Comments on Calvinism causing Faith Struggles

Here are some more comments I made (lightly edited for clarity) on Soteriology 101's most recent blog post, (Re)Thinking Through Romans 9, about assurance of salvation, leaving the faith, and the damage Calvinism can do to faith.    

Comment #1, in reply to someone named Bob:

Hello Bob,

You pointed out that in Calvinism, “you can’t even know you are saved.”  This is one of the things that’s most upsetting about Calvinism.  Not only does it slam the door of heaven on most people (non-elect), but it necessarily contains the fundamental belief that the so-called elect cannot even know for sure they are saved.  This is a natural end result of Calvinists believing that we cannot choose to put our faith in Jesus, that God causes the elect to believe.

The Bible tells us what we need to do to be saved: believe (a choice we have to make).  But Calvinists say we can’t believe.  And so now they have no basis for their assurance of salvation – because they don’t think we can do the ONE THING God said we need to do to be saved.

Not to mention that their Calvi-god is totally untrustworthy, saying one thing but meaning another, making it seem like we have a choice when we don’t (in Calvinism), causing people to commit the sins he commands them not to commit, and preventing them from doing the things he commands them to do (repent and believe).  

If this is the kind of tricksy god he is, how on earth could any Calvinist trust him about their election?  If he is the kind of god who causes rape and murder and unbelief for his glory (after commanding people not to do it, and then punishing them for what he causes them to do), why would he not also be glorified by tricking people into thinking they’re elect when they’re not?  After all, he gets just as much glory for causing sin and unbelief as he does for causing good.

Calvinism destroys God’s character and denies our ability to do the one thing we need to do to be saved, therefore it also destroys our trust in God and our ability to know we are saved … and then it tries to convince you that the elects' fears about their eternal security are unfounded and overblown.  Crazy!  (And if God says that the one work we must do to be saved is to believe, but Calvinists say we can’t believe, then can anyone really be saved under Calvinism?)

But the Bible tells us what we need to do to be saved: believe (put our faith in Jesus and commit to Him). And because we really do have a trustworthy God who says what He means and means what He says and who truly does want all people to be saved, we can trust that eternal life is offered to all and possible for all, which means that anyone can choose to believe in Jesus and know they are saved.  If we do our part (believe, commit to Him), we can trust that He will do His part (give us eternal life).  Because He said He would, and He is trustworthy.

Calvinists have no such assurance.  And so all they can do is constantly evaluate their works and their feelings to see if they think Calvi-god really did give them real faith/grace instead of fake, temporary faith/grace (evanescent grace).  No wonder so many of the celebrity Christians who are renouncing their faith are coming out of Calvinist churches.

Thanks for sharing your comments, Bob.  I haven’t read them all yet, but I will when I can.  God bless.

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Comment #2:

Br.d. said, “[The Calvinist] cannot allow his mind to face the truth [about the contradictions in Calvinism].  So he continues to live in a world in which things do not exist – but he treats them *AS-IF* they do.”

Exactly.  And I wonder how many Calvinists – when they do begin to see the terrible truth of Calvinism – end up rejecting God and faith instead of just rejecting the Calvinism.  I bet it’s got to be too mentally exhausting – when they’re that discouraged already – to take the time and energy to sift through Calvinism, to figure out what’s wrong about it and what the truth really is.  And so they just toss the whole Bible out.  

I think Calvinism destroys the church from the inside out - but slowly and methodically, crumbling people’s faith bit by bit over time (underneath their denial and self-hypnotism, their efforts to talk themselves into keeping the faith) until they wake up one day and realize there’s nothing left to stand on.

And it destroys the church from the outside because any sane person who hears what Calvi-god is like will want nothing to do with him.  And they’ll see the obvious implication of Calvinism: that since Calvi-god decides for us, it doesn’t matter what we think or believe.  Whatever Calvi-god preplanned will happen, and there’s nothing we can do about it, so why bother thinking about it or caring?

It’s really a sinister theology, using God’s Word and glory against Him, and using a Christian’s desire to be humble and theologically-intelligent against them (convincing them that humble, intelligent Christians accept God’s “sovereignty,” as Calvinist’s define it).  It’s the subtleness of it, the slyness, that makes me all-the-more aggressive against it.  People don’t realize that it’s not biblical, and their eternities and faith are hurting because of it.  It’s sad.

