Series by Andy Woods: "Neo-Calvinism vs. the Bible"

I've been listening through this series by Dr. and Pastor Andy Woods called Neo-Calvinism vs. The Bible, and I'm finding it really good and informative, covering a lot of aspects of Calvinism, from historical to practical to present-day issues, etc.  [I even like his dry, monotone, and slightly-repetitive way of speaking.  It's calming to my over-active brain, helping me really hear him and absorb what he's saying.]

He's still adding to this series (and I've only listened up to 13 so far), but here are the links to all the videos he's got in the series up to this point, with a little bit about each one.  They're great to listen to while you're doing something like cleaning or cooking or driving or whatever.  


The following are links to his website (but here's the playlist on YouTube):

Video #1: About the mixed blessings of Calvinism, including how it helped shaped our American government, and about some of the serious issues of Calvinism and our obligation to admonish false teachers. 


Video #2: Some serious issues with Calvinism, particularly related to its view of prophecy/eschatology (apparently, Martin Luther essentially tossed out the book of Revelation... and the book of James, calling it "an epistle of straw") and its view of Israel due to its non-dispensational stance, causing Calvinists to think the Church has replaced Israel instead of believing that God has separate plans for Israel and the Church.


Video #3: More about the impact of Calvinism on prophecy, particularly its misunderstanding the millennial kingdom.  He examines the word "saved" and how it doesn't always mean salvation of the soul.  And he talks a little about the lack of assurance Calvinists have about their salvation and how it leads to fear that they aren't really saved.


Video #4: About Martin Luther's influence on Calvinism and about how Calvinism leads to antisemitism (apparently Hitler used the writings of Martin Luther to promote his agenda). 


Video #5: Jews/Gentiles (the Church); God's plan for the Jewish people; the end times 


Video #6: Dispensational theology vs. Non-Dispensational theology/Calvinism; infant baptism; Calvin's atrocities


Video #7: More on dispensations/John MacArthur; Ephesians; prophecy/end times 


Video #8: The source of Calvin's theology: Augustine, Roman Catholicism


Video #9: Augustine; Catholic doctrines/apocryphal books; infant baptism; purgatory/indulgences and how the Romans Catholic church got rich


Video #10: Who is John Calvin?  Calvin created his theology at 25 years old, after only 2 years of switching from Catholic to Protestant.  More about Calvin's manner of life and his rule of Geneva and the executions of Gruet, Servetus, and Belot.


Video #11: More on Calvin's Geneva


Video #12: starting the tulip/Total Depravity


Video #13: More on Total Depravity


Video #14: Total Depravity/spiritual death is "inability" in Calvinism but it should just mean "separation"


Video #15: More on how Calvin overstates depravity and mis-defines death and underestimates what lost man can do


Video #16: More on what spiritual death really is; Ephesians 2:1-5; Calvinism's foolish analogy of equating spiritual death with a physically-dead corpse


Video #17: Acts 17:27; seeking God; the Holy Spirit convicts all people


Video #18: Lost people can seek God, hear from God, reason through things, and believe in God


Video #19: Calvinism's overstatement of sovereignty; election; God's control vs. free-will; reprobation/double predestination; Does God choose us or do we choose God?  

[I will admit that when talking about God's sovereignty vs. man's free-will, he reminds me of a Calvinist by appealing to "tension/mystery" - and this raises my hackles.  It's icky to my ears, like nails on a chalkboard.  But I know he doesn't mean it in a Calvinist way.  He goes on to say that Calvinism overstates sovereignty and basically does away with a biblical understanding of true free-will.

And I would say that yes, of course, God is in control and sovereignly reigns over all things in ways we can't always fully comprehend, and it is difficult to always fully understand the interface between God's control and man's choice.  But I don't think it's as mysterious as we make it sometimes.  

To put it simply: When it comes to God's control vs. man's choices, I believe God allows mankind to make real free-will choices (to choose between real options that are truly available to us, allowing us to decide which one we want to choose and allowing us to change our minds... and to even change His mind sometimes) but God then works our real decisions into His plans to accomplish His purposes.  Whether we obey or disobey, whether we chose Option A or B or Z, He is wise enough to know how to work it into His plans to get good out of it.  This is how mankind can make real choices and yet God can still be in control over all.  "In control over all"... not Calvinism's "controlling all," which is very different.  Calvinism makes it much more of a "mystery" - a fabricated mystery - when they claim that God preplans, causes, controls everything we think, do, and choose but that we make "real choices."  But it's not as hard to understand when you take off the Calvinist glasses.

And when it comes to God's choice vs. man's choice in salvation, what makes all the difference is that God doesn't choose who believes and gets saved (as Calvi-god does), but He chooses anyone and everyone who becomes "in Christ" by believing in Jesus.  And anyone can believe in Jesus because Jesus died for all, salvation is available to all, and everyone has the ability/option to believe.  

It's kinda like this: God chose to create two buses and He chose the destination of those buses, what happens to whoever is on those buses: One bus is destined for heaven and the other for hell.  But He lets people choose for themselves which bus to get on.  And so when people, of their own free-will, choose to get on the heaven bus, He then chooses them for the blessings, benefits, and destination of anyone and everyone who gets on that "in Christ" bus.  This is how people and God can choose, at the same time - and it's far less "mysterious" than Calvinism's idea that God predetermines who gets saved but then holds people "responsible" for their "choice."] 

