Why did John Piper become a Calvinist? | Dr. Leighton Flowers | Soteriology 101

JOIN US FOR A LIVE DISCUSSION!

[LisaHadeler]

As you go through these points it not only destroys Calvinism but it gives me a deeper understanding of the gospel itself. Thank you. Praise. the Lord!

[sonnyh]

Warren McGrew has been "grewing" on me. I appreciate his sincere desire to pursue truth with the desire to stay as positive as possible. Laughter is good medicine and we can learn a lot from Warren.

[mickknight]

WOW, brother, 15 minutes into this and you brought out a truth I never saw about Calvinist teaching! It does undermine scripture, and puts it on a level with any other book, in that, if God has decreed everything, then any book is as inspired as the Bible!! Oh no!! Thanks, Bro Leighton. That's why Im not a Calvinist. I've always told them, "I guess the reason I do not believe it's Biblical or rational is because God has decreed me not to believe it, or I would."
This could hopefully be a help to shake up someone's tbinking! Good point, thanks.☝️

[ShowCat]

Who says miracles have ceased? Warren and Leighton combined did a video in under three hours!

[R.L.KRANESCHRADTT]

((LOL... I stopped the video here (1:54:13) to make this comment... then let it play and you said the same thing 🤣🤣)))....1:54:13.... THIS is why what you guys are doing is SO very important. Imagine if John Piper had the tools your channels provide when he was in college as a young earnest believer to rebut the Calvinist interpretation of the scriptures he was confronting.🤦🏻‍♂ It' much harder to see the Duck... after you've become convinced it's a rabbit by someone you trust.

[MrZORROish]

If we try to identify "doctrines of demons" I believe Augustinianism/Calvinism qualifies. It also seems clear from history that Augustine had some kind of experience or crisis that caused him to drastically change his theology after previously agreeing with early church teaching which led to aggressive persecution and misrepresentation of opponents. It is quite possible that a deceiving spirit affected him - perhaps because he was predisposed through his previous Manichaeism or his desire to eliminate opponents. When reading one of Piper's books, Future Grace, I had the experience of feeling quite happy about the main thesis proposed and large passages in it and then suddenly being disturbed by intrusive predestinarian passages that seemed of a different nature. It was as if a different person had written those. Some have commented on the cultish nature of Calvinism and I strongly suspect that one of the demons tasked with spreading false doctrine operated on Augustine and revisited Calvin, given his slavish devotion to the ancient "father". The demonic aspect explains the stubborn blindness of its devotees to its absurdities and frankly blasphemous claims about the character of God - as well as the sometimes unseemly mocking arrogance of some of their responses to reasoned discussion. Interestingly Spurgeon is a good example of someone who was mind was brainwashed by reading almost exclusively calvinistic material in his youth but whose great loving heart clearly could not fully compute it - so very much of his preaching appeals to the will of the hearer because he was communicating God's loving heart to them. I believe he now realises that his wonderful preaching was not merely God's method of collecting the already elect but rather his way of persuading the otherwise lost to repent and believe.

[PETERJOHN]

The Gospel...2, 000 years and counting
The Cult of Calvin... 500 years and counting.

[granthollandvideos]

It’s still remarkable that they site Romans 9. But all sides agree that Romans 9 does not say he chose anyone prior for salvation. Just that the “beef” between the two ended up in service of the older to the younger.

[R.L.KRANESCHRADTT]

1:10:10.... YES! THIS is why they seldom, if ever, introduce the dirty details of their doctrine when evangelizing the lost....They use carefully selected words... and deceit. They may argue some of these points when proselyting a believer...but even then they usually shy away from the details until the "hook" is set deep. Confronting the unavoidable consequences of Calvinist theology demands swallowing the bitter pill... That God is 100% responsible for Jeffry Dahmer's appetite and ordained every cannibalistic murder he committed because it pleased him to do so. It cannot be avoided and remain consistent to the theology. No amount of ink spilled beyond the WCF III God did.... "unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass" changes anything.
John Piper claims he cried for days before bending his knee to the "Doctrines of Grace"... it doesn't sound like a normal reaction to hearing "Good News"😎

[chris]

Nobody just reads the Bible and becomes a calvinist.

[lordssideministries]

Look at the debate with Mormon apologists with Calvinist apologists with James White moderating… The end is embarrassing for the Calvinists because the Mormans began to expose the dangers of Calvinism and each objection to Calvinism was spot on

[johnknight]

"When I entered seminary...I believed in the freedom of my will. In the sense that I thought it was ultimately self-determining. I hadn't learned that from the Bible, I had absorbed that from the self-infatuated, self-exalting, self-esteeming, self-sufficient air you and I breath every day in this country."

(No you didn't, according to your doctrines, Mr. Inconsistency ; ) God Himself predetermined for you to BE LIKE THAT . . according to your doctrines . . but in neither case were you responsible for it...)


What I (nobody special) just heard there, was a confession . . That it was a self-infatuated, self-exalting, self-esteeming man who "read" in that Book that God picked him from before the world began, to be one the true thinkers/speakers of the very mind of God . .

While I (nobody special) who (it seems to me) hadn't really gotten very close to seeing myself as worthy of infatuation, exaltation or even high esteem, never "read" anything in that Book which caused me to think/believe that God picked "me" for anything (more than existing), from before the world began . .

(Go figure ; )

[martinfroelich]

I am so grateful for the ministry of Flowers. He has been thinking about the soteriological topics of Calvinism, and bringing many clear thinking, highly qualified guests for so long that he is able to bring piercing clarity to why Calvinism is wrong. A much needed antidote to this disease within Christendon, especially since it's roots, at least in the West, go back to the 4th century with Augustine and contain the illustrious founders of the Reformation which we, without being informed otherwise, would implicitly trust.

No doubt about it, Leighton Flowers, because he has thought and talked about this topic so extensively, has become a clear thinking force Calvinists must reckoned with.

[your_name_here]

Thank you both for helping me see the Esau story better. Always seemed arbitrary to me. It makes much better sense now.
Yahushua Messiah be with thee,
Shalom and Agape

[mikelyons]

Notice he (Piper) said, he was taught this rubbish in seminary. Similar to R.C. Sproul "I walked into the class room & there it was on the chalkboard Regeneration precedes faith"

[janetdavis]

Honestly, I am SO tired of hearing Romans 9 being quoted by Calvinists. What about the rest of Romans, ie. chapter 10, and 11, and the rest of the Bible. You can’t build an honest theology based on a few verses, or 2 or 3 chapters. The Bible is huge, and must be taken as a whole.

[greenbeans]

Two of my favorite brothers. I don’t think “nitpicking”, if that’s they say, is unwarranted. They, not all, preach and live differently than the framework they hold to. Bless you both. 🙏

[sharonlouise]

Fantastic conversation! I can't believe the comment that you failed to exegete Romans 9. Was the individual present for the entire broadcast? I was here and I heard a very fine explanation of Romans 9. Is the blindness that bad?

[davidthomas]

Dr. Flowers, I love how you keep the meticulous determinants' feet to the fire with your phrase "Because thatis what God has decreed they would do." But more than that, even, I love the Chessboard Analogy.

[filmscorelife]

Technically. For a Calvinist, there's no such thing as "conversion." The elect have always and forever will be...elect.