Why is Calvinism so dangerous? (Introduction)

Okay, I changed my mind.  (I'm a woman, we can do that.  In fact, we're known for it.)  I'm going to add some more posts, but not really new ones because I'm not starting up the blog again.  After this series, I should be done.  (So there's a 20% chance I won't add any new posts.  Ah, I crack myself up.)  But like I've done on my other blog, I'm gonna break up the long "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?" post into smaller, bite-sized pieces.  (Plus, I like having things in two places.  Then if something happens to one of my blogs, I've got it in another.)  Here's the introduction:

Why is Calvinism so dangerous?

Because it appears to teach biblical truth while actually teaching the opposite - while using manipulation and cult-like tactics to suck you in! 

And it's spreading.  Stealthily, fast, aggressively.

(We watched it happen firsthand in our church, which is why I wrote this blog.  See "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?"  Sadly, we ended up leaving that church, a place we attended almost 20 years.)

[I updated this November 2022 to try to shorten it.  I failed.  But I hope it's more readable and streamlined at least.  If you only read one anti-Calvinism post of mine, I think it should be this one.  But I'm warning you, this post is long.  Very long.  So pack a lunch and bring a sleeping bag.  But it has to be long because Calvinism is so deceptively convoluted that it takes time to peel off the layers so that you can see it for what it really is.  My hope is that with this one long post, I can show the deceptiveness of Calvinism and how it contradicts the Word, so that you can learn to identify where and how Calvinism goes wrong, how it manipulates, and the damage it does to God's character and truth.  And FYI: I put all the links you'll find in this post - except the ones to John Calvin's writing - at the bottom of this post so that you don't have to stop reading to click on them or go back to find them.  And for the version with just the text, no memes, click here.  (All memes created with imgflip.com.)]

Introduction:
Calvinism presents itself as a "deeper understanding" of Scripture, as "the next level" of spiritual growth and wisdom and humility and glorifying God.  

But it's not a "deeper-level" gospel; it's a different gospel, a false gospel.  Underneath what Calvinists "say" it teaches, Calvinism actually teaches something very different.  And the only way to realize that is to examine the Word deeply (without wearing Calvinist glasses), to examine Calvinist beliefs closely, to carry them out to their logical, undeniable, inevitable ends, and to compare it all against what the Bible plainly, clearly says.  

And this is something Calvinists don't want you doing.  (Heck, they don't even do it themselves.)  And so they use all sorts of manipulative tactics and phrases to stop you (and themselves) from looking into it deeper, to shame you into simply accepting what they tell you without question or pushback.  

And guess what?  It works.  Given the aggressive, unopposed spread of Calvinism, it's clear that their Scripture-twisting and cult-like tactics work.

But what most people don't realize is that Calvinism is not what it says it is.  It's not what it appears to be.  Calvinists do not take God at His Word or read the Bible as it was written.  What they really do is start with their own unbiblical ideas of what God is like and what certain words/verses mean (contrary to the clear, plain teaching of Scripture) and then they twist Scripture and add multiple layers to make it appear to fit, all while shaming and manipulating you into being quiet and falling into line.

Such as, they start with (having been taught this themselves by other Calvinists) an unbiblical understanding of predestination (that God has predetermined from the beginning of time who goes to heaven and who goes to hell) ... and election (that God has chosen certain people to be saved) ... and God's sovereignty (God preplans, controls, causes, micromanages everything, even our thoughts, actions, and sins, because if He didn't, He couldn't be God) ... and spiritual death (that man is so "totally depraved" that it's impossible for anyone to think about, want, seek, or believe in God unless God makes them do it), etc. ... and then they twist Scripture, take it out of context, add imaginary secondary layers, etc., until it appears to teach that too.  [See "A quick study of Calvinism's favorite words"]

And to keep you from pushing back, from disagreeing with it, they set you up to feel like only bad, prideful, unhumble, God-dishonoring, Scripture-rejecting, man-worshiping Christians disagree with it (or maybe you're not even a Christian at all).

