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Showing posts from April, 2024

Calvinism for Beginners

How do you help someone understand the errors, dangers, and cult-like tactics of Calvinism when they aren't even really sure yet what it is or what it teaches?  Where do you start?   My kids know that my husband and I believe Calvinism is a corruption of God's truth and character.  They know because we left our church over it in 2019 - the church they grew up in for many years - and because we haven't stopped researching and talking... venting?... lamenting?... complaining?... about it since. They know we want them to avoid it.  But I'm not sure how much they really understand for themselves what it is and why it's wrong... or if they would know how to recognize it if they encountered it unexpectedly in a church or book, if we weren't there to point it out and explain it.   And so to help them (teenagers right now) understand for themselves what it teaches and why it's wrong, we recommended that they watch some Soteriology 101 videos about it.  But then aft

Calvinist Hogwash #5: Rejoicing about hell

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(Some of these quotes might've better fit the  "hell and justice"  post, but I didn't find them in time, so I put them here.) Some Calvinists seem to think that it's most God-honoring to rejoice about hell, to celebrate the fact that Calvi-god predestines non-elect people to hell to show off his justice, for his glory.  They  sensationalize the glory of it all and say that it's better for the elect that there are people in hell.   They say that if God gets glory by predestining people to hell [they're wrong!], then it's wrong to get upset about it.      Of course, most Calvinists don't go to that extreme, but it's quite sickening when they do.   C. Matthew McMahon  ( The Two Wills of God ,  pg 349 ):  " The saints should delight in the reprobation of the wicked... We come to understand and praise God concerning the damnation of other people.  We understand that we could have been what they are.  We contemplate their eternal destiny, and bo