Calvinism: The Greatest God-Sent Delusion of all Time

Calvinism: The Greatest God-sent Delusion of all Time

There is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12) – TULIP

I am deeply and sincerely convinced that Calvinism, also known as Reformed Theology, entrenched in the acronym T U L I P (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints) is the best top-ranked, and most dangerous deception God Himself has sent to judge those who believe in its vile doctrines. Paul announces God’s judgment on all those who dare to misrepresent his Gospel of salvation in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 8 to 12.

And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming. The coming [of the lawless one, the antichrist] is through the activity and working of Satan and will be attended by great power and with all sorts of [pretended] miracles and signs and delusive marvels-[all of them] lying wonders. And by unlimited seduction to evil and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing (going to perdition because they did not welcome the Truth but refused to love it that they might be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make them believe what is false, In order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe in [who refused to adhere to, trust in, and rely on] the Truth, but [instead] took pleasure in unrighteousness. (AMP)

Don’t be misled by the reference to false signs and wonders and think that, because Calvinists are cessationists, the indictment cannot be applied to Reformed Theology. The main reason for their severe condemnation is not because they indulge in false or pretended signs and wonders.

The reason why they are severely judged is that they trample underfoot the truth in regard to the way of salvation. As a matter of fact, they have completely ruled out faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross as a precondition and the only requirement for salvation.

The Calvinists’ requirement for salvation is election followed by faith. Election determines whether you are going to believe or not believe, and you will of necessity believe or not believe because you are void of any choice to either believe or not to believe. Indeed, as an elect, you WILL believe, and as a non-elect, you WILL NOT believe, because you have no choice (free-will) in the matter of salvation.

Calvinists are the most adamant, obstinate, unyielding, obdurate, stubborn, and unteachable bunch of sinners on the planet. You may probably ask, “why?” Well, because God, who is unyielding in his sovereignty, has completely and utterly given them over, boots and all, to the strongest delusion imaginable.

The delusion is so intensely strong that very few Calvinists are being, and have been, delivered from its abhorrent clutches. If there ever was a doctrine that tickles the ears of those who firmly believe they are saved because they are the so-called elect, it is the Doctrines of Grace.

Bear in mind that the term “Doctrines of Grace” is a very shrewd replacement for the word “Calvinism” to divert the attention from the serial killer, John Calvin’s, abominable deadly persecution and killing sprees in Geneva. There is nothing that sounds so sweet and yet so diabolically deceptive as the mantra “I am one of the few chosen elect who was chosen to be saved before the foundation of the world.” (Notice how John MacArthur articulates this beautifully deceptive mantra later in this article when he tells his right-hand man, Phil Johnson, “[I] NEVER REBELLED AND ALWAYS BELIEVED.” What MacArthur forgets is that the Doctrine of Election unto salvation (TULIP) IS in essence rebellion against God).

It is God’s good pleasure that Calvinists believe what is false

You may again ask, “why?” The main reason for their God-sent delusion is because they shun, trample underfoot, despise, spurn and deride God’s Gospel which is forever entrenched in His words, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Why did God give them over to this exceptionally strong delusion? To begin with, He sent them the strong delusion so that they may believe what is false. It’s as simple as that. Let me repeat that: The reason why God sent them a strong delusion is that he wants them to believe what is false? He actually wants them to believe what is false.

In short, they have rejected the only and true way of being saved because they take pleasure in unrighteousness. Anyone who dares to tamper with God’s universal love in salvation (Titus 2:11), is not playing with fire to warm oneself by, but with the fires of hell itself. Paul reinforces this when he says,

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)

What do some of the best top-ranked deceivers in the Reformed camp say about John 3:16?

John MacArthur

John MacArthur in action

John MacArthur doesn’t seem to know what to believe about John 3:16. At first, he admits that God loves everyone, and then that He does not love all people in the same way. How can there be two or more ways for God to express his love for lost sinners when there is only one supreme way He chose to express it – i.e. by giving his Son as a substitutionary sacrifice to the entire world? Unless, of course, God did not send his Son on behalf of the entire world but only the so-called elect.  In MacArthur’s view, God’s love is split in two ways – a temporal love expressed in his gracious gifts of rain, air, and sunshine and eternal love, expressed in salvation. He wrote:

I am troubled by the tendency of some – often young people, newly infatuated with Reformed doctrine – who insist that God cannot possibly love those who never repent and believe. I encounter that view, it seems, with increasing frequency.

John MacArthur is mistaken when he says young people who are infatuated with Reformed doctrine, insist that God cannot possibly love those who never repent and believe. There are many older Calvinists who believe the same lie. (Read here).

John MacArthur firmly asserts that man is completely unable to repent and believe the Gospel of his own accord, and must, therefore, be regenerated first by a sovereign act of God and only then, subsequent to his monergistic regeneration be given the gift of faith. Those “who never repent and believe” are, in MacArthur’s view, the reprobate who don’t have, and never will have the ability to repent and believe, because God has chosen them unto damnation before the foundation of the world.

And so, for him to rebuke the young people who declare that God cannot possibly love the reprobate, is nothing else than downright hypocrisy. What kind of love is it when God sends those whom He has not chosen unto salvation to hell because it supposedly glorifies and pleases Him? MacArthur continues to say.

The argument inevitably goes like this: Psalm 7:11 tells us, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” It seems reasonable to assume that if God loved everyone, He would have chosen everyone unto salvation. Therefore, God does not love the non-elect.

Those who hold this view, often go to great lengths to argue that John 3:16 cannot really mean God loves the whole world. Perhaps the best-known argument for this view is found in the unabridged edition of an otherwise excellent book, The Sovereignty of God, by A. W. Pink. Pink wrote, “God loves whom He chooses.

He does not love everybody.” He further argued that the word world in John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world…”) “refers to the world of believers (God’s elect), in contradistinction from ‘the world of the ungodly.'” Unfortunately, Pink took the corollary too far. The fact that some sinners are not elected to salvation is no proof that God’s attitude toward them is utterly devoid of sincere love.

We know from Scripture that God is compassionate, kind, generous, and good even to the most stubborn sinners.Who can deny that those mercies flow out of God’s boundless love? It is evident, that they are showered, even on unrepentant sinners. (Emphasis added).

MacArthur’s eulogy to God being compassionate, kind, generous, and good, even to the most stubborn sinners, whom He did not elect unto salvation because it pleases Him to send them to hell, sounds more like a quote from the Quran than from the Bible. The Quran also refers to Allah as the most beneficent, merciful, and compassionate, whilst he passionately hates the infidels (non-Muslims, non-elect) and sends them to hell.

MacArthur uses words that are completely incompatible with Calvinism. In fact, they are non-existent in Calvinism. The terminology “unrepentant sinners,” for instance, cannot be applied to either the elect or the non-elect.

The elect has no need to repent because they are regenerated without them having to perceive, become aware of, or understand the moment when they are/were saved. In fact, it just happens to them when God monergistically intervenes and sovereignly makes them alive (regenerates them) without faith because they have always been God’s believing sheep. (Note MacArthur’s testimony further down in the article).

Likewise, the words “unrepentant sinners” are meaningless in regard to the non-elect. How can they possibly be described as unrepentant sinners when they are completely unable to repent because God refuses to draw them to his Son (John 6:44)?

At any rate, the concept of stubbornness is equally taboo in Calvinism, simply because free will, the ability to choose between two opposites, is equally taboo in Calvinism. It is impossible to be stubborn without free will. Stubbornness is anchored in the ability to choose either for or against the thing offered to you.

If God has preordained and predestined everything that comes to pass, then He must have decreed the reprobate’s stubbornness as well. This leads to the bizarre situation where God first decrees, predestines, or foreordains the reprobate sinners’ stubbornness, then He passionately loves them despite their stubbornness, as Macarthur says, and ultimately holds them responsible for their stubbornness and sends them to hell.

And this, my dear friends, is how the god of the Calvinists showers his love on the reprobate, or as MacArthur calls them, stubborn sinners. MacArthur continues to say.

At this point, however, an important distinction must be made: God loves believers with a particular love. God’s love for the elect is an infinite, eternal, saving love. We know from Scripture that this great love was the very cause of our election (Ephesians 2 verse 4).

Such love clearly is not directed toward all of mankind indiscriminately, but is bestowed uniquely and individually on those whom God chose in eternity past. But from that, it does not follow that God’s attitude toward those He did not elect must be unmitigated hatred.

Surely His pleading with the lost, His offers of mercy to the reprobate, and the call of the gospel to all who hear are all sincere expressions of the heart of a loving God. Remember, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but tenderly calls sinners to turn from their evil ways and live.

Pink, was attempting to make the crucial point that God is sovereign in the exercise of His love. The gist of his argument is certainly valid: It is folly to think that God loves all alike, or that He is compelled by some rule of fairness to love everyone equally.

Scripture teaches us that God loves because He chooses to love (Deuteronomy 7 verses 6 to 7), because He is loving (God is love, 1 John 4 verse 8), not because He is under some obligation to love everyone the same. 

Nothing but God’s own sovereign good pleasure compels Him to love sinners. Nothing but His own sovereign will governs His love. That, has to be true, since there is certainly nothing in any sinner worthy of even the smallest degree of divine love. (Source) (Emphasis added).

Nothing but God’s own sovereign will governs his love and all Calvinists have the sovereign willpower to make this so-called truism a decree? Wow!

God pleads with the reprobate to repent and believe the Gospel while He has ordained and predestined them to eternal punishment in hell before the foundation of the world? Really?

He offers the reprobate his mercy whilst He mercilessly decided to send them to hell before the foundation of the world? Really? This is the kind of schizophrenic God reformed theologians (Calvinists) just adore to present to the world.

The god of Calvinism (Reformed Theology) is NOT, I repeat, Not the God of the Bible, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but a false god. In fact, he is nothing but an idol.

It is not God’s own sovereign good pleasure that compels Him to love sinners. He loves sinners because He is the ESSENCE OF LOVE and has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33 verse 11), and wants everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3 verse 9).

If, as John MacArthur says, God’s own sovereign good pleasure compels Him to love sinners, and only the elect benefit from his saving love because the reprobate has no chance in hell of ever being saved, it follows that only the elect are sinners. Jesus said, that He had come to seek and to save lost sinners (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10).

If all of mankind are/were lost sinners it logically follows that He had come to save all of mankind because all are sinners. Will all of mankind eventually be saved? Perish the thought. The Calvinist view is that if Jesus came to save all of mankind because all are lost, He would have been a dismal failure because not all are being saved.

Therefore, the only option open for Him to be a success is to have Him love and die only for the elect and to save them all without distinction. I have yet to find a Calvinist who has the chutzpah to explain to me Isaiah 49:4 in the light of their assumption that Jesus would have been a failure if He had come to save all of mankind. This is what Isaiah 49:4 says,

Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God. (Isaiahj 49:4)

If God had already decided, before the foundation of the world not to send his Son to suffer and die for the non-elect, then the non-elect, are not lost, sinners. Only those, for whom He had come to save are sinners, and that could of a necessity only be the elect because they are the only ones being saved, according to Calvinism.

