Why is Calvinism so dangerous? #12 (Predestination, election)

-

 [In this series, I'm breaking the long post "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?" into bite-sized pieces.]




12. (We're getting closer to the end.  It's gonna go faster now.)
Calvinism says ... "Predestination/election/chosen" verses are always about God predestining people for salvation.

No wonder they have so much support for their view.  


But the Bible shows ... "Predestination/election/chosen" verses are about God predetermining other things, such as predestining that believers will grow to be more like Christ, be redeemed, get an inheritance, bring God glory, or about God choosing the generation that would be the first to get salvation through faith in Jesus, or about God choosing people for certain jobs, roles, responsibilities, etc.  It's never about God predestining certain people for heaven.

A sampling of verses Calvinists use to "prove" Calvinist predestination [and what they really mean]:

Ephesians 1:11-12 (KJV): "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." [The inheritance believers get - and I would add the glory believers will bring Christ - is what was predestined, not whether or not we were chosen for salvation.  Anyone who trusts in Christ will get an inheritance and bring God glory.]

Romans 8:29-30 (KJV): “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son … Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”  [God predestines those whom He “foreknows” (true Christ-followers) to be conformed to the image of His Son.  This is not about God predestining certain “elected” sinners to salvation.  It’s about God determining the destination of a believer’s path, the direction our path heads after we choose to believe in Jesus – to grow to be more like Jesus and to eventually be glorified.]

Ephesians 1:4: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight …”  [God determined that those who are “in Him” (who believe in Him) would be "holy and blameless" in His sight, because anyone who puts their faith in Jesus accepts His sacrificial death on their behalf, letting His blood pay for their sins and wipe their slates clean.  Anyone who chooses to be “in Jesus” will be holy and blameless in God’s sight.]

Ephesians 1:5: "he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ."  [Calvinists use this to say that God predestined who would be "adopted," who would be saved.  But the concordance says "adoption" is NOT about being brought into God's family by spiritual birth, but it's about God promising to "adopt" into His family anyone who believes.  Anyone and everyone who chooses to believe in Jesus will be accepted into God's family and will experience the full benefits of being a child of God.  And this "adoption" will be fully realized at the redemption of our bodies: "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23).  Paul defines "adoption as sons" as being "the redemption of our bodies," not "the salvation of our souls" as Calvinists would claim.  God has not predestined who goes to heaven, but He has predestined that all believers - all His children - will one day experience the fullness of our adoption at the redemption of our bodies.]

2 Thessalonians 2:13: “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” [The verse does not stop at "God chose you to be saved."  This is not about individual people being chosen for salvation.  It's about God choosing that particular generation to be the first to be saved through belief in Jesus, as opposed to the generations before that who were saved through their devotion to God, as evidenced in their adherence to the Law.  It’s about God choosing the method of salvation, not who gets saved.  And to be even more accurate, the word “saved” in this verse - according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Vine's Expository Dictionary - isn’t even about eternal salvation, heaven and hell.*  It’s about God promising to save true believers from the wrath He will pour out on the ungodly at the end of this age.  This isn’t a Calvinist “predestined for heaven” verse at all.  It’s about God choosing to switch the method of salvation at that time to faith in Jesus specifically, and it’s about God choosing to spare true believers from His end times wrath.  Big difference!]

John 15:16: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit..."  [This is not about people being chosen for salvation, but about Jesus choosing His disciples and appointing them the task of taking the Gospel to the world.]

Every verse Calvinists use to support Calvinist predestination/election (that God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell) is actually about something else.  You have to look at each verse in context to see what's really being predestined, who's being "chosen" and what they're being chosen for.  And it's never "predestined to heaven or hell."

So do not let them sucker you into Calvinism when they go "See, the Bible has the word 'predestined' in it.  And 'elect."  So you have to believe in Calvinism."

My ex-pastor once said something like "We tend to have a problem with the idea that God can choose who to save and who not to save.  We don't like it.  But the Bible clearly teaches it.  The Bible calls it 'the doctrine of election, the doctrine of predestination'."  

Really!?!  And which verse would that be?  Which verse uses the phrase "doctrine of election" or "doctrine of predestination"?  

Predestination and election are biblical concepts, but not the way Calvinists define them.  And it makes all the difference!  (Examine the worms.)

(See "Predestined for salvation? Or for something else?" for more on that.)





