Deliverance from Calvinism

Whosoever said:
It will not be found in calvinism.

Simply put, the real gospel is the “good news”. And the good news is this… that God, the creator of the universe, is good, and desires a personal relationship with each one of us.

Unfortunately, mankind is bent toward the dark side, and basically toward everything that God is not. As a provision for this, in order to have that intimate relationship with us, God sent His own son, Jesus Christ, as a willing sacrifice, to suffer and die for all of our wrongs, making full payment for them. And then He conquered death for us, raised from the dead and ascended into heaven… making a way for us to enter heaven as well.

The one requirement that God has made, is that we simply believe what He said to be true, turn away from our old life, and receive His Son, Jesus, into our hearts by faith.

God then begins a new life inside of us, changing us and conforming into His own image… And then ultimately granting us the incredibly wonderful gift of eternal life with Him, the angels, our loved ones and all true believers… in Heaven!
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Yes the gospel is bad news in that theology since most of humanity was predestined to hell with no chance to ever be saved.
 
Calvinists are the ones being misled by a cult.

The Calvinism system of theology is far removed from both the Scriptures and earliest Christian theologians, and this system should be labeled as a cult, rather than ‘Christian’.

Calvinism is the absolute antithesis of the gospel message, a system which does everything it can to discourage people from finding Christ.
 
civic said:
Read and believe the scriptures I quoted as they are self explanatory. You are reading Calvinism into them which is why you are questioning them. I use to do the same thing to divert attention to the plain meaning of the text.

hope this helps !!!
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Simple question. Did He also take away the sin of unbelief?
You mean your assumed meaning of the text
 
The error of Calvinism is tied to the false doctrine of Total Depravity. Correct that error and Calvinism falls apart.
 
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brightfame52 said:
Yes but it shows how Christ finds His Sheep and saves them.
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Jesus never lost His sheep. He is the good shepherd. He lays down his life for the sheep, that's all people ever born. But they must believe in Him. He is the gate; whoever enters through Him. will be saved.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

Calvinism is the hired hand with another gospel.
 
Jim said:
Total Depravity is false. Moreover, it is in complete contrast to God's Grace. Total Depravity requires that God is the author, producer and cause of evil and all that is evil. It turns God into an Ogre of the worst sort.
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Calvin wrote that because of the fall of Adam “the whole of every" man is overwhelmed—as by a deluge—from head to foot, so that no part is immune from sin and all that proceeds from him is to be imputed to sin. As Paul says, all turnings of the thoughts … are enmities against God … and therefore death.

Total Depravity as the Inability to Repent and Believe

The Canons of Dort is a document that resulted from the series of meetings held by the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands in 1618–19 to address theological differences between the followers of Jacob Arminius and the followers of John Calvin. Three articles are quoted to support the definition above of total depravity.

Article 3 stated, “Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.” The distinction in their view is that people do not become children of wrath due to their sinful acts, but they enter the world as children of wrath. Also, sinners are unable to return to God apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit. In other words, sinners must be saved to return to God.

Article 9 stated, “The fact that many who are called through the ministry of the gospel do not come and are not brought to conversion must not be blamed on the gospel, nor on Christ, who is offered through the gospel, nor on God, who calls them through the gospel and even bestows various gifts on them, but on the people themselves who are called.” Although the confession claimed sinners cannot return to God unless they are first regenerated, article 9 blames sinners when they are not converted.

Article 14 stated, “Faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent—the act of believing—from man’s choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself.” Other Christians view salvation as the gift of God and faith as the means for that salvation. The confession, however, views faith as the gift of God, which he gives to only some people. Thus, only those people who have been given a gift of faith will be saved.

The doctrine of total depravity is explained as total inability in the writings of some theologians. James Boice and Philip Ryken explained, “In this sad and pervasively sinful state we have no inclination to seek God, and therefore cannot seek him or even respond to the gospel when it is presented to us. In our unregenerate state, we do not have free will so far as ‘believing on’ or ‘receiving’ Jesus Christ as Savior is concerned.” They clarified that unbelievers “cannot” respond to the gospel by repenting and believing in Jesus when it is presented. Consistent with article 3 in the Canons of Dort, they taught that a person believes in Jesus after they are born again. Mark DeVine wrote, “Humanity’s fall into sin results in a condition that must be described in terms of spiritual blindness and deadness and in which the will is enslaved, not free.” DeVine continued, “We need to ask whether the Arminian insistence that the work of the Holy Spirit frees the will to either repent and believe or refuse to do so does not evidence a deeper misunderstanding of the nature of depravity itself.” John Piper wrote, “Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it.”105 “Regeneration precedes faith,” R. C. Sproul explained. He added, “We do not believe in order to be born again; we are born again in order to believe.” R. Albert Mohler Jr. also affirmed that regeneration precedes faith:

In the mystery of the sovereign purposes of God and by his sheer grace and mercy alone, the Word was brought near to us. As a result, we were called, made alive, and regenerated. We then believed what we otherwise would never have been able to believe, and we grasped hold of it, knowing that it is the sole provision of our need. We came to know of our need and of God’s response and provision for us in Christ, and then we came to know of our necessary response of faith, repentance, confession, and belief.

According to these views of total depravity, spiritual blindness and deadness results in the enslavement of the human will so that people do not have the ability to repent and believe the message of the gospel unless they are first regenerated, or born again.


Adam Harwood, “A Critique of Total Depravity,”
 
brightfame52 said:
Yes but it shows how Christ finds His Sheep and saves them.
Click to expand...
It's a false gospel.