I would like to suggest that Calvinists gather for a worldwide conference and call it “LOVE OR HATRED OR LOVE AND HATRED?” They can’t decide whether God loves or hates sinners or whether he schizophrenically and simultaneously loves and hates sinners. And perhaps they should rehash and change John 3:16 to read as follows.

For God so loved and hated the world (please bear in mind that “world” in John 3:16 refers to the world of the elect and not the non-elect), that he gave his only begotten Son (to the world of the elect), so that the world of the elect who are granted the gift of faith after they had been monergtistically regenerated, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world of the elect; but that the world of the elect through him might be saved.

David Platt

Dаvіd Joseph Рlаtt іѕ а fаmоuѕ UЅ аuthоr аnd рrеасhеr. Не рrеѕеntlу wоrkѕ аѕ а раѕtоr-tеасhеr аt МсLеаn Віblе Сhurсh. Не еаrlіеr ѕеrvеd аѕ thе ѕеnіоr рrіеѕt аt thе Вrооk Ніllѕ Сhurсh іn Віrmіnghаm, Аlаbаmа, аnd gоt thе rесоgnіtіоn оf bеіng thе уоungеѕt раѕtоr оf аnу mеgасhurсh іn thе UЅ. Іn 2014, hе wаѕ арроіntеd tо thе роѕіtіоn оf thе Рrеѕіdеnt оf thе Іntеrnаtіоnаl Міѕѕіоn Воаrd оf Ѕоuthеrn Варtіѕt Соnvеntіоn.

Listen to what this godly sheep has to say about God’s love/hate relationship with sinners (the elect). If there is anything uplifting to learn from this video, it is to beware of little orange books written by Calvinists. In his little orange book, he says God hates David Platt, an elect beloved of God.

To understand the true meaning of Psalm 5:5, please read the article “Psalm 5 verse 5: ‘God Hates Sinners.'” Click on the “I love u/hate u” banner.

What the false prophet, David Platt, seems to misunderstand is that “hatred” is the complete opposite of “love.” If so, the opposite of John 3:16 would read as follows,

For God so hated the world, that he did NOT give his only begotten Son, so that everyone should perish.

In case you’ve missed Platt’s reason for God having to pour his righteous wrath on his Son on the cross, let me repeat what he says more or less 6 minutes and 30 seconds into the video.

“Does God hate sinners? Look at Isaiah 53 verses 4 through six. All of these things – pierced, crushed, punishment, wounds, all of these things are evidence of the wrath of God upon sinners. Look at the cross. Absolutely, God hates sin and sinners. Does God love sinners? Look at the cross because the Lord’s will for sin was to crush his Son for the salvation of his people.

No Platt, it is NOT what Isaiah 53:4-6 tells us. It does NOT tell us “all of these things – pierced, crushed, punishment, wounds are evidence of the wrath of God upon sinners. ” It tells us that God loves lost sinners so much and does not want them to perish, the result being that He poured his wrath out on his incarnated only begotten Son so that whosoever believes on Him may not have to bear the brunt of His wrath for all eternity in hell. Paul reiterates this truth in Romans 8.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned “sin” in the flesh: (Romans 8:3).

God focuses his wrath on man’s sin and not man himself. God’s wrath will only be poured out on the man himself when he, after having remained unrepentant all his life and refused to respond in obedience to the Gospel call, will be cast into the Lake of Fire subsequent to the White Throne Judgment of God. (Read Psalm 73 with special reference to verses 17 to 19). Sinners who refuse to accept and receive God’s gift of forgiveness on the basis that He has already punished their sin in his Son’s flesh on the cross will have to face God’s wrath and consequences in hell.

Paul Washer
The false prophet, Paul Washer

Like Paul Washer, David Platt seems to be one of the more gentlemanly types of Calvinists to grace our world. He doesn’t openly say: “God hates the non-elect and loves the elect.” He ever so gently points to the cross to prove that Christ died only for his people. Who are God’s people?

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that he is referring to the elect. Note carefully how he barely noticeably differentiates between God’s attitude to the non-elect and His attitude to his people (the elect).

When Platt says “God hates sin and sinners,” he evidently refers to the non-elect because they are not God’s people and therefore the only culprits whom God hates in tandem with their sins. Then suddenly, Platt’s face lights up when he says, immediately after his assertion that God hates sin and sinners, that God absolutely loves sinners.

How are we supposed to reconcile the paradox that God hates sinners and also loves sinners? It’s rather easy when you differentiate between non-elect sinners and elect sinners. In the latter instance, God hates their sin but loves the sinner, and, guess what, in the non-elect’s case he hates both the sinner and their sins.

It is imperative that we learn to listen very carefully to Calvinists and their preaching. They are past masters at saying things that are 99,9% correct and slipping in a 0.1% little lie to deceive their listeners. Would you drink a glass of water polluted with 0.1% of a lethal poison?

MacArthur is not so subtle and gentlemanly as David Platt. He openly says that God only loves the elect with a saving love. Listen very carefully and you will hear a demon (lying spirit) speaking through John MacArthur.

Depending on whether you are an elect or non-elect, God is glorified at any rate. If you are not elected, God is glorified because he does not love you with a saving love and if you are an elect He is equally glorified because He loves you with a saving love.

This is what the Bible calls “holding the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18). A God who sovereignly chose the elect unto salvation and the reprobate unto damnation before the foundation of the world, and yet allegedly still lovingly pleads with the reprobate to respond to the call of the Gospel because He sincerely and indiscriminately loves them, is the epitome of unrighteousness.

It is not only a gross misrepresentation of God but pure blasphemy. It’s like saying,: “I dearly and sincerely love you, but not enough to want you to be in heaven with me. My love for you, expressed in raindrops falling on your head, and the sun shining into your boudoir every morning, is sufficient to prove to you that I really, truly, and sincerely love you. But I cannot possibly love you, in the same way, I love my blue-eyed predestined, and elected favourites. Therefore I have given you two diametrically opposite renditions of John 3:16 – one for the elect and one for the non-elect.”

The one for the elect goes like this:

For God so loved the world (OF THE ELECT), that he gave his only begotten Son (TO THE WORLD OF THE ELECT), that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world (THE WORLD OF THE ELECT) to condemn the world (OF THE ELECT); but that the world (WORLD OF THE ELECT) through him might be saved.

The one for the non-elect goes like this:

For God so loved the world (OF THE NON ELECT) that He gave them the sun to shine on their brow and the rain to fall on their head. He also gave the world (OF THE NON ELECT) his Son to plead with them because “His offers of mercy to the reprobate, and the call of the gospel to all who hear are all sincere expressions of the heart of a loving God.”

Remember, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked reprobate, but tenderly calls them to turn from their evil ways and live. Yet in his sincere and tender love for the world (OF THE WICKED REPROBATE) He decided before the foundation of the world to send them to hell.

According to Calvinists God says in effect: Since they are so very special to me, I have added to my raindrop-and-sun-shine kind of love for them, an infinitely greater love, a love that saves. This love is infinitely greater than my love in John 3:16 which is merely an offer to love the reprobate on the condition that they believe in my Son.

Nevertheless, my offer to love them, on condition they repent and believe the Gospel, can never become a reality because I have decided to withhold my gift of saving faith from them so that I may send them to hell and be glorified so much the better.

Once again, this is nothing else than holding God’s universal love for all mankind in blatant unrighteousness, a sin worthy of the indictment in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 8 to 12.

The ultimate Calvinistic paradox is hidden in classical RCC Mystagogy

How do you reconcile the paradox of a loving God who wants all people to be saved, because He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but sovereignly chose not to save the majority of people because it is his good pleasure to send them to hell? You don’t, because it is a mystery hidden in the secret counsel of God.

By the by, this infamous and mysterious paradox is one of the shameless seeds of unrighteousness that has come from the Roman Catholic Church, and very quickly found a niche in Reformed Theology in the writings of John Calvin.

The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 says,

“Those of mankind who are predestined unto Life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable Purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ to everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving Him thereunto.”

Calvinists often use the phrases “the secret counsel of his will” and “God’s sovereignty” to cover up their unrighteous misrepresentation of God and his love. When the High Priest, asked Jesus about his teachings (doctrines), He told Him that He never said anything in secret.

“Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.” (John 18:20).

If Jesus’s mission to the earth was to seek and to save lost sinners, as He Himself once said, then surely his mission of salvation could never have been done partly in secrecy. Not a single dot and iota of his mission to seek and save lost sinners would have been cloaked in “the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will.”

Besides the fact that the phrase “the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will” never once appears in Scripture, Calvinists attribute occult practices to God because the occult is usually practiced in a shroud of secrecy, obscurity, and unclearness. Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion,

Those, therefore, whom God passes by, he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children.

But if all whom the Lord predestines to death, are naturally liable to sentence of death, of what injustice, pray, do they complain because by his eternal providence they were before their birth doomed to perpetual destruction, what will they be able to mutter against this defence? Of this, no other cause can be adduced than reprobation, which is hidden in the secret counsel of God.

Now since the arrangement of all things is in the hand of God, He arranges that individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify him by their destruction. God, according to the good pleasure of his will, without any regard to merit, elects those whom he chooses for sons, while he rejects and reprobates others.

It is right for him to show by punishing that he is a just judge. Here the words of Augustine most admirably apply. When other vessels are made unto dishonour, it must be imputed not to injustice, but to judgment.

One of the greatest mysteries (mystagogies) in Calvinism is that they claim to know and understand the hidden and secret counsels of God. Surely, if salvation, the most vital of God’s counsels and decrees, is shrouded in secrecy, how do Calvinists know what God’s secret counsels are?

They state with emphatic assurance that God passes by whom He reprobates and that for no other cause but because He is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which He predestines to his children.

They also state with unhesitant assurance that man has no right to question God’s eternal providence to doom some before their birth to perpetual destruction because this is hidden in the secret counsel and will of God. How dare they declare word for word what God has decided before the foundation of the world when it is hidden in his secret counsel?

What they mean, is that God has decided to choose some to eternal bliss and others to eternal damnation but nobody knows why. It’s a secret and will never be revealed to man until eternity knocks on the door. And yet Calvinists have the audacity to declare the so-called secret counsel of God word for word.

Accordingly, they have concocted several unbiblical metaphors to give their cloud of unknowing “hidden in the secret counsel and will of God” some sort of credibility. A well-known metaphor is the one where the person passes through the door to eternal bliss and turns around to see written atop of the doorpost – ELECT.

Calvinists also take solace in the silly metaphor of two parallel train tracks that never come together but seem to merge in the distance to illustrate that the truth in regard to elective salvation will only be revealed in eternity.

According to this, the most revolting of the vilest doctrines devised and instituted by a serial killer (John Calvin), God, in the secret counsel and the good pleasure of his will, made the following horrific decision, “I wish to glorify myself to the uttermost and have, therefore, arranged that some babies should be doomed to hell, even from before they are conceived in their mothers’ womb.”

No wonder, Calvinists believe that God decreed babies be raped. Listen carefully to James White’s hideous explanation, when asked whether God decrees the rape of little babies a little bit later in this article. Apparently, it’s OK, to rape little babies, because God, has ordained some of them to everlasting destruction.

