The world seems to be a little out of control. Look around us. There’s a song by an old folk singer group called the Kingston Trio. They write a song with lyrics like these:

“They’re rioting in Africa, They’re starving in Spain, There’s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain; The whole world is festering with unhappy souls, The French hate the Germans, The Germans hate the Poles.”

You get the idea. The world is chaotic and out of control. Just turn on the news for a second and figure it out for yourself.

When I look at the world I’m glad I have another one to look forward to, the Kingdom of God. The place where the lion will lie down with the lamb. Where a child can put his hand in a snake’s pit and not get bit. Where Jesus sits on the throne, there will be perfect peace. The more I see the chaos in this world, the more I long for my heavenly home.

There is debate about who’s in charge of this place we call Earth. Calvinists believe God is. Others say Satan is. Let’s go to scripture and see who Jesus said was in charge.

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me,” John 14:30. Jesus is telling us that the ruler of the world is coming and it isn’t Him.

“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” John 12:31. Jesus is telling us that the ruler of this world will be cast out. He’s also saying He’s not the ruler of this world.

“in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,” Ephesians 2:2. Paul is talking about the Devil being the prince of the power of the air.

There is a contrast, a huge contrast to the world in which we live now and the future world when God is in charge. God is not the author of chaos. And if you have half a wit about you, you can’t look at the world and not see it as chaotic. It doesn’t make sense to see God in charge, when the world operates as it does. For a believer, this is not our home. We long for our heavenly home. A place where moth and rust do not destroy. Throughout scripture, God is giving us pictures of what our heavenly home looks like and what we can look forward to. He tells us, the believer, that earth is not our home.

When I look at the world and know God is not in charge, but Satan is, it gives me comfort. The God I believe in wouldn’t have a world like this. All the angst, sorrow, sin, madness, violence, injustice, doesn’t show a benovelent God in charge. The one in charge would need to be one who stirs people up to sorrow, sin, madness, violence, and injustice. I am thankful to God that He has another home for us. A good place. A heavenly place.

God gets blamed for a lot of garbage that goes on. But this isn’t the world God created. He created a perfect world. But Satan and sin came into the picture and destroyed it. Now the earth groans as well as His People, longing for that perfect place.

Give God credit for the beautiful things He has done. Give Him credit for the beautiful things He has done in your life. Give Satan the credit for this mad, mad, mad world. Let him take the fall for it. It’s his handiwork. Remember, God is not the author of chaos. Take comfort in that and the pictures of our heavenly home, God has given us. Give credit where credit is due. God is not responsible for this mess. Satan is. God provided salvation for all of mankind.

We’re continuing our story of huge consequences people paid in the Bible after they committed sin. Let’s go back to the beginning: the story of Adam and Eve. You know the story: Adam and Eve, the first people on the planet, are given a beautiful garden to live in. They are told to populate the earth (be fruitful and multiply).

First of all, remember that John Calvin said God controlled EVERYTHING. Nobody has a choice in the matter. God is SOVEREIGN, controlling what people think, say and do. Even Satan was chosen to live out his life as an enemy of God and mankind. According to John Calvin this is all on God. So let’s look at this scenario and see if any of John Calvin’s view makes sense in light of the story of Adam and Eve.

So Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. It’s a beautiful place. Adam and Eve are running around naked and completely unaware of this fact. They have the innocence of some toddlers who love to strip and run around naked. Adam’s got a big job, he’s a head of the ranger department, naming all the animals. Eve is being the domestic goddess that she is, and preparing meals and loving her man (like a good country song). All is good and wonderful. Adam and Eve get to enjoy the beautiful garden and all that’s in it. EXCEPT for one tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That’s it. There’s only one tree they can’t touch out of all the hundreds of thousands of trees, there’s only one they need to leave alone.

Everything is hunky dory until along comes enemy number one – that old expelled angel. He comes along in the form of a snake. He starts up a conversation with Eve.

“…indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” The woman said to the servant, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.” The Serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!” For God knows that in the day you eat from it our eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate: and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:4-8

As you read this passage in Genesis, is there any part if it that says, And God made the serpent go to Eve and entice her?  Or, God worked it out that the woman took the fruit, she had no choice in the matter. Where is the responsibility placed? The Bible says the Serpent and Eve. In verse 7, it says their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked. Eating the fruit did something to their innocence. The knew they were naked now.

Now the next few passages become the blame game, like trying to talk to your kids about who left the milk out on the table: he did it, no, she did it, no-I didn’t do it, why’re you blaming me?…and on and on it goes.

