9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult (tiny version)
Here is the teeniest-tiniest version of my "9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult" post, the bare bones. For the shortened version, click here. And here are links to the individual long chapters: #1 deception ... #2 hidden agendas ... #3 multiple layers ... #4 strategic tactics ... #5 isolation/control ... #6 fear/coercion ... #7 mind-control/thought-reform ... #8 gaslighting ... #9 authoritarian narcissists ... conclusion and links
A Psychology Today article - Understanding Cults: The Basics - shares some characteristics of cults and how they operate (I've condensed some of them here to three main points):
1. No one knowingly, voluntarily joins a cult, but they are "recruited" into it by cult leaders who take advantage of the vulnerabilities of the recruits, using deception and manipulation to suck them in.
2. Cults use isolation, control, fear, coercion, mind-control, and thought-reform to enslave the members to the cult. The members' "inner voices" are suppressed.
3. Cults are authoritarian (disagreeing with or opposing the leader is not allowed), and cult leaders are malignant narcissists.
And I think this kinda fits Calvinism, especially Stealth Calvinism. And so, based on these, I came up with 9 marks that I think identify Calvinism as a cult. Or more accurately, "cult-ish." You decide if you agree or disagree.
[FYI: I'm not judging Calvinists' hearts or if they're really saved, and I am not saying that Calvinists have nothing good to offer. But I am judging their methods, especially when it comes to the epidemic of stealth Calvinism taking over churches.]
1. Using deception to get into a church
Stealth Calvinism gets into our churches in deceptive ways, such as when an elder board hires a known Calvinist pastor but hides it from the congregation or when a Calvinist hides his Calvinism from everyone to get hired at a non-Calvinist church - and then the Calvinist pastor slowly maneuvers the church into Calvinism without our awareness.
In fact, various Calvinist theologians and organizations even encourage Calvinist pastors to hide that they're Calvinists teaching Calvinism because "labels will just confuse people, the people won't understand, they'll just react emotionally, blah, blah, blah."
Stealth Calvinists know how to hide their true beliefs, to answer on different levels so that they're not "lying" (they're being deceptive but not exactly lying), to deflect uncomfortable questions, to turn the questions back on us, to redirect the conversation, to keep us talking in circles, and to masterfully spin their answers to appear to fix their contradictions and make their unbiblical, illogical ideas seem biblical and logical.
Many a church has been "recruited" into Calvinism without its awareness or consent by a Stealth Calvinist pastor who came in through deceptive means, taking advantage of the church's ignorance, naivete, and trust. A mark of a cult.
(For a great overview of Calvinism - what it really teaches and how it goes wrong - see Patrick Myers' article "The Bible vs. Calvinism: An Overview.")
2. Hidden Agendas
Not only do Stealth Calvinist pastors get into churches using deception, but they come in with the hidden agenda to reform the church, to slowly drag it into Calvinism without our awareness. They've even published plans for how to take over a church within several years which include suggestions like (my paraphrase) "Don't use words that will identify you as a Calvinist. Reform key people in the church first so that they can help reform others. Fill the church with Calvinist literature. Modify the membership list. Change the church's laws. Etc."
Stealth Calvinists are most definitely and deliberately pushing Calvinism on the church, but they're hiding that they're doing it because they don't want any pushback. They need time to entrench the church in Calvinism in subtle ways before openly revealing their Calvinism - because then people will be more likely to accept it.
And this leads to #3...
3. Multiple Layers for Maximum Deception
In Calvinism, there are always layers, at least two: the one they want you to see and the one they don't. What they say and what they mean. What they want you to think they really believe and what they really believe. [Warning: If Calvinist teachings sound like "good news," it's only because they're telling it from the perspective of "the elect" - and only the elect - ignoring the fate and treatment of the non-elect and how it turns God into a monster.]
Calvinism has a biblical surface layer we'd all agree with, but then it has a deeper, hidden layer underneath which contradicts, negates, or totally alters the surface layer. There's always a hidden "but" behind everything they say, such as ...
"Yes, God tells all people to seek Him, to repent, to believe... But He didn't mean that we have the ability to seek Him or repent/believe on our own. He decides who will believe and who won't, and He is the one who causes the elect - and only the elect - to seek Him, repent, and believe. But He makes sure the non-elect can never do these things."
And "Yes, we are responsible for our sins. We choose to do what we want to do, and so we choose to sin because we want to sin. God does not force anyone to sin or to reject Him... But God has predestined everything that happens, even our sins and unbelief, and we can only do what He predestined we'd do. But He does not force us to sin or to reject Him - because He doesn't have to. We make our choices according to our nature, according to the desires that He built into the nature that He gave us. And so if He gave you the unregenerated-sinner nature, it comes only with the built-in desires to sin and reject God, which means that's the only thing you can want to do, which means that's the only thing you can 'choose' to do. By God's predestination. But God will still hold you responsible for it. We can't understand it, but we just have to accept it, even if it causes tension. It's a mystery."