*Additional note: There are other verses like 2 Thess. 2:13 ("God chose you to be saved") where, according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Vine's Expository Dictionary, "salvation" is not even about our soul's eternal salvation but about God promising to spare believers from the His upcoming, end-times wrath that He will pour out on staunch unbelievers:

1 Thessalonians 5:8-9: "But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."  (Both of those "salvations" are about escaping the end-times wrath.)

Romans 13:11: "... because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." [Not only do Calvinists misunderstand "salvation" (making it all about the predestined eternal salvation of our souls), but those who think we can lose our salvation, that we have to maintain it till we die, misunderstand it too, leading to problems in their theology.  They would see a verse like this and say "If our salvation is 'nearer,' it means it's not here yet, that we haven't actually obtained it yet.  Therefore, we need to keep working towards it till we get to the end of our lives, which means that we can still lose it along the way, because we don't actually have it yet.  We can lose our salvation by sinning, and so we have to always ask forgiveness for every sin we commit.  If we die with one unforgiven sin, then we lost our salvation."  I knew a friend like this, who said that you could be a perfect Christian all the way till the end, but if you yelled out a cuss word during a car accident and died right then, without asking forgiveness, you'd go to hell.  Big problems arise when we don't know the correct definition of words.  In this case, "salvation" is not about eternal salvation but about being spared from end-times wrath.  This contradicts both the Calvinist's and Arminianist's theological views.]

Hebrews 1:14, 9:28: "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" and "... he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."  

1 Peter 1:5: "who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

2 Peter 3:15: "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation..." 

Some of these could sound like proof for Calvinist predestination ("God chose you to be saved," "appointed to receive salvation," "those who will inherit salvation") ... until you understand it the right way.  It's not that God chooses certain sinners for eternal salvation.  It's that God chooses to spare believers from His end-times wrath.  Big difference.  And it really knocks the legs out from under Calvinism. 



Most Popular Posts of the Week:

List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

-
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 ...
Read more

Alana L.: 2e (sufficient/efficient)

-
Image
This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist    Point #2:   E.  Alana then pointed out how Calvinists say that Jesus's work on the cross was "sufficient for all of humanity, but it's not efficient [for all]."   It's only "efficient" for some, for the elect. I love it when she said this about "sufficient and efficient": "Okay, huh, new words, not in Scripture."  Priceless!   I think these bogus terms - which are  not  in the Bible - are merely a way for Calvinists to sound like they're saying one thing when they really mean another, to sound like they're saying Jesus died for all when they're really not.  They know that  if they outright said Jesus didn't die for all, it would contradict certain verses and set off people's alarm bells - and so they speak on multiple levels to obscure what they're teaching, to buy them time to slowly, strategically m...
Read more

Why Is It So Hard For Calvinists To Get Free From Calvinism?

-
This was originally on the end of my post "If Calvinism is true, then God is a liar."   But I think it deserves its own post (I recently updated it a little bit, March 2021): I read something once about how very few people end up freeing themselves from the clutches of Calvinism because of the strong hold it has on people.  I think this is partly because ... 1.   We (I am talking as if I were a Calvinist here) would have to admit that we were misunderstanding Scripture this whole time, and no one wants to admit they could be wrong. 2.   Calvinism appeals to us prideful intellectuals.  (And prideful intellectuals have the greatest aversion to admitting we could be wrong.)  It makes us feel special, like we alone understand the "deeper, hidden meanings of Scripture," while the simple-minded Christians can't understand it.  Calvinism (with all of its contradictions, word play, round-about reasoning, and multiple layers of meaning for verses) gives u...
Read more

On this Good Friday

-
Take some time on this Good Friday to remember what Jesus went through to bring us forgiveness, to offer us all eternal life - and then thank Him for it.   Some great songs and videos about it: Jeremy Riddle's  "Sweetly Broken"   Cloverton's  "Christmas Hallelujah" Michael W. Smith's  "Secret Ambition" Crowder's  "I AM" "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." ( Romans 3:23-25 ) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life   in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  ( Romans 6:23 ) “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   ( Romans 5:8 ) "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us...."  ( 1 John 3:16 ) "Christ suffered for you... When ...
Read more

Calvinism: Heresy At Its Finest!

