A Crash Course in Calvinism (A Letter for Pastors, part 2)
Calvinism is a deceptive, slippery, contradictory theology that traps people with a biblical surface layer and reels them step by step into the deeper unbiblical layers.
It traps people through things like…
… unbiblical understandings of and definitions of words. Not only do they get "predestination" and "sovereignty" wrong, but they get "election" wrong. In the Bible, all that word means is “chosen,” and it NEVER specifies that individual people are chosen for salvation. “Election” is really just about God choosing to give those who believe in Jesus the special roles, responsibilities, blessings that He has determined for His followers. It’s not about God choosing which sinners will believe. Both “predestination” and “election” are about what God planned for those who believe, after they become believers, not about God planning who believes or causing them to believe. A critical difference!
[This is echoed in Eph. 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." The "good works" that God wants all believers to do (all who become "in Christ" through faith in Jesus, Eph. 1:13) were preplanned by God, not who gets saved.]
Calvinists get "depravity" wrong. They say it means we are so fallen, so wicked, that we are unable to think about, want, seek, or believe in God/Jesus and so God has to make the elect do it. But all depravity really means is that we are fallen people (separated by God because of sin) who can’t save ourselves, that we needed God to make salvation possible for us.
They get "God’s will" wrong, incorrectly thinking that if He wills something, it must happen and so, therefore, He wills everything that happens and everything that happens is what He willed… and then since most people do not believe in Jesus, it must be because He willed it (and so when He says that He wills all men are saved, it must mean “all kinds of men,” the elect from all over the nations, not all individual men). Yet in the Greek, God’s will has to do with His preferred will, what He wants to have happen, but clearly He allows us to obey or disobey His will.
They get “faith” wrong, saying that it’s something God has to give people first to make them believe, when it’s really just about us deciding to put our trust in Jesus.
They get “hardens” wrong, as in God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, people’s hearts. They believe it’s that God decides who will reject Him, and He causes it to happen, with no influence from them. But biblically, in the Greek, it’s a retributive hardening, a punishment, where God further hardens the hearts of those who willingly choose to resist Him and His patient lovingkindness. It’s about Him locking them into their self-chosen hardness, and then using it for His purposes.
They get “foreknowledge” wrong, redefining it as “to plan beforehand,” not just to know beforehand.
They get “spiritual death” wrong, thinking it’s being “dead like a dead body,” totally unable to do anything, even want God or believe in Jesus. But biblically, it’s about being separated from God by our sins. But our brains still work, and God expects us to use our working brains to see Him in creation, seek Him, find Him, and believe in Him. "… since what may be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20) And "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:27).
If you accept Calvinism’s definitions of words, you will become a Calvinist.
[Side Note: Calvinists misread Romans 1:20. They don’t think it means that everyone actually has the chance to find God and that there’s no excuse for not; they just think it means that even though God predestined the non-elect to hell and prevents them from believing, God will still say “No excuse!” when they say “But God, you didn’t give me a chance.” Calvinists think that because the non-elect were “willingly” following their sinful “desires,” they deserve the punishment they get. But, of course, the desire to sin and reject God were the only desires they had because of the nature God gave them, and so it’s the only thing they could “choose,” but still … “No excuse,” says the Calvinist, “because they ‘wanted’ to do it.” It’s sick. Twisted and sick. (See "Calvinism 101: 'Free-will choice' is not really 'free-will' or 'choice'" and "A Quick Study of Calvinism's Favorite Words" for more on this.)]
... taking verses out of context, reading Scripture incorrectly. A critical mistake Calvinists make is that they believe Romans 9 is about God choosing which individuals will get saved, about predestination. But Romans 9 is really about Israel as a nation, about God handing them over to their self-chosen hard-hearted rejection of Jesus and, consequently, giving the Gospel to the Gentiles instead, because the Jews didn't want it but the Gentiles did. But then the Jews cried "not fair!" because they thought the Gentiles shouldn't get salvation. They thought the Jews were the special ones and should get God's favor and salvation just because they were Jews. That's what Romans 9 is about. God is telling them that He can give the Gospel/offer salvation to whomever He wants to, to whomever is willing to receive it (and the Gentiles were), and that He can take it away from (and punish) anyone, even Jews, if they resist/reject it. But if you let Calvinists convince you that Romans 9 is about God choosing individual people for salvation or hardening individual people for hell, you will become a Calvinist.