At first, Calvinists will reveal only the biblical surface layer. And it hooks us. It makes us think we're all saying the same thing, all on the same page. And this will make us trust them more, let our guard down, take off our critical-thinking cap, turn down our red-flag radar, and accept what they say. Because we all believe the same things, right?
And before we know it, we're being slowly drawn into Calvinism's deeper, unbiblical layers without realizing it, through their use of clever-sounding arguments, strategically-worded questions, redefined words, carefully-chosen-but-misinterpreted verses, etc.
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..." It's super-polarized - and badly-polarized - on purpose, to force you to reject the ridiculous option and pick the one that leads you into Calvinism.]
... 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... God says He loved Jacob but hated Esau, so that means He predestined some people to heaven and the rest to hell." See When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic' Traps Good Christians.]
... bad analogies [Such as "being spiritually dead is just like being physically dead." 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. That's not real justice or grace. That's not "deserving the punishment."]
... 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 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. 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. But if Calvinists can convince you that Romans 9 is about God choosing individual people for heaven or hell, then you will be a Calvinist.]
... doublespeak, talking out of both sides of their mouths [Such as, they will first say "anyone can believe"... but later they'll say "God has to give a person faith, and He only gives it to the elect," which means the non-elect could never believe. But Calvinists want you to think, at first, that they really mean anyone can believe, that we all have to option and ability. But all they really mean is that anyone could be one of the elect; it's just that we don't know who the elect are yet. Deceptive! (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.]
In ways like these, the people in non-Calvinist churches are being "recruited" into Calvinism, but they don't know it. It's happening right under their noses, deliberately. Very cult-like.
Cults use isolation, control, fear, coercion, mind-control, and thought-reform to enslave the members to the cult. The members' "inner voices" are suppressed.
5. Information Isolation and Control
Of course, Calvinists don't physically isolate members in a commune or anything like that, as more extreme cults have. But Calvinist pastors do practice various forms of "mental" isolation by controlling the information and resources.
From the very beginning, Calvinist pastors set out to carefully control the information we get, the resources we have access to, the verses we hear, who's in charge, etc.
Verses: Calvinists highly favor verses that can be twisted/interpreted to support their view that God preplans, causes, controls everything [such as Job 42:2 "... no plan of yours can be thwarted"]... but they will ignore verses that clearly contradict or disprove Calvinism [such as Jeremiah 19:5 "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."]
Resources: Calvinist pastors will flood the church library with Calvinist books, weeding out those that don't support Calvinism... and publish their recommended reading lists, filled with Calvinists... and give away Calvinist literature and require staff to study it and use it in their groups... and encourage everyone to use their preferred Bible translations (the Calvinist ESV or a MacArthur study Bible, etc.)... and quote extensively and almost solely from Calvinist authors during sermons. Saturation leads to slow and subtle subjugation.
Church laws: And then after the Calvinist pastor has saturated the church in Calvinism - surrounding himself with Calvinist elders, filling the church with Calvinist resources, and educating new members into Calvinism - he can then set about to change the church's rules and by-laws, making Calvinism the official rule of the church.
Calvinist pastors have an agenda from the very beginning - a hidden agenda - to strategically convert everyone not to Jesus... but to Calvinism, without our awareness. And they teach each other how to do it. This ought to be very alarming! And very revealing, making us realize that something is off about it. Very off!
Calvinism is a very slow and subtle poison, working from the inside out over many years.
6. Fear and Coercion
None of us wants to be an unhumble, divisive, God-dishonoring, glory-stealing Christian, do we? These are fears of any good Christian.
Calvinist pastors know this and use it their advantage (even if it's not totally deliberate).
In this article about cults, the author points out this mark of a cult: "Cults maintain their power by promoting an 'us vs. them' mentality."
Calvinists will use flattery and shaming (forms of manipulation) to do just this: to create an "us vs. them" dichotomy, to coerce people into Calvinism. They will talk in such a way that makes those who agree with them feel like good Christians and those who disagree feel like bad Christians, coercing us to side with him, afraid of opposing him. And they'll do this from the very beginning, before even revealing their theology, preconditioning us to want to side with him.
Us vs them. "Us good, humble, God-glorifying Christians" vs "them bad, unhumble, God-fighting Christians." And whose side do you think most people will want to take?
[As a licensed counselor, this is one of the first things I noticed at our church with the new pastor, the first red flags. And it made me sit up and listen more closely - because anyone who needed to consistently use that kind of manipulative-shaming was doing it for a reason, trying to break us down to get us to buy what he was selling. (See Predestination Manipulation.)]
On top of this, the confusion that Calvinism creates in our thinking also might cause us to fear that there's something wrong with our faith and our ability to understand Scripture. Even if we've been a Christian for a long time and never had doubts before, as we hear more and more of Calvinism's deeper, darker teachings, we might start to feel the ground crumbling under our faith, the legs being knocked out from under us. (My husband and I felt it. We know.)
