Answering Objections To Calvinism

Watch the new message from Dr. James White at Apologia Church. Pastor James taught this message for our series on the Doctrines of Grace/the Five Points of Calvinism. We worked through TULIP (the videos are on this channel as recent videos) and now we will have two messages on objections to Calvinism. Dr. White taught this message responding to the "contrary" biblical texts that are most often used to "refute" Calvinism. Pastor Jeff will deal with the other emotional or philosophical objections next Sunday. We pray that this series has been a blessing to you and we encourage you to tell someone about it!

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[BreakfastWithTheBible]

i love the statement regarding "will". If God is indeed sovereign, then there are no circumstances in which our "will" can ever be more powerful than his intentions. Amazing perspective!

[bibleaddict]

God's Power is amazing. Praise Jesus. Thank You, my Heavenly Father. I love my Lord.🤩😍🥰

[YouKnowIhadToDoItToEm]

1:32 Osteen be like: Herman Newticks? Never heard of him. 😂😂😂

[stevec]

I could listen to James speak every day, the thoroughness at which he explains is impeccable

[MansterBear]

I went through the 2 Peter 3:9 deal with someone the other day.

I asked "Who is the letter to? Who is the "you" in the passage?"
"To the church".
"Ok... so he is patient toward YOU, not wishing that any should perish..."
"He's talking to the church, about the world."
"But he said 'patient with YOU', not 'patient with them' "
"But he's still talking about the world."
"So if I write you a letter, and tell you I'm being patient with you...I mean I'm being patient with someone else, not you?"
"He's still talking about the world, the church had already repented"

It's amazing how tradition can make you read "you" as "not you, them".

[davidatscp]

Time stamps & summary of some of the major points:
10:00 First common passage used against Calvinism - Jn 3:16 literally reads "For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone believing in him might not perish but have eternal life", not "whosoever believes in him". The word "whosoever" isn't in the original Greek". By adding the word "whosoever" into the text it makes it sound like man can decide to be saved without intervention of God. Jn 3:16 doesn't address who can believe, or who has true faith.
16:20 Jn 3:16 literally reads "For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone believing in him might not perish but have eternal life". There is specificity in the text - who receives eternal life? Not every single person in the world, but only the one who believes in the Son.

19:20 Second common passage used against Calvinism - Matthew 23:37
Matthew 23:37 (CSB)
"How often I wanted to gather your children together" - who are the children? Those who followed the scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leaders as shown in v 29:

Matthew 23:29 (CSB)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

25:30 Matthew 23:37 (CSB)
but you were not willing! - Not they were not willing. The ppl God was wanting to gather was not "Jerusalem"/the Jewish leaders/the scribes and Pharisees, but their "children", the ppl who followed the scribes and Pharisees. Therefore v 37 is a statement of judgement upon Jer/the scribes and Pharisee for the way they made the word of God of no effect (see the rest of Mt 23 for how). The Jewish leaders saw themselves as being over the house of Isr but it would be left to them desolate as judgement from God. v 37 is not about man's free will and God wanting to do something but man's free will is stopping God's plans. This passage is about the Jewish leaders being held accountable and judged.


27:10 Third common passage used against Calvinism - 2 Pet 3:8
36:00 Who is the "you" in 2 Pet 3:9? It is believers. The "all" in v 9 is part of the "you". The "all" is not all of humanity.
We are saved today because God has been patient and JC has not come back earlier than now so that he can gather his elect ppl throughout the yrs to himself. He doesn't want any of the elect to perish but they come to repentance, which is a gift of God and involves the Spirit of God, changing the heart of mankind


39:25 Fourth common passage used against Calvinism - 1 Timothy 2:3-4
For whom is the man, Christ Jesus the mediator for? Paul would have had in mind Lev 6 and the high priest and offerings, intercessions (re Rom 8, Heb). For whom does Christ intercede for? The pattern for the great high priest was that the offering, the sacrifice, the blood is taken into the holy place to be sprinkled on the altar. So the intercession, the mediation was for the same people that the sacrifice was made.
Romans 8:26-34 (CSB)
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

[nycgalant]

To think that I hated Calvinism in the past, only to realize that it was my pride and man-centered elevation that got in the way of understanding what the bible teaches systematically about who God is and who we are.

[joefrankhernandez]

Awesome I finally got on live here love Dr James white I’ve learned a lot hearing all his debates

[ottovonapps]

Keep up the fight dr white! Praise and glory to the Lord!

[joyfuljeff]

One thing I want to point out and that is 2nd Peter 3 9 The Lord is not slack concerning HIS PROMISE, (TO THE CHURCH) AS SOME MEN COUNT SLACKNESS, (TO THE LOST) but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (BACK TO THE CHURCH) ✝️❤️🙏

[huntsman]

This is a self defeating argument on John 3:16. "The world" must mean the elect because you're assuming that Limited Atonement has to be true? Even in that context, it's still the same word used for the human world all of the other places.

[rbc]

God s not "trying" God is DEMANDING repentance

[raim]

Thank you for posting these sermons on Youtube.

[lorilemmonsharvey]

I was a MacArthurite ( love Pastor John MacAthur) attending a Calvary Chapel & totally attacked by Dave Hunt fans when I came into church one Sunday with my new MacArthur Study Bible. Although I'd heard of Calvin I didn't know anything about Calvinism. Yet Calvinism is how I understood the scriptures for the most part. So I was challenged by my CCC peers to search the scriptures. Long story short, I no longer attend a Calvary Chapel and I'm unashamedly a Calvinist. Still pre-millennial, but Arminian teaching makes me cringe. One tool that I came across many years ago was James White debating Dave Hunt....thank you James White. I thank God for MacArthur & White.

[chrisctlr]

YouTube is really packing the ads in on this one. I'm not even 20 minutes in and I've already had to watch 4 ads. Other than that, this is great.

