Jesus Was Just A Good Teacher?

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What if you're wrong about Jesus? 

Seriously ... what if?
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Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps (tiny version)

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Here is the tiniest-I-could-make-it version of "Fending Off Calvinism (a.k.a. Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps)"  (from my other blog) - which itself is the second half of a post called "Calvinism's Systematic Theology (and how to fend it off)" - about the fundamental errors of Calvinism that trap well-meaning Christians into a very bad, very deceptive, very tricksy theology.  I cut out as much as I could here, so check out the longer posts in the links above if you want a fuller picture and more information.   [Despite the title of this post, I know there's nothing easy about defeating or debating Calvinism.  It's such a tangled web of errors, with a cult-like vice-grip on people's minds, that it can't be defeated with just a few verses or rebuttals.  Its errors are so complex, interconnected, and deep-rooted that it needs to be completely dismantled idea by idea, wrong definition by wrong definition, misinterpreted verse by misinterpreted...
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List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

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I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various  "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist"  posts).  But instead of adding this huge list to all those posts, I am going to put it here, and I'll just provide a link on those posts to this one.  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.] So here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinist," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify ...
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What Real Encouragement Looks Like Sometimes!

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Who would've thought that "encouraging each other in the Lord" would take the form of two hours of telling each other, "Yep, that crap's hard!"? - A text I got from a friend after a long conversation about the trials we've been through, the heartaches we've known, and how difficult life can be sometimes.  It made me smile!
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John Calvin: Master Manipulator

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This is point #5 from "Problems in John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion" : Calvin manipulates people into agreeing with him in subtle ways: reminding us of how small our minds are, how incapable we are of comprehending God and how God works (after, of course, teaching us all about his own grand, inspired ideas of who God is and how God works), and telling us that if we resist believing what he says, it's because we are rebellious or small-minded. Calvinists do this same kind of thing today.  They get you to agree with them (or at least to shut up if you disagree) by convincing you that you simply don't - can't - understand what the Bible really says and so you just have to trust them, that you are questioning God if you question them, that you are being proud and unhumble if you disagree with them, etc.  (See " Predestination Manipulation" and "What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views" an...
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Things My Calvinist Pastor Said #2: You're Like a "Dead Body"

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[This "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" series is a breakdown on this much longer post:  "We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism,"  which was written last year but updated July 2020.  All memes were created with  imgflip .   And these are not exact quotes, but they are summaries of what he said (exact quotes from his sermons can be found here ).] 2.   "We are as dead inside as physical dead bodies, unable to do anything.  Like a dead body that just lays there - all dead - we can't even think about, want, or seek God on our own unless God makes us do it, unless the Holy Spirit first regenerates our hearts and opens our eyes."   Calvinists call it "total depravity," but to them it's really "total inability."   [It's much more convincing and deceptive to call mankind "depraved" instead of "unable," because all Christians are willing to admit to the depravity of man.  But if Calvinists called it what they re...
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The Call - Such a Beautiful Song!

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I was dreaming about this song the other night.  In fact, in my dream, I was singing it over and over again.  (And, wow, was my dream-singing incredible!) Anyway, this is such a beautiful song that I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian a few weeks ago.  Her voice is amazing!  Enjoy! The Call by Regina Spektor  (I'm not sure what the lyrics all mean, what the author meant.  I'd love to look up the meaning behind them someday.  But I think there's something in there for everyone, for all of our situations.  And those are some of the best kinds of songs.) [Update 8/30/2026: Here's a different video version of The Call , with different movie clips.  This is like the original one I found years ago which has one scene in particular that I love.  It starts at 1:04 when the kids are walking up to their hideout, and the kingdom creatures line up and raise their swords along the pat...
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9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult #2 (hidden agendas)

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[This series is  "The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult"  split up into smaller, individual posts.]   (Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!) 2.  Hidden Agendas Not only do Stealth Calvinist pastors get into churches using deception, but they come in with the hidden agenda to reform the church, to slowly drag it into Calvinism without the awareness of the people. A post called  "The Church Infected with Calvinism"  shares this:  " This third scenario [of how Calvinism infects a church] is all too common.  There are websites that instruct Calvinistic preachers who accept calls to non-Calvinistic churches on how to gradually 'acclimate' the church to Calvinism.  I saw one website with a two-year, month-by-month plan for the stealth Calvinist to take a non-Calvinistic church into 'Reformed Theology' land.  It's almost cult-like and certainly deceptive...  While the Calvinistic pastor is crafting pulpit content to fortify his philosophical argume...
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Struggling? Pray and then Write the Truth!

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I need to say this out loud, get it out of my head.  I have been struggling with fear the past so many days.  And it's not even over anything huge, except that it's huge to me. My youngest son has a small cavity on the side of one of his molars.  And it's deep enough that it should get filled.  But after struggling through baby bottle tooth decay with my third son (and making all sorts of healthy food changes because of it), cavities and teeth problems have become one of my greatest fears. I wish it weren't so, but it can send me into near panic attacks when I know one of the kids has a tooth problem.   I have been treating the cavity with a remineralization toothpaste (but unfortunately, we are not eating as healthy as we used to so it's no surprise that he has a problem).  And I am so hoping and praying that the paste works, that it fills in the hole like it did for my other son. But it's taking a long time.  It's filled in about half...
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Calvinism's Misconception About God's Love and Salvation

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Calvinism is built on a foundation of many misconceptions and assumptions.   (For examples, see here and here and here .)  And a major one of those misconceptions has to do with the effect that God’s love has on salvation, a misconception which ends up totally destroying God’s character and Truth. Calvinism starts with the misconception that God’s love MUST necessarily lead to salvation, that if God really loves someone then it means that person WILL be saved.   And therefore, those who are saved (they call them “the elect,” those prechosen by God and predestined for heaven) are the only ones that God truly loves. Basically, they believe that if God truly loved everyone then He would save everyone.   And so since He hasn’t saved everyone (the foundational misconception here is that God decides who gets salvation and who doesn’t, not that we choose), it must mean He doesn’t love everyone the same. And so to harmonize their misconception (that God only tru...
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"Do you know what it's like to be alone?"

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Yesterday at noon, I was driving to pick my son up from somewhere.  As I drove through an intersection in our neighborhood, I noticed a bicycle on a sidewalk and a man laying in the grass behind some bushes.  It looked like he was trying to sit up but couldn't. That's odd , I thought.  Did he stop his bike ride to lay on the grass on a nice summer's day, staring up at the clouds?  A "stop and smell the roses" kind of thing?  Is he having a heart attack? I couldn't get it out of my mind, and so I turned around.  I simply had to see what was going on, in case there was some sort of emergency. I pulled into a driveway closest to him, and walked over by him. "Sir, are you okay?  Are you okay, sir?" I called. He didn't move at first.  No response at all. Oh dear, what if he's dead!?!,   I thought. Slowly, he began to move, and he rolled over to his back. "No, I'm just drunk.  I've been drinking this morning," he s...
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