The Founders Ministry Defending Calvinism

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[macthemessenger]

Mr. Flowers, is it me or do Calvinist make it look like God is impersonal? Because if Gos decreed everything in eternity past then He is not actively in my life right now. I’m just playing out what He decreed. The prayers that are getting answered is answers He decreed in the past. He is not really answering them now. They paint God to be a controlling being instead of a Loving Father.

[bk]

Amen, Amen and Amen, Leighton!!! You are such a blessing!! We, the Church, need you and your biblical teaching on this topic! I pray that God will raise up many, many more like you! Thank You for bringing much needed clarity to this very convoluted and unbiblical way the Calvinists portray God. Its so refreshing. May God continue to you bless you and this ministry! (And all the others your involved with as well, for your "ministry banjo" has many other strings, not just one! lol ;))

[isstephanie]

In counsel God works out all things for the good of those who love Him."
So as we are in counsel, Prayer! As we are seeking wisdom from God He works in our life. ..that just dawned on me the whole counsel part.

[LizCanKnit]

I’m wondering here. The unforgivable sin is the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit. Under determinism, God would determine for someone to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Please reconcile.

[VillagePuritan]

I was introduced to Calvinism via your program. I considered provisionim but I found the Calvinistic system and the arguments you were seeking to rebut more compelling. Sotereiology 101 was instrumental in my journey to Calvinism.

[TKK]

Brenton Stanfield - @Soteriology101 - You don't need God at work in you to respond positively to Him. That is your central thesis.

Yet provisionists supposedly don't understand calvinism?

[jasonburger]

Calvinism means evangelism and prayer are pointless... Why share the Gospel if God has determined who will be saved no matter what we do. Why did Christ commission us to go to the ends of the earth if it changes nothing? Calvinism as a whole needs to read the determinist perspective into the Bible to work...

[dw]

*CALVINISM'S LANGUAGE OF DOUBLE-SPEAK*

Dr. William Lutz - American linguist – What is Double-Speak:
Doublespeak is not a slip of the tongue or a mistake in use of language. It’s exactly the opposite. It is language used by people who are very intelligent, and very sophisticated in the use of language. And know that you can do an awful lot with language.

Doublespeak is not a matter of subjects and verbs not agreeing; it is a matter of words and facts not agreeing. Basic to doublespeak is incongruity, the incongruity between what is said or left unsaid, and what really is.

It is the incongruity between the word and the referent, between seem and be, between the essential function of language—communication — and what doublespeak does — mislead, evade, distort, inflate, circumvent, obfuscate.

Double-speak works by taking advantage of the inherent implicitness of meaning conveyed through everyday language.

It takes advantage of the fact that normal everyday language use is fundamentally cooperative. Doublespeak exploits these principles to do just the opposite: to appear like honest communication while actually hiding incriminating facts.

[JStevensdk]

Is not, when a Calvinist does not clearly state their beliefs yet intentionally obfuscates, hides and keeps hidden those beliefs, is that not lying by omission and a sin?

I believe it is, and why I'm concerned with Calvinsts being on CSN radio and other Christian radio stations and TV. They are habitually lying and sinning.

[BelongaGod]

As I was doing my QT this morning, I realized that ALL of nature responds (w/o question) to God, Jesus... examples: Mt 21:19 (fig tree), Luke 19:40 (stones cry out),
Psalm 114 (“sea fled, mountains & hills skip seeing God’s presence in Israel as the leave Egypt), Jesus tells the wind & waves to calm, etc... all nature obeys w/o Q, EXCEPT MAN... isn’t this clear that God gave man free will to obey Him or not????

[DrgnSlyr]

I cannot understand how Calvinists can believe that determinism of all things, including sin, brings glory to God.

[hughwanzakaffi]

It’s true, if Calvinists were consistent in their speech, there would be very few Calvinists.

[chris]

So God determined Jonah to run and then the fish to swallow him and take him to where He determined him to go? ....Just another example of them thinking He is a God of two minds and often in conflict.

[JonathanGrandt]

Folks always say, “don’t slander (speak against whether true or false according to an evangelical’s dictionary) but instead go to the person in private (however impossible this might be) to have a conversation about the issue... The very difficult thing about this is that in the private conversation they will cover themselves with the right words that hold secret hidden alternative definitions. I’ve tried it so many times that I have given up speaking with these men. They twist and deceive. They should not be trusted or admired or respected. Loved? Sure, by praying to God for them.

[gilbertsanchez]

I will never accept what the calvinist ascribes to, God Almighty! Whom they think the glorify? Ascribing to him the cause of all the evil, within man! This is why I myself, do not respect their false doctrine!

[bgaston]

Each taken to their logical extreme, Calvinists have to acknowledge God predetermined evil (although I think they acknowledge that scripture says God's holy righteous nature cannot allow him to be in the presence of sin) AND Provisionists have to acknowledge that the person is responsible for their salvation. Flowers claims nuance for his view but doesn't give room for nuance on the calvinist side.

[jasonmason]

I just can’t hardly stand to listen to them talk. Just me or are they just talking in circles trying to make themselves sound smart?

[DDFergy]

The problem with Calvinist is they do not understand the nature of God, Spirits, Mankind, Covenants, Righteousness and Sin.
In all these things they consider in a Materialistic manner, even spirits.
Righteousness they consider a substance which is past like a paton to others.
Calvinists do not understand the nature of the Word and its synonymous word Law.
They do not understand what occurred at Creation.
God predetermined the limits of things using His Word, Christ Jesus, the Law, which He had planned before hand.
To be Righteous one needs to honour the Words of the Covenant.
When one dishonours the Word of the Covenant they are Unrighteous.
It is not a physical state but a spiritual state.
One cannot measure righteousness.

The Image of God and Righteousness is not the Materialists' presumption of physical immortality but is to be CAPABLE of understanding the spiritual, the abstract, and to make self determinating decisions.

[a.k.]

Calvinism: "You can hate us, just don't Servetus."

[CasperLCat]

You will search in vain throughout all the literature of Calvinism for a logical explanation of HOW you can have absolute determinism AND human responsibility, and you’ll never get one. All you get, in Calvin, the Westminster Confession, or the massive works of a John Owen or Piper, etc. is an ASSERTION that you can have both at the same time. They want to have their cake AND eat it too, and they simply DECIDE that they can.

If they try an actual explanation, it’s either the appeal to “mystery” or a reliance on compatibilist “freedom”. But the latter just moves the problem one step back, because we “do what we want” out of our natures, and our “natures” — what we want — are wholly created and determined by God (on Calvinism). If then we are created beings and not the authors of our own natures, we can’t be responsible for what we want, either.

IOW, my desire to do evil, on Calvinism, logically has no more moral significance than someone being left handed from birth; it’s innate in them, as science now knows, due to slight biochemical differences during their fetal brain environment, compared to that of right handers.

BTW, children used to be punished in school for preferring their left hands, right up into the 20th century. When its innate “nature” was understood, it ceased to be a moral or spiritual issue.