God asked Adam and Eve where they are? Now does God know where they are? Of course, He does. So why is He asking where they are? It’s an icebreaker question. God is getting the dialogue started about the fact that Adam and Eve are hiding. And it does just that. Adam blurts out that he heard God in the garden, and he was afraid because he was naked. And I just love God’s answer to Adam (it cracks me up). “Who told you that you were naked?” vs.11. How many times do you ask your kids: who told you, you can have that cookie? who told you, you can ride your bike in the street? who told you, you could eat that candy? who told you…you get the point. I can so identify with God at this point. And just like our kids, Adam says the woman YOU gave me, gave me the fruit from that tree we weren’t supposed to eat from (let the blame game begin). Then God asks the woman, “What is this you have done?” And of course the woman blames the serpent. So they are all sitting there pointing fingers at each other.

Now God dishes out the consequences of THEIR sin. He turns to the serpent and tells him his consequences. God turns to Eve and tells her the results of her sin. And finally, He turns to Adam and tells him his consequences for his sin. They each will pay the price. They each will pay for what they have done. God drives them out of the Garden of Eden to never enjoy it’s bounty again. We see God’s mercy, though, in verse 21, where God makes garments of skin for Adam and and his wife, and clothed them. It’s a tender picture, in that, in spite of Adam and Eve’s sin, God cleans them up and clothes them. He doesn’t leave them to die naked in their sins. This very fact shows His care for them.

Now John Calvin says God ordained all of this. Adam and Eve didn’t choose to sin. God made them do it. The serpent didn’t choose to come along and deceive Eve, God made him do it. Yes, this is what John Calvin believes. If we go along with John Calvin’s thinking who is to blame in this story? Why God is to blame. Read Genesis 3. Read who did what. And you decide: is John Calvin to be believed? Or did the Serpent, Eve, and Adam choose to do what they did? If we are to believe John Calvin and God orchestrated all of this, why is God giving consequences for their sin? According to John Calvin, only God is to blame. According to John Calvin, we should all be pointing our fingers at God and saying He did it.

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.

Oh what a tangled web we weave; When first we practice to deceive – Sir Walter Scott

As you read the Bible you will find consequences for bad behavior in there. God, throughout the whole Bible, is dishing out scoldings and discipline to people. This is yet another proof of John Calvin being WRONG. John Calvin says God controls EVERYTHING. Nobody has any responsibility in any matters except for God. According to Calvin, God pulls all the puppet strings for all people. God IS the PUPPET MASTER. He chooses who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. He predestined them. Let’s look at this logically. Why in the world is God dishing out scoldings and discipline to people if they really had no say in the matter? Does that make sense to you?

Take David and Bathsheba. You remember that story don’t you? David is sitting back on his rooftop enjoying life, checking out his kingdom when low and behold he spots a beautiful naked lady bathing on her rooftop. The Bible never tells us why this beautiful lady is bathing on her rooftop, but there she is in all her naked glory. And David is a man. A heterosexual, normal man with a sex drive. He is stunned by this naked beauty and he has got to have her. And since he’s the king, he requests her to come to his palace so they can participate in the forbidden fruits of adultery. So they do. Now there are consequences for what they have done (unlike popular tv shows). Bathsheba gets pregnant. Whoops. And another complication is, Bathsheba’s husband is out fighting the battles as David should have been doing. The husband is busy working. The husband is not home. The husband is busy working, outside the home while Bathsheba is home (by herself) getting pregnant. Now David is a smart guy. He knows all about the birds and the bees, so now he’s got to figure out how to get the husband home to be with the wife that David’s been with.

David comes up with a plan. He figures he’ll bring the husband home, right now, to make sure he’s with Bathsheba to cover up his sin with Bathsheba. And it get’s better. The dude comes home, and being the stand up guy he is, won’t sleep with his wife. Now David is up against this stand up guy who won’t sleep with his wife because he can’t relax when he knows his comrades are out there fighting – where David should have been also. This is what we would call “a situation.” David has got a situation on his hands. You can just picture David wringing his hands and pacing back and forth in his palace wondering what to do. Or maybe he’s on the rooftop again. Either way, he’s got a major situation and this is NOT good for David. So David comes up with a second plan. “I know!” he says to himself, “I need to kill him. That will take care of everything.” Isn’t that what we all say when we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, just kill the problem?

So David orders Bathsheba’s husband up to the front lines of the war because he knows Bathsheba’s husband will be killed instantly. And once he’s killed, David can stop wringing his hands and breath easy. PROBLEM SOLVED! And that’s exactly what happens, husband is placed at the front lines of the battle, he is killed, and now David can rest easy.

Not so fast. God has all these pesky prophets that tend to ruin the sinner’s fun. But we will get to that in a minute. I want you to notice something. The Bible never says God made all these decisions. It puts the responsibility square on David’s shoulders. David saw Bathsheba and wanted to sleep with her. David did sleep with her. David got her pregnant. David called the husband home. David decided to get him killed since he wouldn’t cooperate with David’s plan. It’s all David according to the Bible.

