Alana Tells Her Story of Leaving Calvinism

Alana and Kevin discuss her departure from Calvinism.

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[shannonsundby]

Your testimony of leaving a Calvinistic church has helped me and has greatly impacted me. God is using your story. There are many similarities in our stories, including the timeline. I left a church of 29 years. Took me 3 years to leave. It was very hard. I had never listened to your channel until your interview with Leighton Flowers. (Though I wish I had, I'm also a homeschool mom.) You gave me a voice when I had no outlet for what I was walking through. I felt validated, less crazy and just a little less alone. Keep talking, keep sharing - God's using you! And I, for one, have been greatly blessed by you.

[darylhughes]

Calvinists don't want to hear what you believe... They want to hear what they believe coming out of your mouth

[sandratagaban]

I started watching Alana’s channel before the Calvinism issue arose. I’ve watched the process and am so pleased to see what God is doing with her testimony. I also was part of a church body for 17 years. Our reason for leaving is different from Alana’s, but oh the grief of walking away even though we knew we had to, that grief was so intense. 3 years later, we still wish it had been different, but we are moving forward.

[EnHacore]

No matter how much I try, I don't understand the intelectual apeal of Calvinism. I don't understand their blindness to understanding the Biblical data from a non Calvinist perspective.

[jjenkins]

This was very helpful for anyone who is leaving a cult like situation. Thank you both very much. This provided a lot of insight and healing for me. You both are very courageous.

[EdmundLauKM]

Praise God for Alana & Hector leaving Calvinism. Hope that her testimony will encourage others to study the Scriptures for themselves to test the doctrinal presuppositions that Calvinists promote. The only way to be free from a cult is to throw off the lens they put on you and read the Bible without those lens. ❤😊🙏

[Unshakablegrace]

Glad I left Calvinism! Now I preach against it with context. Context destroys calvinism

[brianmassman]

Great session tonight thank you Kevin thank you Alana

[tannpl]

Calvinism affects so many beliefs a person has about God and the gospel. I never realized it until lately when I started to examine everything, and I mean everything, I was taught by Calvinists.

[Smerm]

I left a church after 3 years of membership because although they weren’t Calvinist, their doctrine started leaning that way and they started referencing people like John MacArthur.
They then out of the blue announced they would be using the ESV Bible and not the KJV which they’d always used.

I then found another church ( also Baptist) that outright denied and even spoke against Calvinism.

I was considering joining so I asked for their statement of faith and church by laws.
It had Calvinist ideologies sprinkled throughout and even a section on Perseverance of the Saints and it was a mirror of the P in TULIP.
I sent the statements to a well known Baptist pastor that exposes Calvinism including its many “ famous “ proponents and he pointed out the exact same parts in the by laws that bothered me. He advised I reconsider membership.
After prayer, seeking God and much sleepless nights, I decided to not join and not even go back.

There is s huge problem of Calvinist ideologies infiltrating churches and many are blind to the fact they are being taught and believe many of its tenants.

It’s very disheartening.

[treysmith]

It's true it I don't understand why any calvinist wants to believe calvinism.

The only reason I can think of is because of the ego boost of believing something that is more "based" or "hard-core" than the other guy.

I do remember when I was somewhat under the "reformed demonology" spell for about 18 months or so. I did feel like I was just a stronger or deeper minded Christian than all these loving, upstanding people who because they had different (and more correct in fact) theology.

I started to see bow f'd up the theology was once I started considering the logical conclusions of it. I was also exposed to people like Mike winger who are not calvinists, although they have some calvinist presuppositions. The biggest reason, though, is that I saw the mental gymnastics I was doing in my head to circumvent inconvenient scriptures.

I would have the idea in my head that Calvinism is true, so when I come to verses like 1 Tim 2:3-4 and John 12:32 and especially 1 John 2:2 I would just be so perplexed.

I could hear myself in my mind saying, "That's obviously not true." And when I started reading the Bible for myself in order and came to texts like Romans 9 and saw that it was in no way talking about unbelievers in the 2020s, I was like... "Well, that was weird."

For a while, I kept moving along like there is obviously some sort of explanation. But there is none.

When I would ask questions, I would get the same answers that I learned how to regurgitate on command. Then it clicked, and I was like OOOOH S*** I've been bamboozled!

[aarondoty]

Truth Campaign = Gossip

There is no love in Calvinism. Just "I am elect and your not" pious attitude.

[rhitccdsccs]

Gal is sweet and obviously suffering from PTSD...I am so glad she is away from toxic stealthy Calvinism.

[hSayCanYouSee]

I haven’t listened to this segment yet, but glad for anyone who thinks like a Berean and will challenge presuppositions and make changes when needed. Yea — Alana!
Kevin, from where did you get the new bumper music, with the young choir? I’d love to get a copy of it - it’s very uplifting. Thanks.

[LovesHugItOut]

EDIT: Just want to make the point that I think Alana was just freely chatting and just phrased it this way not really thinking about it. Alana if you see this, my comment is not to nitpick your words it really was more clarifying for others who listen and read comments. There are people who do ACTUALLY think speaking this way is mean and I just thought it was an opportunity to make that point. Love you Alana and thank u for sharing more of your experience with us. I’m a little matter of fact and I think my comments can sometimes get interpreted in a way that I wasn’t intending them to without being able to hear tone or see body language. I just felt convicted to clarify that if I came off discouraging 💗🙏🏻

51:38

If someone is a false teacher and you say they are a false teacher, I do not understand how that is “mean”?

If someone is wearing the sheep’s clothing and it is evident they are being twisty, slimy, and manipulative and deceptive and you call what just is a wolf, a wolf, how is that “mean”?

Jesus was bold enough to call these people out and He was never “being mean”… we are to do the same of course with discernment, not being presumptuous and taking the plank out of are own eye first but I’ll call a wolf a wolf and a false teacher a false teacher. We need to be bold enough to do this. I think there are extremes on both sides those who go way too far at calling things that which it is not but also being so timid that we won’t call something what it is.

[cindyking]

My husband and I left the church we had been with for 20 years because the new pastor is a 5 pointer. We tried to have conversations with him about our differences in interpretation and we were called sub biblical and wrong. My husband was an elder so it took him a little longer than me to get ready to leave. Alana, your videos helped both of us to make up our minds to leave. Luckily we were able to share with the people we were close to and who we did ministry with our reasons for leaving and we have still been completely loved and accepted by them. The pastor won’t even look at me when we are in the same room, but he will cordially answer my husband if he speaks to him. I think he believes I influenced my husband. I’m so sorry your close friends are hurting you.

[janetdavis]

No one should EVER be made to feel guilty and apologetic about seeking more out of Scripture. Theses people were WAY out of line when they criticized Alana, and said such horrible things about her because she quit believing in Calvinism!

[jamesmeyers]

Waching Alana after many months of watching her "coming out" video on YouTube, this has been kind of sad for me. I recognize the pain she's gone through. Many prayers.

[dawnleslie]

the membership covenant with a nine marks church 😭 made that mistake too. alana you seem like you handled that really well. your story is really inspiring to me

[chrislucastheprotestantview]

At the 39::00 - 41:00 you describe why many cannot leave cults