So, if God deems it necessary to predestine some babies to eternal destruction, so that He may be glorified, then a child rapist who rapes and kills babies for his good pleasure, is merely helping God to get the reprobate babies into hell much quicker, and hence to get the glory God wants for Himself, even much sooner.

RC Sproul

RC Sproul in jovial mood

And in case you may think you are listening to a sci-fi story, listen to RC Sproul’s definition of God’s sovereignty. But before we do that, let us take a look at what some of today’s worst false teachers have up their sleeve, or is in their hands.

False Teachers and Their Allegiance to Satan
False Teachers and Their Common Allegiance to Satan

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Did you hear what Anton LaVey said? “I believe that hatred is necessary in a controlled way as much is love is necessary.” Here again, we have the duality (the YinYang concept) in God’s character, as David Platt described it. Both love and hatred for sinners are compatible with God.

This is what the Westminster Confession of Faith sounds like when you bring God’s decree of the rape and killing of little babies into the equation.

“God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably, ordain whatsoever comes to pass, (including the rape and killing of little babies).”

And in case you do not believe it, you are summarily branded an atheist, because if you don’t believe God ordained everything that comes to pass (including the rape and killing of little babies), you are accusing God of not being sovereign, and if He’s not sovereign, He is not God, and if He’s not God, then you don’t believe in God.

Therefore, you are an atheist. So please, realize and understand, that there is only one way to be converted from atheism to Calvinism and that is to believe in God’s sovereign decree that He ordained babies to be raped.

James White
James White – False Teacher

There is a vast difference between God causing a child to be raped because He allegedly has a greater purpose in view and Him overturning the heinous sin to glorify Himself. I have heard of babies being raped and slaughtered in front of their mothers who refused to deny and disown Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

It would be rank blasphemy to say that God caused or predestined the babies to be raped and killed so that He may be glorified. How then is He glorified in situations like these? He is glorified in the mothers who steadfastly remain faithful to Him no matter what the circumstances and because they know and believe that their murdered babies will be in heaven with them one day.

The Calvinistic view that God causes babies to be raped and killed because his purpose is to be glorified, is akin to the ancient Canaanite pagans who sacrificed their children through a fire in honour of their god, Molech. (Leviticus 20:2).

The obvious reason why Calvinists cannot see that what they believe to be God’s sovereignty and his so-called hidden purposes is demonic, is because God deliberately blinded their eyes to the truth so that they may believe the lie and be judged accordingly.

You may have heard James White saying “there is no reason for despair” when suffering has meaning and a purpose. “All suffering has a purpose,” he said. What does He mean?

To understand what he said, we need to take his Calvinistic doctrines of grace into account. To illustrate we need to make a distinction between Mother Elect and Mother Non-elect whose babies are automatically Baby Elect and Baby Non-elect respectively.

When Baby Non-elect is raped and killed, is it meaningless and purposeless or meaningful and purposeful? Well, it cannot be dubbed meaningless and purposeless because God had already predestined Baby Non-elect to be cast into hell even before the foundation of the world so that He may be glorified. His purpose, Mr. White, is and has always been to send Baby Non-elect to hell. Therefore, it cannot be meaningless and purposeless.

Similarly, Baby Elect of Mother Elect was predestined to go to heaven before the foundation of the world. So, whether Baby Elect is raped and killed as an infant or grows up and is later raped and killed, the purpose remains the same. Therefore, again, God’s decree is not meaningless and purposeless.

Voila! Mr. White is correct in saying “there is no reason for despair,” at least in the eye of the Calvinist, because the non-elect’s ultimate destination in hell is no reason for concern or despair.

How do you identify a Calvinist?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said the following,

Yellow-stripe

However, you don’t need to identify them. They love to identify themselves in their so-called testimonies.

John MacArthur says:

“God didn’t draw straws; He didn’t look down the corridor of time, to see who would choose Him before He decided. Rather, by His sovereign will, He chose who would be in the Body of Christ. The construction of the Greek verb for “chose” indicates, God chose us for Himself. That means God acted totally independent of any outside influence.

He made His choice totally apart from human will and purely on the basis of His sovereignty.

Jesus said to His disciples, “You did not choose, Me, but I chose, you.” (John 15:16). [DTW comment: Come on, John, don’t you know He also chose Judas Iscariot to be one of his disciples and he was a devil?]

And in the same Gospel, John wrote, “But as many as received Him, to them, He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

And Paul said, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2 Thessalonians. 2 verse 13).

How do you identify a Calvinist? You only need to look at their beloved verses from Scripture, and their skill to avoid certain key passages in Scripture, and voila, you have successfully identified a Calvinist. MacArthur mentions two of their pet verses – John 15: 16 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

The irony is that Jesus also chose Judas Iscariot to follow Him as one of his disciples. His choice could not have been unto salvation, and if not unto salvation, then it must have been unto service. The employer chooses whom he wants to appoint in his business. The employee has no choice in the process of appointments.

A closer reading of 2 Thessalonians 2:13, proves that Paul is not dealing with salvation in the normal sense of the word, (the redemption from sin, judgment, and hell), but with “salvation through sanctification.”

Indeed, the context tells us that the salvation in this instance, (which is accomplished through sanctification), is the ultimate redemption at the Rapture, (the discarding of the saints’ earthly bodies to receive their new bodies like unto that of Jesus Christ).

Salvation in this context, is a redemption, by means of the Rapture, from the wrath of God, which is coming upon the entire world during the tribulation. Paul refers to this, as a salvation to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). And so, Calvinists, regardless of the warning in 2 Peter 3:16, twist Scripture to their own destruction. R.C. Sproul, comments:

“The world for whom Christ died cannot mean the entire human family. It must refer to the universality of the elect (people from every tribe and nation)….” (Chosen By God, pages 206 and 207)

James White, states:

“He gave His only begotten Son, and here’s the purpose why He gave: The Son is given by the Father so that every believing one, notice not everyone, it’s every believing one, there is a limitation here, there is a particularity here, the Father did not give the Son for any other reason than for those, in regard to those who believe. That’s why the Son is given.”  (From “Does John 3:16 debunk Calvinism?”)

Whereas the apostle John states that whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life, White says that it was the faith of the believing ones (the elect) that prompted God to send His Son. If the Son was given for no other reason than for those who believed, then the incentive to send His Son was not his love for lost sinners but the faith of the believing ones. John 3:16, according to White’s interpretation, must then be read as follows.

For God so loved the believing ones (elect) in the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, so that the believing ones should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This is the kind of garbage you will have to believe if you are a Calvinist. Since when do those who are already believing ones need to be saved? “OK, you precious believing ones. You are already saved but I still need to die on a cursed cross to save you,” is what Calvinists are forcing Jesus to say. I don’t know whether James failed to see this but his “believing ones” grossly contradicts the doctrines of grace “Total Depravity.” How on earth can anyone who is totally depraved and totally dead in sins and transgressions exercise faith in order to be a believing one? James White, like all our Calvinist friends and foes, are wresting Scripture to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16).

Consequently, it can be said that it was the faith of the believing ones that motivated God’s sovereign choice to send His Son into the world. What kind of sovereignty is this that could be manipulated by the faith of the believing ones (the elect), even to the point that their faith-inspired God to send His Son to the world – not on behalf of the entire world but the world of the elect only? The two scenarios may be summed up as follows.

  1. God looked at the world and saw that all its inhabitants were hopelessly lost in sin, and out of pure undeserving love decided to send His Son Jesus Christ into the world, so that whosoever without distinction puts their trust in Him for their salvation, may receive eternal life.
  2. God looked at the world and saw that all its inhabitants were hopelessly lost in sin, but noticed a few believing ones (the sheep, whom He had elected and predestined before the foundation of the world), and out of pure undeserving love for them only decided to send his Son into the world so that the believing ones (the elect) may know and understand that they had already been saved from before the foundation of the world.

To ensure that his Son’s mission to the earth was not in vain and that there would indeed be believing ones on the earth whom He could save, He decided to impart the gift of faith to a select few, by first regenerating them without them having to exercise the faith of their own accord, and then, subsequent to their monergistic regeneration, grant them the gift of faith (Ephesians 2 verses 8 to 9).

Voila! “the Father did not give the Son for any other reason than for those, in regard to those who believe, that’s why the Son was given” and not because He loved the world.

How do Calvinists testify about their faith?

The best and only way to discern whether a person is saved or not is to ask him or her of the hope that is in them (1 Peter 3:15). In an interview Phil Johnson had with John MacArthur, John explained his conversion as follows:

PHIL: “So you’re saying, are you saying it would be difficult for you to put your finger on when your conversion took place?”

JOHN: “Yeah. I’ve never been able to do that. And it doesn’t bother me. I think I’m one of those kids. I was one of those kids that NEVER REBELLED AND ALWAYS BELIEVED. And so, when God did His saving work in my heart, IT WAS NOT DISCERNIBLE TO ME.

I went away to high school and for all I knew, I loved Christ, I was part of the ministry of the church. I went away to college and I wanted to serve the Lord and honor the Lord. I was certainly immature.

But at some point along the line, I really do believe there was a transformation in my heart, but I think it may have been to some degree imperceptible to me, because I didn’t ever have a rebellious time, I didn’t ever revolt against, you know, the gospel or not believe.

And I guess that’s, in some ways that’s a grace act on God’s part. So that all that wonderful training found some level of fertile soil in my heart and none of it was wasted.” (Emphasis added).

Now, doesn’t this sound so much like the publican who, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, crying out to God in agony, God be merciful to me a sinner?

Not really! Fancy that, with a single sweep of the brush, John MacArthur obliterates the first letter “T” in the acronym TULIP. When he was a kid, he tells us, “Total Depravity” had NO part in the fiber of his pristine garment of self-righteousness.

In fact, he tells us in his own pristine self-righteous words that he never was so totally depraved as he likes to tell others how totally depraved they are.

Calvinists just love to remind other wretched sinners how depraved they are, even to the extent that it renders them completely powerless, incapable, and impotent to believe the Gospel, while they (like our learned and respected friend, John MacArthur) glory in their own pitiful self-righteous abilities to believe and never to rebel or revolt against God and his Gospel. This is Pharisaic hypocrisy at its very best. MacArthur is at least honest when he refers to his “unwilling and unable” gospel as “our gospel” and not God’s Gospel.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preaches any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9).

Notwithstanding the truth quoted above, John MacArthur claims that Calvinism’s doctrine of unwillingness and complete inability is the most despised and consequently the most distinctively Christian doctrine. Indeed, Paul of Tarsus proves its despicability in the quoted verses above and above all disproves MacArthur’s claim that it is most distinctively a Christian doctrine. Charles Spurgeon proclaimed something similar when he said,

It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.

And I have my own private opinion that there is no such a thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.” (Sermon number 98 New Park Street Pulpit 1:100)

Nonetheless, and despite Spurgeon’s clarion that Calvinism is “surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus,” their knack to hide the truth is astounding, and, may I say, hiding the truth is worse than an outright lie. Allow me to explain. MacArthur uses one of the oldest tricks in the book when he quotes John 6:44 and deliberately omits its corollary truth in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” The slightest contradiction of what Jesus Christ said and taught is NOT Christianity. It is another gospel that cannot save. And this is what makes Calvinism so utterly despicable. It is despicable because they themselves have made it so utterly despicable.