And what good Christian wants to be a "bad, prideful, unhumble, God-dishonoring, Scripture-rejecting, man-worshiping Christian"?  And so we sit quietly, keep our concerns to ourselves, and let them tell us what to think, let them shame and brainwash us into Calvinism.

But the more you read and study God's Word as it is clearly, plainly written, without Calvinist glasses on, the more you'll see that Calvinism completely contradicts the Word (and itself) and destroys God's truth/character, Jesus's sacrifice, the Gospel, and people's faith.  

[But be warned: Calvinists have very clever ways - dare I say "demonically-clever ways" (they just don't know it) - of making you feel like you are the problem, and not their theology: "You're just having an emotional reaction to things you don't like hearing"... "Calvinism is like an itchy wool sweater that feels rough and uncomfortable at first, but if you give it time, you'll get used to it"... "Don't let your pride get in the way of God's truth"... "You're putting human logic over God's Word," etc.]

Calvinism is not a theological system where they build their theology on the Bible.  It's a philosophical system, where they start with their presuppositions, assumptions, and misconceptions about God and faith, and then they build their theology on that, trying to force the Bible to fit their unbiblical ideas.

I sum it up this way: Calvinism is man telling God how God has to be in order to be God!  

(And I'm gonna pull threads from that itchy wool sweater until it all unravels.  And to read about other people's concerns with Calvinism, so you can see it's not just me, click on the links under the heading "What Others Say About Calvinism" in the post Links to Other Anti-Calvinism Posts.)



Calvinists look right at Bible verses that clearly say one thing and they essentially go "Yes, it says that, but what God really means is ..."  

Calvinist preachers will say "I am only teaching right from Scripture!  We always need to go right to Scripture to see what the text says."... but then they subtly spin the verse in a Calvinist way or tie a Calvinist belief onto the end of a biblical truth.  A little bait-and-switch.  (I've seen it happen.)  But since you heard "right from Scripture," you trust that they're teaching "right from Scripture" and you let your guard down, shut off your critical-thinking discernment skills, put on the Calvinist glasses, and let them tell you what to think.  

Never shut off your critical-thinking discernment skills!  Never let others tell you what to think!  Always run what people say (even what I say!) through Scripture, even if - especially if - they tell you they are "only preaching Scripture."  How do you think error and heresy slips in?  By announcing itself with bells and whistles, shouting "hey, I'm a heretical, unbiblical idea"?  No.  It slips in slyly, subtly, slowly, with the appearance of looking biblical.  A little twist here, a little tweak there, a little "Did God really say ..." along the way, so that you don't notice what's happening, until it's too late.  (See "Exposing Calvinism: My comment on Calvinist twists.")

Calvinists use this "Yes, but ..." approach (see "The Calvinist's Big Ugly 'But'") because they evidently believe God has blessed them with some sort of superior insight into some sort of "hidden, deeper truths" that help them understand what He really meant to say, even though it totally contradicts the simple, commonsense truths of Scripture.

But if you have to read Scripture with a "Yes, but ..." approach, if God says one thing but you say another, who do you think is wrong?  You or God?

The Gospel is a simple message for all people, because God wants all people to be saved.  And anyone who wants to can believe in Jesus.  Anyone can be saved.  

But Calvinists have turned it into a complex, multi-layered, double-meaning, self-contradicting, only-for-the-elect, "hidden messages" kind of thing that takes months of study with their hundreds-of-pages-long Calvinist indoctrination books in order to understand it.

Does this sound like what God intended?  Did He need Calvinist theologians to come along 1500 years later to "clarify" His Word, to tell us what He "meant to say"?  Does He obscure His truth so much that we need to go to the "enlightened" Calvinists to understand it?

Want an example of the twisted word-games they play?  Of how sneaky they are, trying to get you to think they're saying something they aren't so that you don't notice what they really believe?  (Sadly, most of them don't even realize they're doing this.)  

Calvinists will verbally agree with what I said about the Gospel.  They'll say "We believe the same things you do.  Yes, the Gospel should be preached to all.  Yes, God wants all men to be saved.  And yes, anyone who wants to can believe in Jesus.  Anyone can be saved."