Calvinism Another Gospel​

Galatians 1:8​

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

2 Corinthians 11:4​

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Galatians 1:6​

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

Galatians 1:6-9​

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:7​

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Galatians 1:9​

As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

John 3:16​

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 4:1​

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 Peter 2:1​

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2 Timothy 3:16​

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Ephesians 2:8-9​

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4​

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Galatians 1:8-9​

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

John 13:34​

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

1 Corinthians 12:3​

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

Acts 4:12​

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 13:34-35​

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 14:6​

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

2 Peter 1:20​

Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

1 Thessalonians 5:21​

But test everything; hold fast what is good.

Colossians 2:8​

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:11​

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
 
Jim said:
Unconditional election, irresistible grace and limited atonement are all derived from the false doctrine of Total Depravity.
Click to expand...
Yes it all rolls downhill from there with tulip.

But it begins with a false concept of God then man. So both their Theology and Anthropology are in error.
 
Angelo said:
Calvin wrote that because of the fall of Adam “the whole of every" man is overwhelmed—as by a deluge—from head to foot, so that no part is immune from sin and all that proceeds from him is to be imputed to sin. As Paul says, all turnings of the thoughts … are enmities against God … and therefore death.

Total Depravity as the Inability to Repent and Believe

The Canons of Dort is a document that resulted from the series of meetings held by the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands in 1618–19 to address theological differences between the followers of Jacob Arminius and the followers of John Calvin. Three articles are quoted to support the definition above of total depravity.

Article 3 stated, “Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.” The distinction in their view is that people do not become children of wrath due to their sinful acts, but they enter the world as children of wrath. Also, sinners are unable to return to God apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit. In other words, sinners must be saved to return to God.

Article 9 stated, “The fact that many who are called through the ministry of the gospel do not come and are not brought to conversion must not be blamed on the gospel, nor on Christ, who is offered through the gospel, nor on God, who calls them through the gospel and even bestows various gifts on them, but on the people themselves who are called.” Although the confession claimed sinners cannot return to God unless they are first regenerated, article 9 blames sinners when they are not converted.

Article 14 stated, “Faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent—the act of believing—from man’s choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself.” Other Christians view salvation as the gift of God and faith as the means for that salvation. The confession, however, views faith as the gift of God, which he gives to only some people. Thus, only those people who have been given a gift of faith will be saved.

The doctrine of total depravity is explained as total inability in the writings of some theologians. James Boice and Philip Ryken explained, “In this sad and pervasively sinful state we have no inclination to seek God, and therefore cannot seek him or even respond to the gospel when it is presented to us. In our unregenerate state, we do not have free will so far as ‘believing on’ or ‘receiving’ Jesus Christ as Savior is concerned.” They clarified that unbelievers “cannot” respond to the gospel by repenting and believing in Jesus when it is presented. Consistent with article 3 in the Canons of Dort, they taught that a person believes in Jesus after they are born again. Mark DeVine wrote, “Humanity’s fall into sin results in a condition that must be described in terms of spiritual blindness and deadness and in which the will is enslaved, not free.” DeVine continued, “We need to ask whether the Arminian insistence that the work of the Holy Spirit frees the will to either repent and believe or refuse to do so does not evidence a deeper misunderstanding of the nature of depravity itself.” John Piper wrote, “Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it.”105 “Regeneration precedes faith,” R. C. Sproul explained. He added, “We do not believe in order to be born again; we are born again in order to believe.” R. Albert Mohler Jr. also affirmed that regeneration precedes faith:

In the mystery of the sovereign purposes of God and by his sheer grace and mercy alone, the Word was brought near to us. As a result, we were called, made alive, and regenerated. We then believed what we otherwise would never have been able to believe, and we grasped hold of it, knowing that it is the sole provision of our need. We came to know of our need and of God’s response and provision for us in Christ, and then we came to know of our necessary response of faith, repentance, confession, and belief.

According to these views of total depravity, spiritual blindness and deadness results in the enslavement of the human will so that people do not have the ability to repent and believe the message of the gospel unless they are first regenerated, or born again.


Adam Harwood, “A Critique of Total Depravity,”
Click to expand...
The significant implication of Total Depravity is that it means that God created a system in which He has established laws which if even a single law is violated, the one violating the law is sentenced to the punishment of eternal condemnation. At the same time, He has charged the one sin of Adam against the whole of humanity with no possible way of avoidance.
 
Jim said:
The significant implication of Total Depravity is that it means that God created a system in which He has established laws which if even a single law is violated, the one violating the law is sentenced to the punishment of eternal condemnation. At the same time, He has charged the one sin of Adam against the whole of humanity with no possible way of avoidance.
Click to expand...
Under that system I would be stuck with eternal condemnation. But because of what Jesus has done I'm redeemed.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7
 
Angelo said:
Under that system I would be stuck with eternal condemnation. But because of what Jesus has done I'm redeemed.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7
Click to expand...
So you think. But you can't know that. What makes you think you are part of the "we" who through His blood have the forgiveness of your sins? Do you have a tattoo on your forehead or something to indicate you are one of the "we"?
 
Jim said:
So you think. But you can't know that. What makes you think you are part of the "we" who through His blood have the forgiveness of your sins? Do you have a tattoo on your forehead or something to indicate you are one of the "we"?
Click to expand...
Better than a tat I have the word of God and His promise. The Promise of Heaven, my forever home. My faith is secure in Jesus.

As a believer I'm "sealed for the day of redemption." Eph 4:30

The Holy Spirit serves as a witness to this, and signs of salvation include a new love for God and others, repentance from sin, and a desire to follow God's will and the teachings of the Bible.

This I know ;)
 

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