It will throw us off our axis, and we'll begin to distrust our discernment, our ability to recognize truth (we'll examine gaslighting later), and our ability to read and understand the Word. We'll wonder "What's wrong with me and my faith that I missed all this stuff in the Bible for so long and that I'm having such a hard time accepting it but others seem fine with it? And if I couldn't understand the Word all this time, even though it seemed to make so much sense before, will I ever be able to understand it? And if God is really like how the pastor is saying, do I even really want to have a relationship with Him anyway, with a God who causes sin for His glory and wants people in hell?"
And so we'll either flounder in distress, not knowing whom to turn to anymore and not trusting anyone anymore... or else we'll turn to the Calvinist pastor for help, trusting his discernment and his ability to understand Scripture, enslaving us to Calvinism even more.
7. Mind-Control, Thought-Reform
Reforming people's thoughts is absolutely necessary for Stealth Calvinism (or even non-stealth Calvinism) to be effective. Strategic brainwashing. And it happens though things like...
Controlling the language: Calvinist pastors control the direction of the church by controlling not just the resources and staff, but also controlling the definitions of words, the theological language we speak. And by controlling the words (and verses), they can slowly modify our thinking and our perspectives on God and His Word, causing us to see everything through the lens of Calvinism - until we can't remember how to read the Bible in a clear, plain, commonsense way anymore. (See "Calvinist Bad Logic #1: Never Let a Calvinist Define the Terms!".)
Briefly, for examples, here are some biblical words and how Calvinist's define them [correct definitions are in brackets]:
"Sovereign" means God controls/causes everything, even sin and unbelief. [Correct definition: God is the highest authority there is. This means He can decide how to use His authority, even if it means allowing people to have free-will.]
"Predestination" means God has preplanned which sinners go to heaven, and He causes all things to work out just as He planned. [Correct definition: Predestination is not about who believes or how they believe, but about what happens after someone believes (all believers are predestined to glory and to reflect Christ more and to have their bodies redeemed one day) - and anyone can believe.]
"Election" is the same as Calvinist predestination, about God predestining who goes to heaven." [Correct definition: Election is about God choosing people not for salvation but for certain roles, jobs, and responsibilities after they get saved. God doesn't choose who is going to believe, but He does choose that everyone who believes gets the responsibilities and blessings reserved for believers. Note: Sometimes "election" is really just about Israel, about them being chosen by God to be Jesus's bloodline and the first to receive the gospel and being given the job of spreading the gospel (until they rejected it, causing God to turn to the Gentiles instead).]
"Faith" is something God injects into the elect to make them believe in Jesus. You have to be given faith by God in order to believe in Jesus. [Correct definition: Faith is our decision to believe in Jesus, to trust Him, take Him at His word, and submit ourselves to Him.]
"Hardens" means God causes the non-elect to refuse to believe in Him because He predestined them for hell. [Real definition, according to the concordance: "Hardens" is punishment for first hardening our own hearts against God and His truth, even after God has been patient and long-suffering with us.]
These are some of the main words Calvinists get wrong (and it ruins their whole theology). But they will keep their definitions of these words hidden as long as possible if they think that we'll push back against them. Then they can slowly lead us deeper and deeper into Calvinism without us even realizing it.
But if you can get even just these few words correct, you're well on your way to defeating Calvinism.
Preconditioning and Strategic Ordering: Calvinist pastors will first implant their Calvinist definitions into our minds (without calling it Calvinism) and then lead us to strategically-chosen verses that appear to support it (when taken out of context or misinterpreted).
Such as, a Calvinist pastor will often begin by preaching his Calvinist views of predestination and election (but he'll call it the "biblical view"), and then he'll lead us to verses that contain the word "predestined" or "elect" and say, "See! There it is, just like I said, and so you have to believe it, even if you don't like it. Because it's 'biblical truth.'"
Or maybe he'll begin by preaching Calvinism's "total depravity" - but to trap us, he'll make it seem at first like he's just talking about being sinful. And since we all agree mankind is sinful, we unwittingly agree to his use of "totally depraved," not knowing that he has a different, hidden, Calvinist definition. And then he strategically leads us through carefully-chosen and Calvinisticly-interpreted verses, taking us from "total depravity" to "unconditional election" to "limited atonement, etc., until we've gone all the way through the Calvinist TULIP without ever realizing he's teaching Calvinism.
You see, all the points of TULIP lead into, flow from, and support the other points. And so if he can get us to bite onto the first one (to accept the Calvinist idea of "total depravity"), he can easily lead us into the next one and the next one and the next one. If you agree with one, you have to agree with the next. And the fact that all the points of TULIP support each other so well makes the whole theology seem more solid and biblical than it is.
[But this also means that if you disprove one point, you disprove them all. Because they all need each other to survive. They all rise and fall together. See "Is Calvinism's TULIP biblical?". (And once again, for the record, I agree with Calvinists that true believers cannot lose their salvation, just not for the reason they say.)]
This is how Calvinists reform our thoughts under our radar.