And you'll think "Wow, I guess we really are on the same page."  And you'll start listening to them more, because you trust that they believe the same as you do.

But what they hide - what makes all the difference - is this:

"The Gospel should be preached to all people, but that doesn't mean that all people can respond to it.  Only the elect can/will respond because God gives only the elect the ability/desire to respond.  But the non-elect can never respond because God prevents them from responding because they were predestined to hell from the beginning of time.  But since we don't know who's elect and who's not, we have to preach it to all.  And of course, God wants all people to be saved, but that doesn't mean that all people can be saved.  On one hand, He wants all men to be saved; it makes Him sad to put anyone in hell.  But on the other hand, what He wants more is glory for exercising His justice/wrath against sin, and so He needed sinners to punish in hell in order to show off His justice/wrath, and so He predestined people to hell, for His glory.  And of course, anyone who wants to can believe in Jesus ... but not all people can want to believe.  Only the regenerated nature contains the desire to believe in Jesus, and God only gives the regenerated nature to the elect.  Therefore, only the elect can want to believe, which means only the elect will believe, just like He predestined.  But since He doesn't regenerate the non-elect, they have to keep the unregenerated nature which contains only the desire to sin and reject God, which means they will only be able to choose to sin and reject God, just like He predestined.  Because of their nature, they will never desire to believe in Jesus, and so they will never choose to believe in Jesus, which is why Jesus never died for them anyway.  Because He wouldn't die for those predestined to reject Him.  But anyone can be saved ... if God wants them to be saved.  God could have picked anyone to be one of the elect, even you."

What do they think we are, stupid or something?  Does this sound like the same message, the same Gospel?  No!  This is very, very different from the commonsense understanding of "The Gospel should be preached to all.  God wants all men to be saved.  And anyone who wants to can believe in Jesus and be saved."  But they want you to think they are saying something they're not (that everyone has the ability and opportunity to be saved, that we really do make our own choices).  They want you think you're all on the same page because they need to trap you before you realize what they really believe.  

Go ahead and ask them.  Ask them if this is what they really believe.  They'll be shocked that you know what's going on, that you could see past what they "say," what they want you to think they mean ... to what they really mean.  They rely on the deception to trap you.  (See "Exposing Calvinism: 'Anyone' can believe and be saved" and "A not-so-imaginary conversation with a Calvinist")

Is this making you angry yet?  Does God operate like this, with this kind of deception and double-speak?  (If it's not from God, then who's it from?)    

If this doesn't make you deep-down-in-your-soul angry, then you don't get what's going on and what's at stake here, the damage Calvinism does to God's character and Truth, to Jesus's sacrifice and people's eternities/faith.  

And it's my hope that I can help you see more clearly so that you don't get suckered into Calvinism and so that you too will take a stand against it before it seeps into more churches and ruins more people.  

It's already spreading like the cancer it is.  Silently.  Aggressively.  Unopposed.  If you haven't encountered it yet, you will.  (Or maybe you already have, you just don't know it yet because they are sneaky.  See "How to tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist".)  And if we don't wake up and notice what it's teaching, if we don't start researching for ourselves what the Bible really says, if we don't start speaking against Calvinism and calling it out for what it is, it's going to infect more and more people, until no one even remembers anymore who God really is and what the simple, basic, beautiful truth of the Gospel really is. 

[Hey, Calvinists ... Do you want a test to see what's driving your view of this issue?  Pray and ask God to reveal to you if you are wrong, if you are reading the Word wrong or trying to make it fit your own ideas of what it says.  Tell God that you want to know the truth and give Him permission to open your eyes to truth, even if it means finding out you've been wrong this whole time.

Now ... how did it make you feel to think about doing that?  Did you get offended at the suggestion that Calvinism is wrong?  Did you bristle and stiffen your neck as in "I'm not praying that!  I know I'm right!"?  Did you scoff?  Do you want to throw away everything I am saying - and going to say - because you've decided that I "don't understand Calvinism"?  Did you start coming up with all sorts of reasons for why you're right, rehearsing all the theological arguments that "support" Calvinism?  Did you think "I need to consult MacArthur or Grudem or Sproul or Piper to see what they say about all this"?  How much is your pride driving your theology?  Are you willing for God to correct you if you're wrong?  Do you want to know His truth more than you want to cling to your own views?

