Calvinism's Affect on Christians
I was too pressed for time to hit my goal in the next installment of Rescuing the Bible From Calvinism. Here are the links to Parts 1 and 2 if you want to read or listen to the podcast.
I missed my goal because my dog Merle was very sick last week. I spent hours hovering over him, nurturing and praying. I was on the verge of tears several times over his sickness. I’m blessed to say he is back to 98%, and my soul is rejoicing.
I got up early, intending to write about Total Depravity—a “small” topic, right? I spent most of the morning making notes and reviewing my research, but alas, I realized I couldn’t complete a high-quality essay with the time available for the remainder of the day. I may need to divide this Total Depravity essay into two parts. I urge you to do your research. Volumes have been written on the topic. Two essays will barely scratch the surface. But I hope to make it potent enough to help you think deeply about the subject.
Here are a few thoughts on Calvinism instead of my next official installment.
In the past, I didn't take Calvinistic claims seriously. I believed they were a slightly inaccurate interpretation of Scripture and not a significant issue. I saw them as a denominational difference like Baptist, Methodist, and Calvinist, with disagreements on predestination and free will. However, I now realize that Calvinism profoundly impacted the Reformation and Protestant churches.
I was surprised to discover that prominent people I greatly respected were hardcore 5-point Calvinists. Voddie Bachaum, Paul Washer, Alestier Begg, R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, and Jeff Durbin, to name a few. Many prominent podcasters, YouTubers, and Social Media influencers revere these teachers, preachers, and theologians and parrot their theology. I’ve heard countless sermons from the preachers above.
I did not realize how all-encompassing their theology is and how it influences the core of Christianity. It’s like evolution influences almost every facet of scientific research. For example, Jordan Peterson's basis for much of his clinical psychology is biological evolution. You can’t watch a nature program without the assumption of evolutionist theories in the background. Evolution is considered a fact, not a theory, embedded in academia and taught as the gospel. It’s the forgone conclusion of many propositions. It’s like the mathematical constant Pi. You may not see its influence on the surface, but it’s behind the scenes or buried in the small print. When understanding my faith, I recently discovered that Calvinistic assumptions are embedded in Christianity and hidden in plain sight. I just wasn’t looking.
This discovery revealed that many non-Calvinist Christians seem to be Calvinized anyway. They actively embrace aspects of the TULIP without realizing it. I couldn’t and still can’t accept that people I admire greatly don’t see Calvinism for what it truly is. And if they clearly do see it for what it is and embrace it wholeheartedly, that concerns me even more. Those people believe Christianity and Calvinism are the same thing, kind of like a Marxist believes Communism is freedom.
Of the countless podcasts, videos, articles, and the six books I’ve read or am reading, there are some detractors of Calvinism who are very charitable toward Calvinistic belief. Some are in the middle of the road, and some believe it’s a blood cancer streaming through the veins of the church, especially in Westernized nations.
I guess I’m not entirely settled on the level of wrong that I believe Calvinism is. But please keep reading my posts as I work this out. I don’t want you to presuppose that all I’m going to say is Calvinism is bad, bad, bad! There will be great insights, information, and a deep dive into the Bible, and I prayerfully hope for a change in the Calvinistic view if that’s your inclination.
The following quotes show where I am on the scale of whether Calvinism is good or bad.
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin. —Ronald Reagan
The same goes with Calvinism.
How do you tell a Calvinist? Well, it’s someone who reads Calvin. And how do you tell an anti-Calvinist? It’s someone who understands Calvin. —Me
That said, I read Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. As it turns out, I didn’t need to. I had lived and thrived in a free nation, and people I vetted and trusted were right about Marx’s diatribe. You don’t need to look at something false to find its flaws. People trained to catch counterfeit money don’t look at it; they look at real money.
Read the Bible without your Calvinistic goggles. It’s far more complex than my cliff notes summary, but suffice it to say that I believe many Calvinists would reject Calvinism if they understood it. Just like I don’t know how liberals could get hoodwinked into embracing aspects of Communism under the guise of Progressivism to the ongoing destruction of our liberty, I don’t understand how Calvinism has hoodwinked modern protestants to the continuing destruction of sound theology.
I believe there can be well-meaning communists who are simply clueless about history and the real meaning and application of the ideology. I think there are well-meaning Calvinists who’ve trusted big names in Christianity that I mentioned earlier. I don’t believe Calvinists are evil; I believe Calvinism is. Many people are so immersed in it that they think Calvinism is Christianity. Calvinism was so respected in the 1600s that its teaching is next to biblical text. In England, for example, a 1648 Parliamentary Act made a rejection of Calvinistic infant baptism punishable by death.
Calvinism sees the Bible as an elaborate, complex stage production. The lines, scenes, dialog, and ending preordain precisely how the director intended. An epic performance so large and grand us simpletons need to be helped by those qualified to explain it. The reality is Calvinism is fiction contrived from the minds of men, and the correct reading of the Bible tells you what’s actually happening.
What are Calvinists afraid of? They erroneously believe that Christianity is synonymous with Calvinism. If Calvinism is proven false, it means Christianity is also untrue. However, this is not necessarily true. This fear drives them to passionately defend their doctrine as if they are defending the faith. They are defending The Wizard of Oz.
Thank you for reading and sharing my Substack on your social media. Remember Proverbs 25:2