things and a conditional Will for other things.  (See the first ten minutes of this sermon: How to get your prayers answered.)  There are things He's planned and decided to do, regardless of us, such as create the world, send Jesus to die for our sins, offer salvation to sinners, renew creation in the end, etc.  He does these things regardless of what we do or don't do.  But then there are things He's planned to do on the condition that we do our part, and this is where we get the "if you ... then ..." verses from.  "If you obey, then I will bless you.  If you disobey, then I won't bless you and you'll face bad consequences."  These kinds of verses only make sense if God gave us the real right to choose to obey or disobey.  And He did.  Which is why the Bible makes sense.  

How God responds to us, what He does in our lives, depends on what we choose.  He tells us what He expects of us, and He tells us what the consequences will be based on what we decide, and then He leaves it up to us to choose to either obey or disobey.  And so His conditional Will - the blessings and rewards He wants to give us, the paths He wants to take us down, etc. - doesn't always happen, because it hinges on what we choose.  We do not affect His unconditional Will, but we do affect His conditional Will in our lives, because He gave us free-will, the option to obey or disobey.  And so if we miss out, it's on us, not on Him.  If we reap bad consequences for our bad choices, it's our fault, not His, and it's not because He willed it to happen.  

(But regardless of what mess we get ourselves into, He's always willing to forgive us, to help us set it right again, to straighten out our lives and help us get back on track, and to create something good out of the bad.  So all hope is not lost!  Keep picking yourself up when you fall down and turning back to the Lord again.  Because He is the God of second chances.  And third.  And fourth.  Etc.)  

This is the biblical way to understand God's Will, and it's very different from the schizophrenic, contradictory, unjust Calvinist version of God's Will.

Let's see what the Bible says about God's Will when it comes to saving or damning people?

In Acts 20:27, Paul says "For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God."  The whole Will of God!  Paul's consistent message was "God wants you to be saved: to repent and believe in Jesus," a message confirmed all throughout Scripture:  

1 Timothy 2:3: "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved..."  

2 Peter 3:9: "... [God is] not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Ezekiel 18:32: “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord.  Repent and live!” 

Amos 5:4: "Seek me and live...”

And he calls God's desire that men repent, believe, and be saved "the whole Will of God."  Where is there room here for a secret, secondary, contradictory Will where God really does want most people to perish so that He can get glory for showing off His justice?

God’s whole Will, desire, is that people repent and be saved.  But God will only save us on the condition that we believe in Jesus, as He said we need to do.  He made salvation possible for all people by sending Jesus to die for all sins and by offering salvation to all, but He allows us to reject it, to resist His Will, His desire for us.  And if we do, we miss out on the eternal blessings He's promised to all who will believe.  

Calvinists, however, do not think God allows us to resist His Will, which is another major error in their thinking.  They assume that if He wills something, He forces it to happen, and that everything that happens is because He willed it, preplanned it, and caused it, and that nothing can happen that He didn't preplan, will, and cause.  (But all of this comes from their own assumptions, their own misunderstanding of what "sovereign" means and of how a sovereign God would act.)  

Yes, God has some plans that we cannot resist, such as we all have to appear before the Judgment Seat someday, and someday every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (if you don’t do it now willingly, you will do it in eternity under compulsion, but by then it will be too late to accept the gift of salvation).  

But He has other plans/desires that He does allow us to resist, like His desire that we believe in Jesus and choose obedience.  So if we go to hell, it’s not because God caused us to be unrepentant to show off His justice, but it’s because we chose to reject the only way to heaven that God gave us (Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”)

In fact, I can boldly and emphatically say that God doesn't predestine people to hell to show off His justice because the Bible itself tells us what He did to show His justice.  And it isn't predestining people to hell.

“God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished- he did it [sent Jesus to the cross for our sins] to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26, emphasis added)

God did not predestine people to hell to demonstrate His justice against sin.  According to His own Word, He sent Jesus to die for our sins to demonstrate His justice.  God put Himself up on the cross (Jesus is God, part of the Trinity) to pay the penalty that we owe for our sins.  So that we could live.

"But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:8)

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6.  All throughout His Word, God repeatedly says that Jesus died for all people.  What a horrible insult it is for Calvinists to say He didn't!)

God Himself says that He shows His justice by sending Jesus to the cross to pay for our sins (not by predestining people to hell).

And God Himself says that He shows His love by sending Jesus to the cross to pay for our sins (not by choosing a few elect people to save).

And by this demonstration of His justice and love for all, we are now free to be justified, to have our sins wiped away in God’s eyes.  If we let Jesus’s sacrificial death pay the penalty we owe.  If we place our faith in Him.  And this offer is for all people!  (If we end up in hell, it's by our choice to reject God's offer of salvation, not because God predestined anyone to go there.)

"For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all."  (Romans 11:32)

"Consequently, just as the result of one trespass [Adam’s sin] was condemnation for all men so also the result of one act of righteousness [Jesus’s death] was justification that brings life for all men." (Romans 5:18)

God's holiness and justice demanded payment for our sins.  But in His abundant love for us all, He paid the penalty Himself ... so that we could live.  God's justice does not predestine people to hell; it offers to spare us from hell because Jesus died in our place.  No one has to go to hell.  The payment has been paid by Jesus for us all, for all our sins.  And all we have to do is believe it, accept it.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (John 3:16-18)

"... [God is] not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9, KJV)

I don't know how the Bible could have been any clearer.  And I can't understand how Calvinists could be so wrong, so blind, so devoted to their theological errors and deceptions.  

Well, actually, I can, because it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book:

Genesis 3:1: ”Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say …”

2 Corinthians 11:3,14: “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ… And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

1 Timothy 4:1: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”

1 Peter 5:8: “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

To reiterate, Calvinists consider God’s Will (and on a different note, His foreknowledge) essentially synonymous with God pre-planning/causing everything.  And so when they say God wills (or foreknows) something, they think it means He preplanned and causes it.  They do not understand the idea of a conditional Will that we can resist or disobey.  Because they don't think God allows us to choose.  And so therefore, they think that "God is not willing that any should perish" must really just mean that God willed that the elect won't perish, because if God really willed that all people be saved then (according to their unbiblical assumptions) all people would have to be saved.  Because no one could resist His Will.  (Or they'll say that God "wants" - on an emotional level - the non-elect to be saved, but that He still predestines them to hell anyway for His glory, even though it makes Him sad.)    

This is why they accuse us of universalism when we say "Jesus died for all" - because they translate it as "all will be saved" because they erroneously think that if Jesus died for you then you must be saved because, according to them, no one could resist the offer of salvation if Jesus died for them.  

So many errors because they just won't read the Bible as God wrote it!  But if they would just factor in the biblical truth of free-will, most of their theological errors would get resolved.  Instead, though, they just keep digging their theological-error holes deeper, trying to fix it by twisting even more verses and breaking even more concepts up into "two contradictory types" and adding more contradictory layers and redefining words, etc., adding error upon error upon error.

I believe that God’s Will isn't about preplanning/causing what happens, but when it comes to what happens in our lives, it's more often about what He wants to have happen, His ideal plan for us (but we have to follow Him in it).  

And this is confirmed by the Greek meaning of the word often translated "will," such as in Revelation 4:11 which says that all things were created by God's Will (which, interestingly, is "for His pleasure" in the KJV).  The Greek meaning of this "will/pleasure" is essentially a combination of God’s pleasure and what He wills.  The concordance says that it’s often about God’s “preferred Will,” about “the result hoped for with the particular desire/wish.”  

It’s not about God preplanning everything that happens and then causing it to happen, but it’s about what God prefers to have happen, meaning that what He prefers doesn’t always happen and that things can happen that He doesn’t prefer (yet He can still work it all for good, into His plans – He’s just that wise and powerful and sovereign).  

This makes it much less “hard-determinism” than Calvinism’s view of His Will.  And it makes much more sense when the Bible talks about things God wills that don't happen, such as that all men are saved.  That's what He prefers to have happen, what He made possible, but He leaves the choice up to us.

[A quick note about Romans 5:18 “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”: 

Calvinists believe Jesus only "brings life" for the elect, for all kinds of people from all nations," not for all individuals.  But if "all men" means "all kinds of people (the elect), not all individual people," then it must mean that in the first half of the sentence, too.  Therefore, in Calvinism, "condemnation for all men" doesn't mean that all individual people of the world were condemned through Adam's fall, but only the elect from all over the world.  

Same with Romans 11:32: "For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all."  Does "all" mean all kinds of people from all nations or all individual people?  And it needs to mean the same in both places.  Calvinists can't say "All individual people were bound to disobedience, but God had mercy (salvation-type mercy) on all kinds of people from all over the world, the elect only."  It's either "all individual people were bound to disobedience and so all individual people are offered mercy," or it's "only the elect were bound to disobedience and offered mercy."  Calvinists cannot change the definition of "all men" from one kind to another in mid-sentence.

