9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult #4 (strategic tactics)
[This series is "The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult" split up into smaller, individual posts.]
4. The Fun Stuff (Strategic Tactics)
Besides their hidden "buts" and multiple layers, Calvinists employ a wide range of other tactics to hook, trick, trap, and reel us into Calvinism slowly, covertly. (But they don't do it to just us. They are victims of these tactics too, having allowed themselves to be tricked and trapped by them also.)
The tactics they use (no matter how unintentional they might be) are things such as:
... false dichotomies.
"Either God saves us, or else we save ourselves... Either God controls everything, or else He controls nothing... Either God is in charge, or else we are in charge." It's super-polarized - and badly-polarized - on purpose, to force you to reject the ridiculous option and pick the Calvinist one. See Calvinist Bad Logic #7: False Dichotomies.
... fallacies and bad logic.
"In the Bible, God caused a storm, therefore He causes everything... God used wicked people to crucify Jesus, therefore He caused them to be wicked... The Bible says man doesn't seek God, therefore man cannot seek God... If Jesus died for all people, then all people would have to be saved... Jesus wouldn't die for those who reject Him because that would be a waste of His blood... God says He loved Jacob but hated Esau, so that means He predestined some people to heaven and the rest to hell."
[Yeah, well, if that's how Calvinists define "hate," then I wonder what they would do with Luke 14:26: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children - and yes, even his own life - such a person cannot be my disciple."
And not only that, but if Calvinists had read the verse directly before "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated," they would see that it's about God choosing nations for certain jobs/responsibilities, not for salvation: "... 'The older will serve the younger,'" Romans 9:12 (also seen in Genesis 25:23).
This has nothing to do with God predestining who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. It's about God choosing certain nations for certain jobs/blessings. The younger son, Jacob - not Esau, the older - was chosen by God to be the bloodline that would bring Jesus into the world.
And who are we to talk back to God, to say that He can't decide which people to give certain jobs/blessings to and which to not? God can choose one brother over the other to be Jesus's bloodline and still be a holy, just, righteous, fair, trustworthy God.
And in fact, He has to choose one over the other because...
See When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic' Traps Good Christians.
... bad analogies.
Such as "being spiritually dead is just like being physically dead" (See "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said #2: You're like a 'dead body'"). Or the "100 people on death row" analogy: "There's 100 people on death row for murder, and God graciously chooses to save 10 of them, but He lets the other 90 go to their punishment. Was He unjust to save some but not others? No. None of them deserves to be saved. They all deserve to be punished. So it's not unjust to rescue some but let others pay the penalty they deserve." This kind of analogy hooks many people. But the glaring flaw is that those people are only on death row in the first place because God "ordained" their crimes. He preplanned/caused them to do what they did, gave them no option or ability to do anything differently, but then He punishes them for it. And then He rescues some, as if it's true grace. That is NOT justice! That is NOT grace! That is NOT "deserving" the punishment! And it does terrible damage to God's character, righteousness, and trustworthiness.
... deflection, arguments with no biblical basis, non-answers they pretend are answers, bait-and-switch, etc.
"Don't think about those predestined to hell. Just thank God that He chose to save anyone at all... Don’t try to resolve Calvinism's contradictions with philosophical questions, just live in the tension... Jesus's death is only a real atonement if it was for specific, prepicked people... For God so love the world, all kinds of people of the world." See MacArthur's Manipulations.
... out-of-context verses or misinterpreted verses, such as Romans 9!
Romans 9 is really not too hard to understand when you read it in context, unless you're trying to squish in Calvinism. (As the saying goes: Calvinism and context cannot co-exist.) But it's definitely not Calvinistic.
Simply put: Romans 9 is about Israel as a nation, about God handing them over to their hard-hearted rejection of Jesus and giving the gospel to the Gentiles instead, because the Jews didn't want it. But then the Jews cried "not fair!" because they thought the Gentiles shouldn't get salvation. They thought the Jews were the "special" ones and should be the only ones to get God's favor and salvation, just because they were Jews. That's what Romans 9 is about. (Go ahead and read it and see if this fits better than Calvinism's "God predestines certain people to save, but He hardens everyone else because He predestined them to hell.") Paul is telling the Jews that God can give the gospel to - the offer of salvation to - whomever He wants to, to whomever is willing to receive it (and the Gentiles were), and that He can take it away from (and punish) anyone who rejects it, even Jews.
This helps explain other verses like John 10:16: "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also." Calvinists say this means that Jesus has preselected whom He will gather to Him. They think when He says that He lays down His life for "the sheep," it means He died only for those He predestined to heaven, "the elect." But He's not talking about "elect" and "non-elect" people here. He's talking about gathering Gentile believers into one family with Jewish believers. Anyone can believe in Him - from the Jews or the Gentiles - and when they do, they will be saved. Through Him, anyone can enter the sheep pen and become one of His sheep: "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved." (John 10:9) And everyone who chooses to believe in Him - Jew and Gentile - are gathered together into one family.
