Alana L: 5l (educated into Calvinism)

This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.: 5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist 

Point #5 Still:

L. I agree with Alana that Calvinism contradicts the plain, clear, commonsense understanding of Scripture, and that we have to be taught to find Calvinism in the Bible because it's not there. 

And even the Calvinists know this!  

In Doctrine of Election, Calvinist A.W. Pink says "Unless we are privileged to sit under the ministry of some Spirit-taught servant of God, who presents the truth [the doctrine of election] to us systematically, great pains and diligence are called for in the searching of the Scriptures, so that we may collect and tabulate their scattered statements on this subject. It has not pleased the Holy Spirit to give us one complete and orderly setting forth of the doctrine of election, but instead 'here a little, there a little... No novice is competent to present this subject in its scriptural perspective and proportions."  

Hahaha, do you know what this means?  That Calvinists know that Calvinism's doctrine of election is not clearly, obviously, thoroughly taught in any place in Scripture, that it has to be scraped together in bits and pieces, and that we would have a hard time finding it without the help of a Calvinist teacher systematically leading us through the Bible.  

So it takes a highly educated expert to teach these things, because the average common Christian cannot understand or learn them on their own.  (Suspicious!)  

This confirms two things: The sense of pride and spiritual authority that Calvinists have, and the fact that Calvinism is not clearly, easily found anywhere in the Bible and so people have to be educated into it by other Calvinists (often while the Calvinist hides the "Calvinism" label so that we can't research for ourselves what they're teaching).  Very revealing!  

Unbelievably, here's a whole sermon series by a Calvinist on how to preach Calvinism covertly, literally called "Covert Calvinism".  And he does exactly what I said - strategically teaching Calvinist theology without calling it Calvinism, slowly modifying people's thinking through Calvinist definitions and carefully-chosen verses interpreted Calvinisticly, until they believe that Calvinism is really taught in the Bible.

And don't just take my word for it.  Read the sermons.  Or even just the descriptions to the sermons, which includes: "[this is] a prelude sermon to a covert series on Calvinism... This is the 'Total Depravity' sermon without using the stock theological labels. It is the first sermon in the series and it's covert because too many of our [listeners] will shut down their receptors when they hear the words 'Calvinism.'... [This sermon] focuses on God the Father choosing us to be his children. It uses biblical, not theological ["Calvinist"], language to teach about election."  

It isn't until the last sermon in the series that he reveals what he's been teaching: "This is the summary sermon where I finally reveal that this series covers the same material that is often called the '5 Points of Calvinism.'"  

He deliberately waits until after he indoctrinates people with Calvinism - through biblical-sounding sermons full of carefully-chosen, Calvinisticly-interpreted verses - before he reveals that he's been stealthily teaching Calvinism all along, without their awareness.  

Basically, the plan is "indoctrinate them with Calvinism without telling them, and then once they're hooked, reveal to them that they are now Calvinists."

This is how Calvinists reform our thoughts under our radar.

The 9Marks' article Build Fences Around Your Flock emphasizes the importance of indoctrinating new members into Calvinism: "One of the first questions we ask each prospective member is: 'What is the gospel?'  We want to make sure every member understands the gospel.  If it becomes clear they don't understand it, we immediately pause the interview and move the candidate into a class called 'Christianity Explained.'"  

And, lo and behold, the "Christianity Explained" class uses a book by Calvinist Mark Dever - head of 9Marks - to teach the Calvinist version of Christianity and the gospel.  This is nothing more than a Calvinist Indoctrination Class that prospective new members who don't see things in a Calvinist way are required to take before being allowed into the church as members.  

Listen to how the stealth Calvinist pastor in the "Reformed by the Word" article handles it when he began facing opposition to his Calvinist theology: "By January of 1999, questions began to be raised by some in our congregation.  In a deacon’s meeting, one of our deacons asked if I was a 'Calvinist.'  When I asked what he meant, he really didn’t know.  He just knew it was something bad.  So, I asked specifically what I had taught that concerned him.  Again, he didn’t know of anything.  He’d just heard this word used about me.  Clearly there was 'talk' going around.  I decided the best way to answer his question would be to lead the deacons through a study."

So instead of just answering the question "Are you a Calvinist?," he turns the question back on the person (strategic evasiveness).  And then, still not answering the question, he decides to lead the deacons through Calvinist indoctrination classes.  To reform their thinking.  To brainwash them.  

And guess what?  It works.  In the end, the church chose to keep him as pastor.  But it split the church and up to half the people left.  And though he says it was difficult, he goes on to celebrate the fact that the church split, saying that it led to "great freedom" - because "the people who remained [there] wanted to be there. They wanted the truth of the Gospel. They wanted reformation."  