In some ways, John MacArthur’s testimony is the same as that of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Charles Spurgeon
The false prophet, Charles Spurgeon

CHARLES: I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free will; I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace!

Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude, that God has never let me act as they have done! [DTW comment: The Roman Catholics also believe that Mary was miraculously preserved from sin. Read hear].

I have thought, if God had left me alone and had not touched me by His Grace, what a great sinner I would have been!

[DTW comment: What do you, my dearest reader, say is the difference between Spurgeon and the greatest missionary who ever lived – Paul of Tarsus? The difference is that Paul was a humble man who admitted that he was the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), while Spurgeon boasted that he was not such a great sinner as Paul because God withheld him from sinning so greatly.]

CHARLES: I would have run to the utmost lengths of sin, and dived into the very depths of evil! Nor would I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me; I feel that I would have been a very king of sinners [or chief of sinners like Paul] if God had let me alone. [Parenthesis added).

I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. [DTW comment: Paul’s reason for his salvation was because he knew and acknowledged that he was a rogue of a sinner who also knew in whom he believed – 2 Timothy 1:12].  I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine Grace. (Parenthesis added).

If I am at this moment with Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His Glory.

I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty Grace has saved me from going down into the pit of Hell!

And in many ways, both John MacArthur’s and Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s testimonies are the very same as the Pharisee’s testimony in Luke 18:11,

"PHARISEE: I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican."

John MacArthur states in “Understanding Election,”,

JOHN: “I’m a Christian today, because before the foundation of the world from all eternity past, God chose to set His love on John MacArthur and to give him the faith, to believe at the moment that God wanted him to believe. He chose us.”

He also emphatically declares,

JOHN: “You and I are saved and know the Lord Jesus Christ because God chose us before the world ever began.”

All these testimonies, including those of John MacArthur, Charles Spurgeon, and James White, are outright denials of Jesus Christ’s words in John 16 verses 7 to 11,

JESUS: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin!! because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged."

Show me a single reference to the elect in these words. Jesus never said the Holy Spirit would convince the elect that they had been selected unto salvation before the foundation of the world and that God has chosen to shower his saving love on them only.

The Holy Spirit’s conviction is not limited to the so-called world of the elect. He has come to convict the entire world that it is lost and on its way to hell because they believe not on Jesus Christ. Contrary to what Jesus said, John MacArthur claims that he was one of those whiz kids who never rebelled, and always believed.

If John MacArthur, as he claims, always believed, it follows that he had no need of the Holy Spirit to convict him of unbelief. Who should we believe – Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, who cannot lie, and said that the Comforter would convict the entire world (including John MacArthur) of unbelief or John MacArthur who says that he was one of those whiz kids who never rebelled and always believed?

Any court of law will reject the testimony of a witness when it detects the slightest inconsistency. We don’t have to examine MacArthur’s testimony very deeply to see that inconsistencies abound. First, he says that he “was one of those kids who never rebelled and always believed” and then that “God chose to set His love on John MacArthur and to give him the faith to believe at the moment that God wanted him to believe.”

However, this paradox may be one of the enigmas hidden in the secret counsel of God which we are unable to understand right now and will have to wait until we reach eternity before we will understand it. Could it be that it is one of those things we now see through a glass darkly but in heaven spotlessly clearly? (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Bear in mind that salvation is such an important doctrine in the Bible that God chose not to disclose all of its wonderful characteristics to mortals.  That’s why it’s so difficult to understand why John MacArthur has always believed but was only given the gift to believe after his monergistic regeneration. Don’t try to understand it. Just go with the flow, as the modern-day alchemists would say.

John MacArthur is lying unless there are two kinds of faith – one that cannot save (the faith of an always believing kid) and one that saves (the one God gives when it pleases Him to grant it).

Never once in its entirety does the Bible say God draws only the elect to Jesus Christ (John 6:44). All sinners are drawn (John 12:32), but only those who respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit that they have sinned (in other words, do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Scriptures say – John 7:38), and realize, and acknowledge that their sins have caused them to become weary and heavy-laden and are lost, will come to Jesus for their salvation (Matthew 11:28; Romans 10:13; Matthew 9:12).

That’s precisely why Jesus said, “They, that are whole, need not a physician; but they, that are sick..” (Luke 5:31).

To assert that you have always believed is to deny that you are sick and in dire need of a physician. John 6:44, one of the Calvinists’ pet verses to prove that God only draws the elect to Jesus, must be read in tandem with John 12:32.

It simply means that God alone was able to devise the means by which lost sinners are drawn to his Son – i.e. his cross.

Not even the Father, could have drawn lost sinners to his Son without his cross because there was only one way to placate (propitiate) (1 John 2 verse 2) the enmity between mankind and Himself effectively, i.e. through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Tragically, however, Calvinists refuse to see it this way. They obstinately, ignore John 12:32 and thereby reinforce the vast deception God sent them so that they may believe what is false.

Once again, I must reiterate what I had said earlier: You become a very good candidate for a God-sent delusion when you tamper with God’s Gospel, and I can assure you that Reformed Theology (Calvinism in whatever form – 5 points, 4 points, or whatever), is not God’s Gospel. It is another Gospel and cannot save anyone on this planet.

John Piper

John Piper surrounded by books

John Piper is even more adept at his devious re-interpretation of John 3:16. In a video on his site, “Desiring God,” entitled, “God so loved the world,” he endeavors to prove that there is an even greater love than God’s love in John 3:16.

It is vital to see, from the beginning, that Piper, like all his compatriots in the Calvinistic fold, makes a huge difference between the love expressed in John 3:16, and his love for the elect.

And how does he go about proving this Calvinistic double-minded love of God? Let’s turn our ears to John Piper, explaining God’s greater love.

John 3:16 is so beautifully easy to understand, so clear-cut in its simplicity that even a child can understand it. Multitudes of Sunday school kids have come to know Christ and his love, through a child-like understanding of John 3:16.

Nonetheless, Piper, a staunch Calvinist and a promulgator of the doctrines of grace (TULIP), complicates God’s love and in humbleness – rarely seen among mortals – explains the complexity of God’s love in the following way,

“Help me with the wider context and the fullness of your revelation to know what you mean by loving us in this verse.”

Why should we ask God what He means by loving us in John 3:16, when He Himself said that we ought to ask the little children who have learned to sanctify God in their hearts and how to testify of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear? (1 Peter 3:15).

They know what the love of God in John 3:16 means because they have experienced his love through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

They have learned the true meaning of the love of God that is indelibly etched forevermore in the torn body of his Son on the cross. What more do you need to understand his love in John 3:16?

What other kinds of love surpasses God’s love as expressed in the final, ultimate, and most magnanimous, and infinitely immeasurable love in the torn body of his Son on the cross? Ah! But of course, John Piper has discovered a love that is far greater than God’s love in John 3:16, as we shall learn from his illustrious preaching later on.

Piper continues to define John 3:16 as the “free offer of the Gospel,” and says that he loves the free offer of the Gospel because there are no limits to this offer. It was offered to every single human being who had ever lived, is alive today, and shall be living in the future.

“So, what’s so controversial about that?” he asks. “Nothing! Unless you try to make this expression of the love of God cancel out another expression of the love of God- which is what many people do with this verse.

This is a great sadness and robs the church of one of her great treasures,” Piper affirms.

What Piper actually means is that the love of God in John 3:16 is not saving love. It is merely a love offered to all mankind. It is not a love that overcomes, conquers, and makes those to whom this love is offered his own.

It could be said that it is merely a shadow love because God’s genuine love is reserved only for the elect which is the greater love. If this is not a deliberate degradation of the cross of Jesus Christ which announces and demonstrates the greatest love ever to be experienced by man, I don’t know what is.

Piper is blaspheming the cross and the love of God to its utmost extremity and if he’s not careful to repent he will spend an eternity in hell.

The alleged diversity in God’s love may be likened to a huge cake cut into slices of equal size but of unequal importance and purpose.

One slice is given to the elect which they must eat because it is irresistibly sumptuous and compellingly forced down the elects’ throats, whilst the slice next to it is offered to the reprobate, but they may not eat it, because the offer is irresistibly and irrevocably concomitant with the sovereign decree He made before the foundation of the world, and that is to send them to hell.

How else will He get the glory, honour, and pleasure He claims for Himself, as John MacArthur has said so succinctly. John Piper describes one of the other most important loves of God, as follows.

If this does not fill your heart with holy anger, then you ought to ask yourself whether you truly love Jesus Christ and his doctrine of salvation.

A love, WAAAY beyond the offer of John 3:16? A love, that is magnificently greater than John 3:16? Really? If, the offer in John 3:16 is a genuine offer, and If, the cross of Christ ratifies the offer through faith alone, nothing else can go WAAAY beyond its offer, because Christ crucified is the ultimate offering. (1 Corinthians 1:23).

That is why Paul wrote “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2 verse 2) and, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16), which he obviously based on the offer extended to everyone in John 3:16.

Caveman
He overcomes the elects’ rebellion. He overcomes their resistance. He conquers them and makes them his own.

However, Piper sanctimoniously asserts that there is an infinitely greater love than John 3:16, a love that does not need to be offered to his chosen ones because He overcomes their rebellion and resistance; He conquers them and makes them his own, without them having to put their faith in Him for their salvation.

Could it be that God didn’t know how to overcome Adam and Eve’s rebellion and resistance, and how to conquer them and ever so gently bend their wills to comply with his will, and only learned to do so throughout the centuries that followed? Or, could it be that He only learned to overcome the rebellion and resistance of his elect when John Calvin unearthed the deep mysteries of election and predestination?

Piper appeals to three passages in Scripture to verify his statement that God’s love for his own is magnificently greater than the love in John 3:16.

The fact is that God, in the very next verse (verse 16) of Deuteronomy 10, commanded the Israelites to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts and to cease their stiffneckedness (rebellion, obstinacy, hardheartedness, and pigheadedness). Don’t you think it was rather odd for God to command them to stop their rebellion and their resistance if He unilaterally could overcome and conquer their rebellion and resistance?

Did God unilaterally conquer the moon worshiper, Abram, whom He later called Abraham? Or was it Abraham’s faith that was accounted to him for righteousness? (Galatians 3:6).

King Solomon, must have agonized, to the point of death, and cried out many times: “Oh God, when are you going to overcome and conquer my rebellion, my resistance, my abominable idolatry, and endless fornications? I cannot tolerate the idolatry my many wives and concubines have duped me into following their gods, any longer. Please, overcome and conquer me.”

I can only imagine what Piper’s fiancé would have thought when he proposed to marry her and said: “This is not an offer you can refuse. I demand and I claim you for myself, regardless of what you think or may say. I am unilaterally taking you for myself to be my wife.” John Piper believes that God sovereignly preordained the sins of every single human being. He predestined and ordained the sins of Herod, Judas, and the Jewish rabble who shouted: “Crucify Him, crucify Him.”

But, unlike Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, King David and King Solomon, to name but a few, whom He overcame with his regenerative love, He decided not to overrule and overcome the sins of Herod and Judas Iscariot because they were not of the elect.