But if you let Calvinists convince you that Romans 9 and John 10 are about God pre-choosing individual people for salvation or hardening others for hell, you will be a Calvinist.
If you let them convince you that "faith" is the gift God gives, you will be a Calvinist. [Faith is not the gift. The offer of eternal life is. See "Is faith a gift God gives (forces on) us?"]
If you let them convince you that "predestined" means that God predetermined who will be saved, you will be a Calvinist. [God didn't predestine which sinners will believe and be saved. He predestined what will happen to those who choose to put their faith in Jesus. He predetermined that all believers will grow to be more like Christ, will bring Him glory, will reach glory themselves, and will have their bodies redeemed one day. See "Predestined for salvation? Or for something else?"]
If you let them convince you that "hardens" means that God predestined who goes to hell and that He hardens their hearts against Him without any decision from them, you will be a Calvinist. [But according to the concordance, "hardens" is a retributive hardening, a punishment for first hardening your own heart against God, even after He was patient and long-suffering with you. See "A Quick Study of Calvinism's Favorite Words"]
If you let them convince you that Jesus was talking about choosing whom He would save when He said "You did not choose me, but I chose you..." (John 15:16), you will be a Calvinist. [Jesus was talking about choosing those particular men to be His disciples, to help Him spread the gospel.]
If you let them convince you that having faith is "working for salvation" and that since we cannot work for salvation then we cannot choose to have faith, you will be a Calvinist. [Calvinists say that having faith is just like other kinds of "good deeds" we do to try to work our way to heaven. But God says it's not. God - in comparing Abraham’s belief to men trying to earn righteousness through works - says that "believing" is not like the other kinds of works we do to try to get to heaven: "'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). But Calvinists say that "having faith" is "working for salvation" and so we can't do it. But even if it was technically called a "work," God says it's 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). And so I wonder: If Calvinism teaches that we can't do the one thing God said we need to do to be saved, can anyone really be saved the Calvinist way?]
Always doublecheck the words and verses they use, in context.
[Here's a post from someone else examining the way Calvinists misunderstand verses (just because I link to other people doesn't mean I always agree with everything they say): Calvinism's Proof Texts Examined. And from Soteriology 101: Calvinistic Proof Texts for Determinism (video) and "Answering Calvinist Proof Texts" (article).]
... doublespeak, talking out of both sides of their mouths, ridiculously bad comparisons.
In the post "Exposing Calvinism: 'Anyone' can believe and be saved," I quote a Calvinist called Roland (whom I really like and respect because he is so respectful, fair, gentle, and thoughtful in his replies) who said: "I believe it is the biblical teaching that anyone can believe. There is not requirement for belief besides believing. To many non-calvinists this sounds like a contradiction, a paradox, double mindedness, double speak, but to us as Calvinists we believe any [person] can be believe... I would clarify by saying that all people can believe, and I don’t mean that there is an inherent capacity in our nature to believe. I just mean it's open to all people. But only some will believe... Yes, the willingness to believe is only granted to the elect. I know I used to believe it was contradictory and foolish..."
In the post "Exposing Calvinism: The 'Non-Elect' can come to Christ? Really!?!", I quote a Calvinist called Rhutchin who said this: "The non-elect can choose to come to Christ and will be eagerly accepted by God... anyone, including the non-elect, would be acceptable to God if they believed..." But later he says that unless God gives a person faith, they cannot believe: "Absent God giving a person faith, a person cannot be saved."
[If a Calvinist says "the non-elect can believe," all he means is that they could have believed if God decided to make them believe. But since God won't make them believe, then they can never believe. But they could have, if things were different. But since they aren't, then they won't. And round and round we go on a carousel of Wonderland-type nonsense. Curiouser and curiouser! (Click here to see what a conversation with a Calvinist might be like.)]
In this video - Free will is demonic according to Mark Driscoll - Will from The Church Split examines some things Driscoll says in a recent sermon. Will's got lots of good insights (watch it), and I'm gonna share some of my thoughts here too.
Driscoll called free-will a "demonic deception" and says that we've been brainwashed by it. He says we have no free-will, that only God has free-will. And yet he also says that we make choices and that we are responsible for our choices. Doublespeak.
Of course, the key here is to know the Calvinist definitions of "choice" and "responsible." They don't mean we make real choices among real options and so we are truly responsible for our choices because we could've chosen something else, which is how most normal people would understand it (and rightly so). They just mean that we choose to do what God predestined we'd do, that we make choices based on the nature He gave us - a nature which comes with built-in desires we must obey and cannot change. The unregenerated nature has only the desire to sin/reject God, and the regenerated nature has the desire to repent, believe, and obey God. And so since that's what we "desire" to do, then that's what we "choose" to do, and we can choose nothing else. And yet they call this "choice"!
And in Calvinism, "responsible" doesn't mean that we are able to choose how we will respond, that we make our choices among various options that are truly available to us. It just means that God still holds us responsible for choosing to do what He predestined we'd do - because we "wanted" to do it - even if that's all we could want to do according to the desires of the nature He gave us.