The thing is, a fundamental error of Calvinism is that it presupposes that if someone is offered salvation, they can't reject it and so they must accept it.  Therefore, when Calvi-Jesus offers eternal life/mercy to people, they will inevitably be saved because they can't reject it (and this would mean that only those people - the elect - were truly "offered" salvation).  

I, however, think Jesus's death bought "justification that brings life" for all individual people, so that He could have mercy on all - but God doesn't force it on us.  He gave us the right and responsibility to decide if we will accept or reject His mercy, the gift of eternal life that Jesus bought for all.  

Romans 3:23-24: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and [all (implied)] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ."  Once again, you can't switch the definition of "all" mid-sentence.  Either it's "all individuals sin and fall short and are, therefore, freely justified (freely offered justification/eternal life)"... or... if "only the elect" are offered justification/eternal life, as Calvinism would say, then it has to mean that only the elect sin and fall short, too.  

I think "all" means "all individual people" - and so all people have sinned and all are justified freely.  All sins of all people have been paid for by Jesus, and so all people have a freely-offered ticket to heaven with their name on it.  But we decide to accept it or reject it.  And sadly, many choose to reject Jesus's sacrifice for them and to pay the penalty for sin themselves - a penalty that's already been covered by Jesus so that they don't have to pay it - resulting in eternal separation from God forever: Hell.

Be careful of your definition of "all."  And don't switch it mid-sentence.]  

4.  Misunderstanding “predestination/election”:  Along with misunderstanding sovereignty, depravity, spiritually death, the role of the Holy Spirit, God's Will, etc., Calvinists also misunderstand the Bible’s use of “predestined” and “elect/election.”  Simply put, these are about things that happen after someone chooses to put their faith in Jesus, not about how certain, prechosen people are saved.

Predestination is about believers (those who choose to put their faith in Jesus, and anyone can) being predestined to be conformed to Jesus’s image and to bring God glory and to get an inheritance - not about certain people being predestined to believe in Jesus and about God causing it to happen.  And election is about all believers being elected for service, to serve God, chosen for certain roles and responsibilities that God has in store for anyone who believes in Jesus (and anyone can) - not about God choosing who gets saved and who doesn’t.  

Simply put, it's not that "the elect" are prechosen/predestined to believe in Jesus and so God causes it happen, as Calvinists say.  It's that anyone who chooses to believe in Jesus becomes one of the elect (one of those given the roles and responsibilities of a follower of Christ) and is now on a path that has a predestined end (glorification, to grow to be more like Christ, redemption of our bodies, etc.)  Big difference!

1 Peter 1:1-2: “To God’s elect ... who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.”  [Notice that they – the believers - were chosen to be obedient, not to be saved.  God’s plan is that all believers become obedient to Jesus.  And He foreknows, from the beginning, who will believe and who won’t.]

Ephesians 1:11-12 (RSV): "In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory."  [This isn’t saying that certain people are predestined to believe, but that all believers are destined to live for God’s glory.  Also, Calvinists say this verse proves that God causes all things to happen according to His Will.  But it doesn’t say that.  It’s about God working all things together – even the things He didn’t cause/want - to accomplish His Will, weaving all things into His plans, for good.  See Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”  It’s not that God “causes” all things, but that He works all things together for good.]

Ephesians 1:13: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promise of the Holy Spirit."  [Once again, anyone can be included “in Christ” if, when, and after they believe in Jesus, putting their faith in Him.]

Ephesians 1:4-5: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons ..."  

Does this say that a few lucky people were chosen to be saved?  No!  It says that those who are “in Him” (and Eph. 1:13 says we become “in Christ” when and after we believe) are chosen to be holy and blameless in God’s sight.  Anyone who chooses to believe in Jesus will be "in Christ" and will be seen by God as holy and blameless because Jesus's death takes away our sins.  When God looks at those who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, He doesn’t see our sins anymore; He sees Jesus, that Jesus’s blood took away our sins:

“… as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like a morning mist.  Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:22. We’ve all been redeemed by Jesus’s blood.  All our sins have been paid for.  But only those who accept Jesus’s sacrifice in their place will experience that redemption.  The rest reject it and so they won't get it.)

“But if we walk in the light, as [God] is in the light … the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9. Notice that there is a condition here: to walk in the light, to confess our sins, which essentially means to confess that we are sinners who need Jesus, to believe in Jesus and turn to Him as our Lord and Savior, for the forgiveness of our sins.)

[Added Note: In order to truly understand predestination in Ephesians, you must read carefully: Ephesians 1:5,11-12 (KJV):  “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself … In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”

Does Eph. 1:5 say that certain sinners are predestined to salvation/eternal life?

No.  It says we are predestined to be adopted as children.  And to know what “adoption of children” means (the NIV words it “adoption as sons”) go to Romans 8:23 (NIV): “… we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

“Predestined for adoption” is not about certain sinners being predestined for salvation/eternal life.  It’s about the promise that God will redeem the bodies of all believers, that all believers will eventually acquire the full benefits of being a child of God.

(Also of note is that the concordance says "adoption" is NOT about being brought into God's family by spiritual birth, but about God promising to "adopt" anyone who believes into His family.  Anyone who believes in Jesus, who accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior - and this offer is open to all - will become one of His children: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12)  And all His children are predestined to be brought into His family and to experience the dignity/full benefits of being His child, being fully realized at the redemption of their bodies.  This is God’s promise, that if you put your faith in Jesus, you will be part of His eternal family!)

And notice also that the second "predestination" (in Eph. 1:11-12) specifies that the "inheritance" believers get is what was predestined, NOT that certain people are predestined for salvation.

Basically, Ephesians predestination is saying that we who are “in Him” (as a result of choosing to believe in Him) are predestined to have our bodies redeemed, to get an inheritance, and to bring God glory.  All of this is promised by God to anyone who chooses to put their faith in Jesus.  And anyone can.

Even Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV) confirms this when it says that “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.”

Notice that those believers were not included in Christ until after they believed.  And after they believed, they were given the Holy Spirit as a promise that they will be redeemed.  And they are guaranteed an inheritance.  This contradicts Calvinism on at least three points:

First, it confirms that predestination is not about certain sinners being preselected for heaven, but it’s about believers being predestined for redemption and an inheritance.  Second, it contradicts Calvinism’s idea that the elect are “in Christ” (essentially “saved”) from the beginning of time, because Scripture shows they were not in Christ until after they believed.  And third, it contradicts Calvinism’s view that the elect have to get the Holy Spirit first, that He causes them to believe in Jesus, because it shows that they didn’t get the Holy Spirit until after they believed, as a result of believing.

"Predestination" is not about individual people being pre-chosen for salvation, but it’s about the destiny of anyone who chooses to believe in Jesus.  And that's a big difference!  Calvinists get this wrong from the very beginning, and it ruins their whole theology.]

Let's look at one example, a verse that Calvinists use to prove Calvinism, to see how incorrectly they read Scripture when it comes to being "chosen": 

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14: “But we always ought to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.  He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  

Calvinists use this verse to say that God chooses whom to save.  But it doesn’t say that.  It says “God chose you to be saved through … the Holy Spirit and through belief in the truth.”  And in various translations of the Bible, it doesn’t just say “… God chose you to be saved…”, but it says “God chose you as His first-fruits.”  This "first-fruits" adds a whole new meaning and clarifies what Paul means.  The particular generation that Paul was writing to was chosen to be the first generation to have Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the first to be able to be saved through belief in Jesus (instead of by devotion to God, as evidenced in adherence to the Law, as it was for previous generations), because their lifetimes coincided with His.  This totally changes it from a Calvinist “God chooses which individuals to save” verse to a verse about God choosing the method of salvation, that Paul's generation would be the first (the first-fruits) to be saved through faith in Jesus.

There is always a better, more accurate way to read a “predestination, election, chosen” verse than the hogwashy Calvinist way!  

And these other interpretations - that God predestined the method of salvation and predestined what happens after people believe (they will be blameless in His sight, be redeemed, live for His glory, be part of the family, get an inheritance, etc.) - keep the Bible's message intact and consistent, uphold God’s character and truth, offer salvation to all, invite all to believe, and just make so much more sense than the Calvinist idea of "predestination" which destroys the Gospel message, contradicts the rest of Scripture, makes God the cause of sin and evil and unbelief, accuses God of punishing people for what He caused, claims that sin and evil is glorifying to God, closes the door of heaven to most people, and destroys Jesus's sacrifice and God's gracious, merciful, loving, just, forgiving character, etc.

God loves all people.  Jesus paid the price for all people.  Salvation is offered to all people.  And all we have to do is accept it in faith.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We cannot earn salvation by works.  But God does expect/require us to do one thing, to meet one condition, to be saved: to put our faith in Jesus.