If God’s covenant love, election love, particular love, regenerative love, and monergistic love is majestically and magnificently far greater than God’s love in John 3:16, where He gave, offered, his only begotten Son to the entire human race so that whosoever believes in Him shall receive eternal life, and if this covenant love is expressed in its most pristine way in the election of the nation of Israel, then we ought to ask some serious questions.

  1. Why will the children of the Kingdom (the majority of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whose resistance and rebellion God had overcome and conquered and made them his own) be cast into hell? (Matthew 8:12).
  2. If the majority of the Jewish nation has rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and as a consequence, their eyes have been blinded to the Truth so that they may not see, (Romans 11:10), why is the entire nation of Israel still called God’s elect? (Romans 11:28).

If God’s love for the people of Israel was his highest form of love – a love magnificently far greater than his love in John 3:16 – why is the majority of his people going to be cast into hell? Is it because He failed to overcome and conquer their hideous rebellion, idolatry, waywardness, and sinfulness? I don’t think so because the Bible clearly states that it was their unbelief that prevented them from entering God’s rest.

"And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:18-19).

This is precisely what John 3 verses 16 to 18 tells us. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” There is absolutely no difference between God’s alleged greater love for his people (the Jews) and his love in John 3:16.

His love in both cases is exactly the same, and the way to benefit eternally from this love is simply to believe in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  For that reason, Piper’s effort to prove that God’s love for the elect is magnificently far greater than his love, expressed in the crucifixion of his Son, in John 3:16, is not only wrong but blasphemous to the extreme. God shows no partiality in his love for all people.

These are classic examples of the believing ones, to whom James White refers, for whom Christ came to the world because “the Father did not give the Son for any other reason than for those in regard to those who believe. That’s why the Son is given.”

Think of it, Spurgeon’s faith in God’s Sovereign Grace was so overwhelming that he believed it was God’s restraining power – a power He did not wield, to restrain Adam and Eve from sinning – that kept him free from acting in the horrendous sinful way the worst characters in the street were guilty of. How do you think Jesus would have compared Spurgeon to the woman of whom He once said:

Could it be, that Jesus restrained Spurgeon from sinning like the scum on the streets (and this woman) because He wanted him to love Him less?

"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." (Luke 7:47).

Perhaps Spurgeon’s heart should have burst forth in tears of gratitude, for rather not having been restrained from sinning, and sinned much, much more than the woman so that his love for Christ could abound in greater depths. In fact, Jesus did him a great disservice when He restrained Spurgeon from sinning like the scoundrels in the street and the woman in Luke 7:47.

Listen carefully to James White’s testimony of how he was saved in an interview conducted by  Romel Ghossain of Christian Media Productions.

The Bible never says that we should ask people when they became Christian. Most people, among them the John MacArthurs, will tell you they’ve always been a Christian or they’ve always been a believer. This is a sure sign that they have never been saved because no one has always been a Christian or a believer.

At any rate, the devils also have always been believers and they tremble (James 2:19). The only difference between those who say they have always believed and the demons are that they don’t tremble like the demons. They seem to have more chutzpah than the demons. The hope of which we are told, we should testify to when asked (1 Peter 3:15), has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity.

The Hope in you is Christ crucified and Him raised from the dead – not Christianity. Roman Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, et al, are all Christians but are they saved? Similarly, Calvinists are all Christians but are they saved? James White begins by saying,

“Well, the Lord was gracious to me at a very young age. I was raised in a Christian family and it is a privilege to have that kind of upbringing. My first memories are of sermons, church services, Bible teaching. One of the first things I remember was my little child Bible, a precious possession. So at a very young age I remember RECOGNIZING the need of a Saviour.”

STOP! Stop right here. This is completely incompatible with what Calvinism teaches. Firstly, no one can recognize that he needs a Saviour without the conviction of the Holy Spirit – of sin, righteousness, and judgment,  “Of sin, because they believe not on me,” Jesus said. How does the Holy Spirit convict lost sinners? Paul says, through the preaching of the Word and man’s response in faith to what he has heard. And yet, James White wrote in his book “The Potter’s Freedom, page  101,

“The Reformed assertion is that man cannot understand and embrace the gospel, nor respond in faith and repentance toward Christ, without God first freeing him from sin and giving him spiritual life (regeneration).”

Yet he boldly states that as a child he recognized (understood) that he needed a Saviour. Did he, at that moment when he recognized that he needed a Saviour, respond to the Gospel he heard and in faith received Jesus Christ as his Saviour? No, of course not, because his recognizing (understanding) that he needed a Saviour became a reality for him, only AFTER, he had been monergistically regenerated.

He was first regenerated by a sovereign act of God and only then, did he realize he needed a Saviour.

Don’t be mistaken by the forceful defense of their view of God’s righteousness. According to them, God is sovereignly righteous when He randomly chooses whomsoever He wills to save and whomsoever He wills to damn.

They call this righteousness but it is, in fact, UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, and it is this unrighteousness, clothed in the guise of righteousness which they revel in, in the most superlative fashion. It’s as Paul said, they refuse to adhere to, trust in, and rely on the Truth, but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness. What does their brand of unrighteousness look like?

The very first thing they toss at you whenever you vent your anger against their preference for unrighteousness is the following.

The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that others do not, stems from his eternal decision. For all his works are known to God from eternity (Acts 15:18; Ephesians 1:11).

In accordance with this decision, he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his chosen ones and inclines them to believe, but , by his just judgment he leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart, those who have not been chosen.

And in this, especially, is disclosed to us his act, unfathomable, and as merciful as it is just, of distinguishing between people equally lost. This is the well-known decision of election and reprobation revealed in God’s Word. This decision the wicked, impure, and unstable distort to their own ruin, but it provides holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words. (Article 6: God’s Eternal Decision (Canons of Dortrecht).

What kind of righteousness is this? First, they say that God sovereignly does not soften the hearts of the reprobate and does not incline them to believe as He does the elect, and then that the wicked, the impure, and the unstable distort the doctrine of election and predestination to their own ruin.

In other words, the reprobate wicked are themselves to blame for God’s sovereign choice not to soften their hearts and to incline them to believe the Gospel because they have rejected God’s sovereign choice not to soften their hearts and incline them to believe the Gospel. Is this what they call righteousness and justice?

They are the ones who distort God’s righteousness and, in effect, take pleasure in gross unrighteousness. Could there be any other deception as dangerous and destructive as this? May God have mercy on their pitiful souls.

The Bible warns:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

 Are you prepared to follow these men and their abominable teaching? 

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4).

At least two persons in this article no longer have the chance to repent of their evil and to believe God’s Gospel and not their own gospel. They are Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) and R.C. Sproul (1939-2017). The others still have a chance. Whether they are going to repent, is doubtful.

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Tom Lessing (Discerning the World)

Tom Lessing is the author of the above article. Discerning the World is an internet Christian Ministry based in Johannesburg South Africa. Tom Lessing and Deborah Ellish both own Discerning the World. For more information see the About this Website page below the comments section.

274 Responses

  1. Joe wrote:

    Thomas you wrote, “God knew long before Israel existed that they would commit idolatry and that He would decide to judge them accordingly, and yet He allowed a man of dust an ashes to change his mind – indeed to change God’s knowledge. Does that take away or malign his omniscience? Of course not.”

    So mere man changed God’s knowledge? The created changed the knowledge of the Creator? At least you are starting to be consistent with your flawed theology now, which has by necessity led to open Theism. It certainly does malign His omniscience, because for man to change God’s knowledge means that God was never omniscient to begin with, and that is frankly a revolting description of the God of the Bible.

    OK wise guy, tell me in detail what happened in Exodus 32. Why did God repent (change his mind) after having decided before the foundation of the world to destroy Israel? Or do you believe that God did indeed destroy Israel and since then has transferred all his promises to Israel to the Gentile church (Replacement Theology)?

    You wrote:

    That is the reason that people who believe in election evangelize the lost. They know that bringing the elect to Himself is the ends which God has decreed, whilst they who do the proclaiming of the gospel are the means by which God has decreed this to happen.

    If God decreed before the foundation of the world to elect unto salvation only some out of the fallen race of man and if no one can thwart, change or alter his sovereign decree, what’s the point in proclaiming the Gospel? Or do you presumptuously believe that your preaching of the Gospel is the means by which the elect are drawn to God so that they may be saved? I am sure you wouldn’t want to be so presumptuous to think that you have done something to accomplish God’s election. You must have read my post “Soul winning is foolishness” This is precisely what Calvinists believe. They do indeed proclaim the Gospel but do not believe that soul winning is their duty. Why, Because they believe that in doing that, they are maligning God’s sovereignty in election. One of the main reasons why people like you believe in election unto salvation is because man is as dead as a doornail and is totally depraved (unable) to understand or to respond to the Gospel. If that is so, how on earth are they going to respond to the Gospel when they are totally depraved (unable) to understand it? Or is your preaching of the Gospel something so special and miraculous that when you open your mouth to proclaim it, the elect’s ears are suddenly opened and they begin to understand it? That’s as presumptuous as it may come. Shame on you!

    Your arguments aren’t only fallacious but downright impractical.

  2. Joe wrote:

    Thomas you wrote, “God knew long before Israel existed that they would commit idolatry and that He would decide to judge them accordingly, and yet He allowed a man of dust an ashes to change his mind – indeed to change God’s knowledge. Does that take away or malign his omniscience? Of course not.”

    So mere man changed God’s knowledge? The created changed the knowledge of the Creator? At least you are starting to be consistent with your flawed theology now, which has by necessity led to open Theism. It certainly does malign His omniscience, because for man to change God’s knowledge means that God was never omniscient to begin with, and that is frankly a revolting description of the God of the Bible.

    Here’s another question for you. God had perfect knowledge before the foundation of the world that Adam and Eve were going to disobey Him and fall into sin. Would they have changed his perfect knowledge if they had not sinned? To say that God’s knowledge is unchangeable and that his sovereignty and omniscience would be compromised if it were changeable, is to believe that God ordained and caused Adam and Eve to sin. That’s blasphemy, to say the least.

    Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isa 5:20)

  3. Joe says:

    Thomas you wrote, “OK wise guy, tell me in detail what happened in Exodus 32. Why did God repent (change his mind) after having decided before the foundation of the world to destroy Israel? Or do you believe that God did indeed destroy Israel and since then has transferred all his promises to Israel to the Gentile church (Replacement Theology)?”

    I answered that in my previous post, but here it is again;

    “In the same manner do you not think that God in eternity past had not decreed the ends and the means to make certain that He would fulfill His covenant with Abraham? By destroying Israel, God would have violated His unconditional covenant with Abraham and the provisions thereof, including spiritual blessings that were to extend to the Gentiles through the Messiah. That would make God a liar. God’s end was obviously to fulfill the covenant He made with Abraham and His means was Moses’ prayer decreed in eternity past.”

    Furthermore do not label me as a replacement theologian. You know fully well from the interactions we have had that I am consistently dispensational. You can also see that in my answer above regarding the Abrahamic Covenant.

    What about the scriptures that I have quoted which clearly show another side to the repentance of God. You are not going to deal with them because you can’t.