"It's not that important": Another way Calvinist pastors get us to let our guard down so that they can reform our thinking is to claim that Calvinism is a non-critical, second-level issue that we shouldn't divide over. (It's always the Calvinists who say this, because they've got an agenda that requires our cooperation.) They'll say that we shouldn't fight about the "finer points" of Calvinism, that we should put it on the back-burner, in the background (and they'll promise to do so), so that we can focus on the "more important" first-level issues.
And we trust them and let our guard down, too afraid and ashamed to fight about it, to be divisive over "minor points."
But remember that to Calvinists, Calvinism IS the gospel, the Bible, the sum total of Christianity. So don't be deceived: They will always be pushing Calvinism, but if they think we'll resist it, they'll call it a "secondary issue that we shouldn't divide over" and promise not to promote it. But all they've really done is gone underground with it, undercover, spreading it in more subtle and inconspicuous ways.
Indoctrination classes: Calvinist pastors will also try to reform our thinking directly, by taking people through what I call "Calvinist Indoctrination" classes (but they might call it "Bible study" or something like that), often starting with key people, elders, those in leadership, and maybe even (as we looked at earlier) with prospective new members, ensuring their brainwashing before they even get into the church.
And when a person goes through a Calvinist Indoctrination Class, Calvinist brainwashing is pretty much guaranteed. There's really almost no way someone can escape the Calvinist brainwashing when soaking themselves in big Calvinist theology books which weave such a tight theological web that few can escape it. After being strategically taken through their "systematic theology" classes, you won't be able to see the forest for the trees anymore.
We tried to warn a friend at our last church (who leaned towards free-will) when we heard he began taking Systematic Theology classes with the pastor. We sent him an email telling him that Wayne Grudem was a Calvinist and that the pastor was immersing the church in Calvinism, encouraging him to be cautious, to research it for himself. We reminded him that we didn't leave the church for superficial reasons but because we really believe Calvinism is unbiblical. The strongest warning we could give.
But we knew it was over when he replied with "I was a little apprehensive about entering the Grudem class as I know the text is from a Reformed Calvinism perspective, and my training and understanding has not perfectly aligned with all 5 points of the TULIP. However, truth is truth because God is truth, and we must not fear truth." [I knew right then that he was a goner.]
He went on to quote a few verses about the truth making us free and about not quenching the Spirit and about it being God's Will that we rejoice in all things. And so "If I am moved or changed due to ‘examination’ of a Biblical Systematic Theology whether Calvinism, Dispensationalism, Covenant or other, then praise God. I know that I have room to grow and learn. While I open myself to something uncomfortable, I will rejoice, and pray and be thankful that God has chosen to allow my flawed and finite mind to wrestle with and gain more understanding of His perfect and infinite ways."
I appreciated his trusting, humble heart (but that's how Calvinists get you!), but I felt like it was the pastor's words coming right out of his mouth. And I saw how all those years of laying the groundwork - of stealth Calvinist tactics and manipulation - paid off. Well done, Stealth Calvinist Pastor!
My husband wondered if he should reply with something like "But what if it's not God's truth? What if you're being taught lies?"
I just shook my head and said, "He's gone. There's no point. He won't be able to hear it, not when he thinks he's learning 'truth' and humbly submitting to it."
This is how a Calvinist take-over happens. Slowly. Sermon by sermon. Person by person. Week by week. Month by month. Year by year.
We've seen it happen. We watched it happen over years. And sadly, it took us 6 years to truly understand what the pastor's theology is (he wouldn't reveal it as "Calvinism"), to realize how unbiblical and damaging it is, and to start speaking out against it.
And by that time, it was too late.
Learn from our mistakes. Speak up early and often and to as many people as you can, even if it's just to voice vague concerns. (Take a page from their book and go underground if you have to.) If you're feeling it, someone else is too. And so don't let Calvinists make you feel ashamed about your concerns or about speaking up. You have every right - and obligation - to doublecheck the accuracy of what a pastor is teaching. So don't let them shame you into silence.
Which brings us to the next point...
8. Silencing the members' inner voices
Gaslighting: manipulating people into doubting their own sanity, memory, or powers of reasoning.
And "manipulating people into doubting their own power of reasoning" is what Calvinists do (even if they don't mean to). It's one of the reasons it spreads so unopposed, so easily. Calvinists make us feel like if we disagree with Calvinism, then there's something wrong with us, not with their theology. This causes us to question our discernment and to possibly ignore any doubts or "red flags" we get. (Or at least to keep quiet about them because we fear others distrusting our discernment too.)
And if we can't trust our own judgment and discernment, guess whose we'll trust?
That's right: theirs. Just like they want.
Emotional Reactions: Another way to gaslight us is to make us feel like we're just having a bad emotional reaction to what we're hearing, like our feelings or pride are getting in the way of our discernment. This allows them to dismiss our doubts, concerns, and arguments against Calvinism as unreasonable and illegitimate, as if we're just being hysterical or over-reacting or something. [Do we have emotional reactions to Calvinism? Yes, of course. But Calvinists think our emotional reactions cause us to reject Calvinism as unbiblical, when it's really the other way around. We believe Calvinism is severely unbiblical, and that's why we have such strong emotional reactions to it.]