So now, pray and ask God to reveal truth to you, to show you if you're wrong.  (If you're right, there's no harm in praying this, is there?)  Determine in your heart that you really do want to know the truth, no matter the cost.  And don't just think about praying it.  Do it!  It's not the thought that counts when it comes to prayer.  (And if you're resistant to praying this, ask God to show you why.)  Also see the "Defend Your Calvinism" Challenge.]

   


Many Christians don't want to get into this issue.  It's messy and uncomfortable and confusing.  And so we straddle the fence and put it on the back-burner and say "Oh, it really doesn't matter what we think about this as long as the Gospel is preached and people come to Jesus.  Can't we all just be unified?  God likes unity!"  [I've gotten push-back, even from non-Calvinists, for being so harsh against Calvinism.  See "Why am I so harsh towards Calvinism?"]  

But does it really "not matter"?  Does it "not matter" which version of the Gospel, of God, that you're preaching or unifying around?  Does it "not matter" if one person says "Jesus died for all people" but another says "Jesus died only for the elect"?  Does it "not matter" if one person says "All people have the ability to believe and be saved" but another says "Only the elect can and will believe and be saved"?  Does it "not matter" if one person says "God does not take any pleasure in sin or people being in hell" but another says "God ordains all sin and unbelief for His pleasure and glory"?  Does it "not matter" if one person says "The Gospel is for all people" but another says "It's only for the elect"?   

Does it really "not matter"?  

But hey ... at least we're unified, right!

How's that Edmund Burke quote go again ... "All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."

Well, evil is succeeding.  Calvinism's spreading.  And I can't sit back and do nothing, acting like unity is more important than truth, than God's good name, than Jesus's sacrifice, than people's souls.  

Shame on me if I did that!

Of course, Calvinists will stress "unity" (I've seen several articles by Calvinists stressing unity in the church) ... because they need us to shut up and compromise with them.  They need to stop us from standing in their way, from pushing back, from blowing their cover.  They need us to capitulate to them.  And they use "unity" to do it, to shame us into being quiet and falling into line.  

And it works - because what "good, humble Christian" wants to be divisive, to rock the boat, to look like they are fighting God and His Word?  

But could you imagine the disciples or the apostle Paul walking into the erroneous, compromising churches of their day and saying "Hey, it doesn't really matter what we all believe about the Gospel, does it?  Let's not make a fuss about all the little details, about what's true and what's false when it comes to God's character, Jesus's sacrifice, who can be saved, how we get saved, etc.  Why don't we all just put our arms around each other's shoulders and sing Kumbaya around the campfire?  After all, God just wants us to be unified more than anything, right!?!" 

Umm ... no!

Matthew 7:15: "Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." 

2 Cor. 11:13-15: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, 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 Peter 2:1-3: "... there will be false teachers among you.  They will secretly introduce destructive heresies ... Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.  In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up."

Galatians 1:6-8: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all.  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!"

2 Timothy 2:15,4:3-5: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth... 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 the truth and turn aside to myths.  But you, keep your head in all situations ..."

Hebrews 5:14: "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

Does it sound like the Bible is telling us to just trust what some local pastor tells us, without verifying the truth of it for ourselves?

I didn't think so.

“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)


Calvinists will say "Calvinism is the gospel.  You don't have to like it, but you do have to accept it.  Because it's what the Bible says."  

No, it's not.  It's manipulation, that's what it is!  It's satanic deception!

But since they said "it's what the Bible says," we trust them and drink the Kool-Aid and shut up and fall in line, like good little Calvinists.  

(Do you understand how cults work?)

