Leaving Calvinism: Video - Former Calvinist Testimonies

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Here is an almost hour-long "Testimonies of Former Calvinists" video from Soteriology 101.  This is a website I highly recommend and one that my family and I have learned from immensely.  (I haven't finished this video yet, but I wanted to link to it anyway before time gets away from me.  If I have comments to add to this post after watching it, I'll add them later.)  

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Updated: Alana L. 5P (conflations: natural vs moral)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]  Point #5 still :   P:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."   Natural vs Moral On a slightly different track:  If you listen closely when Calvinists talk about God's "sovereign control" over things, they'll often emphasize His control over nature, even bringing up verses about it.  And since we agree that God caused/controlled something like a storm or famine or illness at some point in biblical history, Calvinists will then make us think that we must also agree that He causes/controls human decisions and moral evils too.  That if we accept one, we must accept the other. Vincent Cheung  ( The Problem of Evil ):  " God controls not only  natural events , but he also controls  all human aff...
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"Are Calvinists Saved?"

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(I added some new notes to the end of this post, August 23, 2020.) Here's a video from  Beyond the Fundamentals  that's well-worth watching:   Are Calvinists Saved? The most thought-provoking part (for me) was when he asks (paraphrased) "How do Calvinists know they're saved, that Jesus died for them?" You see, I would say that I trust in the truths of the Bible.  I trust that when God says He loves all people and wants all people to be saved, He means He loves  all  people and wants  all  people to be saved.  I trust that when He says Jesus died for all people and all sins, He means that Jesus died for  all  people and  all  sins.  I trust that when He says that we will find Him if we seek Him with all our hearts, He means that we can seek Him and find Him.  I trust that when He commands us to choose whom we will serve, He means that we have to choose whom we will serve.  I trust that when He ...
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Deciphering a Calvinist Church's Statement of Faith

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(This is taken from How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist , with some additions at the bottom.  Remember that this is only my opinion, my assessment, and my suggestions, based of what I've learned about Calvinism so far.) A church's Statement of Faith tells you a lot about the theology of that church.  But some Calvinist churches are careful to hide their Calvinist views because they know it's controversial and might scare people off.  So they might be very careful with their wording and will not clearly identify themselves as "Calvinist" or "Reformed."  Sometimes it takes reading between the lines - being able to identify the "covert Calvinism" - to know if the church is Calvinist or not.  1.   First off, pay attention for one or more of these kinds of words and phrases:  election, predestination, decree, ordains or fore-ordains, sovereignty or sovereign control, "doctrines of grace," covenant theology, reforme...
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When Calvinists say "But sovereignty!"

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Since I cover this a lot on this blog, I'll be  brief here (I hope).  (And I'm sorry but after my computer updated something, I can't fix the random highlighting anymore for some reason, so we'll just have to live with it.) I think God's sovereignty is what ensnares many people into Calvinism.  It's the first worm on the hook  (*see note at bottom) .  I think they mean well, intending to honor God as God... but, sadly and without realizing it, Calvinists have fallen for a bad definition of "sovereignty,"  a very unbiblical one that screws up their whole theology from the very beginning (and possibly even eventually their faith and trust in God). And since they've been taught that accepting Calvinism equals humbly submitting to God's sovereignty (His authority), they think  that  rejecting Calvinism is tantamount to rejecting God's sovereignty, elevating man over God.   But contrary to the accusations from Calvinists, non-Calvinists do no...
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Ever Wonder About Jesus?

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Did you ever wonder about Jesus?  Was He real?  Who was He?  Does it really matter what you think about Him? Here is a good, hour-long video from a former journalist who sought to disprove Jesus but ended up believing in Him as Lord and Savior: The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel [Also see my post "Support for Jesus and the Bible" ]
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"The Last Goodbye" - A song for us Hobbits

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(a post from my other blog , from March 28, 2022) There's a song at the end of  The Battle of the Five Armies  (from the Hobbit trilogy) that's become one of my favorite songs.  I feel this song, especially the line about "Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen..."  That's kinda been my last several years: many sorrows I have seen.   Many trials.  Many heartbreaks.  (Everyone who lives long enough will have many of these.) Most recently, I had the awful experience of being on the witness stand for three hours, giving testimony against my mom.  And after nearly a week of trial, she was found guilty of ... well, of something really bad.  (She insists she didn't do it, but we think otherwise.  It's not exactly like the prosecution says, but close enough.)  And now she will spend her life in prison.   Many sorrows I have seen. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.  The last memory I have of her cou...
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Updated: Alana L. 5M (conflations: cause vs. allow)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]    Point #5 still :   M:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     In  5K  and  5L  (links to my other blog), I looked at Calvinism's incorrect belief that "sovereign" necessarily means that God preplans/causes all things.  In these next few posts, I want to further examine their misunderstanding of "sovereign" related to their erroneous conflations of "cause" and "allow"... and "foreknow" and "foreplan"... and "natural evils" and "moral evils"... and their deceptive use of the word "authors."   [There will be some redundancy in here and some review of things I said in the previous parts.  I tried making it shorter and more concise, but...
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The Stages of The End Times

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(A shorter version of this post .) I wrote a section for Christians about “The End Times” in the Bible study I wrote.   But I wanted to write a shorter, easier-to-understand version for everyone else.   With all the hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic activity, “cash-less” technology, terrorism, martyring of Christians, people’s rebellion against God and everything He stands for, disease epidemics, the technology to put little radio transmitters into people’s hands containing their information (and now there's electronic tattoos), the various celestial events, a fast-approaching “one-world system,” a brewing civil war, a brewing world war, the events surrounding Israel and Jerusalem, the search for a new "peace plan" in the Middle East, the events in Syria, etc., it seems like a good time to post this. And no … contrary to a popular “prophecy,” I do not think the world will end with a large planet crashing into us. Oh, no … it’s so much worse than that!   Or bet...
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