Another key passage they get wrong is 2 Thess. 2:13: "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth." They think it means God chooses who gets saved. But that’s wrong. This is not about individual people being chosen for salvation. It's about God switching the method of salvation with that generation, switching it from devotion to God (as evidenced in their adherence to the Law) to belief in Jesus (because their generation coincided with Jesus’s arrival, making them the “firstfruits” of those saved by grace through faith in Jesus). And to be even more accurate, the word “saved” in this verse - according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance with Vine’s Expository Dictionary - isn’t even about eternal soul-salvation, heaven or hell. It’s about God promising to save true believers from the wrath He will pour out on the ungodly at the end of this age. This isn’t a Calvinist “predestined for heaven” verse at all. It’s about God promising to save anyone who puts their faith in Jesus from the end times’ wrath. Big difference!
And another: Revelation 13:8 (ESV) says "and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." In the ESV, in Calvinism, the names of the elect were written in the book of life before the world was created, affirming their view of predestination, election. But let’s see the KJV: ”And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." And I think there are two ways to look at this according to the KJV, both of which contradict Calvinism. 1) If "from the beginning" refers to the Lamb being slain, I would suggest that it means that Jesus was foreordained to be slain for our sins, that God knew from the beginning that we would sin and need a Redeemer, and so He planned from the beginning to pay for our sins with Jesus's death, which is confirmed by 1 Peter 1:19-20 and Acts 2:23. 2) Or if "from the beginning" refers to names being written in the Book of Life, then notice that the word in the KJV is "from" not "before," and this would mean not that certain names were written/chosen before the world began (as Calvinist say, to support their idea of predestination/election) but that names started being added to the Book of Life from the beginning, meaning that new names are added as each new person comes to Christ, which would be confirmed in Rev. 17:8. (Or it could be about the Book of Life itself being created from the beginning.) Either way, it contradicts Calvinism. Do not trust the ESV. It was written by Calvinists to push Calvinism. (I have found over 100 verses that have been changed to be Calvinist, and that’s without even looking all that hard. See here for an examination of them.)
And another: Calvinists take Romans 8:28, about how God causes all things to work together for good, and reinterpret it as “God causes all things.” But to “cause all things to work together” is far different than “to cause all things.”
And another: They misunderstand God using Assyria to punish Israel (Isaiah 10). They believe He caused Assyria to be wicked but then holds them accountable for it, using this as an example of how God can preplan and cause sin, evil, and unbelief (”ordain,” in their terminology), but still hold people responsible for it, as if it’s okay, as if it’s justice. But it doesn’t say that He caused them to be wicked or gave them a wicked nature. He simply let them be the wicked people they chose to be, that He foreknew they would be, and then He worked it into His plans to discipline Israel. And then since the Assyrians chose to be wicked, He could justly hold them accountable for it. This would not be a violation of His justice or righteousness, as Calvinism is. It’s like undercover cops using criminals in an undercover sting to catch the head bad guy, and then when the sting is over, the cops can punish the criminals for being the criminals they chose to be. The cops didn’t make them be criminals; they just used the criminals’ willful choices in their plans for justice.
Calvinists also misunderstand God opening Lydia’s heart to Paul’s message in Acts 16. They think it means that God opened her heart to believe in Jesus (that He gave her faith), using it to “prove” that God has to give people faith, and that if He doesn’t, you can’t believe. But nowhere does it say that the message Paul preached was a salvation message. Most likely, it was a “believers should be baptized” message, because that’s the next thing she does. Plus, it says that she was already a worshipper of God. She already believed. Most likely, this is a case of God opening the eyes of a believer to the need to be baptized, just like what happened in Acts 19 too. God does not decide (cause) who gets faith and who doesn’t, but He does help lead believers with soft hearts in the next steps they should take.
And similarly, they get Ephesians 2:8-9 wrong: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” They believe this means that to believe in Jesus, God has to give you the “gift of faith,” and He only gives it to the elect, meaning that the non-elect can never have faith or be saved. But they understand this verse wrong. In the Greek, words are either female, male, or neuter. And if another word relates back to a previous word, they have to agree in gender. Such as, "faith" is feminine, so if "this" ("this… the gift of God”) is referring to "faith," it also has to be feminine. But it’s not; it’s neuter. So it can't be referring specifically back to the word "faith." Faith is not the gift. Additionally, "grace" is also feminine, so therefore "this (gift)" cannot be referring specifically to “grace.” Grace is not the gift. So then what is the "gift"? The whole thing: salvation, the offer of eternal life by grace though faith. And this is confirmed in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eternal life - salvation - is the gift. But Calvinists use Eph. 2:8-9 to say that God has to first give you the “gift of faith” to make you believe, and that He will only give it to the elect, and so the non-elect can never believe or be saved. But faith is not the gift. Eternal life is the gift God offers to all, but we can reject it.