-
Okay, I won't say "Calvinism is hogwash" in this post.  So don't worry.  One thing you will definitely not hear me say in this post is that "Calvinism is hogwash."  I mean, I know I've said "Calvinism is hogwash" in many other posts, but I won't say it here. Okay, so now that that's out of the way ... Calvinism is heresy at its finest! It's man telling God how God has to be in order to be God.   It's "God has to control everything, or else He's not God."   It's "Jesus didn't die for everyone because Jesus couldn't die for those who would reject Him, because that would be a disgrace to Him and a waste of His blood."   It's "God has to be the cause of all evil and wickedness and murder and abuse, or else there's no purpose for it."   It's "God predestined Jesus to die for sinners, and so He caused Adam and Eve to fall because He needed sinners for Jesus t...
Read more

She hit the nail on the head! Amen, come, Lord Jesus!

-
A neighbor just sent this link to me , a video clip (just a minute long) from a woman sharing how she is just done with everything, how she's on autopilot and just wants Jesus to come back again. I absolutely get everything she said and have felt the same way for several years now. Can anyone else relate? Here's a transcript of what she said (I think she voiced what a lot of us have been feeling, like we've been treading water, just trying to get by until the end):  "Does anybody else just ... I'm just, like, checked out of this planet.  I told God today, like, I'm ready.  I've been ready, but I'm like  ready ready.  I don't feel like there's anything that I care about anymore.  I just want to go home.  You know, I just want to be done.   I don't want to battle all of the little battles anymore.  I don't want to pay my taxes anymore - because I know where the money's going.  I don't want to go to the grocery store and spend $40...
Read more

This One's For You! (A Christmas Sermon)

-
Did you ever listen to a sermon where you felt as if God was saying "This one's for you"?  I've never looked up Willow Creek sermons before, but for some reason I decided to watch one yesterday.  And you know what?  This one was meant for me.  It really hit me in the heart.  Watch it; it's good.  In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and into the night.  (Skip to the 35-minute mark to start the sermon.) "Christmas at the movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 18, 2022)" (Willow Creek Huntley YouTube channel) Merry Christmas, Everyone! [FYI: I've written before about how I disagree with woman being head pastors.  And it seems that, at Willow, the head pastor is a man but there are several teaching pastors under him, including women.  To me, that's a gray area.  And I'm not sure yet what I think of it.  But  since it doesn't break my hardline, definitive "no woman head pastor" rule , I've decided to ...
Read more

Rapinoe Really Bugs Me. Why?

-
Rapinoe really bugs me.  Even just looking at pictures of her bug me. Why? This article neatly sums it up: her arrogance. The arrogant, in-your-face, I'm-the-best, bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you attitude that oozes from her, even in pictures. I think those who hate America so much should just leave.  They should go spend some time in countries where you have almost no rights.  Where women are forced to cover from head to toe.  Where they can't drive.  Where acid is thrown on them when they offend some man.  Where homosexuals are executed.  Where you don't get to vote for your leaders.  Where you are not allowed to speak out in the media.  Where you are prosecuted for saying anything against your country or leader. Go visit those countries for awhile ... and see if you don't come crawling back on your hands and knees, begging America to let you back in again, kissing the ground of the country that treated you so well....
Read more

What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality?

-
So Christian musician Lauren Daigle says she doesn't know either way what the Bible says about homosexuality, whether it's right or wrong.  She says that if anyone finds out, let her know.   Okay, so there's several possibilities about what's happening here.  Among them are: 1.   She has never really read her Bible.  (Or she doesn't want to know what it says, so she isn't studying it very closely.) 2.   She is afraid to say what she really thinks because she knows it would destroy her career.  Maybe it's about her desire to be popular.  Maybe it's about money.  Maybe it's about fear of losing potential listeners that she wants to reach through her music. 3.   She doesn't want to say the truth because she knows it will hurt people (particularly her homosexual friends) and turn people off, and she feels bad about offending anyone.  Maybe she is trying to protect people from the sting of Truth, of out genuine (misguided) conce...
Read more

Christian Testimony: Isabella - "How I Found Jesus"

-
Here is Isabella's 17-minute testimony:  How I found Jesus . I think many of us can relate to it - about the struggle of trying to relate to the Lord, of drawing near but then falling away.  She understands that a relationship with God takes time and effort.  It doesn't just happen.  You have to work at it. And y ou can tell she has a heart to lead others to the Lord, to help them in their relationship with God.  S he gives a short, sweet "sinner's prayer" at the end, for others to follow.  (Drink some coffee to keep up with her.  She's a fast talker.)     [However, I do not agree with her that we can pray to the earth/universe.  That's the mark of a false religion.  But I understand what she's trying to say.  She's trying to say that we shouldn't let not knowing how to pray or what to pray stop us from praying, from calling out to God.  She's saying that God can meet you wherever you are, if you call out to Him....
Read more