[Calvinists wrongly think that “faith,” in that verse, is the gift God gives, that it’s something He injects into the elect to make them believe.  And so if faith has to be given to you by God then He decides whom to give it to, and He only gives it to the elect to cause them to believe.  But – and this is a BIG BUT – Greek words are gendered.  They are either female, male, or neuter.  And if a word refers to a noun, it needs to have the same gender as that noun.  In this verse, “faith” is female.  And therefore, if “gift” was referring to faith (as Calvinists believe) then “gift” must also be female.  But it’s not.  It’s neuter.  Therefore, faith is not the gift (neither is simply “grace,” which is also female).  Another major strike against Calvinism!  The gift, biblically, is the whole kit-and-caboodle: salvation, the offer of eternal life extended to us by God's grace, acquired through our faith in Him.  This is the gift God offers to us.  To all of us.  But He leaves it up to us to accept or reject it.  Faith is not something God injects into certain people; it’s our response to Jesus, to His free gift of eternal life, our decision to believe in Him.  And it’s up to us.]

The way I like to explain predestination, very simply, is this:

There are two buses: one destined for heaven and one destined for hell.  The path these buses take has already been pre-determined by God, but He leaves it up to us to choose which bus we get on.  (However, our default bus is the “hell bus.”  So not deciding to board the “heaven bus” automatically puts us on the “hell bus.”)  There is a seat for everyone on the “heaven bus,” all our tickets have been paid for by Jesus’s blood, and all we have to do is get on the bus (to put our faith in Jesus).  The path a person takes after they believe in Jesus is what’s been predestined, not whether or not they believe.

So based on a plain reading of Scripture, do you think Calvinists are right or wrong about predestination, about “Unconditional Election” and “Limited Atonement” and “Irresistible Grace”?  

Does God say what He means and mean what He says … or does He have secret, hidden, contradictory layers under everything He says?  Does God offer salvation to all and expect us to decide … or does He choose who goes to heaven and cause them to believe (predestining everyone else to hell)?  Is faith our response to Jesus, our decision to believe in Him … or is it something God injects into certain people to cause them to believe?  Can we resist what God wants us to do … or are we forced to do whatever He pre-decided for us?  Do we decide how to live, what to believe, whom to serve … or does God cause/control our thoughts, sins, and unbelief but hold us accountable for it?  

How’s the track-record of Calvinist theology looking so far when compared to the plain teaching of Scripture?

5.  Perseverance of the Saints

I agree with Calvinists in principle on this point, but not for the reasons they say.  This point - this TULIP petal - basically boils down to “you can’t lose your salvation” (the only part I agree with), but where I stop agreeing with them is their belief that the reason the elect can't lose their salvation is because God predestined them for heaven, causes them to believe, and will cause them to persevere in the faith all the way to the end of their lives.  

This sounds good (if not for the fact that its foundation is an unbiblical view of predestination) and it brings Calvinists a lot of comfort in their “eternal security,” that if God predestined them for heaven and caused them to believe then they can never lose their faith/salvation.

But there’s a problem: This is only if they are truly one of the elect, and Calvinists cannot know for sure whether or not they themselves are truly one of the elect until they see if they persevered in the faith all the way to the end of their lives.  Kinda puts them in a bind, doesn’t it, having to wait to see if God causes them to be faithful till the end of their lives to know if they were truly saved all along or not.

You see, Calvinists don't get to decide if they want to believe in Jesus or not.  They believe it's up to God, that God causes them to or not.  And therefore, they have to just wait and see what He decided, hoping and praying that they were truly given real faith in Jesus, which will only be evident if they remain in the faith all the way till the end of their lives.

But I don’t believe that God predestines only certain people to heaven or that He causes those pre-selected people to believe (and that no one else can believe).  I believe the Bible teaches that God loves all people, that Jesus died for all people, that salvation is available to all people, that anyone can believe, and that we are all responsible for our choice about Jesus.  And once we choose to put our faith in Jesus, to commit to Him, making Him our Lord and Savior, then we will be saved and God seals us with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee, to make it permanent, secure.

If we do what God said we need to do (believe in Jesus!), then we can trust that He will do what He promised to do (save us!).  This is where our security is, in God's faithful character, reliable Word, and trustworthy promises.  

[And this, sadly, is something Calvinism does not have because Calvi-god is a contradictory, deceiving god who cannot be trusted to mean what he says and say what he means, a god who is as equally glorified by sin and evil as he is by obedience and goodness, a god who causes sin but punishes us for it, etc.  How can a god like that ever be trusted to keep his word?]

Ephesians 1:13-14: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory." [When you believe, God seals you, guarantees your eternal inheritance, and promises to redeem you in the end.]

Ephesians 4:30: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."  [We’re not warned that we might “lose” the Spirit or our seal, because it’s not possible.  Instead, we’re warned to not “grieve” the Holy Spirit who sealed us (past tense, it’s a done deal) for the day of redemption.  And I believe that’s the day Jesus comes back to get us (which is looking closer every day).  Question: If God predestines and controls everything we do, as Calvinists believe, then why the warning to us to not grieve the Spirit, as if we had any choice or control about it?  If Calvinism is true, then God would determine whether we grieve the Spirit or not, and if we do then it would be because He’s causing it for His glory.  Same with any sin we do.  What a mess Calvinism creates!]

2 Corinthians 1:21-22: "Now it is God who makes both of us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."  [What event is "to come"?  Jesus is coming back to take us with Him.  And the Holy Spirit is our guarantee of that.  His seal marks those who belong to Him, who choose to believe in Jesus.  And anyone can.  And with the Spirit's help, believers can stand firm in the faith when hard times hit, as we await the day He comes to get us.]

John 1:12-13: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent… but born of God." [When you believe, you get the right to be “born again” into God’s family.  This contradicts the Calvinist idea that the elect are born-again first, to cause them to believe.  This verse clearly shows that being born-again is a result of believing in Jesus.  And once you are born-again, you cannot become unborn.  You are a new creation, a child of God now: 1 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  The old has gone.  It’s not waiting around to reclaim you.]

[FYI: Calvinists will agree on the surface with “God loves all people, Jesus died for all people, salvation is offered to all people, anyone can believe, and we are all responsible for our choice about Jesus.”  But they have a deeper level that changes the meaning of the surface level they say they agree with.  

Briefly, here’s what they really mean (their actual beliefs are in parentheses, in blue): “God loves all people (but He has two different kinds of love - a “save your soul” love for the elect and a “gives you food and sunshine on earth” love for the non-elect)... Jesus died for all (of His) people (the elect)... salvation is offered to all people (that is, to all the people Jesus died for, the elect; or it's offered to all people but only the elect can accept it)... anyone can believe (if they want to, but God causes only the elect to want to)... and we are all responsible for our choice about Jesus (we can only choose what God predestined/causes us to choose, but if He causes you to not believe in Jesus, He will still hold you responsible for it).”  

They are very deceptive in their wording, hiding their real beliefs and only sharing the part we would all agree with, trying to make us think they are saying the same thing we are, that they believe in free-will and real choice and that all people can be saved, when they really don’t believe this.  And they do this so that they can slowly, stealthily reel you deeper and deeper into Calvinism without scaring you off or raising any red flags.  It’s one of the ways they trap many good, well-meaning Christians into Calvinism (along with convincing you that they have deeper knowledge of the Bible and that you’re more humble and God-glorifying if you agree with them, etc.).  But the fact that they feel they need to cover up their real beliefs in order to draw people into Calvinism, softening their beliefs to not scare people away, is a major red flag that something is wrong with their theology!  Okay, now, back to where we were …]

So while I agree with Calvinists that true Spirit-sealed believers cannot lose their salvation, I disagree with how we are saved.  And it’s a disagreement that makes all the difference.  I disagree that only certain, pre-chosen people can be saved and that everyone else is hopelessly lost, beyond the reach of God’s grace, forgiveness, and love.  I disagree that Jesus died for only a few people.  I disagree that God gets glory for causing people to sin, reject Him, and go to hell.  I disagree that God punishes us for what He causes.  I disagree that we have no real control over what we think, choose, do, or whom we worship.

Joshua 24:15: "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..."

Romans 1:21,28: "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind ..."  (They were blinded because they wanted to be blinded, because they chose to reject God and His Truth.  They wanted a life without God, and so He gave them what they wanted.)

And I also disagree with the terminology of “perseverance” of the saints, which seems to make it about our actions and efforts to stay in the faith, as if our security of salvation rests on how well we "persevere," how well we run the race of life.  I think a better word would be the “preservation” of the saints.  No matter the mistakes and stumbles we make along the way, no matter the pitfalls we fall into or the backsliding we do, no matter how well or poorly we run the race, God has already preserved us in our salvation.  To “persevere” is something we do, based on our efforts, something we have to keep on doing our whole lives.  But to be “preserved” is something God does to us (He seals us and guarantees our redemption), not based on our efforts to persevere but on His promise to give eternal life to all who believe, and it happens the moment we put our faith in Jesus.  And anyone can believe.  Therefore, anyone can be saved.  When we choose to believe in Jesus, we are born-again and sealed and become "destined” to live for the praise of God's glory, to grow in Christ, and to be redeemed.  Not to be lost again.