These are some of the foundational verses they get wrong, very wrong - because they view the Bible through their Calvinist lenses. If you believe their interpretation of these, you will become a Calvinist.
... bad analogies and illustrations. They say things like “Election is like having 100 murderers on death row. And out of His love and grace, God steps in to free 10 of them. But in His justice and wrath, He lets the rest go to their deaths for their crimes. Is God unfair to do this? Is He unjust? No, because it’s not wrong to let people pay the penalty they deserve. The thing is, He didn’t have to save anyone because everyone deserves death, hell. But the fact that He stepped in to save anyone at all, while passing over the rest, shows how gracious and loving He is.” But in Calvinism, God is the ultimate – and truly only – cause of sin. He predestined everything we do – every sin, evil, and unbelief – and we can only “choose” to do what He predestined us to do. And so while this death row analogy might seem fair on the surface, trapping many people, it ignores the fact that, in Calvinism, those 100 men were only on death row in the first place because God predestined/caused them to commit those murders, giving them no chance or ability to choose otherwise. This obliterates the concepts of love, grace, “deserved” punishment/justice.
… breaking biblical concepts up into “two different kinds,” when the Bible does no such thing. This allows them to speak on different levels, shifting between layers as needed, obscuring what they really believe, trapping people through deception. For example, they have “two types of love/grace”: a saving one for the elect and a “gives you food and water” one for the non-elect. This allows them - when trying to trap non-Calvinists - to “honestly” say “God gives grace to all” and “God loves all people,“ tricking you into thinking they believe that God loves all people the same John 3:16 way (that out of love, Jesus died for us all)... when they actually mean something very different. [Calvinist’s say that the reason God shows kindness to the non-elect is so that He can show them some love/grace before putting them in hell like He predestined. But what does the Bible say about why God pours out His kindness on fallen people? "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4, emphasis added). It’s not to show some goodness to sinners before they go to hell; it’s to try to SAVE THEM FROM HELL!.]
Calvinists have “two types of calls”: an irresistible one for the elect, and a fake one that the non-elect will/must resist. This allows Calvinists - when trying to trap non-Calvinists - to “honestly” say “God calls all people,” appearing to teach that God gives a real offer of salvation to all people that they can accept, when they don’t mean that at all.
They have “two types of God’s will”: To explain away their contradictions, Calvinists say that God has a spoken/revealed will (the things He tells us in His Word that He wants us to do) and a deeper, unspoken will that contradicts what He said, that determined we’d break His spoken commands. This is how they can say that God commands us not to sin but that He “ordains” our sins. They are both “His will,” so it makes it okay. Calvinists say “God decrees that we disobey His decrees,” and they see no contradiction in this, no problem with it. Just goes to show the remarkable hold that the irrational, contradictory Calvinism has on them, that they can still hold to it despite the damage it does to God’s Word and character. They accept a duplicitous, untrustworthy, self-fighting God because “It’s a mystery. He is God, and He is so far above us that we can’t understand Him anyway. Everything He does - even ordaining the sins and unbelief He commands us not to do – is good and just, because He is good and just. We can’t understand it, so we just have to accept it.” (Hogwash!)
[I believe that Pastor Tony Evans presents a biblical view of God's Will, that keeps God's character intact, unlike Calvinism. Calvinism teaches that God has two opposing, contradictory Wills about the same issue, that He says one thing but causes the opposite (such as He says it's not His Will for us to sin or for anyone to perish, while He simultaneously predestines our sins and people's unbelief). This destroys God's character and Word.
But Dr. Evans rightly says that God has an unconditional Will for some things and a conditional Will for other things (see the first ten minutes of this sermon: How to get your prayers answered). In this view, God has two different kinds of Wills for different situations: in some situations, He decides to do something on His own, but in others, He decides to let us make decisions and then He responds accordingly.