  4. Joe says:

    Thomas you said,” Here’s another question for you. God had perfect knowledge before the foundation of the world that Adam and Eve were going to disobey Him and fall into sin. Would they have changed his perfect knowledge if they had not sinned? To say that God’s knowledge is unchangeable and that his sovereignty and omniscience would be compromised if it were changeable, is to believe that God ordained and caused Adam and Eve to sin. That’s blasphemy, to say the least.

    Like I said you are an open Theist. You cannot seem to see the problem with God’s omniscience being changeable. By definition omniscience means perfect knowledge. If that knowledge can be changed or added to then by definition it is not perfect. That means that God is not immutable as the Bible teaches. What a frightening concept.

    Can you please define what man’s freewill actually entails. How free is man?

  5. Joe,

    Like I said you are an open Theist. You cannot seem to see the problem with God’s omniscience being changeable. By definition omniscience means perfect knowledge. If that knowledge can be changed or added to then by definition it is not perfect. That means that God is not immutable as the Bible teaches. What a frightening concept.

    Can you please define what man’s freewill actually entails. How free is man?

    You are not answering my questions. Let’s try again.

    God had perfect knowledge before the foundation of the world that Adam and Eve were going to disobey Him and fall into sin. Would they have changed his perfect knowledge if they had not sinned? To say that God’s knowledge is unchangeable and that his sovereignty and omniscience would be compromised if it were changeable, is to believe that God ordained and caused Adam and Eve to sin. That’s blasphemy, to say the least.

    Did God know in advance that Adam and Eve would sin? Yes or no.
    If He knew that they would sin and if his knowledge is unchangeable then He must have willed, ordained and caused them to sin.

    Do you believe that God willed, ordained and caused Adam and Eve to sin?

  6. Joe,

    I asked you whether you were a Replacement theologian. I did not say you were. So, you have decided that when I do not respond to all the verses you quote it is because I can’t. You have failed to answered many of my questions. Is it because you can’t?

  7. Joe,

    Malachi 3:6 says God Himself is unchangeable. It does not say He cannot change his mind.

    Well, then Numbers 23:19 seems to contradict other verses in Scripture, according to you, for instance Genesis 6:6; Exodus 32:14; Judges 2:18; 1 Samuel 15:35; 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15; Psalm 106:45; Amos 7:3; Amos 7:6. Dot you ever read your Bible?

    Ezekiel 24:14. Read the context. You cannot use this as a template or a standard procedure to say God never repented of (regretted) his original decisions.

    The above are not anthropomorphic examples so that we may understand and relate to God. They are examples of times when God actually decided to change his original decisions for the benefit or judgment of man. He actually regretted that He made Adam and Eve because they sidestepped his original decision that they should obey and love Him with all their heart and not sin. His original decision was that they be holy and blameless. They were the ones who thwarted God’s original decision (knowledge) and He regretted it. It’s as simple as that. Unless, of course as you believe, He deliberately wanted them to sin and ordained and caused them to sin so that his original knowledge would not be changed. Thats not only preposterous but dangerously blasphemous, to say the least. You are attributing things to God that belong to Satan.

    Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isa 5:20)

    You should repent of your evil.

  8. Joe says:

    Thomas, it is very simple. If God knew in eternity past that Adam and Eve were going to fall then how is it possible that they would not? Was He mistaken in His thinking in eternity past? For your theory to work then it is possible that God could have been wrong in eternity past and Adam and Eve may have surprised God by obeying Him.

    So you serve a God that could be wrong every day, He could be mistaken every day and He is certainly in for a couple of surprises. His knowledge can be thwarted by the creature. It seems to me that giving glory to man’s supposed freewill whilst denying God any is the real blasphemy. What a pitiful take on the God of the Bible.

  9. Joe,

    Let me ask you again.

    Did God ordain and cause Adam and Eve to sin? Yes or no?

    Would Adam and Eve have overruled God’s knowledge if they had not sinned? Please answer my questions.

  10. Joe wrote:

    Thomas, it is very simple. If God knew in eternity past that Adam and Eve were going to fall then how is it possible that they would not?

    So, God wanted them to sin. He willed them to sin. He ordained them to sin so that his knowledge would remain in tact. The reason why you believe these atrocious lies is because you do not know what true love is. You are so obsessed with God’s sovereignty that you don’t have a clue what love and free-will is. Yes, you talk about free-will but you don’t know what it is.

  11. Joe says:

    Thomas, if God had known in eternity past that Adam and Eve would not sin then there is no way they could have surprised God by sinning. What God knows cannot change either way.

  12. Joe,

    You are dodging my questions. Did God ordain, will, cause Adam and Eve to sin. YES OR NO?

  13. I want to put it on record that Joe refuses to answer my questions. He is either not capable or does not want to disadvantage himself in answering the question: “Did God ordain, will, cause Adam and Eve to sin. YES OR NO?” If he should answer “yes” he would be placing himself squarely in the Calvinistic camp that believes God caused man to sin which, to say the least, is an abhorrent doctrine.

  14. Joe says:

    Thomas let me put it on record that those that believe in election certainly do not believe that God caused Adam and Eve or anyone else to sin. I have told you this in my previous posts. They did that of their own volition. You are the one that continuously misrepresents or just does not understand the election position.
    Furthermore let me ask you once again, “Can you please define what man’s freewill actually entails. How free is man?”

  15. Joe,

    Thomas let me put it on record that those that believe in election certainly do not believe that God caused Adam and Eve or anyone else to sin. I have told you this in my previous posts. They did that of their own volition. You are the one that continuously misrepresents or just does not understand the election position.
    Furthermore let me ask you once again, “Can you please define what man’s freewill actually entails. How free is man?”

    How on earth could they have sinned of their own volition when the possibility of them having not sinned would have overridden God’s knowledge? “Volition” (free-will) means that man has the ability to choose between two possibilities. It does not mean that he MUST do because if he didn’t God’s knowledge would be compromised. That’s not free-will. It is fatalism at its very best. You say one thing and believe another.

    How free is man?

    I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: (Deu 30:19)

    Man has the awesome ability to choose between life (heaven) and death (hell).

    That’s exactly what God put to Adam and Eve. “You have a choice between heaven and hell, and I urge you to choose heaven (life).”

    You said:

    Thomas, if God had known in eternity past that Adam and Eve would not sin then there is no way they could have surprised God by sinning. What God knows cannot change either way.

    God knew that they would sin because his knowledge determined that they would sin. If they hadn’t sinned, God’s knowledge would have been seriously compromised. Is that it? Does it mean they could not have not sinned because God’s knowledge determined that they would sin? That’s not only irrational but ridiculous to say the least.

  16. Joe says:

    Thomas, it is ridiculous to someone who believes God’s knowledge can change. It is ridiculous to someone who believes that God can be surprised by man’s choices. It is ridiculous to an open Theist.
    To someone who believes that the Bible teaches about a God with perfect knowledge (Omniscience)and that adding to that knowledge makes God’s knowledge imperfect that is just not acceptable.

    That is the reason that you can never accept that election either by determined foreknowledge or the looking ahead of time type of foreknowledge can be unto salvation. If election is only unto service as you claim then show it to us. You cannot, and the reason is simply because for a man to be elected unto anything in the current dispensation ultimately means that he has to be elected unto salvation. The current dispensation speaks to the priesthood of believers and the gifting which has been imparted through the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation is to be used in service to build up the church. As the royal priesthood of believers, all saints are automatically called to service with the gifts which they have been given at their adoption into the great family of God.

  17. Joe,

    I can only come to one conclusion and that is that you do not believe the Bible. Full stop. You are wasting my time. I have proven to you again and again that election is unto blessing and service and never unto salvation. You are either blind by your own choice or you have been blinded by God because He chose to blind you. Please don’t comment here again. You are deliberately misleading, not only yourself, but others as well. I will not read your comments again.

  18. Gabe W says:

    Augustinian-Calvinsism = Manichaenism synchronized Marcion teachings.

    Listened to McArthur other day extol Augustine’s teachings from the pulpit other day.
    He praised the theological writings of a ‘christian’ of only 2 years out of the gnostic-Manichean cult? Ugh.

    If you can’t get John 3:16, then demand a refund from your seminary/cemetery.

  19. Mark says:

    My main concern with this article is not that you hate Calvinism. It’s that you hate the truth that is clearly presented in God’s word. I do not claim to fully understand election, yet I know that God does elect. Ask yourself if you would have responded in the same way as the many disciples in John 6:65,66.

    The following are verses to take into consideration. I hope you understand that these are not just pet verses I cling to without taking into consideration the rest of Scripture. I know how difficult it is to try and understand how God chose a certain people for Himself, yet I cannot deny that His word teaches it:

    Mark 13:20, John 1:12,13 + 6:37,44,65,66 + 10:28,29 + 15:16,19 + 17:2,6,9,11,12,24, Acts 13:48, Rom 8:28-30 + 9:11,15-20,22,23 + Eph 1:4,5,11 + 2:8,9, Phil 1:28,29 + 1 Thess 1:4 + 2 Thess 2:13 + 2 Tim 1:9

    May the Lord bless you with wisdom and truth

  20. Mark wrote:

    My main concern with this article is not that you hate Calvinism. It’s that you hate the truth that is clearly presented in God’s word. I do not claim to fully understand election, yet I know that God does elect. Ask yourself if you would have responded in the same way as the many disciples in John 6:65,66.

    The following are verses to take into consideration. I hope you understand that these are not just pet verses I cling to without taking into consideration the rest of Scripture. I know how difficult it is to try and understand how God chose a certain people for Himself, yet I cannot deny that His word teaches it: Mark 13:20, John 1:12,13 + 6:37,44,65,66 + 10:28,29 + 15:16,19 + 17:2,6,9,11,12,24, Acts 13:48, Rom 8:28-30 + 9:11,15-20,22,23 + Eph 1:4,5,11 + 2:8,9, Phil 1:28,29 + 1 Thess 1:4 + 2 Thess 2:13 + 2 Tim 1:9

    May the Lord bless you with wisdom and truth.

    You are quite right; I hate Calvinism as much as I hate Roman Catholicism, atheism, Satanism and all the other isms which are leading people to hell. However, I love Calvinists, Roman Catholics etc. because I don’t want them to go to hell as much as Jesus Christ Himself does not want them to go to hell.

    Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11).

    From this it is abundantly clear that any sinner is capable of turning from his evil ways, repent and receive Jesus Christ as his Saviour. What makes this verse so awesome is that God is calling upon his elect people, Israel, to repent of their evil ways. The entire nation of Israel is God’s elect (Romans 11:28) and yet most of them are going to hell (Matthew 8:12). That doesn’t say much for the so-called elect who supposedly are going to heaven because God predestined and ordained them to eternal life before the foundation of the world. It proves beyond any doubt that the elect are all bound for hell unless they repent and receive the real Jesus Christ of the Bible as their Saviour.

    Who are the wicked? Are only Calvinists wicked? Doesn’t the Bible say “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God?” (Romans 3:23). If all of mankind without exception have sinned then Jesus Christ must have been born, crucified, resurrected and ascended into heaven in behalf all of all mankind. How do I know? Well, Jesus said: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save the elect only.” (Luke 19:10). Is that what He said? That’s what you believe He said, which, of course, is an infamous lie. And then you have the chutzpah to accuse me of hating the truth?