That's what Calvinists really mean by "choice" and "responsible." (But I wonder: If God really did determine and control everything, wouldn't that mean we've been brainwashed by God and therefore free-will is a godly deception?)
Driscoll also makes ridiculous comparisons here, such as saying that since we don't have the free-will to change our height or decide the day of our birth, then we don't have the free-will to make decisions. It's too ridiculous to even address. I just can't.
I agree with Driscoll that apart from a miracle, we can't know God. But I say that these are the miracles that make it possible to know God, to be saved: God put evidence of Himself in nature and in our hearts, He had His Word written down for us, He came down in a human body to share truth with us and die in our place, and He calls each person to believe in Him, giving everyone the chance and ability to do it. And if we believe, the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and makes us born-again. Those are the miracles! God invented the whole idea of salvation and made it possible by dying in our place. And all He asks of us is to believe in Him, to accept His gift of eternal life. And anyone who does will be saved. That is the miracle that helps us know God, that saves us. And it's a miracle for all people.
(Also see "Calvinism 101: 'Free-will choice" is not really 'free-will' or 'choice'.)
... verse-bombing, quote-bombing, circular reasoning, talking in circles, etc.
Calvinists will throw a bunch of verses (and Calvinist quotes from famous Calvinists) at you, making it appear like it all confirms their views. Don't fall for it. Look up each verse they use and read them all in context, even looking up words in the concordance and cross-referencing them with other verses. And remember that the Calvinist quotes they use are going to be full of bad logic, biblical errors, unbiblical definitions, and hidden layers. (For example, see "On Spurgeon's 'Calvinism is the gospel'".)
And as we saw above, Calvinists will say things that make you go "Hmm?" In "Derek, the 10-point Calvinist!", I quote Derek - self-proclaimed "10-point Calvinist" (because 5-point Calvinism is so last year!) - who gives this explanation about why Calvinists criticize or condemn things that happen when they believe that God Himself caused those things to happen for His glory: "Simple answer (and this long article could have been concluded with it quickly): Because they believe their rebukes and expressions of concern are also ordained by God and glorifying to Him. They do not separate the two. As Calvinists, they love to glorify God and do what pleases Him."
Calvinists say that God ordains sin for His glory. But when you ask "Then why would God also 'ordain' people to fight against sin?", they'll answer "For His glory." Calvinists say that God makes decrees He wants us to obey. But when you ask "But if God controls us, then why do people disobey His decrees?", they'll say "Well, God decrees that we disobey His decrees. He predestined to alter what He predestined." And Calvinists claim that they love to do what pleases God, but they also say that it pleased God to cause all sins and evil too.
Here's a Founder's Ministries article - "Reformed by the Word: One Church's Journey" - where one pastor shares his strategy in reforming his church after he became a Calvinist: "We took it slow at first. I avoided the 'C' word, knowing people wouldn’t understand it. We didn’t start with classes on systematic theology (though they would come later) or frontal attacks against the invitation system [altar calls] (though I did remove the manipulative aspects)... I kept the focus on God’s Sovereignty and man’s depravity... along with a focus on a biblical [he means "Calvinist"!] understanding of conversion and the new birth..."
He clearly went into it with a Calvinist mindset, definitions, and agenda. And he took his time to indoctrinate the church slowly by using carefully-chosen concepts and verses, defined Calvinisticly, without ever revealing that he was a Calvinist teaching Calvinism.
As the article "The Subtle Secrets of the Gospel Project" points out: "[The Calvinists at The Gospel Project, which is infiltrating churches all over] are prolific writers who are masters in propagating their doctrine without using recognizable Calvinist terms. Try asking one of these guys if they’re a Calvinist and you will probably get a 15-page essay about God’s sovereignty.... You most certainly will not get a direct answer to your question though and that is because they realize how unpopular it is to answer 'yes.' They’re banking on one thing: Given enough time and enough trust, they can sprinkle in the right amount of Calvinism to infect your brain and make you comfortable with their terms. Then it’s simply a matter of putting all the pieces together in their deranged puzzle... So don’t be surprised when you look around and discover a generation whose faith is built on the TULIP but they got there without ever hearing the label 'Calvinism.' We know what they’re doing. The evidence is undeniable."
Of course, Calvinists don't see their tactics as manipulative or deceptive. They're convinced that they're humbly fighting for the gospel, for God's truth. (As I said, most Calvinists I know are wonderful people with good hearts.) Their intentions may be good, but their biblical errors are detrimental and their strategically-deceptive methods are cult-like.
And good intentions don't excuse bad methods and theology.
In these many ways above, the people in non-Calvinist churches are being "recruited" into Calvinism, but they don't know it. It's happening right under their noses - the mark of a cult.
[Whatever advice in those "how to reform a church" articles that sounds good would only be good if they were trying to fix a wayward church, to help a wayward church become more biblical - instead of, as they're doing, spreading biblical error in a Christian church. In light of this, any "good advice" is very bad!]
In case you're interested, here is a video series from Beyond the Fundamentals on the errors of 9Marks (I haven't yet watched it myself though):
Part 2d: Biblical Theology - Sovereign God