And with the opposition gone, they "were able to begin the process, unhindered, of revising our constitution to bring it in line with Scripture [he means "in line with Calvinism"]... The process of basic reformation took another three years, and really it’s still going on.  Like shaping your soul, the work of shaping a church takes years of persistence.  You can’t do it in a five-year pastorate."

From a "church reform" article from Founders Ministry: "The third principle of reforming a local church involves both the demolition of misguided theological notions and the laying of a biblical foundation anchored by the doctrines of grace [Translation: Replace all other theological views with Calvinism.] ... What doctrines are we talking about?  The doctrines that are worth dying for are foundational, biblical doctrines, not secondary ones*... We speak first of all of the doctrines of grace [that's code for Calvinism].  Teach your people that they are utterly depraved and dead in their sins without God. Teach them that God chose the elect for salvation from the foundation of time out of his own mercy and desire..."

*To Calvinists, Calvinism is "the gospel/Christianity itself," so never believe a Calvinist who says that Calvinist doctrines are "secondary, back-burner issues not worth fighting about or dividing over."  (That's merely an attempt to manipulate people into keeping quiet, falling in line, and not fighting back.)  As that article says in the introduction to that "reform plan": "In reality, Calvinism is nothing more than biblical Christianity... These [Calvinist] doctrines are foundational to a God-centered theology. They are the heart of historical, orthodox Christianity."    

To Calvinists, Calvinism IS the gospel, the Bible, the sum total of Christianity.  So do you really think they would ever or could ever let Calvinism be a secondary, back-burner, not-that-important, shouldn't-cause-division issue?  No Calvinist worth his salt would do that.  

Make no mistake, they will always be pushing Calvinism because they think it's synonymous with Christianity itself.  But if they think we'll resist it, they'll call it a "secondary issue" and "finer points" and they'll promise to put it in the background, in favor of "more important issues."  But no good Calvinist pastor will ever let this truly be a background issue.  They'll just go underground with it, undercover, cloaking it in "biblical" language so that they can spread it in more inconspicuous ways that don't trigger our alarm bells as easily. 

Keep in mind that whoever controls the language - and the cherry-picking/interpretation of Scripture - also controls the conversation and destination.  This is a way that cults work.

From my "9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult #7 (thought-reform)": 

In Chapter 2 (Scaling the Language Barrier) of Walter Martin's book "The Kingdom of the Cults" (The Revised, Updated, and Expanded Anniversary Edition, October 1997), we read this about religious cults (this is my paraphrased summary):

Terminology and definitions matter.  When words are allowed to be redefined incorrectly - and those incorrect definitions are allowed to spread to people and throughout generations (because of our apathy or ignorance) - it can become a powerful weapon to enslave the masses.  Cult leaders know this and use it to their advantage, hijacking language with their own definitions to slowly, hypnotically lead people in the path they want them to go.

Cultists are experts at taking texts out of their proper context, with no concern for the laws of language, logic, or proper biblical interpretation.

Religious cult leaders use the Bible's terminology and concepts, but in a very different way than how it was originally intended and how it's commonly, historically understood.  They use the Bible's terms, but they secretly redefine them to fit their own theological framework.

This is why the cultist will often appear to be - and claim to be - in full agreement with you, because they are using the same words, same concepts, same verses.  You just don't realize that they've got very different definitions and interpretations.

At first glance, a cult's redefinitions will appear to be in harmony with the historic teachings of the Christian faith.  But this harmony is superficial at best - because it cannot hold up under serious biblical scrutiny when Scripture is read properly and in context and when words are correctly defined.

Cults take advantage of the fact that the average Christian is almost totally unaware of the "subtle art" of redefining terms.  And much time is wasted debating about Scripture with cultists - talking in circles - when spending just a few minutes at first defining the terms would have disarmed them of one of their most powerful tools: theological term-switching.

The cultist's redefining and juggling of terms puts the cultist at an advantage because it frustrates the average Christian who can sense that something is wrong and that they're both not really saying the same thing, but the Christian can't quite put his finger on what's wrong.  And so therefore, not realizing the words games the cultist is playing, he often falls silent for fear of ridicule or of continuing to talk in circles.

Calvinist pastors control the direction of the church by controlling not just the resources and staff, but also by controlling the definitions of words, the theological language we speak, and the way we interpret verses, such as by filling our minds first with their Calvinist definitions of "predestination/election/chosen" and then leading us to verses that have those words in it and going, "See!  It's in the Bible, so you have to believe it."  

And this traps us because we never thought to question their definitions or to double-check the verses in context, never suspecting that there's a different, non-Calvinist way to read it.  We trusted that what they're spoon-feeding us is accurate and biblical.  We let them slowly modify our thinking and our perspectives on God and His Word, causing us to see everything through the lens of Calvinism - until our minds have been wiped clean of the ability to read the Bible in a clear, plain, commonsense way anymore.

[The posts in this series will be added to the "Alana L." label as they get published.]