[(Here's a quick addition not in my original comment to Bob.) Calvinists believe that the Romans 9:13 verse about God loving Jacob and hating Esau means that God predestined Jacob to heaven but predestined Esau to hell before he was ever born, for God's good pleasure and glory.  

If this is what "hate" means - and if we are to strive to reflect God in all things - then how do we live out Jesus's command in Luke 14:26: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple."  

If Calvinists want to be consistent in their understanding of "hate," then they need to start praying for hell for all people in their family, even themselves... because Jesus says so.  Either that, or they need to start rethinking their definition of "hate."]   

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Comment #3:

Br.d. said "If the system allows believers to readily choose a theological option outside of the system, how many people will take advantage of that option and leave [Calvinism] for an alternative embrace of Jesus without the baggage the Calvinist must bear?"

Yes, an unexpected quirk of Calvinism is that it allows the Calvinist believer to declare it “God’s Will” if they do leave the faith for something else.  Because according to their theology, it was “ordained” by God and there’s nothing they could do to stop it.  If they can fall back on "it's God’s predestined Will" then what’s to stop them from leaving Jesus for something else (or from committing any sin for that matter)?  Calvinism really does lead to hopelessness, to fatalism, in the end.

For the record, I believe a true Spirit-filled believer can’t lose their salvation – the Holy Spirit will always be convicting them, trying to call them back into a proper relationship with God – but they can choose to walk away from God for a time, to live like an unbeliever, making a huge mess of their life.  And so true Christians cannot lose salvation, but they can lose the proper relationship with God and eternal rewards.

And I’m sure plenty of Calvinists are true believers, especially since many were Christian before being Calvinist.  (Calvinism seems to spread more by turning Christians into Calvinists – taking over non-Calvinist churches – than by turning unbelievers into believers.)  

But I wonder how many Calvinists are truly saved if they came to faith under Calvinist teaching because Calvinism teaches you that God makes your decisions for you, that you can’t choose to believe in Jesus, that God has to give you faith.  And so then how can they do the one thing God said they need to do to be saved (believe)?  (I’m sure there are some who do truly get saved in Calvinism, but it’s probably because they tune out the darker layers of Calvinism and simply hear the surface layer we can all agree on.)

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Comment #4:

Bob said: “Yet I have faith that many people also will leave this Calvinistic mindset and come back [to true faith] once they grasp the terrible [Calvinist teaching of] limited atonement and that God does not love all!”

I agree.  I think some Christians who leave the faith were never really Christian at all.  But I think some who leave the faith – especially those in the spotlight, in a legalistic church, in Calvinism, etc. – only THINK they’re leaving the faith, leaving God.  

But what they’re really doing is trying to get away from the spotlight, the rules, “religion,” or a twisted theology.  But they don’t realize yet that there’s a difference yet, and so they toss out faith and God when they really mean to just toss the bad parts (or to get away from the public eye, especially celebrity Christians).  It may look like they are losing faith, but I think many are really just trying to find it, to find a more pure, genuine faith and a proper view of God and relationship with God as He really is, underneath the additional damaging layers mankind piles on top of it all (the rules, traditions, public opinions, bad theology, etc.).

And in time, as the Holy Spirit continues to work on their hearts, to call them back, they will hopefully be able to see more clearly, to separate out the simple truths of the gospel and of God from the damage mankind does to it.  And when they do, they’ll come back, but this time to a more pure version of faith, of God.

It will take time for Calvinists to realize that what they’re really rejecting is the Calvinism, not God.  It takes time to take off the Calvinist glasses, to reread the Bible as it really is and to understand God as He really is.  (And hopefully they do so before they make big messes of their lives.)  There almost needs to be “deprogramming” classes, like when helping someone leave a cult, to teach them to think accurately and to read the Bible without Calvinist lenses.  If it takes time and training to get into Calvinism, to adopt the Calvinist mindset, it’s going to take time and training to get out.

I feel sorry for many Calvinists who are trapped in it, because many of them are good, God-fearing Christians who are just trying their best, who want to be humble and to honor God – and it’s used against them, to trap them into Calvinism.  It’s sad.