Ephesians 1:12 (RSV): "… we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory."

Romans 8:29-30: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son... And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (If God foreknows you as His child, then you are predestined to eventually be glorified, as all true believers will be.  To be technical, Romans 11:2 specifies that God foreknew Israel.  But don't forget that Gentile believers are grafted into Israel, adopted into "God's chosen people," so that in Jesus Christ there is no difference, Romans 9:8,24-26, 11:17, Galatians 3:26-29, 6:15, Ephesians 3:6, etc.)

Can You Lose Your Salvation?: However, some Christians (not Calvinists) don’t believe in “once saved always saved.”  They think you can lose your salvation by sinning (but if that was true, then what did Jesus’s death really accomplish?), and therefore you must work to keep your salvation.  They believe that every time you sin or backslide you become “unsaved” again.  And so if you fail to confess any sin before you die, you will go to hell.  They say that getting salvation at first is about faith, but keeping it is about your efforts.

And they fear that “once saved always saved” gives people an excuse to live in sin: “Oh, I prayed a prayer to accept Jesus, so now I can live however I want because my salvation is secure.”  But this is a false premise to start with because if someone “gets saved" with the idea that it's permission to keep sinning then they probably aren't really saved at all.  To believe in Jesus (according to the concordance) is to commit to Him, not just to say you believe in Him.  ("You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that - and shudder." James 2:19)  

If you never really repented - turned from yourself, your former ways - then you never really made Jesus your Lord.  And you can't have the "Savior" part without the "Lord" part.  To be genuinely saved requires not just saying words like “I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.”  It always involves a heart change, choosing to turn from your life of sin (to repent) and to turn to Jesus as Savior and Lord, to commit to Him.  It’s a commitment for life, not just 10 seconds of saying a prayer.

Acts 2:38,3:19: "Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized ... And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'… Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."

2 Corinthians 7:10: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

James 4:8: “Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Romans 10:9-10: "That if you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” [True faith/repentance is a heart thing, not just a mouth thing.  A heart change, not just a behavior change.]

Matthew 15:8: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  (God knows the difference.  And it matters.)

2 Chronicles 7:14: “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Only those who truly believe in their hearts, who commit to the Lord, will be sealed with the Spirit.  And genuine believers won’t be comfortable using excuses to live in sin.  They might still try, but they won’t be comfortable because the Spirit inside them won’t let them be.  And if they continue to live in sin, God may hand them over to themselves, their bad choices, as discipline.

1 Corinthians 3:16: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

John 16:8: “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment…”

1 Corinthians 5:5 (about a man in their church who was deep in sin and unrepentant about it): “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

Hebrews 12:10-11: “... God disciplines us for our own good, that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  [Why would this imply that sin leads to discipline if sin really leads to losing your salvation?  And as Proverbs 3:12 says, "the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father [disciplines] the son he delights in."  But if we lost our salvation when we sinned, we would no longer be His child, and, therefore, there is no need to discipline us as a child He loves anymore.]

John 16:13: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” and Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  (This is where the Spirit leads us.)

And so when true believers sin, the Spirit will convict them (they might ignore the conviction, for a long time even, earning some serious punishment and discipline, but it will be there, gnawing at them), giving them a deep-down sense that they’re not living the way He wants them to, that something is wrong, that they’ve drifted from God.  And when they finally stop and listen to the Spirit’s conviction, when they finally acknowledge their waywardness, then they can stop making excuses and start trying to make it right - by coming clean with God about sin (true believers don’t confess sin to maintain their salvation but to restore their fellowship with God), by accepting His forgiveness and thanking Him for it (our sins were already forgiven at the cross, we just need to accept it), by drawing near to Him again in prayer and His Word, and by starting to obey Him again from now on.

However, this does not mean that real believers won’t sin or backslide terribly or that they’ll never go through really rebellious times.  We are all still human, and we will all still do really human things sometimes, maybe out of despair or anger or hopelessness or selfishness or a moment of weakness or whatever.  But that’s where God’s forgiveness, mercy, and undeserved grace come in.  Always remember that God is the God of second chances.  And third.  And fourth.  And so on.  He's never done with us, and we're never done growing, learning, struggling, until eternity.  

Do you think it’s any surprise to Him that we sin?  Do you think there is any sin He can’t forgive?  The only sins He “can’t” forgive are the ones we won’t confess, that we won’t let go of, that we won’t let Him forgive.  And He’s much more ready and willing to forgive us than we are to forgive ourselves sometimes.  After all, Jesus spilled His blood, gave up His life, to pay for our sins.  So do you really think there's any sin Jesus won't forgive?  No!  (But that’s what Satan wants you to think!)

Jesus’s blood was precious.  His sacrifice was costly.  And God wants to put it to full use, generously and abundantly forgiving as many people, as many sins, as He can - any and all sins, big or small.  And all we have to do is let Him!  No matter how far you’ve fallen, you can’t fall past His forgiving reach, His amazing grace.  His arm is a lot longer than any fall you could ever take.  His love is a lot bigger and more powerful than any sin you could ever commit.  And the moment you turn towards Him again, He will come running to meet you, the way the father came running in joy to meet the prodigal son when the son came home.

Luke 15:17-24: “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘… I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’  So he got up and went to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick!  Bring the best robe and put it on him.  Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let’s have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”

The father never even asked where the son had been or what he’d been doing.  He never scolded him for leaving in the first place or said “I told you so!”  No.  The father was much more concerned with where the son was heading and that he’d come home than with where the son had been and what he’d done wrong in the past.  In fact, the father didn’t even let the son finish his apology, but he forgave and forgot instantly, welcoming him back fully.

Proverbs 28:13: “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Psalm 51:1-2,10: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 145:18: "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."

Colossians 1:12-14: “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Colossians 1:21-22: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-”

Jude 24-25: “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

John 5:24: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."  (I have yet to find a verse that says "and then crossed back over to death when he sinned.")

Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Hebrews 13:5: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

When believers sin, we do not lose salvation, but we do break fellowship with God.  And consequently, we step out from under God's protective covering over us and we open ourselves up to demonic influence, to numbing ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and to the consequences for disobeying the Lord.  And we need to confess our sins in order to restore that fellowship, so that God can bless us and use us again and fix our situation and help us grow more and more like Jesus.

Notice in this verse that the man had nothing to show for his life as a Christian, all his works were burned up because he did nothing for the Lord... but his soul was still saved: "his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.  It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.  If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.  If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping though the flames." (1 Cor. 3:13-15)

It is possible to do everything wrong, to have nothing to show for your life as a Christian, and yet to still get into heaven - because it's our belief in Jesus that saves, not our efforts to stop sinning or to do good.  Of course, we'll pay costly eternal consequences, loss of eternal rewards, for living in sin instead of building God's Kingdom, but our salvation is always secure.  Because it was secured for us by Jesus's death, by our faith in Him.  And so when God sees true believers, He doesn’t see the mess we are anymore or our sins or even our self-righteous efforts.  He sees Jesus on the cross, dying in our place for our sins.  He sees us as righteous not because of anything we do or don't do, but because of what Jesus did for us.

Philippians 3:9: “… not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

[But while I believe that true Spirit-sealed believers can’t lose their salvation, I do believe there are people who think they are saved when they really aren’t.  Maybe they convinced themselves they were saved merely because, caught up in the emotion of the moment, they walked to the front of a church, knelt at the altar, and prayed a prayer, even though it didn't change their heart at all.  Maybe it's because they were baptized as a baby or followed some church's traditions or rituals.  Maybe they grew up in a Christian home and think they inherited salvation from their parents.  Maybe they know all the right words to say and know the Bible like the back of their hand, but that head knowledge never made it to their heart.  Maybe they think belief in the existence of God is enough, in whatever form they want God to take.  Maybe they let Calvinists convince them that they are one of the elect, saved from the beginning of time without ever having to make a personal decision about it.  Whatever it is, they have tricked themselves into thinking they are saved ... but they can't trick God.  And they need to someday wake up and realize that none of that saves, that they need to choose Jesus as Lord and Savior for themselves, committing themselves to Him, if they want to go to heaven.  And only then, when their belief is real and personal and deliberate, will they be sealed and filled by the Spirit, and their salvation will be eternally secure. 

