Calvinism on babies and young children

[This is taken from my post "As evil as it gets: Calvinism on babies and the unreached."  I'm breaking that longer post up into shorter pieces, to focus on one topic per post.  I left the same lettering from the original post.  I'll intersperse this series with the Alana L series.]

Calvinist views of babies and young children:

n. Paul Washer (from the sermon "Not Ashamed of the Gospel")": "I submit to you that if that 18-month-old baby had the strength of an 18-year old man, he would slaughter you there where you stand, father, rip the watch off your arm and walk across your bloody body and out the door without feeling an ounce of remorse."

o. R.C. Sproul (from Idol Killer's video Evil and Depraved - the Reformed View of Children): "Calvin was once talking about babies and said that babies are as depraved as rats.  And I said that's the one time I really really oppose the teaching of John Calvin...because that's terribly insulting to the rat."  (Is Calvinism like some sort of contest to see who can believe the worst things and be the biggest heretic and jerk?  I mean, seriously.  You might also like Idol Killer's "God's Fault - Who is Responsible for Evil?")

[Or how about frogs instead of rats, per John Piper: "I have heard it said, 'God didn’t die for frogs. He died for humans, implying we were worth the sacrifice.' This turns grace on its head. We are less deserving than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with the contempt of being inconsequential in their lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it." (The rebuttal from Anthony Burgoyne says it best: " 'We are less deserving than frogs.' Meanwhile Jesus: 'You are worth more than many sparrows.' " Amen! Will Hess also makes a good case against Piper in this video, showing the potential damage of spreading beliefs like Piper's.)]

p. John MacArthur (from The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian, Part 1): "Nowhere, or at no point, is a man's depravity more manifest than in the procreative act... How do we know man is a sinner at the base of his character?  How do we know man is a sinner at the root of his existence?  The answer: by what he creates.  Whatever comes from the loins of man is wicked because man is wicked.  So I say to you that nowhere then in the anatomy of man or in the activity of man is depravity more manifest than in the procreative act... because it is at precisely that point which he demonstrates the depth of his sinfulness because he produces a sinner."

[To help explain how Calvinists view humans in general, here's a long snippet from a Founders Ministries article called The Depth of Depravity (I took out the references to Bible verses to save space.  And keep in mind that when Calvinists use Bible verses, they usually interpret and use them wrong.  Such as, many of the verses referred to in this article are talking about people who have chosen to be wicked, to embrace their wickedness and reject God, but Calvinists apply them to mankind in general, claiming that it's the basic state/nature of people in general, even babies - because, in Calvinism, these are one and the same.):

"There is a third aspect that is not discussed as often.  It is what may be termed the depth of depravity.  The Bible describes sinners as far more evil than they realize.  Just as Calvinism portrays a higher [and totally wrong] view of the sovereignty of God than other theologies, so it presents a far lower view of the sinful state of fallen mankind.  [Yeah, we know.  Hooray for you.]  In sum, fallen man is corrupt through and through, rotten to the core... It is only because of God’s restraints in common grace that we do not murder each other.

... Fallen men are dead trees that deserve to be cut down and thrown into the fire.  They are useful only as firewood for hell.  The lifeless stump of fallen man is rotten.... Fallen man is a maggot that feeds on filth and dead bodies... Men are worms whose hunger is never satisfied, as Jonathan Edwards said, 'They are like a filthy worm that never feeds so sweetly as when feeding on carrion or never has its nature so suited as when crawling in the most abominable filth.'... [Man is] a filthy and disgusting sinner.

... [Man is] Worse than animals... because of sin, man is worse than any beast... Thomas Watson said, 'The sinner is a swine with a man’s head,' a kind of half-man half-beast like a centaur.  George Whitefield popularized the analogy of man as half-beast and half-devil.  Spurgeon said that analogy is an insult to beasts and devils.  We are worse than both.

... Sinners are mad dogs foaming at the mouth with spiritual rabies... Worse still, we are like disgusting vermin.  Calvin said we are worse than 'worms, flies, lice and vermin.  For there is more worth in all the world’s vermin than there is in man.'  The worst, vilest animal is an angel compared with the best man.

