Some Good Posts Against Calvinism
Here are a few good, random articles against Calvinism (I'm still reading through them, but they all seem basically on-track so far. If I find things I disagree with as I read more, I'll add notes.):
The Modern-Day Pharisees: Calvinists [Notice what the Calvinist he quoted says about how the elect were never on their way to hell because they were elect for heaven from the very beginning, and that this is why they need to hear the good news of their salvation - so that they can believe it, rejoice in it, and profit from it. The Calvinist says that the Gospel doesn't make their salvation true, but it's that their salvation was already true and the Gospel just declares it. Basically, the Gospel just makes the elect aware of the salvation they already have.
Do you really hear what this is saying about salvation?
It's saying that the elect have no responsibility to do anything to be saved because they enter the world already saved and just need to realize it. It's like a tiger who doesn't know he's a tiger. But one day when he walks up to a lake to get a drink of water, he sees his reflection in the water and realizes that he's a tiger and that he's always been a tiger. Nothing changed and he did nothing at all ... other than that he suddenly realized what's always been the case. That he's always been a tiger.
THIS is the way to Calvinist salvation: You don't do anything to get it or to make it more real; you just have to wake up one day and realize that you are saved and always have been. (They bury this idea under "You have to repent and turn to God and believe in Jesus." But the thing is that, in Calvinism, you have no control over if this happens or not. It's already been predestined for you by Calvi-god. So if you are predestined for heaven, he will make you wake up and realize it and believe in him. But if you are predestined for hell, you will never be able to do these things. It's all been preplanned for you, and you have no control or influence over what happens, over if you believe or not. So a Calvinist telling people to repent and believe is hollow and false - because they believe you don't have any control over this anyway and that only the elect can and will repent/believe and only because Calvi-god causes it to happen.)
Do you see how dangerous this is?
The Bible says that we are responsible for our response to God's offer of salvation, an offer He makes to everyone. We have to accept it, to choose to believe. But Calvinism essentially teaches that we cannot choose to believe, that it only happens to us if God has predestined that we will believe.
If Calvinism teaches that we are not responsible to do and cannot do the one thing that God told us we are supposed to do to be saved, then how can anyone be saved the Calvinist way!?!
(And this makes me wonder: If the tiger was always a tiger and always will be a tiger, then does it really matter if he realizes it or not? Will his realization really change anything? If the elect are already saved and always will be, even before they realize they are saved, does their realization really matter or affect anything?)
What a satanically-brilliant theology - convincing people that you cannot choose to believe in Jesus, that believing in Jesus will just happen to you if you are one of the elect, that the way we get saved is that God causes it to happen and that we will just wake up one day and realize we are saved!
Satanically-brilliant!
Doing away with personal responsibility, the need for the Gospel, the need to evangelize, most people's hope of being saved, and a believer's assurance of their own salvation ("Am I truly one of the elect? I can't accept salvation for myself, so did God really pick me to be saved?") in one fell swoop!]
John Calvin: Heresy Hunter with an Axe to Grind
Born Again Prior to Faith? John Piper says "Yes." Scripture Says "No"
On Assurance of Salvation and Calvin's "Evanescent Grace"
Why I Am Not A Calvinist: How Reformed Theology Contradicts Scripture (FYI: I disagree with him about believers being able to lose their salvation. I think true believers can lose their rewards but not their salvation.)
The Five Points of Calvinism: Weighed and Found Wanting (This is very long, and I haven't read carefully through it all yet. I do not like to link to things I haven't thoroughly read yet, but it seems quite on-track from my quick perusal of it. So I will add the link now, but if I find problems with it when I read it deeper, I may remove it later. But I don't think I'll have to.)