There are things God's planned and decided to do regardless of us, unconditionally, such as create the world, send Jesus to die for our sins, offer salvation to sinners, renew creation in the end, etc. He does these things regardless of what we do or don't do. But then there are things He's planned to do on the condition that we do our part, and this is where we get the "if you ... then ..." verses from. "If you obey, then I will bless you. If you disobey, then you'll face bad consequences. If you believe in Jesus, then I will give you eternal life. Etc." These kinds of verses only make sense if God gave us a real right to decide. And He did. Which is why the Bible makes sense and why we can still trust Him and why the punishment for our sins and unbelief is just.]
… false dichotomies. They present you with a dilemma/question, then give you only two options as answers: an obviously unbiblical one and the Calvinist one, as if those are the only two options, forcing you to side with Calvinism. Such as “Either God controls everything, or we do… Either God does all the work of saving us, or we save ourselves… Either God controls everything, or God controls nothing… Either all people believe and are saved, or God chooses who believes and is saved… Either God determines who is redeemed, or man does” (the last one is from MacArthur, in “Election and Predestination: The Sovereignty of God in Salvation”), etc.
… deflection of the hard questions and criticisms, downplaying the bad stuff. When asked about those God predestined to hell, Calvinists say, “The real question is not ‘Why would God predestine people to hell?’ But the real question is ‘Why would God choose to save anyone at all when we all deserve hell?’” It’s much easier to accept Calvinism when you focus only on the lucky ones, ignoring the unfairly damned ones.
… putting Calvinist glasses on people first, then leading them to verses that appear to teach Calvinism when you’re wearing the Calvinist glasses. Such as, they will first define predestination/election for you, telling you their wrong Calvinist definition of it, and then they lead you to verses that have the word “predestined/election” in it, and say “See, it’s right there. I was right.” [MacArthur knows it all hinges on this. He says, in “Election and Predestination…”, that the first thing you must do is get people to accept Calvinism’s “doctrine” of election/predestination. (FYI: If you hear the words “doctrine of election, predestination, grace, total depravity, etc.), you know you’re dealing with a Calvinist.) Their definitions of this and of sovereignty will be the first things they try to brainwash you on, trap you with.] And you accept their idea that Scripture teaches Calvinism because you don’t realize you’ve been preconditioned to read it in a Calvinist way. You don’t realize that there is a different way to read it, that their definitions are wrong. They told you “It’s what the Bible says.” They called it “biblical doctrines.” And you believed them. You let your guard down, turned off your spiritual radar and critical thinking skills, and ate what they spoon-feed you. Big mistake! Where have all the Bereans gone?
… arguments that have no biblical basis at all but that they think sound convincing. From my Calvinist pastor and his Calvinist son: "Why would God create non-elect people predestined to hell? So that He can show off His full attributes and get glory for it. He loves Himself most and cares about His own glory more than He does people, and so He does what's best for His glory. If He didn't love Himself most, He'd be an idolater. And if there was no sin to punish, He couldn't show off His justice or be worshipped for it. And so He created people to be sinners so that He could show off His justice by punishing sin, so that He could worship Himself for it and get worship from people for it. And He also did it to highlight His love to the elect, to show them how loved they are by comparison."
[But now read Romans 3:25-26 to see how God Himself says He demonstrates (shows off) His justice: “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished- he did it [sent Jesus to the cross for our sins] to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” God doesn't punish sinners to show off His justice; He sent Jesus to the cross to show off His justice. And it's right there in the Bible!]
… and when all that fails, they resort to “These are mysteries. And God is so far above us that we can’t understand Him. I know it’s hard to accept. You’re just having an emotional reaction to it because you can’t understand it and don’t like the way it sounds. You’re putting your own human logic over God’s. [Note: They make you feel like you are the problem, not their theology.] But humble Christians don’t question God or try to figure Him out fully or judge Him by their own ideas/standards; they just trust Him and accept these ‘hard teachings,’ even if it sounds bad to us mere humans. [Note: They use your desire to be humble and God-honoring to trap you.] But if you just give it time - and read MacArthur, Grudem, Piper, Sproul, Keller, etc. - then you’ll come to accept it, and it will become a comfort to you because you’ll be trusting in God’s sovereignty instead of in man. Besides, who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”
They have many, many deceptive, cult-like, manipulative tactics to trap people into Calvinism. I don’t think they necessarily see it as “trapping, deception, manipulation” – they’re convinced they’re honoring God and His Word – but it is what it is. And those inside a cult can’t see that they’re inside a cult. They have the best intentions but have been severely brainwashed. [Also see "When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic' Traps Good Christians." And "12 Tips on how to think critically about Calvinism."]