And on the flip-side, I believe there are Christians who think they've given up their faith, that they've lost their faith, but they really haven't.  Nor could they, if they are Spirit-sealed.  But for some reason or other, they've turned their backs on God for a time.  Maybe they are actually running not from God but from the pressure/judgments of other people or from the harsh "spotlight."  Maybe they don't really want to get rid of God but are trying to shake off the strict, suffocating traditions, rules, and restrictions of "religion."  Maybe they are just really hurting or really angry and don't know who else to blame but God, and so they turn away from Him in their pain.  Maybe they think they've lost their faith when, in reality, they are trying to find it, to find what faith really is instead of what we think it should be.  Maybe they think they've left God when, in reality, they are trying to find Him - as He really is, behind all the misconceptions and assumptions we have of Him, behind all the things we humans pile on top of Him, the things that distort our understanding of Him and that damage or interfere with our relationship with Him.  If they are true Spirit-sealed believers deep down, even if they don't feel like it right now and feel like they lost their faith, the Holy Spirit will continue to work on their hearts, to draw them back to Him, to purify their faith and correct their views of God and of the Christian life and of themselves, helping them to see things the way God does.  (Hopefully before they make a huge mess of their lives.)]  

Eternal Rewards: Salvation is God’s gift to anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior.  (And anyone can believe.)  And once we are born-again into His family, we cannot be unborn.  Nothing can undo His forgiveness.  Nothing can separate us from God’s love.  And so as believers, our sins don’t make us lose our salvation … but they do interfere in our relationship with Him, they hinder our ability to sense the Spirit’s guidance, comfort, conviction, etc., and they cause us to miss out on the eternal rewards that come with obedience, with living as God wants us to.  (I think many of the Bible verses that seem to sound like we can lose our salvation are really about losing our heavenly rewards and/or our good Christian witness and influence.)  But repenting and drawing near to God again will restore our fellowship with Him, and then He will help us start cleaning up our lives again, using us for His kingdom work and building up our new eternal rewards in heaven.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15: "If any man builds on this foundation [Jesus Christ] using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.  It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.  If what he built survives, he will receive his reward.  If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through flames."

Matthew 6:19-21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Romans 12:1: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (We live for Him out of gratitude for His mercy, for what He’s done for us, and to worship Him, not to maintain our salvation.)

Matthew 3:8: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

True repentance shows up in our actions.  As believers, we build upon Jesus.  And we either build things that last (eternal) or things that don't last (temporary, earthly).  And we will be rewarded accordingly.  

If we could lose our salvation with each sin, wouldn’t the Corinthians verse say that the man who used the wrong building materials didn’t make it into heaven at all, instead of saying that he made it in as one “escaping through flames”?  It's clear from the verse he did nothing eternally-rewarding other than believe.  He lived his life for the wrong things.  Would that not be sin?  Would that not mean he died full of sin?  Then why - if we could lose salvation with each sin - is he in heaven?  

What sins did Jesus's death pay for then?  Did it pay for those that happened before we believed in Him (and so we don't need to list them all off individually or ask forgiveness for each one), but we are responsible for all the ones that come after (and so we need to ask forgiveness for each one to restore our salvation)?  If it paid for all of them but if we still need to ask forgiveness for each sin after believing (to restore our salvation), then why wouldn't we also need to ask for forgiveness for each individual sin up to the time we believed (to make sure they are all repented of and forgiven)?  

Would one overlooked sin that we forgot to repent of or ask forgiveness for block us from heaven?  How many sins and mistakes would it take to go from "escaping through flames" to being banned from heaven altogether?  What level of sin would it take to lose salvation: saying a bad word, gossiping, cheating on your spouse, murdering someone, having a moment of pride?  Would this include every sin of the heart and mind, or just the ones people can see?  Do we need to repent immediately after the sin or is there a grace period, especially in cases like when a person shouts out a bad word right before an automobile accident that puts them in a coma, and so they are unable to ask for forgiveness till they wake up?  If we could lose salvation because of sin, why are these things not spelled out more clearly in Scripture?  I mean, this would be very important information, would it not?  

But I think these aren't spelled out in Scripture because true Spirit-filled believers cannot lose their salvation.  We can lose our rewards and witness and fellowship with God (until we set it right again), but not our salvation.

James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  (Perseverance is about maturity, being complete in the Lord, not about keeping salvation.)

Romans 5:3-5: “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  (Perseverance leads to godly character and hope, not to keeping our salvation.)

Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  (And so if you don’t keep doing good, you’ll have less to harvest, less to show for your efforts, but you won’t lose your salvation.)

So a true believer can never fall away completely.  Because God won’t let them.  But they can backslide during difficult, dry, discouraging, or disobedient times.  There might be times when life is so hard that they sort of "give up" for a time, where they walk away from the Lord and live for themselves.  Think of King David, when he went through the whole "sleeping with Bathsheba and then killing her husband" thing.  When I read that, I can see how David backslid terribly, but I never get the sense that God left him.  David left God for a time, but God never left David.  And even though he sinned as badly as he did, David was still called “a man after God’s own heart.”  And it’s not because he was perfect or anything (because he wasn’t), but because no matter how much he failed, he always genuinely repented of his sin, picked himself up, dusted himself off, and began passionately pursuing God again.  Every time.  A true believer might backslide or "walk away" from God for a time, but God never walks away from them, for the Holy Spirit is in them, constantly working on their hearts and calling them back to Him again.

[Christians who think we can lose our salvation will use these kinds of verses as proof, saying "See, salvation is a future thing, something we don't have yet but are working towards, and so we are always at risk of losing it, and so we must always work to maintain it.": 

1 Thessalonians 5:8-9: "But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Romans 13:11: "... because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." 

Hebrews 1:14, 9:28: "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" and "... he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."  

1 Peter 1:5: "who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

2 Peter 3:15: "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation..." 

2 Thessalonians 2:13: “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” 

But what they don't understand is that "salvation" in these verses, according to Strong's concordance with Vine's Expository Dictionary, is not about eternal salvation but about being spared from the end-times wrath that is to come.  

Believers inherit un-lose-able eternal life the moment we believe, but we are still waiting for God to rescue us from this world, in particular from the end-times wrath He will pour out on unrepentant mankind.] 

Calvinism and Salvation:  Now, back to Calvinism specifically.  Calvinists believe the elect cannot lose their salvation because God gives them faith, causing them to believe in Jesus because they were predestined to heaven.  And if God predestined them for heaven, He will keep them in the faith all the way till the end of their lives.  

But the real kicker is, they cannot know for sure if they themselves are one of the elect because the only real, lasting “proof” is if they persevere (remain in the faith) till the end of their lives, and so they are always evaluating their performance and their feelings, looking for evidence of if they are really elect or not.  (How exhausting and discouraging!)

And so a big problem for Calvinists is that when they have times (as we all do) of doubt or sin or backsliding, then they have to wonder if they are really one of the elect, if they are really saved, or if they just thought they were.  And if they begin to fall away or fall into sin, then God must have predestined it and caused it, which might mean they are really non-elect (because they aren’t persevering), and if they are non-elect, then there’s nothing they can do about it anyway, and so they may as well embrace it.  (This has happened recently to a bunch of Calvinist “celebrities.”  A sad commentary on what can happen when you embrace Calvinism as truth.)  And instead of getting rid of just the Calvinism (as they should), they get rid of God and faith altogether.

Now, it’s possible that Calvinists who “left the faith” because of Calvinism are still true believers deep down.  If they truly believed in Jesus first, before they got into Calvinism, then they are really saved but have let Calvinism pull them away from the truth.  But they are still saved, and the Spirit will work on them, trying to draw them back again to true biblical truth, to the God and Jesus of the Bible.

But then there are those Calvinists (or any regular “Christian”) who walk, talk, and live like a Christian, who might even have all the Bible knowledge of a Christian … but if they don't have the Holy Spirit from a true conversion to Christ, then they are not truly saved.  They have convinced themselves that they’re believers when they really aren’t.  And for these “Christians in name only,” it’s not that they lost their faith… but that they never truly had real, saving faith to begin with.

"They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth." (1 John 2:19-20.  Those who left the faith never really had the faith, but the true believers are different because they have the Holy Spirit.)

Also remember what Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'  Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!'"

God either “foreknows” you (Romans 8:29) or else He never knew you.  And Jesus says He never knew these particular people who thought they followed Him.  He doesn’t say He knew them at one point and that they lost Him, but that He never knew them.  Even though they thought they were saved because of their good "Christian" works (trying to earn their way to heaven), they never had the Holy Spirit, and so Jesus never knew them.  Salvation is not about our behavior; it’s about our heart.  It’s about doing the one main thing that is God’s Will for mankind: "And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ..." (1 John 3:23)  If they had truly believed, they would have gotten the Holy Spirit (been sealed by the Spirit), Jesus would’ve known them, and they would’ve been destined for glory.  And so if Jesus “never knew” us, it's not that we had but then lost salvation, but it’s that we never really had it to begin with because we never truly accepted Him as our Lord and Savior.

However, if - and this is a big "IF" - if it is possible for a person to be a genuine believer and then to lose their salvation, I believe it could only happen if they truly knew and lived the Truth but then made a deliberate, conscious decision to reject it anyway.  But I still don't think it's possible for a genuine believer to lose salvation - because "if they went out from us, they never really belonged to us."  But if it is possible, it would only be by conscious, deliberate choice.  

