Did He Visit My Church?

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Too funny!  Did the writer of this satirical article visit my church during my pastor's 8-month-long series on Romans?  

 I am absolutely convinced that my dogmatically-predestination pastor did a series on Romans specifically so he could talk about predestination for EIGHT MONTHS.

 (The good thing that came out of it is that I ended up thoroughly researching this issue and studying the Bible to come to the conclusion that I don't believe God predestines whether we go to heaven or hell.)

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When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (tiny, bare-bones version)

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[Here's the tiniest version of my "But predestination!" post.  The short version with more memes and quotes and information can be  found here , and t he longest version (a series of posts full of many more Calvinist comments, my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons, and my replies to them, written for my own amusement and for my ex-church) can be found by  starting here .  But this tiny version includes only the most basic parts you need to know, with a few memes and quotes thrown in to spice it up and prove my points.  (I know this could be much tinier, but Calvinism has so many bunny trails, so many interlocking ideas, that it's hard to address one part without addressing more.  So this is as comprehensively tiny as I dared to make it.) ] At the heart of Calvinism is predestination and God's sovereignty (among other things, like "total depravity"), which according to Calvinism essentially amounts to:  "God preplans and controls everything, even sin ...
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"But predestination!" (16B: sin, evil, suffering)

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In this series, I'm examining some things that Calvinists (especially my ex-pastor) say about predestination.   Here's the posts in the whole series:  the pastor's sermons  ("When Calvinists say 'But predestination!'"), and my comments  1-4 (election)  and  5-6 (Romans and sovereignty)  and  7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine)  and  10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015)  and  12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again)  and  15 (total depravity, manipulation)   and  16A (God's Will, babies)  and  16B (sin, evil, suffering)  and  17 (double-speak and the gospel) . For the shorter "for everyone" version which has a lot less quotes and a lot less of my thoughts,  click here . Sixteen B (I broke #16 up into two halves, so picking up where we left off in the last post...) And now, moving on from the bulk of my comments to the bulk of the Calvinist quotes, showing you Calvinism in its ...
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Calvinism: Using unclear to interpret clear

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I just found and watched this video against Calvinism yesterday (I have no idea who this pastor is or what else he teaches, but this video was good and on-track, very simplified):  Trojan Horses in the Church Today, part 1: Calvinism I particularly like something he says near the beginning which neatly sums up the fundamental problem of Calvinism: "Calvinism is a man-made philosophy that is contradictory to Scripture.  It is built on the classic error - now listen carefully to this - of interpreting clear passages of Scripture by unclear passages of Scripture.  That is a violation of the ABC's of Bible interpretation.  One of the most basic rules of [Bible] interpretation is you interpret unclear passages by clear ones.  Not the other way around.  But Calvinism is  built on  the idea of interpreting clear, simple passages by unclear ones.  Therefore, if you start with the unclear and you start with a false idea, then you start looking at the ...
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A Place For Us All!

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  A fantastic song from a fantastic movie ( Jesus Revolution  - a favorite!):  Living Water  by Anne Wilson  As she rightly sings, "He paid  every  sinner's price!" And so "every outcast, every wrong-way, runaway rebel" - no matter who you are or where you've been - can come on down to the Living Water and find hope, healing, and eternal life in Jesus.   No one is hopeless.  No one is too far gone.  No one is destined for hell.   There's a place for us all in God's family.  All of us are able to and welcome to freely accept the gift of eternal life, paid for by Jesus's death for us all.   “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.    For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."    ( John 3:16-17 ) "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who w...
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A Crash Course in Calvinism (Calvinist Quotes)

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Here is the second half of  the letter  I wrote to pastors who I don't think are Calvinists but who quote from Calvinists a lot.  (I added a few extra quotes and notes that I didn't include in the letter I mailed to them.  When do I ever make anything shorter !?!): FYI, Here are some direct quotes from Calvinists, so that you can see what Calvinism really is in their own words, so that you can see that I’m not exaggerating or misunderstanding them  [my comments in brackets and italics] : John Calvin,  from  Institutes of the Christian Religion,  book 1, chapter 16 :  “Hence we maintain that, by his providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the counsels and  wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined…  Men  do nothing save at the secret instigation of God , and do not discuss and deliberate on anything but what he has previously  decreed  with himse...
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Greeting Card Headaches

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Finding the right greeting card can be so frustrating.   Like, where is the "I'm sorry you got arrested and will probably spend the rest of your life in prison ... but even though this terribly affected our family and friends forever, I love you anyway and hope you have as merry of a Christmas as you can, under these circumstances" kind of card? Oh, the headaches of trying to find the perfect card! (And, no, I'm not joking.  I mean, yes I am, to a degree.  But in a "if I don't laugh about it, then I'll cry" kind of way.)
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Hardest Spiritual Lesson #1: Let Go

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I wrote about some of the "hardest spiritual lessons" years ago on another blog of mine, but I am updating and reposting it here.   These are normal, typical (often painful) lessons that we will all eventually struggle with (it's okay to struggle) if we continue to walk with God and to chase after a deeper relationship with Him.    (And I know there are more than I've listed here.)   In no particular order (and broken up into individual posts), here are some of the hardest lessons I've learned over the years when it comes to faith and walking with God: 1.    Let Go or Hold on? Imagine you fell over the side of a cliff and are hanging onto a tiny root sticking out the side of the cliff with one hand, and God throws a rope down to save you.  But in your other hand, you're holding onto a water bottle you think you need.  You need both hands to grab the rope and climb, but you're afraid to let go of the water bottle.   After all, w...
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Get Comfortable

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       In our country, we are told over and over again things like:        “Follow your heart.”        “Make your own way.”        “Never take ‘no’ for an answer.”        “You can be anything you want or do anything you want.”        “Apply yourself and all your dreams will come true.”        (How else could we have so many reality shows where people want to be singers?)        We are told that anything is possible.   We can make it happen by dreaming big and reaching high and wanting it badly enough.   In fact, look at all the commercials and advertisements that tell us that “We deserve it.”   It doesn’t matter what it is – a luxury car, a vacation, a break, a new phone . . . “We deserve it.”   And it doesn’t matter how little effort or hard work we put in . . . “We deserve it.”      ...
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Why is Calvinism so dangerous? #7 (Hard hearts)

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  [In this series, I'm breaking the long post   "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?"   into bite-sized pieces.] 7. The Bible (and the concordance) says ...  That when God "hardens" hearts, it is retribution for first hardening your own heart, for  resisting God for so long even after He's been patient and long-suffering with you. But Calvinism says ...  God arbitrarily chooses whose hearts to harden against Him (non-elect)  and  whose to turn to Him (elect), with no in put/responsibility on our parts. Romans 9:18:   "Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden."   [Calvinists say "See, God hardens whomever He wants.  We have nothing to do with His choice of whom to harden and whom to elect."  But in the concordance, "hardens" is retribution for first hardening your own heart, for resisting God.  And so, yes, we do have something to do with whether we are hardened or not....
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