We’ve seen it happen. We watched it happen over 6 years, seeing the strong hold it gets on people. It’s slow and subtle and sneaky, appealing to people’s humility and desire to honor God and grow deeper in the faith, in God’s Word. I think most people will become Calvinists “accidentally,” because they let others talk them into it, because they didn’t realize there was something wrong with it, didn’t heed the red flags that popped up in their spirit. They convinced themselves that they didn’t need to question it or doubt it because the Calvinist pastors/theologians are so smart and educated and went to seminary and know Greek and write books. They put on the Calvinist glasses, swayed by the Calvinist idea that there is a deeper layer underneath what God says, a deeper layer that they need to learn from Calvinists and to accept if they want to be good, intelligent, humble, God-honoring Christians. And now, with their Calvinist glasses firmly in place, they can’t see the forest for the trees. They can’t see/understand the plain, simple, commonsense truths of Scripture anymore because they are blinded by the Calvinist reinterpretations and bad analogies and wrong definitions and false dichotomies, etc. They have been convinced that Calvinism is just a deeper way to understand the Bible, not realizing it’s a false way, a different Gospel.
Incidentally, last month, I heard from someone from our former church – we left it 4 years ago – and they now see what we saw: the theological errors, manipulation, the stealthy Calvinist indoctrination happening under people’s noses. And they reached out to us because they feel alone, like they are one of the only ones sensing something wrong with what the pastor is teaching. This is exactly how we felt too. Being shamed into silence - being made to feel like there’s something wrong with you if you disagree with all these strong, smart, educated, domineering pastors/theologians - makes it really hard to speak up or to find others who disagree too. And so we all end up feeling alone, like we’re the crazy ones.
This is why I speak so boldly and openly against it now - so that others can know they’re not crazy for disagreeing, they’re not “bad Christians” for sensing something wrong. Sadly, Calvinism is stealthily spreading in many evangelical, biblical churches. An epidemic. Because Calvinists are very deliberate and patient in taking over churches, even publishing plans on how to slowly, strategically reform a non-Calvinist church over years, under the noses of the congregation.
Pastors *** and ###, all of you, we’re lovingly warning you: Do not fall to Calvinism. Be proactive in learning why it’s wrong, how it’s wrong, the damage it does to God and His Truth, how it takes over, and how to protect the church from it.
If you stick with the plain, clear, easily-understood, commonsense interpretation of the Bible, the people who are fleeing Calvinism will find refuge in you, hope and truth and a reason to cling to faith. But if you fall to Calvinism, you’ll be contributing to the destruction of the Church from the inside out.
If a church/pastor hasn’t encountered Calvinism before, they will soon. And so it’s very important to know the signs to look for now. It truly is a sly, subtle, unbiblical theology that slips in unnoticed, slowly, disguised as a biblical “upper level” theology, slowly reeling people in through baby steps. Please, research it from the other side (not the pro-MacArthur Keller, Grudem, etc. side).
The more you read Calvinists, the more impressive and accurate they seem. So step back and read things against it to see it clearly. I particularly recommend Soteriology 101 with Leighton Flowers (a former Calvinist for 10 years) and Beyond the Fundamentals with Kevin Thompson (a pastor and a Calvinist for a year who now preaches strongly against it. He is putting out new videos now on “Stealth Calvinism,” how it takes over churches.)
We didn’t speak up early enough at our old church because it took us a long time to research it. And by the time we knew enough to speak up, it was too late. The church was firmly entrenched in it, especially through the pastor’s efforts to take leading people through what I call “Calvinist Indoctrination Classes,” studying Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. And since the elders would do nothing about our concerns (they all sided with him), we knew we had to leave.
So I’m not waiting too long with you guys. The best thing I can do as a fellow Christian is to warn you early, to help equip you to think critically about the things Calvinist theologians teach. Before it’s too late. We cannot sit by, idly watching Calvinism sneak in again, in your life or in the Church. And so we’re pointing this out early. The longer you immerse yourself in it, the more likely it is you will become a Calvinist.
God bless! And thank you for being a church that has been healing and refreshing for us, helping us in our faith. I’m hoping that with this letter, we can do the same for you.
- Sincerely, A Fellow Believer
[In the next part of the letter I quote a bunch of Calvinists, to show Calvinism in their own words, to show that I'm not misunderstanding them. I will post that coming up soon.]