So I don’t think believers have to be worried that they might drift into losing salvation or accidentally fall away from faith.  If you are truly concerned about "losing your salvation," then you aren't at risk of losing your salvation.  Whereas those who could "lose it" - if we even can, which I don’t think is possible anyway – wouldn’t be bothered about losing it.  In fact, they’d want to lose it, willingly and consciously choosing to throw it away.  So if you’re concerned, then relax.  Your concern shows that you don't need to be concerned.  Just keep walking with God and He’ll keep walking with you, no matter how much you stumble and fall.

Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  God will carry it to completion.  And if He says He will do it, then He will.  His plan is not to lose you but to carry you to completion.

John 10:27-29: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

Do you think anyone can snatch anything out of God’s hand when He promises to keep holding onto it?  Do you think any sin is stronger than God’s forgiveness?  Here is a recommendation for if your fear of losing your salvation comes from how you're living your life: Be like David.  Stop wallowing in guilt over your sins and start getting right with God again.  

Satan knows he can’t have your soul anymore, and so he instead tries to trip you up in your faith in any way he can, such as by tempting you to sin, to doubt God, to go your own way, to make you afraid of everything, to distract you from the jobs God wants you to do, to think (and live like) you lost your faith and that God is done with you, to keep you overly-focused on yourself, on all you’ve done wrong, on your guilt and shame: “Oh, woe is me!  I’m so horrible.  God could never love me or forgive me now!”

If Satan can keep us focused on our past, on our guilt and shame, on our mistakes and weaknesses, then he can keep us from focusing on God’s love and forgiveness, on the life God wants us to have, on the mercy, grace, and healing God offers us, preventing us from going forward in faith, joy, peace, and gratitude for all that God’s done for us.  But God is so much more generous with His love, grace, and forgiveness than we give Him credit for sometimes.  He freely offers it to anyone who will take it.  But we hold back, convinced we are just too broken and sinful to be able to accept it.  Lies from Enemy!  Do not believe it!  Just reach out and grab on to all the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and healing that God freely offers to all of us broken, sinful people.  That’s what makes it His gift to us.  If we could earn it or deserve it, it wouldn’t be a gift anymore.  Draw near to Him again (through His Word, prayer, confession), thank Him for His amazing love and grace, ask Him what He wants you to do next and start obeying, and start living for His glory from here on out.

And if you’re not sure if you’re really saved, then start now: Tell God that you want Him in your life, that you know you’re a sinner and that you need Jesus, that you believe Jesus died for your sins and rose again to prove He is God and defeat the Enemy, and that you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior right now and want to live for Him from now on.  It’s always better late than never.  Because it’s about your eternal soul.

However, while I think a true believer can’t lose their faith, even one who drifted into Calvinism after they came to Christ, I do think that if someone came to “faith” in Jesus through Calvinist teaching then they need to question if they are really saved at all.  You see, Calvinism teaches that you can’t choose to believe in God or put your faith in Jesus, but that God will cause it to happen to you if you are one of the chosen ones.  In Calvinism, the elect just wake up one day and realize that they’re elect, but they don’t/can’t choose to have faith in Jesus.  

In the Bible, we choose and we do it.  Believing in Jesus is the one responsibility God gave us to do.  But Calvinism says we can't do it.  It says that God chooses for us and that He does it to us.  And so if Calvinism teaches that God is responsible for your faith and that you can’t choose Jesus as your Lord and Savior unless God causes you to … but God says in the Bible that you are responsible for your faith and that you need to decide to make Jesus your Lord and Savior … then how can anyone truly be saved under Calvinist teaching, when they say you can’t do the one thing God tells you to do to be saved (Believe!)?  

(You could only really be saved under Calvinist teaching if you ignore - or are ignorant of - the Calvinist teaching about how we are saved and if you choose to deliberately, consciously put your faith in Jesus anyway, accepting Him as your Lord and Savior.)

The thing is, when it comes to a Calvinist's sense of security about their faith, they can’t point to any decision on their part as support for their salvation or to give them any sense of security in their salvation because they don’t think they get to decide or choose.  They believe God instills faith in certain people, causing them to believe.  And it’s basically a lottery system where God (apparently randomly) decides whom to give saving faith to (and whom to withhold it from).  And so since Calvinists cannot decide for themselves if they want to believe in Jesus, they have to trust that God gave them real faith, and then they look for evidence of it in their lives, thoughts, and actions.  But they can’t know for sure till the end of their lives.  

And this “not knowing but needing to find out” leads some Calvinists to spend their lives struggling to “prove” that they’re elect, always trying and trying to be a better Christian, always carefully examining their thoughts and actions, looking for conclusive signs that they’re elect.  And this can lead to an overly self-critical attitude, to doubt, anxiety, and fear, to constantly working to be better, to despair if they sin or backslide, and eventually to burn-out.  And when they reach burn-out, they might simply give up in exhaustion and allow themselves to wallow in sin and hopelessness because they are too tired of trying, and they figure that maybe they are non-elect after all, so “why fight it anymore?”.

Can you see the exhausting, hopeless cycle Calvinism keeps a person in?  They can never truly enjoy their relationship with God.  They can never really rest secure in their faith or in His love, grace, forgiveness or promises, no matter how hard they try.  In fact, they’ll be less and less secure in their faith the harder they try - because the harder they have to try to prove they’re elect might just prove they’re non-elect, because a truly elect person wouldn’t have to try so hard, would they?  A vicious cycle, completely robbing a person of all joy, comfort, security, and hope.  (Just what Satan wants.)

Now to get even deeper into this...

Evanescent Grace: I don’t know if Calvinists are aware of this or not, but in Calvinism there is something known as “evanescent (temporary/quickly fading) grace.”  The elect get real “saving grace,” where Calvi-god gives them real faith to make them believe in Jesus, and Calvi-god will keep them in the faith all the way till the end.  But the non-elect – poor, unfortunate souls! - can’t be saved no matter what.  This is discouraging enough.  But what’s more is that there are some non-elect people that Calvi-god gives “evanescent grace” to, making them think they are elect for a time.

According to John Calvin, God sometimes gives non-elected people a temporary faith – evanescent grace - that feels so much like real, saving grace/faith that they think they are really saved, really one of the elect … when they really aren’t.  He makes them feel secure in their "fake salvation," just so that He has even more reason to damn them to hell.  Essentially, Calvi-god tricks some non-elect people into thinking they are elect, and there’s no way for them to tell the difference.  There’s no way to know – till the end of your life - which grace/faith you got, real or fake, because they both feel the same.

That is sick and twisted!  What kind of a God is that!?!  And how then can any Calvinist ever be assured of their salvation if God might be tricking them into thinking they are saved when they aren’t?  And if that's a "righteous" God, I'd hate to see an unrighteous one!

And if you think I am making this up, look at John Calvin's own rambling words on this, from his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 2, Section 11:

"I am aware it seems unaccountable to some how faith is attributed to the reprobate, seeing that it is declared by Paul to be one of the fruits of election; and yet the difficulty is easily solved: for though none are enlightened into faith, and truly feel the efficacy of the Gospel, with the exception of those who are fore-ordained to salvation, yet experience shows that the reprobate are sometimes affected in a way so similar to the elect, that even in their own judgment there is no difference between them.  … by Christ himself a temporary faith, is ascribed to [the reprobate].  … the Lord, the better to convict them, and leave them without excuse, instills into their minds such a sense of his goodness as can be felt without the Spirit of adoption.  … there is a great resemblance and affinity between the elect of God and those who are impressed for a time with a fading faith.… God regenerates the elect only for ever by incorruptible seed … that [their salvation] may be sure and steadfast.  But in this there is nothing to prevent an inferior operation of the Spirit from taking its course in the reprobate….  We may add, that the reprobate never have any other than a confused sense of grace, laying hold of the shadow rather than the substance, because the Spirit properly seals the forgiveness of sins in the elect only, applying it by special faith to their use.  …the reprobate believe God to be propitious to them [favorable to them, giving them a chance of success], inasmuch as they accept the gift of reconciliation, though confusedly and without due discernment, not that they are partakers of the same faith or regeneration with the children of God.… God illumines [the reprobates’] minds to this extent, that they recognize his grace; but … the reprobate never attain to the full result or to fruition.  When he shows himself propitious to them, it is not as if he had truly rescued them from death, and taken them under his protection.  He only gives them a manifestation [a glimpse] of his present mercy.  In the elect alone he implants the living root of faith, so that they persevere even to the end…. There is nothing inconsistent in this with the fact of his enlightening some with a present sense of grace, which afterwards proves evanescent.”

My goodness, this makes me sick to my stomach!  (And is there even one Bible verse to back any of this garbage up?  No, there isn't.  It's probably why it "seems unaccountable to some."  Because they know the Bible doesn't say it, regardless of how "easily" he thinks he "solved" this "difficulty" - a difficulty of his own making, nonetheless.)  