"I understand": On the flip-side, a Calvinist might use the "emotional reaction" accusation to build a sense of comradery with us: "I know it's hard to accept these 'truths.' It was hard for me too. I cried over it. But if you just stick with it, you'll come to see the beauty and comfort in them. Here, let me take you through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology to help you understand it more." They want us to think that they've already been on the journey we're on, already thought the things we're thinking, struggled with the things we're struggling with, examined the contradictions we're examining, faced the doubts we're facing... and so if they came out the other end convinced about the "truth" of Calvinism and comforted by it, so will we. They want us to trust that if we just keep following them - even though our red-flag radar is going off like crazy - it will all be okay. [Whatever you do, do not take Calvinists up on their offer to take you through Calvinists studies to help you "understand it more." That's like asking Jim Jones to pour you a glass of Kool-Aid.]
"You don't understand Calvinism": If Calvinists don't like the arguments we use against their views - if we point out their wrong assumptions, unbiblical definitions, hidden layers, contradictions, or the terrible logical conclusions of their beliefs - they'll say "You don't understand Calvinism." (See Soteriology 101's post You don't understand Calvinism.) And if we "don't understand Calvinism," then our opinions don't count and we should just shut up and listen to them. [However, keep in mind that because they have multiple contradictory layers, any point we make will inevitably conflict with one of those layers. And so we will always appear to "not understand Calvinism," on one level or another. This keeps us running in circles. Furiously rocking back and forth on a rocking-horse. Always moving but never getting anywhere.]
"You don't understand God": In addition to "You don't understand Calvinism" is the accusation that we can't understand God and His ways because He is so far above us - and so, clearly, we should just be quiet and accept what Calvinists tell us without trying to think through it too much. And when we point out contradictions in Calvinism that they cannot resolve satisfactorily or biblically, they will inevitably appeal to "mystery" or "tension," and to the idea that we have to "humbly accept" the things we can't understand... or else we'll be dishonoring or distrusting God. (What a convenient way to stop people from exploring and opposing their contradictions!)
And when all else fails: And if we still can't accept their views - if we still keep asking probing questions that challenge their contradictions and errors, and if the Calvinist can't talk his way out of it - he will always, always, always resort to some form of "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?"
Cults are authoritarian (disagreeing with or opposing the leaders is not allowed), and cult leaders are malignant narcissists.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association - in the article "How do cults differ from Christianity?" - lists these things as characteristics of a cult (my paraphrase):
Cults reject the basic beliefs of the Chistian faith. They act like they alone have the truth and that we must come to them to get it. They have their own writings which they add to the Bible or replace the Bible with. They have a strong leader who demands obedience and claims to speak for God.
Now, of course, Calvinists don't reject the basic beliefs of the Bible; they just redefine them, qualify them, or add other layers to them until they become something completely different.
And they do believe they have the truth. But don't we all? We all think we have "the truth." No one willingly believes a lie.
But what makes Calvinism different than mere Christianity is this:
In mere Christianity, the Bible is for everyone, God's truth is for everyone, the gospel is for everyone. Anyone can read the Bible and learn for themselves God's truths that He revealed to us, and anyone can be saved by it.
But in Calvinism, it's only for the elect. No one can understand Calvinism's hidden gospel or their deeper Scriptural "truths" without their help, because it's not clearly, plainly in the Bible for all to see. (And only the elect can and will see "the truth" and be saved.) This makes Calvinists "the keepers of the truth" (as they define truth).
I believe this plays into the "authoritarian" side of Calvinism, the underlying vibe of "we are the authorities, we have the truth, we tell you how to think." Not all of them give off this vibe openly and obviously, of course, but it is inherent in their theology.
To them, we common Christians are biblically-illiterate if we disagree with them, and we cannot really understand the Bible or the gospel without their help, without going through months of study with them and their Calvinist literature.
This should be alarming to us, especially since John 20:31 says "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" ... not "But these are written so that Calvinists can take you through months of studying it alongside big, complicated Calvinist books so that you can figure out what God really meant to say, so that you may believe - if you are one of the elect."
And this flows into the next point, about cults having their own writings that they add to the Bible or replace it with.
Yes, Calvinists have the Bible and see the Bible as authoritative, but they also have Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Grudem's Systematic Theology, Spurgeon's and MacArthur's writings (and others), and confessions like the Westminster Confession, Synods of Dort, etc. which they hold up to almost "Bible level." And I would even go so far as to say that their Calvinist writings actually supersede the Bible - because Calvinists view/interpret the Bible through them (which is the only way to read Calvinism into the Bible to the extent they do).
And so if you ask a particularly difficult question or point out a contradiction in their theology, you'll probably get an answer like "Well, MacArthur (or Grudem or Piper or Sproul or the Westminster Confession) says..."