... Calvin said, 'To hear us tell it, we are angels, but if someone looks closely, he will find we are worse than devils.'... Jonathan Edwards preached that there is a 'mutual loathing' between God and man.  Calvin said we deserve to have the angels spit on us... Man is bad—very bad.  And God is mad—very mad [about what he supposedly decreed and caused!?!😕].

... Ultra-environmentalists sometimes say that mankind is a disease on Mother Earth. They are more right than they realize... Yet sinners delude themselves into thinking, 'I’m not that bad.'  This is because...they are accustomed to their sins.  Calvin said sinners do not detect their sin 'just as a pig does not smell its own stink.' " 

Is it any wonder why Calvinists would be so critical of and shaming about procreation and babies, the production of more human beings, when this is how they view human beings?] 

q. From my ex-pastor's January 2016 sermon on the wrath of God: "Truth-suppression begins very early in life.  Children have no interest in truth…zero.  Babies, toddlers, cute little kids, my cute grandkids, they have no interest in the truth.  What is a child’s primary interest in life?  ME!  [As it should be at that age - because they're babies!]  It’s the All-Great Universe of ME!  They don’t want to know the truth [because they can’t even understand the concept of truth yet!].  Frankly, I think if they were big enough, sometimes they would vaporize us.  If you look at the rage in a child, toddler, baby that is screaming because you’re imposing truth on them… Why am I born such a good truth-suppressor?  Because I’m born sinful.  Not just a little bit, we are born incredibly depraved to our core… desperately wicked.  We are slaves to sin… We are born rebellious, and we don’t want authority over us… the heart is desperately wicked… deceitful above all things… We can’t handle the truth and so we suppress it.”  

Oh, those awful, horrible babies!  Nasty little evil things! 

r. From my ex-pastor's March 2017 sermon about why there's suffering and evil in the world (referring to Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs): "The secular assumption is that ‘normal’ people – whatever that means – don’t do things like that.  They’re not cannibals and sadistic killers.  Something went wrong with him.  That’s a secular assumption… [because] from birth we’re born corrupt and evil.  And so it’s a secular assumption to think that something has to happen to make us really evil.  Any of us are capable of that kind of horrific evil.  Hannibal Lector answers [the question 'What made you like this?'] very biblically...‘Nothing happened to me.  I just am.  I’m evil.'  That’s the biblical worldview. 

Let me go a little further.  This is why infants, children, and toddlers disobey by nature.  ["Because they are corrupt and evil, obviously on par with cannibals and sadistic killers."]  I have 2 [young grandchildren] living in my house… They are a delight.  They are sinful.  I am watching my older one – 2½ years old – and he is really pushing the envelope these days.  He’s a precious little guy but, my goodness, his heart is already twisted and dark… This is why children, infants, toddlers, and kids need discipline.  It’s why they need spankings.  It’s why they need boundaries.  And it’s why we need to enforce these things."  

[So we can beat the total depravity right out of them?  Spanking them will somehow make them elect or change their hearts?  Nothing can affect what Calvi-god "ordained" for them, and nothing can change them before he does... and so spanking unregenerated children is really just spanking incapacitated people who are incapable of changing on their own anyway.  May as well beat a wheelchair-bound person with a bat while yelling, “Stand up already!"]

Our pastor even wrote a blog post about how God "commands" spanking, and that it has to hurt.  The whole "spare the rod, spoil the child" thing.  (And if I'm not mistaken, he spanks his grandkids too.  So those kids get it not just from mom and dad, but also from the grandparents.  Sad.)  

I, however, sent in a comment about how I believe God commands disciplining our children, not necessarily spanking them.  I believe the "rod" is a tool of correction, guidance, authority, not necessarily something to hit them with.  (And I told them that they picked an awful picture for the blog post, that the picture of the young, scared, sad child huddled on the ground is disturbing because it looks like he's hiding a dark secret of abuse.)  

But the church never printed my comment.  Just like how they removed my comment from his blog where I disagreed with his view of predestination, and how they are currently blocking comments on their other social media pages from a friend who also disagrees with them.  And they eventually stopped allowing comments on their blog altogether, because I kept calling them out.  