[For more on this, see Predestination Manipulation.  Update Dec 2022: Like "Calvinism is the gospel," Calvinist authors will also try to define Calvinism, in a nutshell, by saying things like "Calvinism is salvation, freedom from sin, eternal life, evangelism, the Good News, utter dependence on God, full assurance of His sovereignty, fully seeing/embracing God and His love and grace, blah, blah, blah."  And this sounds great and all, but it's deceptive.  Because these positive, flowery-sounding, hope-filled descriptions of Calvinism are only in relation to the elect, not to those whom Calvi-god predestines to hell.  To the non-elect, Calvinism is death, eternal damnation, terrible news, hopelessness, God's hatred and injustice, etc.  But Calvinists don't want you to know that part, and so they only tell you what Calvinism is if you're elect.  Next time they go into their flowery descriptions of Calvinism, ask "Yeah, but what about if you're non-elect, as most people are?"  And watch how they squirm and babble and deflect.]

But with all that's at stake, I think it's definitely worth doubting.  Worth thinking about deeply.  Worth researching.  And worth fighting against with every bit of righteous anger you've got!

We are not questioning God or His Word.  We are questioning Calvinism's unbiblical understanding of God and His Word!  And that's a big difference! 

FYI:  Just because there are lots of highly-educated, Big-Name theologians teaching Calvinism and writing Calvinist books doesn't mean that they're right.  It just means that people are easily trusting of Big Names.  And so those Big-Name Theologians have an easy time getting their Calvinism into the churches and books and seminaries, where they indoctrinate the next generation of Big Names.  And then Calvinism ends up looking more reliable and accurate than it really is because "everybody's doing it."  

But do you know who else were highly-educated Big-Names?  

The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law in Jesus's day.  

And yet they were so blinded by their own intelligence and popularity that they couldn't see the simple, obvious Truth, even when He was standing right in front of them - so full of themselves that there was no room for Jesus. 

  

But the Gospel is not meant to be highly-academic stuff that only the highly-educated can understand.  It's meant to be a simple message of hope and salvation for everyone.  For adults and for children.  For the educated and the uneducated.  For the seminary student who spends all day studying the loftiest resources and for the blue-collar worker who never picks up a book.  For everyone!  

"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 20:31)

God wants us to find the truth.  He wants us to know the truth.  Because He wants us to find salvation and life in Jesus.  And that's why He made the truth clear and easy to see.  That's why He made Himself easy to find.

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:27)    

God means what He says and says what He means.  There are no "hidden, deeper layers" that only Calvinists can understand.  

Now to be fair, most Calvinists do not have some sinister plan to lead people astray.  Yes, some of them are smug and dogmatic and condescending and rude.  (Can you say "MacArthur and Sproul and White, etc."?)  But most garden-variety, pew-sitting Calvinists are truly good, humble people who are simply trying their best to honor God and His Word, as they've been taught to.  Some of our favorite church-friends are Calvinists.  They are some of the best, most kind-hearted, godly people we know.  And it was never an issue between us because no one ever pushed their views excessively and dogmatically.  (Not until our new Calvinist pastor came along.)     

So I'm not necessarily speaking against the average Calvinist, but against Calvinism and the dogmatic Calvinist teachers.  

In fact, I think most Calvinists in the congregation are "Calvinists," in quotes.  They are just good people who don't realize they've been duped, that they've been misled by and manipulated into a false theology that twists Scripture until it appears to teach Calvinism and that traps people with a biblical-sounding surface-layer while hiding/obscuring the dark side until it's too late.  And so most "Calvinists" don't even know enough about it all to know that they aren't really Calvinists at all.  They think they are just being good, humble Christians, honoring God's Word and sovereignty. 

That's how I started to get sucked into Calvinism in my late teens.  We were taught that Calvinism is just the way it is and that to be a good humble Christian meant accepting it.  And so I humbly, faithfully did ... because "God's sovereignty!"  (Well, I accepted it for that week at least.  And then I went on with my life and basically forgot all about it, until the new Calvinist pastor showed up at our church and started preaching things that didn't sound right.  Thankfully, by then, I was older and had been studying the Bible a lot for myself, so I could recognize errors when I heard them.)    