So, in Calvinism, we cannot understand the Bible without the help of these men, without seeing it through their eyes. Calvinists, even if they don't realize it, present other men's writings as the authority on understanding/interpreting the Bible.
"Cult leaders are malignant narcissists":
Hahaha, I'll just leave it at that, only adding this:
Conclusion:
I think Calvinism does this to people too. I think the longer someone stays in a Calvinist church, the more it will destroy their faith (what should be a simple faith), their relationship with God, their trust of God, and their ability to discern truth for themselves, to understand the Bible the way God meant it to be understood. And if and when someone leaves a Calvinist church, it may destroy their relationships with others and their ability/desire to get involved in a new church.
And people leaving Calvinism will be so burned by it that they'll always be on the lookout for it now, always over-analyzing every word and phrase. They will always flinch at good words like "grace" and "sovereign" and "biblical"... always feel like pastors have an agenda and hidden layers... always distrusting the church and other Christians, afraid of being fooled again and too exhausted to care... and if their church was an authoritarian, legalistic kind, they might rebel against God and all of His rules and truths as a way of breaking free from the legalistic, domineering control of the church leaders (and this can lead to all sorts of heart-breaking consequences in their lives).
A kind of spiritual post-traumatic stress disorder.
You know what, maybe it'd be best to let you hear it right from the people. Here are some stories I found online of the real-life damage that Calvinism has done to people (quoted in my post "Calvinism's Heart-Breaking Destruction"):
From a Reddit post called "Calvinism is disgusting":
"As an ex-Christian who used to be a Calvinist, what alarmed me is that all the fears about satan applied to god... [Calvinists] ascribed so many characteristics to god that could be applied to satan that made them seem indistinguishable." (from 'deleted')
"I remember as I was leaving my faith, I thought 'If God exists, then he let my parents waste thousands on private Christian education, let me be baptized and study his word and be confirmed, let me have periods of doubt and repentance, all when he knew that I would be damned to hell.' Even when I was still a Christian, he knew that I was damned and he never helped me." (Uriah_Blacke)
"My parents used to say 'even the cutest baby is a dirty rotten sinner.' It was somewhat of a joke in our family, but also definitely what we all believed. I’m turning 30 this year and I still have trouble turning down the volume on this narrative about myself. It has led to issues in my friendships, with my partner, and now, with my parents... I have deconstructed to the [point] of agnosticism... This has crippled my emotional growth as an adult in ways..." (foreverlanding)
"The [Calvinist] concept of total depravity is so completely toxic. I'm still unlearning this as well. It does make me angry sometimes thinking about how absolutely f*cked up it is to teach children they are inherently awful just for being... The system is designed to make you feel like a POS [piece of sh*t] just for being a human. I'm 37 now and am agnostic after trying really hard to believe until about 2ish years ago. I feel more hopeful and free without the church." (eab1728)
"Agreed. Total Depravity isn't the "Good News" espoused in Reformed circles... Reformed doctrine never allowed me to truly accept my own self-worth; it robbed me of dignity and replaced it with constant, grating guilt. And it's utterly worthless in the face of real hardship... I am a universalist now, which couldn't be further from Reformed doctrine. And honestly, what a relief." (come_heroine)
"This is a screenshot from an email that I sent to my mom when I was 12 years old, simply titled "distressed". [She was looking for assurance that she's really one of the elect, because she was praying and reading the Bible but didn't feel anything - to which the father replies that only God can save her, only God can awaken her dead spirit and make her alive, that she can't do anything to save herself but that she should just keep praying. So essentially, it's "Do something about it, but you can't do anything about it, and so wait to see if God convinces you that you're one of the elect. But if you're not elect, there's nothing you can do about it." No wonder the kid is distressed! A twelve-year-old could see the problems with this!] I'm so angry that I was taught that I was completely bad, simply by being human, and I deserved to be tortured by the Creator for all of eternity, AND I COULD DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. All I could do was pray to God and hope that he had mercy on such a miserable, worthless, depraved wretch such as twelve-year-old me. I lived with a phobia of hell until the cage of my mind opened when I was 22, and I could finally think for the first time in my life..." (why-homo-sapien)
"A few years ago I was wondering why my self-esteem was so crap and then suddenly realised that the people who taught me to hate myself were my parents, through the medium of calvinism :)" (pktechboi)
From the Reddit post (with a few minor spelling and punctuation corrections) called: I have posted on another Group as well. I NEED SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN Calvinism to me because what I understand of it is scaring me!!! : r/Christians (reddit.com): "Okay.... so I have just watched a sermon from Paul Washer (which I thought was one of the most amazing sermons I have ever seen). That man has a fire for Christ that cannot be extinguished. But for the first time, I found out what Calvinism is. And I am scared to death!!! So if I am not elected by God to be saved, I will not be saved??? No matter how much time I devoted to prayer, how many times I have been broken by his feet have, how many hours I spent learning scripture, how many days I "thought" I was talking to my best friend. It was all just a lie??? I come in heaven just to realize I was never elected??? And get thrown into hell because the day I was born I was already doomed from the beginning??? And my whole faith is just one big hoax???" (Dingus_bellator1027) (That's some serious struggling going on right there! And Calvinism can offer no real hope, no real help, no real comfort other than "wait until you die to see if you won the salvation lottery or not".)
