Things that make you go "Hmm?"

 


Most Popular Posts Of The Month:

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

I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist" posts).  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.]    And so here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinists," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify as a Calvinist, I tried to figure it out based on the statements of faith of the groups/churches they belong to, the books they write, the t...
Read more

Fending Off Calvinism (a.k.a. Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps)

Image
[I'm still taking a short break from writing until September, but - for easier reference - here's the second half of the previous post: Calvinism's Systematic Theology (and how to fend it off) .] How to fend off Calvinism's Systematic Theology Alternative title: "Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps" [Of course, I don't really think that there's anything truly easy about debating or destroying Calvinism.   It's such a tangled web of errors, with a cult-like vice-grip on people's minds, that it can't be defeated with just a few verses or rebuttals.  Its errors are so complex, interconnected, and deep-rooted that it needs to be completely dismantled idea by idea, wrong definition by wrong definition, misinterpreted verse by misinterpreted verse, false dichotomy by false dichotomy, etc.  And this takes lots of time and patience, with grace, compassion, and respect for the struggling Calvinist.  It took lots of time and effort for them to get ...
Read more

Alana L. 5V (the twisted ESV)

Image
This series  is  loosely   based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist      Point #5 still :   V:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     Sidenote: The Calvinist ESV In a previous post ( 5Q: Robots ), I said I'd do a post like this... and now I'm finally getting around to it. In this post, I want to show you something about the Calvinist ESV, how I believe th at the Calvinists who worked on the ESV made sure their translation fits with Calvinism:  with their incorrect view of mankind's free-will (which is not really "free" at all in Calvinism, as we've seen in previous posts) and  with their incorrect view of God's sovereignty, that He preplans, decrees, orchestrates, causes, controls everything, including our thoughts, actions, sins, evils, unbelief, destinies, etc. (but just  try to find "sovereign" defined that way in the Bible, especially in the KJV, whi...
Read more

The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult

Image
[For the shortened version of this post,  click here .  For the tiniest version, click here .  And since this whole post will take you about 3 hours to read, h ere are links to the individual 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 (my paraphrase; 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. ...
Read more

Juni Desiree's beautiful art and heart

Image
(A just-for-fun post that I'm slipping in between the regular posts here.)  This is a section from a previous post  which shows this painting I once did: This was my favorite one, the first one I painted in this way.  (I like it, but no one else has to.  I just paint for fun, not for quality.)   And it graced my wall for a few years... until I gave it away to a dear online friend from Australia,  Juni Desiree  (we met online in the comment section of a blog she used to have).  It was the only way to say "thank you" for something amazing she did for me: dedicating to me a book she published of pictures she drew about her mental health journey.   Here's a YouTube video on it:  The Art of Mental Health: Book Launch!!!!  (at 5:04 you can see the "Dedication: For Heather" page"😊).  (It used to be available for purchase, but I don't know if it is anymore or not.)    Ironically, she never knew how very much it mea...
Read more

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...
Read more

Melissa at The Comment Corral

Here's a comment from a reader named Melissa (from this post on my comment blog ): Hi Heather, thank you for the time and effort you put into your blog exposing Calvinism and also how to heal from it. About 9 months ago, after moving, my husband searched for new churches using 9Marks.  The priority was expository teaching vs topical (our previous church was non-calvinist, and had topical teachings).  I was completely unaware he was being pulled into Calvinism during the new church search.  Neither of us ever heard of Calvinism nor talked about it before.  The church he chose, that we are now members of (I was pressured into), is fully Calvinist - it is outlined in their "Our Beliefs" section of their website, the Pastors graduated Masters Seminary and each week, the sermons include some/all aspects of TULIP.  The Pastors from the pulpit frequently use phrases like other denominations are not real christians/the True Church, and that their doctrines are the only...
Read more

Troublemaker? (#1 The Gospel; #2 Stealth Calvinism)

Image
Should I be making such a fuss over Calvinism, calling it out as strongly as I do?      Every time I wonder if I'm too strong, too harsh, in my criticism of Calvinism - if I should be gentler, more tolerant, more "let's just put our arms around each other's shoulders and sing Kumbaya around a campfire" (which, trust me, I'd  love   to be, because I'm not someone who enjoys rocking the boat, offending people, or fighting about things) - I just think again about what (and how ) Calvinism teaches about God, the gospel, Jesus's sacrifice, and people's eternities... a nd I go, "Nope, can't do it!  No mushy tolerance or ooey-gooey Kumbaya for me.  No blurring the lines." "Oh, but can't we all just get along?," asks the kind-hearted, well-meaning Christian .  "It's not really that big of a deal, is it?  Aren't we supposed to be unified as a church and not be divisive?   And aren't we all basically saying the sa...
Read more

When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (sermons)

Image
[Subtitle: My Calvinist pastor's sermons, and my thoughts about it all! This was mainly written for those in my ex-church, to see our Calvinist pastor's own words, and why I think he's wrong.  In the series of posts following this one, I comment more on the things he preached and where he goes wrong.   Here are the rest of the posts in this series:  M y comments # 1-4 (election)  and  5-6 (Romans and sovereignty)  and  7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine)  and  10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015)  and  12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again)  and  15 (total depravity, manipulation)  and   16A (God's Will, babies)  and   16B (sin, evil, suffering)  and   17 (double-speak and the gospel) . The shorter version of this series - with a lot less quotes and a lot less of my thoughts, written for everyone and not mainly for those in my ex-church - can be found here .  And click here for t...
Read more

Why Is Calvinism So Dangerous? (re-updated)

Image
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.  ...
Read more