[jeffyboyreloaded]

So God continues to create souls in the form of man for the sole purpose of having them suffer on Earth and then suffer eternally in Hell (predetermined, double predestination)?

That sounds like the machinations of a sadistic demon - creating lives for the sole purpose of eternally torturing them.

Sin isn't even intelligible in the Calvinist interpretation because it requires that all sin is necessarily manufactured by God and God alone (rather than human rebellion) - how can it be classified as sin when all one is doing is exactly what God has crafted them to do? If you go all the way back to first principles, Genesis, etc, it's clear that the implications of the Calvinist interpretation is completely inconsistent with God as characterized by the scripture - while non-Calvinist interpretations have no such problem the second you realize that *God uses his sovereignty to grant us free will; He is in complete control but intentionally allows us to go our own way (think of a parent and a toddler)*.

[UnlimitedMercy]

I loved The Potter’s Freedom. From Bow Tie, to Bolo Tie, 👍🏻 thank you for the clarity with which you teach the Doctrines of Grace.

[tyronedawson]

To me it seems simple to understand the "whosoever believes" means exactly that but the question is who can believe and why. Calvinism doesn't deny that whosoever believes will be saved. They assert that no one will believe unless God's grace is actively calling them. There are no inconsistencies and John 3:16 doesn't come close to disproving reformed theology.

[Sarah-mrwd]

John 3:16. The fact check: God has not loved everyone according to the Bible. Devils and demons more than believe in Jesus as the son of God, but that does not save them. So, that verse alone cannot be used as the absolute truth. Very good explanation, Dr. White!

[enriquemoure]

Calvinists are constantly accusing people of misrepresenting Calvinism, of not knowing what Calvinism “REALLY IS” and of engaging in straw man arguments against their doctrines. I think that most “Calvinists” aren’t REALLY Calvinists. They don’t even know what “Calvinism” is. There are some Calvinists who have studied Calvinism and know what it teaches. I would say that they are the minority, though. Yet, even they don’t seem to like to talk about the “bad side” of Calvinism. They seem to “hide it” and only talk about it when someone presses them on the issues. Or they engage in linguistic revision, regarding words like, “free will”, “sovereignty”, “author of sin”, etc.
These quotes are straight from John Calvin’s book, Institutes of Christian Religion.
Some of these quotes from John Calvin, will be astonishing to you. Some of these quotes from John Calvin, will disgust you (and rightly so). Some of you will actually agree with these quotes from John Calvin (which is very sad). Then there will be some “Calvinists” who won’t be able to agree with these John Calvin quotes. If you can’t agree with Calvin on these issues, then I don’t think that you should call yourself a “Calvinist”. And if you don’t call yourself a Calvinist, then I call upon you to make all Christians aware of TRUE Calvinism, so that they don’t become Calvinists, either.

“Creatures are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 16, Paragraph 3)

“The devil, and the whole train of the ungodly, are in all directions, held in by the hand of God as with a bridle, so that they can neither conceive any mischief, nor plan what they have conceived, nor how muchsoever they may have planned, move a single finger to perpetrate, unless in so far as he permits, nay unless in so far as he commands, that they are not only bound by his fetters but are even forced to do him service” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 17, Paragraph 11)

”He testifies that He creates light and darkness, forms good and evil (Isaiah 45:7); that no evil happens which He hath not done (Amos 3:6). Let them tell me whether God exercises His judgments willingly or unwillingly.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 18, Paragraph 3)

“…salvation is freely offered to some while others are barred from access to it.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21, Paragraph 5)

“We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is fore-ordained for some, eternal damnation for others.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21, Paragraph 5)

“…we say that God once established by his eternal and unchangeable plan those whom he long before determined once for all to receive into salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, he would devote to destruction…he has barred the door of life to those whom he has given over to damnation.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21, Paragraph 7)

“Therefore, those whom God passes over, he condemns; and this he does for no other reason than that he wills to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines for his own children.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 1)

“…it is utterly inconsistent to transfer the preparation for destruction to anything but God’s secret plan… God’s secret plan is the cause of hardening.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 23, Paragraph 1)

“I admit that in this miserable condition wherein men are now bound, all of Adam’s children have fallen by God’s will.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 4)

“…individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify him by their destruction.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 6)

“But since he foresees future events only by reason of the fact that he decreed that they take place, they vainly raise a quarrel over foreknowledge, when it is clear that all things take place rather by his determination and bidding.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 6)

Yet no one can deny that God foreknew what end man was to have before he created him, and consequently foreknew because he so ordained by his decree. And it ought not to seem absurd for me to say that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his descendants, but also meted it out in accordance with his own decision.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 7)

“The first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 8)

if you want to check the accuracy of these quotes, I have given the references to each one. John Calvin was not a “great man of God”, a “great theologian” or a “great reformer” In fact, I don’t think that he was a Christian at all. Calvin might have been a Christian at one point in time, but not when he wrote any of the above nonsense. The “god” of John Calvin and the God of the Bible are NOT the same God. Calvinism is NOT “Christianity” I haven’t misrepresented Calvinism. I haven’t engaged in straw man arguments against Calvinism. I have properly represented the Calvinism of John Calvin. Am I saying that a “Calvinist” must agree with John Calvin on EVERYTHING in order to be a “Calvinist”? No. BUT, I am saying that you must agree with him on issues concerning soteriology, if you are going to call yourself a “Calvinist” such as predestination, free will, sovereignty of God, etc. If you aren’t willing to agree with the T.U.L.I.P. of John Calvin, then stop calling yourself a Calvinist. If you aren’t willing to agree with the above quotes from John Calvin, then stop claiming that people don’t understand Calvinism, are misrepresenting it or are straw manning Calvinism.