Calvin is saying (read it again) that the non-elect sometimes feel saved, that they are sometimes affected as much as the elect are, truly convinced that they accepted a real gift of reconciliation that God seemed to offer them, and so they truly think they’re saved … but in reality, he says, Christ gave them a temporary, fake version of faith (not a real faith that saves) that makes them just feel saved so that He can more strongly convict them in hell.  And yet they themselves cannot tell the difference.

Did you get that?  Do you really hear what that's saying?  Our God - who is supposed to be just and righteous and loving - tricks non-elected people (according to Calvinism) into truly thinking they are saved/elected.  He gives them a fake, temporary, non-saving grace/faith that causes them to feel saved all the way till the end, just so He can punish them more "justly" in hell!  (As if simply damning them to hell in the first place for the unbelief He caused wouldn’t be bad enough!)  All for His purposes and good pleasure and glory!

And there is more in Book 3, Chapter 24, Section 8:  "… there are two species of calling: for there is an universal call, by which God, through the external preaching of the word, invites all men alike, even those for whom he designs the call to be a savor of death, and the ground of a severer condemnation.  Besides this there is a special call which, for the most part, God bestows on believers only, when by the internal illumination of the Spirit he causes the word preached to take deep root in their hearts.  Sometimes, however, he communicates it also to those whom he enlightens only for a time, and whom afterwards, in just punishment for their ingratitude, he abandons and smites with greater blindness."

As I said in another point, Calvinists break biblical concepts up into “two different types” to make the Bible fit their twisted theology.  And here we see Calvin doing that (and all Calvinists do it) with “two different calls.”  He is saying that God gives a “special [salvation] call” to the elect that He makes them accept ... but He gives a different salvation call - a “universal call” – to all people, even those whom He created for hell, but He causes them to reject it.  Therefore, the call is not a real invitation to eternal life for them, but it was designed by God to be a “savor of death” to them and to lead to “severer condemnation” for rejecting His call, even though that’s all they could do because He caused them to do it.  (Do you know of any verses that clearly teach this stuff?)  

So it's not enough for Calvi-god to predestine the non-elect to hell just because he wants to ... but he has to pretend to offer them salvation that isn't even available to them just so that he can supposedly condemn them more severely.  It’s sick and twisted!  (Oh, and did you catch the part about how he also gives the “special call” to those whom he enlightens only for a time – evanescent faith/grace - but then later he punishes them and abandons them, and smites them with greater blindness?  That, folks, is Calvinism for you!  And if there are any Calvinists who think Calvin got this part really wrong, then why would they still follow the teachings of a man who misunderstands the gospel so badly?)

Calvinists claim they can be secure in their salvation because if God has chosen you, He can never lose you.  But that's a big "IF"!  IF God chose you!?!  IF God keeps you in the faith all the way to the end of your life!  IF He isn’t tricking you into thinking you’re saved when you’re not!  If He didn’t choose you for evanescent grace just to punish you more.  IF!

The Calvinist’s Security of Salvation: In a video clip I saw online (click here, but be warned it's from a website that looks favorably on him, and you can also find the link in Graceadict's comment - about 40-ish comments down - in the comment section of this Soteriology 101 post), a young woman - with shaky voice, on the verge of tears - asked John MacArthur (a Calvinist of the highest order) how she can know for sure that she is saved (one of the elect).  And MacArthur’s answer is that she (that Calvinists) can know she is saved because of her desires to know God, to be known by Him, to please Him and honor Him, etc.  He says that we have to "assess the genuineness of our salvation by our desires."  He says that assurance of salvation is "the confidence I have in my mind of my salvation," and that it’s based on your desires, on if you have godly desires, because (as he says) "un-regenerated people don't have those desires."

Now, of course, our desires can be helpful indicators of if we are truly saved.  If we do not see certain changes in our lives - the fruit of the Spirit - then we should examine our hearts to see if we really did commit to Jesus or if we just convinced ourselves we did.  But our desires about God and our good works cannot conclusively "prove" whether we are truly saved or not, nor are they the basis for our security of salvation.  Do not even worldly people have good desires that God would approve of, like taking care of orphans or feeding the hungry?  

And remember what Calvin said: “…yet experience shows that the reprobate are sometimes affected in a way so similar to the elect, that even in their own judgment there is no difference between them”.  If the non-elect who got evanescent grace feel the exact same way as the elect, to the extent that they can’t tell there’s a difference between the two, then how could you possibly use your desires as reliable indicators that you are truly one of the elect?  When evanescent grace can fade at any future time in your life, there's no way to know.  When the non-elect feel the same as the elect, there’s no way to know.  

Besides, do you know who else had the desire to know God, be known by Him, please Him, honor Him, etc.?  The Pharisees.  The Jewish leaders and teachers of the Law.  They really wanted to please God, zealously studying and obeying the Law to please Him and make themselves acceptable to Him, and yet they rejected Jesus and hung Him on a cross for claiming He was God.  And what about the rich young ruler who kept the law and desired to please God but who couldn't bring himself to give it all up to turn fully to Christ (Matthew 19:16-22)?

Just because we have good desires about God and good works does not mean that we are right with God, that we are saved.  And just because we think about “God” doesn’t mean much - because “God” is vague and can mean anything to anyone.  All religions have their own version of God.  In fact, “… Even the demons believe [that there is one God] – and shudder.” (James 2:19)  

It’s not what we think or feel about “God” that determines if we are saved or not, but it’s what we think about Jesus, if we believe in Him as Lord and Savior.  That is what makes all the difference.  (I think it's telling that MacArthur focused on our thoughts about God instead of on our beliefs about Jesus, when the Bible says salvation comes through our belief in Jesus.  Does this not alert you to the subtle satanic twistings behind such a theology?)  

But since Calvinists don’t think you get to decide what you believe about Him, it’s no wonder that they wouldn’t include “belief in Jesus” as evidence of their salvation.  Of course, Calvinists think they truly believe in Jesus, they hope that God gave them real faith (and maybe they ignore the fear that they might not really be elect) … but they can’t know for sure till the end.  And so they point to their feelings and works and other such things as “evidence” that they are “persevering” in the faith, which must “prove” that they are one of the elect - at least for now, and as long as they didn’t get “evanescent grace.”

Of course, if we are truly committed to Jesus and are filled with the Spirit, we will/should see certain godly changes and desires in our lives over time, as the Spirit helps us grow in the faith.  But just having good, godly desires and works at some point in time does not mean that we are truly committed to Him.  It could just mean that we are living like the Pharisees.  For many people, the good, godly desires are there, the good thoughts about “God” are there, but the decision to turn to Jesus Christ is not.  Many people believe in and pursue "God" while ignoring, resisting, or rejecting Jesus.  And so tallying up our good desires about God to determine if we are really saved leaves us with a very flimsy, shaky, and possibly self-deceiving assurance of salvation!

(How many people in all these wayward churches today have convinced themselves that they are right with God because of the good things they do and feel?  How many think that the good things they do and the good feelings they have are all the "proof" they need?  How many will fall away later when life gets tough or when they want to follow their own desires, thinking "Oh well.  I gave Christianity a try, but it wasn't for me"?  How many will hear Jesus say to them “Away from me!  I never knew you.”?)

And besides that, our feelings and desires shift with our moods and our energy levels.  Our zeal for the Lord waxes and wanes.  We obey one day but disobey the next.  The life of faith is a long journey, full of ups and downs, low points and high points, good feelings one day but bad the next.  What an exhausted, discouraged mess we’d be if we had to look to ourselves - to our feelings, desires, and works - to determine if we are really saved or not.  Our assurance would change monthly or daily.

And so our assurance of salvation cannot rest on our wishy-washy feelings or our good works.  Our assurance isn't found in hoping that God really did elect us and really did cause us to have real, saving faith (instead of the fake kind).  Our assurance isn’t in the idea that God will cause us to "persevere” to the end if we are really elect.

Our assurance is found in the promises of God, in trusting Him to do what He said He would do, if we do what He said we need to do.  That is how we can be assured of salvation!  Biblically, our assurance of salvation rests on God’s promise to save those who choose to believe in Jesus, to put their faith in Him, to accept Him as Lord of their lives.

John 3:16: "... whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 20:31: "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

John 6:28-29: "Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?'  Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent [Jesus].'"

Acts 16:30-31: "...'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'  They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved...'"

Romans 10:9, 13: "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus in Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

It always comes back to your decision to believe in Jesus, which happens to be the main thing Calvinists tell you that you have no control over and can’t do on your own.  (How demonic is that!)  

But I say: Have you reached out and grabbed ahold of the salvation God offers us all, accepting Jesus's death on your behalf, for your sins?  Have you put your faith in Jesus, embracing Him as your Lord and Savior?  Have you willingly decided to follow Him, to commit to Him, to believe that He is who He says He is?

If so, then you can trust that God has forgiven your sins and has given you eternal life in Him.  Because that's what our trustworthy God promised.  You are a child of God now, reborn into His family.  And you cannot be unborn, no matter how messed up your life is right now or the detours you’ve taken along the way.  

