Warped Enough?

An excerpt from my post "Calvinism: False Gospel or True (but warped) Gospel?":

Brian [a non-Calvinist who replied to my comment about Calvinism being a false gospel] thinks that true believers cannot, at some later point, fall into believing a false gospel (and so if someone does later fall into a false gospel, it must mean they were never really saved to begin with).  

I, however, think the Bible does show that the Church, true believers, can and do fall into false gospels.  

Paul warns and condemns the church of Galatia about this when he writes: "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."  (Gal. 1:6-7)

The "gospel" the Galatians began believing in - after coming to faith in Jesus - was that in order to be saved they needed faith in Jesus PLUS Jewish laws and customs (circumcision, in particular).  Clearly this is a different way to salvation (faith plus works), a false way.  And yet true believers were falling for it.

As Paul says, "You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?... Are you so foolish?  After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (Gal. 3:1-3)

They clearly started in the faith believing the true gospel, but then were bewitched - tricked - into the false gospel of "faith plus works."  

Three take-aways here: 

1. Christians can fall for false gospels later.  They can be tricked, bewitched, into foolishly believing a false gospel after starting faith "with the Spirit," in truth.  

2. The fact that Christians believe various things about salvation doesn't make it true.  Just because Christians - after getting saved - begin believing something else doesn't mean it's "the true gospel, just warped," as Brian claims about Calvinism.  He thinks Christians can't fall for false gospels, and so if Christians fall for Calvinism, it must mean that Calvinism cannot really be a false gospel.  But as Paul said, the Galatians - though they were saved - began believing in "a different gospel, no gospel," and it was even deserving of eternal condemnation (verses 8-9).  And notice that, like Calvinism, the Galatians weren't really denying that salvation comes through Jesus - they still believed the true gospel, that salvation comes through Jesus - they just added another layer to it that Scripture doesn't support.  But the true gospel plus certain kinds of unbiblical layers equals "a different gospel," not merely a "true but warped" gospel.   

3. Just because we fall for a false gospel after coming to faith in Christ doesn't mean we were never truly saved to begin with or that we lost our salvation.  (But it will have a detrimental impact on our faith, our witness, our eternal rewards, and the Church.)  Paul continues to acknowledge the Galatia church as "brothers" in the Lord, as true believers.  But he challenges them to get back in line with the true gospel, to reject the lies and deceptions of false gospels that seek to pull them from the pure truth.  There'd be no need to warn Christians about not falling for false gospels if Christians were not at risk of it.  

True Christians can fall for false gospels later, but it doesn't mean they lost their salvation or were never really saved to begin with.  And I think this is the case with many Calvinists.  

So what is the gospel, according to Scripture, and why would I say Calvinism is a false gospel?

1 Cor. 15:1-4: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you… that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures…”

The gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, and through His death we are saved.  And yes, Calvinists believe this at a most basic (limited) level.

But who is the “our” in “our sins”?  What is the fuller picture of the gospel, of Jesus’s death, “according to the Scriptures”:

1 John 2:2: “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

John 1:29: “… ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the whole world.”

1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all men …”

1 Timothy 4:10: “… that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men…”

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

Here’s where Calvinism goes off-track and becomes a false gospel.  The Bible says that Jesus died for all people so that God could offer salvation to all people because God wants all people saved.  But Calvinism says “No! Only the elect.”  This doesn’t just warp the gospel; it changes it (the gospel, Jesus’s death) into something it’s not, into a plan of salvation for only a few pre-selected people even though the Bible says no such thing.  In fact, it says the opposite.  This is not the same kind of “good news.”  It is a different kind of “good news,” limited to only a few people, contrary to what the Bible says.  And if it’s contrary to something Scripture clearly says, I think that’s enough to make it false.

(Calvinism’s errors are not about things the Bible is unclear on, true mysteries.  Calvinism’s errors are about things the Bible clearly says.  The Bible clearly says one thing, but Calvinism goes “Nope!  It doesn’t mean that.”  This makes it not just warped, in my opinion, but false.  A direct attack on God’s Truth.)

And not to mention that 1 Cor. 15:2 says, “by this gospel you are saved.”  According to this and other verses, belief leads to salvation.  Salvation is a result of belief.  (And anyone can believe.)  But Calvinism reverses it, making belief the result of salvation.  In Calvinism, salvation leads to belief (for a few preselected people).  

In the Bible, it's “by this gospel you are saved.”  But in Calvinism, it's “by election you are saved before the beginning of the world, and then you will believe in the gospel.”  So technically, in Calvinism, since salvation happens before belief in the gospel and faith in Jesus, then it technically means that people are saved without the gospel and faith in Jesus.  Calvinism is not a gospel of "salvation by faith in Jesus."  It's a gospel of "salvation by election before faith in Jesus."  

I think this is warped enough to be a different way to salvation.  A different gospel.  A false gospel.

Either Jesus died for everyone (what the Bible says)... or He didn't (what Calvinism says).  Either belief leads to salvation (what the Bible says)... or salvation leads to belief (what Calvinism says).

These cannot be the same gospel, the same salvation, the same way to be saved.  They just can't.  Can they?

But once again, this doesn’t mean most Calvinists are not saved.  I think most Calvinists are Christians who don’t realize they’ve been bewitched into false teachings about Christ’s death, His work on the cross, and how to be saved.  And if they did realize that Calvinism is an attack on God’s truth, they wouldn’t have fallen for it.  But sadly, they’ve been tricked and educated into thinking it’s just “deeper truths,” when it’s really different “truths.”

(And if Satan truly is the father of lies and deception and half-truths - and if Calvinism really does tell lies and deceptions and half-truths about God, His character, His Word, Jesus's death, the way to salvation, what faith is, etc. - then are we not compromising with Satan and furthering his work if we compromise with Calvinism?  Are we not calling his deceptive half-truths "the true gospel" if we call Calvinism "the true gospel... just warped"?  How warped does something have to be before it goes from true to false, from the truth of God to the lies of Satan?  Isn't reversing "belief leads to salvation" and attacking Jesus's death (limiting what He accomplished, who He died for, who can be saved) warped enough to make Calvinism a false gospel?  If not, then what is?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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