    If all those verses you mentioned refer to the elect, as you say, then you must explain why they contradict so many other verses in Scripture, for instance, John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, Luke 19:10, 2 Peter 3:9, Revelation 22:17. Apart from the fact that you have taken all the verses you mentioned out of context, you are reading into them things that are not there.

    Mark 13:20. The context here is the seven year tribulation which is also called the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble. Therefore, the elect refer to Israel (Isaiah 45:4; Romans 11:28) who are going to be gathered from all corners of the earth to return to Jerusalem after they had been scattered throughout the world to escape the wrath of Antichrist who had set up an ab abominable idol in the most holy of the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. Jesus describes this even in Matthew 24.

    When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Mat 24:15-22).

    John 1:12 and 13. Barnes explains these verses as follows and I agree with him.

    Not of blood – The Greek word is plural; not of “bloods” – that is, not of “man.” Compare Mat_27:4. The Jews prided themselves on being the descendants of Abraham, Mat_3:9. They supposed that it was proof of the favor of God to be descended from such an illustrious ancestry. In this passage this notion is corrected. It is not because men are descended from an illustrious or pious parentage that they are entitled to the favor of God; or perhaps the meaning may be, not because there is a union of illustrious lines of ancestry or “bloods” in them. The law of Christ’s kingdom is different from what the Jews supposed. Compare 1Pe_1:23. It was necessary to be “born of God” by regeneration. Possibly, however, it may mean that they did not become children of God by the bloody rite of “circumcision,” as many of the Jews supposed they did. This is agreeable to the declaration of Paul in Rom_2:28-29.Nor of the will of the flesh – Not by natural generation.

    Nor of the will of man – This may refer, perhaps, to the will of man in adopting a child, as the former phrases do to the natural birth; and the design of using these three phrases may have been to say that they became the children of God neither in virtue of their descent from illustrious parents like Abraham, nor by their natural birth, nor by being “adopted” by a pious man. None of the ways by which we become entitled to the privileges of “children” among people can give us a title to be called the sons of God. It is not by human power or agency that men become children of the Most High.
    But of God – That is, God produces the change, and confers the privilege of being cawed his children. The heart is changed by his power. No unaided effort of man, no works of ours, can produce this change. At the same time, it is true that no man is renewed who does not himself “desire” and “will” to be a believer; for the effect of the change is on his “will” Psa_110:3, and no one is changed who does not strive to enter in at the strait gate, Phi_2:12. This important verse, therefore, teaches us:

    1. That if men are saved they must be born again.
    2. That their salvation is not the result of their birth, or of any honorable or pious parentage.
    3. That the children of the rich and the noble, as well as of the poor, must be born of God if they will be saved.
    4. That the children of pious parents must be born again; or they cannot be saved. None will go to heaven simply because their “parents” are Christians.
    5. That this work is the work of God, and “no man” can do it for us.
    6. That we should forsake all human dependence, least off all confidence in the flesh, and go at once to the throne of grace, and beseech of God to adopt us into his family and save our souls from death.

    Did you notice point number 6? You cannot be saved unless you want (will) to be saved and unless you call on the Name of the Lord to be saved (Acts 2:21). Only God can save lost sinners but they must be willing to believe that they are lost sinners and desperately in need of a Saviour and approach Him in prayer with a request to be saved. He does not arbitrarily and monergistically save and zap the so-called elect without them having to realize that they need to be saved and without them having to believe in order to be saved. Faith, according to Calvinists, is given as a gift to the elect only after they had been arbitrarily and monergistically saved.

    Verse 12 distinctly says that the many who receive Him (believe in Him) are saved. He does not say only the elect are saved. (Hebrews 11:6).

    John 6:37, 44, 65, 66. The key to a correct understanding of these verses is verse 36 “But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.” (John 6:36). He never said that they will forfeit eternal life because they are not the elect. He said their unbelief was the reason they would not make it to heaven. Having said this, it is easy to understand verse 37 which simply means that the Father has given to the Son all those who believe. Those who refuse to believe are not given to the Son. In other words faith is the key to the giving to the Son and not election.

    Why do you Calvinists always quote John 6:44 and never 12:32? Are you afraid of Johan 12:32? “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth (crucified), will draw all men unto me.” And please don’t tell me that “all” refers to the elect only. If so, I will have to send you back to school so that you can learn what the word “all” means.

    I find it odd that you should quote verse 45 while Calvinists believe that, because man (including the elect) are as dead as a corpse in their sin and transgressions, they cannot hear, understand or respond to the Gospel. And yet here the Bible very clearly says “Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” Hearing God and learning from Him involves free-will. God does NOT infuse his learning into man. He does not miraculously impart his learning into man’s heart. He must be willing to receive God’s learning, respond to it by faith and It is not the elect who are drawn to God but everyone who hears the Gospel, understand it, responds in faith to it and calls upon the Name of the Lord to be saved. You are contradicting your own Calvinistic beliefs.

    I cannot understand why you Calvinists love to quote verses 65 and 66 and never verse 70, “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (Judas Iscariot)” (John 6:70). Do you see that? Judas Iscariot was one of God’s chosen elect. If there is such a thing as election unto salvation and it always is unto salvation, then Judas Iscariot must have been saved. Perish the thought. This choice, therefore, could not possibly have been unto salvation but was Jesus’ call to them to serve Him. Judas was a tragic figure, influenced by Satan; yet he was responsible for his own choices.

    John 10:26-29. This is yet another one of the Calvinists pet verses to prove their doctrine of election. And once again they are way off track. Calvinists believe that the Pharisees were not of his sheep because they were incapable of believing. It was not given to them to believe because they were not sheep but goats, you would say. Not so, even the Pharisees were sheep, albeit not of His sheep. There is only one place in the entire Bible where goats are used to describe people and that is in Matthew 25:32. Here the word “ethne” is used. It refers to Gentiles and not the Jews as a nation. In fact, these are all people other than Jews who have lived through the Tribulation period (Joel 3:2, 12). Consequently the Pharisees (Jews) could not have been goats and therefore the non-elect. Therefore, John 10:26-29 does not say the Pharisees were not of his sheep because they were not the elect. As I proved earlier (Romans 11:28) all of Israel (including the Pharisees) were God’s elect, not unto salvation but unto service. Predestination and election are biblical teachings—but they are never unto salvation. To the Calvinist, however, predestination/election is always and only unto salvation—a view that is imposed wrongly upon Scripture. In fact, election/predestination is always unto specific blessings that accompany salvation, but not to salvation itself.

    John 15:16, 19: There is no evidence in these verses that his choice was unto salvation. Contrary to the common practice in those days when disciples were the ones who did the choosing (they chose their teacher and not the other way around), He was the one who made the choosing and not them. The twelve disciples did not come to Him and say “we want to be your disciples.” He made the choice, which included his choice of Judas Iscariot. This choice was connected to their mission and that mission was to bear lasting fruit. Of course Judas forfeited everything connected to this mission – not because He was not elected, but because of his unbelief and mistrust of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

    John 17:2,6,9,11,12,24: You believe that God arbitrarily and monergistically picked out whom He wanted to give to his Son. For this to be true it must not contradict any other passages in Scripture. Ask yourself whether this view harmonizes with John 3:16? Here God clearly says that only those who believe receive eternal life (are given to his Son). Those who do not believe are not given to his Son. Here again faith and faith alone is the key element that ultimately decides whether you are given or not given to the Son (Hebrews 11:6). Trust in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross results in a giving to the Son and not mistrust. Those who mistrust Him do so of their own free-will. They don’t want to be given to his Son and thence are not given. It’s as simple as that. They are not given because they are not elected. They are not given because of their unbelief. Unbelief is the only thing that keeps sinners out of heaven – nothing else. That’s why John 3:18 says: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” It does NOT say: “He that is given to the Son is not condemned: but he that is not given is condemned already, because the Father did not want to give him to his Son.”

    Acts 13:48: The Calvinist, to support his beliefs, assumes that tetagmenoi must mean predestined to salvation.” Yet that is clearly not the meaning in any of the seven other usages of tasso in the New Testament. If that were the intent, why was tasso used and not prooridzo (predestinated)? In fact, Adam Clarke declares rather dogmatically, “Whatever tetagmenoi may mean, which is the word we translate ordained, it includes no idea of pre-ordination or pre-destination of any kind…. [O]f all the meanings ever put on it, none agrees worse with its nature and known signification than that which represents it as intending those who were predestinated to eternal life; this is no meaning of the term and should never be applied to it.” Nor does the context support the Calvinist rendering, as numerous commentaries declare. McGarvey comments that “the context has no allusion to anything like an appointment of one part, and a rejection of the other, but the writer draws a line of distinction between the conduct of certain Gentiles and that of the Jews addressed by Paul…. Luke says, many of the Gentiles ‘were determined’ for everlasting life. It is an act of the mind to which Paul objects on the part of the Jews, and it is as clearly an act of mind in the Gentiles which Luke puts in contrast with it….” Several authorities trace the KJV’s “ordained” to the corrupt Latin Vulgate, which, as T. E. Page points out, “has praeordinati, unfairly…” Cook’s Commentary reads, “The A.V. [KJV] has followed the Vulgate. Rather, [it should read] were…disposed for eternal life, as in…Josephus….” Likewise Dean Alford translated it, “as many as were disposed to eternal life believed.” The Expositor’s Greek Testament says, “There is no countenance here for the absolutum decretum of the Calvinists.” A. T. Robertson likewise says: “The word ordain is not the best translation here. ‘Appointed,’ as Hacket shows, is better…. There is no evidence that Luke had in mind an absolutum decretum…of personal salvation.”

    Romans 8:28-30: The key phrase is “for whom He did foreknow.” God knew before the foundation of the world who would believe in his Son and chose them to be conformed to the image of his Son. IN SCRIPTURE, the basic meaning of the terms predestination and election is the same: to mark out beforehand for a special purpose and blessing. On what basis? The sole reason that is always given is foreknowledge. So declare both Peter and Paul: “For whom he did foreknow [Greek: proginosko], healso did predestinate [proorizo] to be conformed to the image of his Son…” (Romans 8:29); “Elect according to [kata] the foreknowledge [prognosis]of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience…”(1 Peter 1:2). It seems that God predestined certain blessings for those He foreknew would believe the gospel and be saved. The heavenly Father planned from eternity past an inheritance for those who would become His children through faith in Christ Jesus: “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). Never does election or predestination refer to salvation, but always and only to particular benefits.

    Romans 9:11,15-20,22,23: These are yet more pet Calvinistic verses which they grossly misinterpret. Romans 9:11 does not refer to the individual brothers Jacob and Esau. It refers to the two nations who came from them. Paul is quoting the prophet Malachi (Malachi 1:2). Such a statement is “written” nowhere else in Scripture. Nor is Malachi the prophet referring to Jacob and Esau as individuals but to the nations which descended from them: “The…word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you…and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste…. Edom…shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them…the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever…. I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 1:1–4; 3:6). Quite clearly, by “Esau” is meant the nation of Edom descended from him, and “Jacob” means Israel. Esau and Jacob as individuals are not in view. If it were true that Esau served Jacob, God could have been indicted with false prophecy because Esau never served his brother Jacob.