Our security of salvation is not found in our feelings and works, but in the promises of God, backed up by His character - His trustworthiness, His faithfulness, His love, goodness, holiness, righteousness, graciousness, forgiveness, etc.  This is where our assurance is!  

If we do what He said we need to do (believe in the Lord Jesus) then He will do what He said He would do (save our souls).

But MacArthur (and all Calvinists) leave this out - that the security of our salvation is really based on God's promise that all who choose to believe in and commit to Jesus, to make Him their Lord and Savior, will be saved.  They leave it out because they don't think we get a choice or that we get to decide.  No wonder Calvinists have no real assurance of salvation!

MacArthur goes on to suggest that Calvinists struggle with their security of salvation because they (as all Christians do) still struggle with their old, sinful natures, and it makes them feel bad, causing them to wonder if they are really saved or not.  And, yeah, this might be something that contributes to their (and maybe even our own) fears that they aren’t really saved.  But let me take a stab at really answering the question of “Why do Calvinists struggle with assurance of salvation?":

"Umm ... let me see ... could it be that Calvinists struggle with assurance because Calvinist leaders say that they have to trust their wishy-washy feelings to determine if they are really saved or not!?!  Could it be because (in Calvinism) they have no control over their choice to believe in Jesus, and so they can only hope, pray, trust that God really does want them personally to be saved and that He gave them real faith, not fake faith!?!  Could it be because they can't know till the end of their lives if they had real or fake faith, only after they see if He caused them to "persevere" in the faith all the way to the end!?!  Could it be because Calvinism has made a mess of the gospel and has destroyed God's trustworthy, righteous, just, loving character, turning Him into a monster God who doesn't love all people (but says He does), who doesn't want all people to be saved (but says He does), who causes sin for His glory (but holds us responsible for it), who always says one thing but means another, who tricks some unfortunate souls into thinking they’re saved when they’re not, who causes most people to reject Him but then punishes them in hell for what He caused them to do, etc.!?!"

Could that have anything to do with it!?!

No wonder Calvinists are scared!  

I'd be afraid of a god like that too!

The thing is, Calvinists and non-Calvinists alike struggle sometimes with doubts about whether we are truly saved or not.  We backslide and drift into sin sometimes and get into low points in our walk with the Lord.  This is normal, Calvinist or not.  

But the big, critical difference between Calvinists and non-Calvinists is this:

Non-Calvinists believe that God really does want all people to be saved and that it's possible for all people to be saved because Jesus really did die for all sins of all people.  And since that includes each one of us, we can know for sure that God loves us personally, that He wants us to be saved, that Jesus died for us, that God offers us salvation, and that we can be saved if we choose to believe in Jesus.  But if we find out at some point that we didn't really commit to Jesus but just thought we did, then it's our fault, not God's.  We tricked ourselves into thinking we were saved when we weren't.  But - and this is huge! - we can do something about it.  We can "turn the ship around," choosing at that point to genuinely put our faith in Jesus, to accept Him as Lord and Savior, and then we will be saved.  God promises to save those who believe in Jesus - and anyone can believe - and that is a promise we can rest in.  It's where our assurance is found.

But in Calvinism, God is responsible for whether we believe or not.  And there's nothing we can do about it.  We don't know if God really loves us specifically or if Jesus really died for us personally.  We don't know if salvation was truly offered to us.  We don't get to decide if we believe in Jesus or not.  We don't get to decide if God gave us fake faith or real faith, or if we will persevere to the end or not.  And so all we can do is hope, wonder, pray that God truly does love us, that Jesus really did die for us, that God really did predestine us for heaven, that He really did give us real faith, and that He really will keep us in the faith until we die (but we won't know for sure till the end).  And if we question our salvation or backslide, there's nothing we could do about it anyway.  It's God's fault if we backslide.  It's God's fault if we leave the faith, because He gave us fake faith, not real.  And there's nothing we can do about it.  We can't do anything to "turn the ship around."  God has to do it.  And so if He doesn't do it, we are hopelessly lost.  For His pleasure and glory.

The Calvinist's assurance isn't in God's promise to save those who choose to believe (because they don't think we get a choice); it's in their hope that God truly did cause them to believe and isn’t tricking them.  Calvinists really have no hope to cling to other than "I really hope I am one of the elect and that God keeps me faithful till the end!"  But this isn’t "assurance of salvation"; it's "tricking yourself into thinking you are really one of the elect when you might not be and can't know for sure till the end and can't do anything about it anyway."  Not very reassuring, is it?

But once again for greater emphasis, for non-Calvinists, this is the true biblical basis for our salvation and our assurance: If we choose to believe in Jesus, if we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, then we can trust that God will save us.  Because that's what He promised to do.

John 1:12: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." [In the concordance, “receive” and “believe” are not passive, not something God does to you or causes you to do, as Calvinists would say.  They are active: you do them yourself.  To “receive” is to actively reach out and grab ahold of something that is offered to you.  And to “believe” is to allow yourself to be persuaded that something is true and, consequently, to put your faith in it, to commit to it.]

1 Peter 1:3-5: "In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the last time."

Colossians 1:10-14: "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

John 3:16-18: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

Landing the plane now ("so please return your chairs and tables to their full upright positions"):

So now that we’ve seen what Calvinism teaches and what the Bible plainly, clearly, repeatedly says, what do you think?  Is Calvinism biblical or not?  Are Calvinism's teachings clearly written in any verse in the Bible, or does it have to take verses out of context, redefine words, and add multiple, contradictory layers to make it fit?  Does Calvinism uphold what the Bible clearly teaches, or does it twist it and contradict it?  (If it twists it and contradicts it, then who do you think is really behind it?)

Remember what I said in the beginning about what Calvinist Loraine Boettner said: that if you prove any one point of Calvinism true then you have to accept the whole thing, but that if you prove any one point false then the whole system must be abandoned.

Do you think the Bible proves it true that we are totally unable to make decisions about God unless God causes us to (Total Inability/Depravity) ... or that God chooses some people to be saved without anything from them, not even their decision to believe in Jesus (Unconditional Grace)... or that Jesus only died for those predestined to be saved (Limited Atonement)... or that God draws only the prechosen ones to Him, forcing them to believe, while making it impossible for anyone else to believe (Irresistible Grace)?

According to Boettner's own advice, if you can pull off any one TULIP petal, then you must reject the whole thing.  I agree with Calvinists that we can't lose our salvation, but not in the way they say, as you saw above.  So that maybe leaves a 1/4 of a petal left, out of 5.  And that's not enough, according to Boettner, to accept the whole system of Calvinism.  The TULIP has been destroyed, at least for me.

So, what about you?  Which God do you choose to worship: the god of Calvinism or the God of the Bible?  (They are not one and the same!)  When you stand before God, will you be able to biblically defend your theology and what you taught others about Him?  If Calvinism is wrong, if it destroys the gospel and God's character and people's faith, are you willing to fight against it?

It’s something worth thinking about, especially since Calvinism is stealthily infiltrating and taking over so many formally-Bible-based churches out there.  And yet very few people realize that something is wrong.  And even fewer are willing to do anything about it.  

[Warning: If you do choose to take a stand against it, it'll probably cost you: friends, your reputation, your position in church, maybe even your church itself.  Trust us, we've been there!  But once you realize what Calvinism's really teaching and who's really behind it and the damage it does, is there really any other way?  Sadly, many Calvinists' whole spiritual/social world is wrapped up in Calvinism, and that's a hard thing to shake up, to give up, to sacrifice.  And so in the short run, if you choose to stand against it, it'll hurt.  But you'll consider the sacrifice worth it in the long run, in the eternal sense, because you know you're fighting for truth, for the gospel.  And that's worth it, whatever the cost.]

Be a Berean!  Research the Word for yourselves to see if what you are being taught is the biblical Truth, if it falls in line with the clear teachings of Scripture.  And be very wary if anyone tries to tell you that you need to spend months reading some other person’s books, their thoughts on theology, in order to understand what God supposedly really “meant to say.”  All that needs to really be known about the gospel can be understood by a child.  It’s all right there in the Bible, as it was written, for everyone to find.  And so never let anyone convince you otherwise, that they have some “deeper, hidden knowledge” that you need to learn.  That’s how cults operate and trap people!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  (John 3:16)

“… if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

“But even if we or an angel should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:8)

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.  It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.  Their end will be what their actions deserve.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’  He called a little child and had him stand among them.  And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:1-3.  Wanna hear how my Calvinist pastor used this “humble like a child” verse?  He said that when he tells children about Calvinist predestination, they have no trouble accepting it as truth, and so God wants us to be humble like these children, to accept Calvinist predestination without questioning it.  Does it sound to you like he’s using Scripture correctly?  Is this what this verse really means?)

“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

[And you might also like "Is 'Accept Jesus In Your Heart' Unbiblical and Dangerous?", a quick look at some Calvinist ideas that are NOT in the Bible.]