Top 5 Reasons I am NOT a Calvinist

Calvinism is rampant in Christiandom today. What is Calvinism, some of you may ask? To sum it up in a nut shell, Calvinsim is the idea that God created some for heaven and most for hell. This is according to His good pleasure. That’s it. That’s what Calvinism is. Now there are some fancy words that go along with Calvinism like: predestination, total depravity, irresistable grace, limited atonement, and so on. We will go into those words later, the bottom line is God chose some and damned most, and nobody has a say in the matter.

Here are my top 5 reasons I AM NOT A CALVINIST. And yes, I am a Christian.

1. Calvinism is a CHARACTER ASSASSINATION of God. When you read the definition of Calvinism that I just wrote, and you compare that to the many stories and verses of the Bible, you realize, Calvinism really does assassinate God’s character. God created some for heaven and most for hell. Yikes! That’s not the God I read about in the Bible. The more I read the Bible, the more I see Calvinism is just plain awful. God talks a lot about love in the Bible. John 3:16, says that “For god so loved the world…” For Calvin to state that God created man, to send most of them to hell is unthinkable. It truly is an assassination of His Character. I can’t get behind a God like that.

2. Calvinism is unbiblical. As I stated in my first point, the Biblical God is love and extremely patient with mankind, so that all could come to salvation, 2 Peter 3:9.  God wants all people to be saved, He died for all mankind. Again, “God so loved the world…” John 3:16. You can’t find Calvinism in the Bible. If you spend your time just reading the Bible, CALVINISM IS NOT IN THERE. You need to go outside the Bible and read a Calvinist author or go to a Calvinist church. But if you just lived in a deep jungle somewhere, sitting on a rock with only a Bible in your hand to read, the idea of Calvinism WOULD NOT COME UP!

3. Calvinism makes Calvinists arrogant. Oh, they aren’t supposed to be arrogant. They’re supposed to be humble and extremely grateful to God because God chose them and there was nothing that person could do about it. Think about it. If you are under the belief that God chose (a very select group) and saved you, how can you help it and not become arrogant. It’s part of human nature. I haven’t met a humble Calvinist yet.

4. Calvinism erases man’s free will. Calvinism doesn’t believe in man’s free will. Calvinism states that man cannot decide who they will trust in. In fact, Calvinism takes it a step further and says we have free will in NOTHING! According to Calvinism, we are just following God’s script He wrote out and we decide nothing. Everything is fated according to God’s good pleasure, and everything was decided by God. Going back to the number one reason I am not a Calvinist, Calvinism is a character assassination of God who decides everything. God decided for Judas Iscariot to betray God and then go hang himself. Judas had no choice in the matter according to Calvinism. David sinned with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed, because God decided that’s what David would do. This is according to Calvinism.

5. Calvinism is a man made philosophy. Notice, we don’t call it Biblicalism. We call it, Calvinism, after a man named John Calvin, from the 15th century. He was a philosopher, and at some point in his life theology caught his attention. He started philosophizing about what he thought the Bible said. This is his point of view. What does God say about philosophy?   Notice there is not a book in the Bible called Calvin. When one listens to Calvin, one is putting Calvin between themselves and the Bible. You are reading the Bible through a Calvinistic lens. Don’t look at the Bible through Calvinist glasses. He was just a man. And a crabby one at that. Let God tell you His character. Let God explain who He is through scripture. Get Calvin out of the way.

Calvinism is big in the Christian world today. Many big name preachers are Calvinistic. I’m hoping to start a dialogue, questioning Calvinism.  This is a toxic philosophy. Stay far away from it.