Authoritarian Calvinist pastors do not like to be opposed, especially when they're trying to be stealthy about their Calvinist infiltration and brainwashing of the church.  And so if you disagree with an authoritarian Calvinist pastor, you could find yourself being silenced, blocked, belittled, attacked, expelled from the church, shunned, and/or demonized, all in the name of "protecting the gospel and protecting the church from heresy and division, of course."  And they might even demand to know the names of everyone you talked to so that they can call those people and re-brainwash them, or they (especially 9 Marks churches) might put you under "church disciple" and/or try to control which church you go to after you leave theirs.  It's really sick and cult-like.

s. Voddie Baucham would agree with our pastor (from this sermon about total depravity): “People who don’t believe in original sin don’t have children. … That’s a viper in a diaper.  The angry cry happens early.  The demanding cry happens early.  The stiffening up of the body, that happens early. … One of the reasons God makes them so small is so that they won’t kill you.  And one of the reasons he makes them so cute is so that you won’t kill them.”  

And his solution (from another sermon) is: “God says your children desperately, desperately need to be spanked.  [Give me the Bible chapter and verse!]  Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord, and spank your kids.  Okay?  They desperately need to be spanked.  And they need to be spanked often.  They do.  I meet people all the time, and they’re like ‘Yeah, you know, I can think of maybe four or five times I ever had to spank Junior.’  Really?  That’s unfortunate.  Because unless you raised Jesus the Second, there were days when Junior needed to be spanked five times before breakfast… You need to have an all-day session where you just wear them out.”  [So I guess repeated beatings can affect the outcome, Calvi-god's "sovereign" plan for them, huh!?!  Interesting.]

Baucham goes on (in the above sermon) to give this specific example of discipline/spanking (click here for the transcript of the sermon): "Discipline and training. That’s the other side of it... Let me give you an example — the prime example.  The so-called shy kid, who doesn’t shake hands at church, okay?  Usually what happens is you come up, you know — and here I am, I’m the guest, and I walk up and I’m saying hi to somebody and they say to their kid 'Hey, you know, say good morning to Dr. Baucham!'  And the kid hides and runs behind the leg — and here’s what’s supposed to happen.  This is what we have agreed upon silently in our culture.  What’s supposed to happen is: I’m supposed to look at their child and say, 'Hey, that’s okay.'

But I can’t do that.  Because if I do that, then what has happened is, Number One, the child has just sinned by not doing what they were told to do.  It’s direct disobedience.  Secondly, the parent is in sin for not correcting it.  And thirdly, I am in sin because I just told a child that it’s okay for them to disobey and dishonor their parent in direct violation of Scripture.

I can’t do that. I won’t do that.

I’m gonna stand there until you make them do what you said.

'Well what am I supposed to do?'  Train them... And you practice that five, six, seven, eight, nine times... [And] if they don’t [do it the way you trained them to do it], you take them to a private place and wear them out.  Because they have just been directly defiant after you trained them and told them what to do.  

I have a pastor friend of mine.  One of his daughters was just really defiant in this one particular area.  And they had one instance where they had drawn the line and they were like, 'This has to end today.'... [Her parents told her to] shake the deacon’s hand.  She won’t do it.  Pastor goes back in the office, goes through that whole process — spank the child, comes back out, child won’t do it again.  Goes back again, asks the deacon, 'Will you please wait here?'

Thirteen times.

Thirteen times.

That deacon was like, 'Little girl, please…'

They never dealt with it again. Never dealt with it again.

Are you gonna reign in your home or is sin gonna reign in your home? Which one?"

So after thirteen times of taking the child in the back (while the church watches it happen) and spanking the sin out of her, spanking her for being so wicked, rebellious, and defiant for being too shy to shake someone's hand, they finally break her.  

Congratulations, parents!  She'll never be too shy or refuse to let anyone touch her again, even when she's uncomfortable.  

(I can only hope she was refusing to shake hands in total defiance to her parents, instead of just being shy!  I'd applaud her for that, for being willing to "just say no" to her parents in a case like that!)

[Enjoy this video from Idol Killer on Voddie's "viper in a diaper" sermon: "Your Children are Evil".]