But if you take off the "Calvinist glasses" and read the Bible as it is written, in context, plainly and clearly and in commonsense ways, Calvinism falls apart.  (See "12 Tips on how to think critically about Calvinism.")  There is very little support at all for Calvinism if you read the Bible as it is, without the help of Calvinist theologians telling you what to think.  Calvinism needs Calvinist theologians to help other people "find" Calvinism in the Bible.  Because without their "help," Calvinism wouldn't spread like it is because it's not in the Bible the way they say it is.

(Watch "Calvinist Tactics Exposed" from Beyond the Fundamentals.  In this video, Kevin says the same thing I do, that you won't find Calvinism in the Bible unless you've got Calvinists convincing you it's there.) 

Question for Calvinists:  Did you become a Calvinist by reading the Bible all on your own, in a plain, simple, commonsense way ... or was it through the influence of other Calvinists when you were young and naive (they preconditioned you to read verses in Calvinist ways), or maybe when you wanted to go deeper in the faith and honor God more (you let them convince you that Calvinism is the way to do it)?  

[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 their good points anymore because you know what they really believe, how deceptively they present it, and how very wrong their fundamental beliefs are.  

And in fact, that 5% is the most important stuff, the issues that matter most: their views of the gospel, sin, salvation, forgiveness, Jesus's death, faith, God's true character, etc.  That 5% is so huge and critical that it overshadows and defines the 95%.  And so since they get that 5% wrong, it doesn't really matter what lesser issues they get right.  They got the most important, fundamental truths wrong, and it taints everything else.  (Kinda like if a witness to a murder got 95 details right, such as the color of the clothes the people wore, the time of day, the weather conditions, the weapon used, etc., but they got 5 critical details wrong: the city it happened in, the year it happened, the gender of the victim, and the gender and name of the murderer.  These 5 details are so critical that they would obliterate their testimony, far overshadowing the 95 details they got right.)  

Listening to Calvinists is like drinking a glass of 95% clean water and 5% poison.  It might not get you at first, but the longer you drink it, the more likely it is to hurt you, to destroy your faith and your trust in God.]

So let's see some of what Calvinism teaches and how different it is from what the Bible says.  (Yeah, this was all just the introduction.  And you thought you were almost done.  Ha-ha-ha!)  And ask yourself if these differences really "don't matter." 

[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!]  

 

Note: Calvinists will disagree with how I've presented their views here.  They will say "We don't say that!" or "You don't understand Calvinism!"  

But I don't care what they "say" because what they "say" is meant to obscure what they really believe.  And so what I've done here is simply get to the heart of what they really believe, stripping off the many deceptive layers they wrap their beliefs in as they try to make Calvinism sound biblical, to explain away their contradictions, and to hide what they're really teaching.  

Sadly, dealing with Calvinists is like dealing with people who pathologically lie (but who don't realize it), who always spin everything they say, who keep things vague on purpose to allow wiggle room for themselves, and who have multiple layers for everything they say so that you can't pin them down on anything.  You must listen to everything they say very carefully, question every term and verse they use, and dig deeper and deeper, asking more and more questions, to get a fuller, more honest picture of what they really believe (and then you'll see how deceptive the first thing they said was).  

Because it's not what they say that's usually the problem; it's what they don't say.  It's what they hide that makes all the difference!  

(However, I don't think most Calvinists are really "lying," as in "trying to deceive you."  They truly believe that their theology is the truth, and they've been trained to defend it in all sorts of ways.  So they're not deliberately lying; they just don't realize that they've bought into a package of cleverly-disguised lies, a false doctrine that they've been led to believe is the Truth.  It's sad.)

As you compare Calvinism to Scripture, pay attention to what the Bible clearly, plainly says, when understood in a commonsense way.  Calvinist views are not clearly, plainly in the Bible.  They only appear to be there when verses are twisted, taken out of context, mashed together with other out-of-context verses, reinterpreted in a "not commonsense" way (in a "mysterious, deeper understanding, contrary to what the Bible actually says" way), and when read through the lens of Calvinism's incorrect/unbiblical presuppositions, assumptions, and definitions. 

Alright now, put on your thinking caps and away we go (if you thought the introduction was long, wait till you see the rest of it) ...