From the Reddit post "Verily verily I say unto thee, f*ck this sh*t!" which starts with this quote from Kevin DeYoung (which can also be found in his article on limited atonement): "Jesus did not die for every sinner, but for His own people. The Good Shepherd gives His life not for the goats, but for the sheep":
"This was a huge factor in my own deconversion. Even if this was an actual literal proven fact, there's no way I could love and worship a being who did/does this." (from justalapforcats)
"Welp, that takes a lot of pressure off of me as an atheist. I won't worry about whatever Jesus did, because he didn't die for me anyways." (from chucklesthegrumpy)
Miss_an100 responds to that with "...When I realized our own judicial system treats us better than this sadistic god, I was out. 30 years of my life. Sure, there were good memories. But the weight of it all sure took a toll on me eventually. Thankful I can breath a bit more easy now not worrying if I have committed the unpardonable sin. I’m certain I have 100x over. ;) ..."
If you are raising kids in a Calvinist church, take all of this very seriously. Because this could be them someday:
"I have recently discovered the doctrine of election and I believe that I am not elect. I don't have any spiritual fruit and I hate God with all my heart. My question is, at this point is it right to want to die? Might as well go to hell now instead of later. I do not want to kill myself (I never will hopefully) but I cant see a reason to live when my end destiny will be the same." (from "deleted") (Found in Election and Suicide : r/Calvinism (reddit.com))
(And I can only hope that the last one is a sick joke.)
Is it any wonder that people under Calvinism end up with that kind of despair and hopelessness when this is what Calvinists teach:
John Piper, in answer to the question “Does God Predestine People to Hell?”, says “My answer is yes. God does determine from eternity who will be saved."
John MacArthur: “God's love for the elect is an infinite, eternal, saving love... Such love clearly is not directed toward all of mankind indiscriminately, but is bestowed uniquely and individually on those whom God chose in eternity past.”
Wayne Grudem: “If God ultimately decided to create some creatures to be saved and others not to be saved, then that was his sovereign choice, and we have no moral or scriptural basis on which we can insist that it was not fair... Reformed theologians say that God deems his own glory more important than saving everyone, and that God’s glory is also furthered by the fact that some are not saved.”
R.C. Sproul Jr.: “God wills all things that come to pass… God desired for man to fall into sin... God is as delighted with His wrath as He is with all of His attributes."
John Piper: “Has God predetermined every tiny detail in the universe... and all of our besetting sins?... Yes, every horrible thing and every sinful thing is ultimately governed by God… He controls everything, and he does it for his glory and our good.”
Gordan H. Clark: “... if a man gets drunk and shoots his family, it was the will of God... this view certainly makes God the cause of sin."
Theodore Zachariades: "God works all things after the counsel of His will, even keeping those kings who want to commit adultery from committing so... and when He wants to, He orders those to commit adultery when HE WANTS TO!"
James White, in answer to the question: “When a child is raped, is God responsible and did He decree that rape?”, says "... Yes, [He decreed it] because if not, then it's meaningless and purposeless..."
Mark Talbot/John Piper: “God brings about all things in accordance with his will. It isn’t just that God manages to turn the evil aspects of our world to good for those that love him; it is rather that he himself brings about these evil aspects… This includes God’s having even brought about the Nazi’s brutality at Birkenau and Auschwitz as well as … the sexual abuse of a young child.”
Paul Washer: “If you reject Christ, then the moment when you take your first step through the gates of hell, the only thing you will hear is all of creation standing to its feet and applauding and praising God because God has rid the earth of you. That’s how not good you are."
Kevin DeYoung: "Should Christians rejoice in the doctrine of hell?... in one sense it is appropriate for Christians to say 'I don’t like the idea of hell.' But be careful. It’s never safe to dislike the truths God has revealed. We should actually like what the Bible teaches."
R.C. Sproul: "Don't you know that when you're in heaven, you'll be so sanctified that you'll be able to see your own mother in hell and rejoice in that, knowing that God's perfect justice is being carried out."
Vincent Cheung: “All that God does is intrinsically good and righteous, so it is also good and righteous for him to create the reprobates."
Vincent Cheung: "…man is morally responsible even if he lacks moral ability; that is, man must obey God even if he cannot obey God... man must obey God's commands because God says that man must obey, and whether or not he has the ability to obey is irrelevant."
Vincent Cheung: "God decreed evil ultimately for his own glory... One who thinks that God's glory is not worth the death and suffering of billions of people has too high an opinion of himself and humanity [and] should reconsider their spiritual commitment, to see if they are truly in the faith.”