    “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” does not mean that He has mercy only on the elect. If that were true Titus 2:11 would have been a lie, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,” and so would Romans 11:32 “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”

    Ephesians 1:4,5,11. God’s choice in verse 4 is not unto salvation but unto holiness and blamelessness. Once again it is God foreknowledge that is the key to an understanding of the verse. He foreknew who would respond in faith to the Gospel and chose them to be holy and blameless. The other chapter is Ephesians 1:5,11. You will note that there is no reference in these four verses to either Heaven or Hell, but to Christlikeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Ephesians 2:8,9: The gift in these verses is not faith but salvation through Jesus Christ. The gift of salvation is Jesus Christ Himself and He was given to the entire world so that whosoever believes on Him should have eternal life. An imposed or enforced gift is no gift at all and that’s precisely what the Calvinists believe, i.e. that the gift of faith is given to the elect only AFTER they had been monergistically saved. In other words they are saved without faith on their part in order to receive the gift of faith so that they may believe and be saved. That’s putting the cart before the horse. That’s not only unbiblical but blasphemous to say the least. A gift can only be a gift when the one to whom the gift is presented receives it with thanks. Faith is the means to receive the gift and NOT election.

    1 Thessalonians 1:4: If election is to salvation by Irresistible Grace without any intelligent or moral choice on man’s part, it would be impossible to be sure of one’s election. But if election is to service and blessing, Peter is reinforcing in different words Paul’s exhortation to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Ephesians 4:1–6). Thus, to make one’s election sure is to fulfill the responsibility that comes with election, not to somehow be sure that one is among the elect and thus eternally saved. Marvin R. Vincent, an authority on biblical languages explains, “Ekloge, election [is] used of God’s selection of men or agencies for special missions or attainments…. [Nowhere] in the New Testament is there any warrant for the revolting doctrine that God predestined a definite number of mankind to eternal life, and the rest to eternal destruction.

    2 Thessalonians 2:13: A closer reading of 2 Thessalonians 2:13, proves that Paul is not dealing with salvation in the normal sense of the word, (the redemption from sin, judgment and hell), but with “salvation through sanctification.” Indeed, the context tells us that the salvation in this instance, (which is accomplished through sanctification), is the ultimate redemption at the Rapture, (the discarding of the saints’ earthly bodies to receive their new bodies like unto that of Jesus Christ). Salvation in this context, is a redemption, by means of the Rapture, from the wrath of God, which is coming upon the entire world during the tribulation. Paul refers to this, as a salvation to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). And so, Calvinists, regardless of the warning in 2 Peter 3:16, twist Scripture to their own destruction.

    2 Timothy 1:9: The verse should read as follows: “Who hath saved us (through faith), and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works (but through faith), and according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” The salvation of those whom God foreknew before the foundation of the world would believe the Gospel and be saved, was fixed in Jesus before the foundation of the world but was made manifest with his appearance when He became flesh and died on the cross for their sins.

    I have proved to you that you are the one who hates the truth that is clearly presented in the Bible and that you need to repent and believe the Gospel.

  21. Joe says:

    You don’t need to publish this but I see that you use use elective foreknowledge when it suits you. Well then those that He doesn’t foreknow in eternity past can they come to salvation if He does not foreknow it?
    No wonder you don’t want to speak to me about election unto blessing. Your take on Ephesians 1 is a joke. Verse 1 says;

    4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

    To be chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God is just a description of what it is to be chosen unto salvation. Only the saved can be holy and blameless before God. This can never apply to the unsaved.

  22. Joe wrote:

    You don’t need to publish this but I see that you use use elective foreknowledge when it suits you. Well then those that He doesn’t foreknow in eternity past can they come to salvation if He does not foreknow it?
    No wonder you don’t want to speak to me about election unto blessing. Your take on Ephesians 1 is a joke. Verse 1 says;

    4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

    To be chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God is just a description of what it is to be chosen unto salvation. Only the saved can be holy and blameless before God. This can never apply to the unsaved.

    Don’t tell me what I must publish or not. You are the one who is a joke. If God foreknew who would believe in Him and be saved, and accordingly choose them to be holy and blameless in his sight, then He must have foreknown who would NOT believe in Him and accordingly NOT choose them to be holy and blameless in his sight. Dave Hunt says the following in his book “What Love is This?” and I agree with him.

    Paul and Peter are encouraging Christians with what God has in store for those who believe the gospel. As Paul declares, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10).

    Furthermore, not only is predestination/election never said to be unto salvation, but Paul carefully separates predestination from salvation whether in its call, its justification, or its glorification: “whom he did predestinate, them he also [kai] called…them he also [kai] justified…them he also [kai] glorified” (Romans 8:30). The Greek kai shows that a distinction is being made: predestination is not the same as calling, justification, or glorification. Hobbs comments, “Predestination…simply means that God has predetermined that those who respond affirmatively to His call…will be justified…and furthermore will be glorified. All of this is ‘according to His purpose’….” The plain meaning of the text is clear.”

    If your view of Ephesians 1:4 does not harmonize with other passages such as John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2, then you must reject that view. And please don’t tell me “world” refers only to the elect. That’s a lot of balderdash.

  23. Joe says:

    Thomas, I did not tell you what you must or must not publish. I merely said that you do not need to publish since you had said that you did not want to interact with me.
    I did not say that you are a joke, I actually said that your handling of Ephesians 1:4 was a joke. After reading your response to what I wrote I can see that you cannot show that it refers only to election unto blessing.

    You said;

    If God foreknew who would believe in Him and be saved, and accordingly choose them to be holy and blameless in his sight, then He must have foreknown who would NOT believe in Him and accordingly NOT choose them to be holy and blameless in his sight. Dave Hunt says the following in his book “What Love is This?” and I agree with him.

    That contradicts your stance of God’s knowledge being changeable. If God in eternity past saw that some would not believe in Him and did not choose them to be holy and blameless in His sight as Dave Hunt says, then how is it possible for those same, people to believe the One who has seen their unbelief in eternity past? If they can do that then what is the point of God’s election in eternity past?

    I cannot see how the kai particles in Rom 8:30 disassociate God’s predestination from the rest of His actions (calling, justification etc), which are all in the aorist tense by the way, since predestination is tied to God’s foreknowledge in the previous verse 29 by the exact same adjunct particle.

  24. Joe,

    Do you believe that man has a free will to choose either for or against God? I can’t remember whether you’d already explained your stance on free-will in previous comments.

    I have already related to you the incident of Jonah and Nineveh. God knew in his foreknowledge that He would destroy Nineveh and all its inhabitants unless they repented of their evil ways. God would never have given them an ultimatum if there hadn’t been a possibility for them to either choose to repent or not. They were given a choice and it was this choice that ultimately decided whether God was going to destroy them or not. Or was it his foreknowledge that literally forced them to repent? In other words, they had no other option but to repent because if they hadn’t it would have jeopardized God’s knowledge (foreknowledge).Were all the inhabitants, including the King of Nineveh God’s elect? If not, they could not have been saved, according to your estimate.

    I ask again and please answer me. The ultimate test for Ephesians 1:4 is whether it harmonizes with other passages on salvation and if not you must reject the Calvinistic view. Does it harmonize with passages like John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2? Please answer my question.

  25. Mark says:

    You are condemning those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ to hell? You evidently don’t believe the gospel you claim to believe if that is the case. According to your interpretation of Rom 11:28 I am to include all of Israel when I read about election? Yet Rom 11:5 tells us there is only a remnant within Israel according to the election of grace. Then in Rom 11:7 we read that Israel has not obtained salvation but the elect have. So your interpretation is wrong.

    You havn’t proved anything to me. Your interpretations of Scripture are not solid and clearly guided by your hatred of “Calvinism.” God forbid that I should enter into a fruitless debate with you. I will not treat you with the same condemnation you have treated me with. If you have truly believed the gospel you are saved and a child of God, whether you believe in election or not. May God grant you repentance that you would not condemn those who belong to Christ.

    “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Rom 8:33,34)

    Goodbye. You shall be as an unbeliever to me, unless you repent. I wish you every blessing of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.

  26. Mark

    I am not condemning anyone. You are condemning yourself when you believe you are saved because you are allegedly one of the elect.

    Read Romans 11:28 again and this time remove your Calvinistic glasses so that you may understand it.

    1) With regard to the Gospel of Jesus Christ they are enemies of God.
    2) With regard to election they are still God’s beloved people for the sake of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

    Romans 11:5 confirms that God has chosen the Jews for a special blessing and service (to bring the Messiah into the world – John 4:22). Whenever you see the word “election” your mind tells you it is election unto salvation. You have no clue what true election is. The Olive Tree in Romans 11:17 is NOT Jesus Christ. He is the Vine and not the Olive Tree (John 15:5). The Olive Tree is the Jewish patriarchal fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If Jesus was the Olive Tree, it would mean you can lose your salvation which would contradict your own Calvinistic beliefs.

    Who are the children of the kingdom in Matthew 8:12 – the Jehovah’s Witnesses? You must be kidding.

    You have proved to me that I am correct in saying that Calvinism is the greatest God-sent delusion of all time. I have not treated you with condemnation. God himself condemns heresy.

    But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)

  27. timothy gill says:

    The damnable cult of calvin has ensnared many souls.John calvin was a psychopath

  28. Joe says:

    Thomas, thank you for the reply. I have been occupied by life and so have not gotten around to answer you. I will certainly like to answer the questions relating to Ephesians 1:4. I will tell you how I harmonize these passages in the next day or three.

    You wrote;

    I ask again and please answer me. The ultimate test for Ephesians 1:4 is whether it harmonizes with other passages on salvation and if not you must reject the Calvinistic view. Does it harmonize with passages like John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2? Please answer my question.

    This actually means nothing since I can just as easily say that the ultimate test for John 3:16 and the like is that they must harmonize with the soteriological verses dealing with election. By the way I do not believe that John 3:16 is speaking to the elect only.

    I would really appreciate it if you could point me to something dealing with how you view the ecclesia and presbuteros (elders). I am trying to get different perspectives. I am not part of a local body.

  29. Joe wrote:

    “By the way I do not believe that John 3:16 is speaking to the elect only.”

    If John 3:16 is not speaking to the “elect” only, it must be speaking to the entire human race which means everyone has the ability to either believe or not to believe. It’s a choice. It has absolutely nothing to do with election but man’s choice to believe or not to believe. “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me.” (John 16:8-9). He does not say “because they are not the elect.”

    I am not going to answer any of your other questions until you have given me an answer to my question about Jonah and Nineveh.

    I don’t understand your question about the “ecclesia” and “presbuteros.” Please explain in more detail.

  30. Joe says:

    If God had seen in eternity past that Nineveh would not repent then they would not have repented. Since they did repent that means that God knew that to be the outcome in eternity past. There was nothing else that could have happened.
    Mixing physical destruction of the OT with spiritual salvation of the NT and equating that to NT election based on the cross of Christ is just plain confusion. Get your dispensations right.

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