WOW, 58 beheadings,76 exiles and 1 man baked with green wood because they didnt believe what he was teaching.. go figure
Posted : 13 Nov, 2011 09:42 PM
This is only part of a very long article, I will post another part of it also
(I will post the part that is in the title in a few)
Calvin's Sovereignty Doctrine Distorts the Attributes of God
Calvinists are proud to proclaim, "The basic principle of Calvinism is the sovereignty of God." This doctrine allowed John Calvin to misinterpret Scripture in any manner he desired in order to fit his Institutestheology. He simply claimed the sovereignty of God allowed it. God's other attributes such as love, justice, mercy and grace became irrelevant so long as sovereignty reigned. John Calvin's extreme definitions of sovereignty and sin (Total Depravity or Total Inability) laid the foundation for a religion that bears his name, Calvinism.
John Calvin falsely taught that God "elects" some people from eternity past to be saved while damning all of the others to an eternal Hell with no hope of being saved. This false doctrine is directly opposite to the Bible which teaches that God is "not willing that any should perish." If salvation were entirely dependent on the sovereign God as taught by John Calvin then certainly none would perish, but salvation is dependent upon the free will of people to believe the true gospel by faith.
2 Peter 3:9The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Certainly God is sovereign. However, John Calvin used sovereignty as an excuse to formulate doctrines which violated God's other attributes. Calvin's doctrines of Unconditional Election and Limited Atonement predestine much of humanity to eternal torment in violation of God's attributes of love, justice, mercy and grace. Doctrines which are correctly interpreted from Scripture will not violate any of God's attributes.
Certainly God is sovereign according to the definition of sovereign in a dictionary. God is Number One -- the Most High, but God does not control every event and action of mankind as if people were puppets, as claimed by John Calvin. The Scripture verses below clearly show that the unbelief of the Children of Israel in the wilderness "limited the Holy One of Israel." According to the false doctrine of John Calvin, God cannot be limited. Scripture says He can be limited. God could not secure the entry of the Children of Israel into the promised land as He desired because they would not move forward. So God left them in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief, arrogance and rebellion.
Psalms 78:37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant. 38 But He, [being] full of compassion, forgave [their] iniquity, And did not destroy [them]. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, And did not stir up all His wrath; 39 For He remembered that they [were] [but] flesh, A breath that passes away and does not come again. 40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, [And] grieved Him in the desert! 41 Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
Calvinism has been called "the archenemy of soul-winning" and rightly so. John Calvin's false doctrine declares that some people are predestined by God from eternity past to spend eternity with Him by His sovereign grace while others are predestined to eternal torment. This doctrine causes one to question the need for presenting the gospel. If Calvinism were true, why bother? Those who have been predestined to salvation will be regenerated by God's unfailing sovereign will, and the others cannot be saved no matter how effectively the gospel is presented, because they are not the elect.
But soul winning is not the major tragedy of Calvinism. Failure to present the gospel of Christ is the real problem. One can easily notice that Calvinists discuss and present Calvinism with the notion that they are presenting the gospel. They quote the writings of Calvin and his followers and quote those Bible verses they feel are most supportive of Calvinism. The Bible is not taught directly and without bias. This is the reason John Calvin and his early followers prepared the Geneva Bible, which contained Calvin's teachings written in the margins. Teaching was done from the marginal notes in lieu of the Scriptural text. We will see in our study of Limited Atonement that Calvinism presents a false gospel.
The god worshipped by Calvinists has different attributes from those of the Almighty Eternal God who "who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4). The god of Calvinism is a false god who decides which people will spend eternity in hell by withholding faith from them. The god of Calvinism taunts the unbeliever with the verse "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9) all the while knowing that he (the god of Calvinism) has withheld the faith to do so. Calvinism presents a false gospel that neither offers eternal life nor allows salvation by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
As an example, Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) believe in a god and believe in a Jesus they say rose from the grave. However, Mormons are not born-again members of the Body of Christ. They are destined to spend eternity in hell. Calvinists will also spend eternity in hell. Calvinists believe in a false god and false Jesus with make-believe attributes much different from the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world.