Vincent Cheung: “The popular position that all infants are saved is wishful thinking, and continues as a groundless religious tradition... Thus [it] deceives the masses and offers them hope based on mere fantasy... if the parents cannot finally accept [the idea of infant damnation], that God is always right, then they are headed for hell themselves and need to become Christians… If someone dies without hearing the gospel, it just means that God has decreed his damnation beforehand... This would mean that those who are unable to exercise faith are all damned to hell, and this would include infants and the mentally retarded... I have no misgivings about this. I have no problem with the idea that all who die as embryos, infants, and mentally retarded would burn in hell... if they all burn in hell, they all burn in hell…”
Calvinism makes me sick.
And I think it's majorly responsible for much of the atheism out there today. Because if this is how God really is (He's not!) - and if people are tricked into thinking that Calvinism and Christianity are one and the same - then it's no wonder people reject God and the gospel. A God like that cannot be trusted and is really no better than Satan. [For more quotes (and the resources where the quotes are from) and for my responses to the quotes, see "A Crash Course in Calvinism (Calvinist quotes)."]
A word to worried Calvinists:
If you're a Calvinist who's getting worried right now because you're thinking "Oh no! I really enjoy Calvinist preachers and my Calvinist church. But now I'm afraid I've been misled this whole time. What do I do? What should I think?," let me just say this:
Just because the deeper layers of Calvinism are unbiblical doesn't mean you didn't or can't get a lot of good teaching from Calvinists. 95% of what they teach in any given sermon could sound great, setting off no alarm bells, because they still do preach a biblical surface layer and have some good practical insights and knowledge about other non-gospel issues. And I think there's enough truth in Calvinism's surface layer that unaware people could still find the Lord through it. God can use anything, good or bad. So it's not all been a waste.
[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.]
But if you are just now starting to come out of a Calvinist coma and it's freaking you out, don't worry. And in fact, rejoice - because the true biblical truth is even more beautiful than what you've been told by Calvinists, even more faith-affirming. And the farther you get away from Calvinism, and the closer you get to the plain and simple truth of the Bible, the deeper you are going to dive into God's love, faithfulness, righteousness, trustworthiness, grace, joy, peace, etc.
And not only that, but you'll be able to freely spread it to others because you'll begin to truly understand that what God did for you, He can do for anyone. Because - unlike in Calvinism - in the Bible, God really does love all people and want all people to be saved, and Jesus really did die for all sins of all people, and so anyone can believe in Him and be saved. This includes me, and you, and our kids, our family members, our neighbors, our friends, and, yes, even our enemies. We can all 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. Because the Bible tells us so.
And so no one is beyond God's reach, beyond His love, grace, forgiveness, healing, salvation, etc. No one is predestined to hell. No one is hopeless. God loves all, Jesus died for all, and God offers salvation to all - an offer that all of us can accept. And so no matter how far we've fallen or how long we've been running from God, we can turn around and throw ourselves upon His grace, grabbing ahold of His promise to save anyone who puts their faith in Jesus. A promise that's for all people. And we can trust His promise because the God of the Bible (unlike Calvinism's god) is trustworthy. This is where our hope and assurance is found.
The truth of the Bible is so much more beautiful, hope-filled, life-giving, faith-affirming, 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!
[Also, you might find encouragement in this 5-part series from Jason Breda at Living Christian: "Why I don't believe in Calvinism anymore." My husband watched it all and said it's one of the best summaries of what's wrong with Calvinism.]
Summing it all up:
I'd like to end this post on a quote from a video called Stealth Calvinism and How it Splits Churches from The Church Split. These guys - Brian and Will - have a lot of great insights to share about the dangers and errors of Calvinism, especially Stealth Calvinism. (And I love Brian's self-deprecating "Hello, heretics" that he often greets us with.😄)
Near the end of that video (starting at the 1:46:36 minute mark), Will said this (I am quoting him with his permission):
"I am not attacking my church, okay. It's just when you see it happen before your very eyes... It can happen anywhere. You think that you're safe, maybe in your church, but you're not, even though you trust the people around you. They're good people around you. They're loving, thoughtful, serving. But because they might not be aware of this particular issue... anyone can bring something stealthy in. You have to just know what that is, right. You have to be aware of the terminology. You have to be aware of what you believe. You have to be aware of precision: 'How can I be more precise in my speech so that I'm very clear in where we stand on things?'... You have to be aware of the issues. Because if you don't, they WILL split your church or you're gonna have a bunch of brainwashed people or you're gonna have a bunch of people so theologically confused that they defunct from the faith or they're no good in their evangelistic efforts because they have a ton of contradictory views."
This is pretty much my whole post condensed into one paragraph. And it nicely sums up my reason for this post. (Thank you, Will!)
So considering all we've looked at, what do you think? Cult-ish or not? Unbiblical or not?
It's okay if you say not. I won't fight you on it.
But if you say cult-ish - if you agree that Calvinism corrupts the gospel and destroys God's character, truth, and people's faith - then what are you gonna do about it? Who are you going to tell? How are you gonna help protect the gospel, God's Truth?
The gospel is at stake here. God's character and Word. People's faith and eternities and their relationship with Him.
And if that's not worth fighting for, nothing is.