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List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

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Because it  appears  to teach biblical truth while actually teaching  the opposite  - while using  manipulation and cult-like tactics to suck you in!  And it's spreading.  Stealthily, fast, aggressively. (We watched it happen firsthand in our church, which is why I wrote this blog.  See  "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?"    Sadly, we ended up  leaving that church , a place we attended almost 20 years.) [ I updated this November 2022 to try to shorten it.  I failed.  But I hope it's more readable and streamlined at least.   If you only read one anti-Calvinism post of mine, I think it should be this one.  But I'm warning you, this post is long.  Very long.  So pack a lunch and bring a sleeping bag.  But it has to be long because Calvinism is so deceptively convoluted that it takes time to peel off the layers so that you can see it for what it really is.  ...
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Is The ESV (English Standard Version) a Calvinist Bible?

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Leaving Calvinism: Comments from Ex-Calvinists #11

Here is the last of the ex-Calvinist testimonies.  The first one is from this post:  X-Calvinist Corner .   (It's an Arminian website, but I am not Arminian.)  I am going to highlight some of the comments that stood out to me the most.  If you want to read everything that everyone said, click on the link above: Dana Steele writes: I grew up in a Calvinistic Baptist church from age 11.  The 5-points of Calvinism (TULIP) were taught regularly with great enthusiasm ... But it wasn’t until college that I began to understand and embrace the “Doctrines of Grace” and TULIP more fully....  I also learned to love the doctrine of election because it meant that God loved me personally and specifically in a unique way.  Though it made me a little embarrassed to think that God did not love everyone this way, I was content to leave this as a mystery.  Who am I to question God?  I was just glad I was one of the lucky (I mean chosen) ones. ... [As ...
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The Calvinist Gospel Project? (their podcast/the gospel)

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[After this, I'll be publishing the more significant posts every other week, in general, with some small or fun ones thrown in between.]   Since I added this update late to the end of my post " The Gospel Project: Calvinist or not? ", I figured I'd repost it here too (with some additional information), in case you missed it: Update: Here's something from Lifeway about (from?) The Gospel Project, answering the question  "How do human actions and God's plans work together? ":   "... God is in complete control over all things. This is what Christians mean when they call God 'sovereign.'...  the Lord’s plans go forward through the choices of human beings as moral agents, including our freely chosen sinful actions!   Everything we do is what we want to do, while also being a part of God’s plan. They are what we want   and   what God wants." To me, this is Calvinism.  It's a little veiled, but it's Calvinism.  It's  saying tha...
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"But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!"

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If you point out to Calvinists that Calvinism's view of sovereignty - that God fore-ordains and orchestrates everything that happens and we had no ability to do anything differently - makes God the cause (and truly the only  voluntary cause) of all sin and evil, they'll probably respond with something like "That's not what we're saying.  You're putting words in our mouths.  And you don't understand Calvinism."   When they do that, show them a few of these quotes -  Ca lvinists' own words about their beliefs of God's sovereignty and how He preplans, will, ordains, orchestrates, directs (code words for "causes")  everything  that happens.  And then ask them if they still think you're really misunderstanding them.  (Bold emphasis added) [And before reading the quotes, here's a great, satirical 4-minute video that I think everyone should see:  Hitler and Calvinism .  Awesome!] 1. R.C. Sproul Jr.  ( Almighty Over All) :  ...
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How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist (simplified version)

(For the extended version of this post, which I recommend, click here .  It is loaded with lots more information.  This simplified one is just the highlights.  And feel free to copy this and share it with others, to help them learn to identify Calvinism when they see it.  Just make sure to share the link to this blog so that they can find the original post.  Thank you.  New : For the super-short version, click here .  And FYI: I found a couple times when the Calvinist author of an article I linked to changed their article after I linked to it.  So if their article doesn't seem to match what I said about it, it may be because they altered it. ) We just left our church of almost 20 years because of the dogmatic Calvinist pastor who recently came on board.  ( Read my "Letter to Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing in Our Church" here.)   And I was thinking about what precautions I might take to make sure we didn't end up in another...
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A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?")

(For just the "Is the ESV a Calvinist Bible" part of this post, click here .) In my normal Bible reading today, I came across a verse about "singleness vs. marriage" that destroys Calvinism in a few short words: "But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but who has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin - this man also does the right thing."   ( 1 Corinthians 7:37, NIV ) When you get past all the layers Calvinism wraps itself in to disguise the bad parts, it ultimately teaches - at the heart of it all - that God causes/controls  everything , even controlling our wills and causing our sins.  (But He then punishes  us  for the things He caused us to do, which would make Him unjust, no matter how much Calvinists try to deny it and cover it up.  See  this post  for some links about that.)  Calvinism ultimately teaches that everything we do is because God p...
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Alana L.: 3g (surprised God saves ANYONE)

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This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist    Point #3:   G.  Alana talked about how Calvinists claim to be "surprised" (happy, thrilled, thankful) that God has enough grace to save anyone at all, because we're all so bad and deserve hell. You'll hear this over and over again in Calvinism, such as these quotes from my Calvinist ex-pastor: ... From his October 12, 2014 sermon:  " After thousands of years of [human] rebellion, that God would be willing to elect  any  rebellious sinner to eternal life shows tremendous love and grace and mercy." ... From his February 1, 2015 sermon on unbelief:   " ...  Now your question might be this: 'Why doesn't God draw everybody?  And why doesn't He save everybody and open the eyes of every sinner and have mercy on them all?' ... He does not.  He does not.  (*see the note below)    You know what: When we...
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