Now God is fully aware of what David has done. So He sends one of His pesky prophets, Nathan, to remind David what he has done. And there will be a hefty price to pay for all this adultery and killing. Nathan shows up to speak with David. He tells David a sad story about guy and his lamb. This guy had one lamb that he loved, but a rich guy decides he wants that guy’s lamb. The rich guy takes that guy’s lamb. Nathan asks a really good question to David. What should be done with his greedy dude? David says he should be killed. Then, like a pivotal point in a movie, Nathan declares, “You…you are that man David!” Whoa! David thought he’d cleaned up his mess. He forgot or didn’t care to remember, God sees all, and knows all, you can’t just get away with things, even if they are done in secret. David falls down in repentance and cries out to Nathan. Nathan tells him there will be a hefty price to pay for his sin.

Going back to John Calvin’s theory that God pulls all the strings, why is God sending Nathan to accuse David of his sins? Why does David have to pay a hefty price for this sin? According to Calvin, God chose David to do this. God ordained David to sin with Bathsheba and kill off her husband. This was ALL God according to John Calvin. Does any of that make sense? Who DO we see making all these choices to sin? Why David, of course! David is the one plotting and scheming to get what he wants and then covering it over. DAVID, DAVID, DAVID. It’s all David. It is completely illogical to say God made David do it. Because if that was the case, why does God send Nathan to scold David and tell him he’s going to be punished? Does that make sense to you? It doesn’t to me. If we look at this story through Calvin’s eyes, this is really illogical for God to send Nathan to David. If we look at this story through the Bible as the Bible tells us the story, it makes sense because David did all that bad stuff, and God “spanked” him for it. Let’s just be logical people!

 

The devil made me do it.” Ever hear that line? We don’t like to take responsibility for our actions, so what better excuse than to say, “the devil made me do it.” I didn’t do it. We put our hands up in the air as if to surrender…I didn’t do it, the devil made me do it. Calvinism takes all the responsibility for EVERYONE’S actions and puts it all on God. Instead of saying, “The devil made me do it,” a Calvinist says, “God made me do it.” That is truly what John Calvin wrote. We only have God to blame for ALL of this mess according to John Calvin.

Yikes! What a concept! To say God controls everything and chooses who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. To say God chose Adam and Eve to sin in the garden of Eden. Their fall was part of God’s plan. God chose Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. God chose David to sin with Bathsheba and then kill her husband. All of it – God’s plan. Nobody has a say in these matters. We’re merely puppets on God’s great stage. Whoa! And the greatest error of Calvin – God made the devil rebel against God and then get himself kicked out of heaven. When you look at it that way, you would have to sympathize with the devil. He has no responsibility in the matter. Wow! Wow! Wow! Calvinism is sympathy for the devil. Who’s the bully now in the scenario? Well God is. He decided the devil was going to be the devil.

Many of you are saying, “WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” I’m talking about what you just read, Calvinism is sympathy for the Devil. Calvinism DOESN’T  say, “the Devil made me do it!” Calvinism says God made me do it. None of us has a choice or say in anything in our lives, again, according to Calvinism. God, like the big bully Calvin says he is, has predetermined all our lives and what they will be. So the Devil is thrown into the lot with the rest of us hapless victims of the playbook of Calvin’s God. The Devil get’s a hall pass. He’s free to be the enemy that He is, because he never chose this for himself, God chose it for him. He is to be pitied just like the rest of us poor saps. We are at the mercy of Calvin’s bully God.

You might be saying, “I can’t believe people believe this.” Well believe it. This IS what Calvin says. This IS the belief of CALVINISM. CALVINISM IS SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL. Most Calvinists have never read John Calvin’s writings. Most often they hear it from a pastor’s lips. AND a Calvinist pastor/teacher is NOT going to tell you all this. People would run, screaming from the building. Pure Calvinism is so bad, a pastor/teacher really won’t go deep into the teaching. Like I said, otherwise people would run screaming from the building. You get bits and pieces from a Calvinist preacher/teacher.

Like these gems:

* God is sovereign

* Man is too depraved to come to God

* God chose you (they won’t finish the sentence and say God chose who is going to heaven and who is going to hell)

* Because of God’s good pleasure

These are Calvinist phrases. According to a Calvinist, these phrases are ripe with meaning. Think like a good Calvinist. On the surface these phrases seem to not be too bad, but they come from Calvinism and John Calvin’s twisted teaching. There are more phrases, but these are the common ones you hear thrown around by Calvinists.

Do you see why Calvinism is a cancer of the church? Calvinism is a CHARACTER ASSASSINATION of God. The true God, the God that I know IS NOT LIKE THIS. My God is not the bully God John Calvin describes. Just spend time in the Bible and you will get a completely different picture of the One True God. The One who loves us so much, He gave His Son, that WHOEVER believes on Him will be saved. My friend who hates Calvinism says when he reads Calvin’s writings, often he can’t tell if Calvin is talking about God or talking about the devil. My friend also read someone else who said the same thing. You can’t tell the difference between God and the devil? What does that tell you? They should never be so alike you can’t tell the difference. Do you see why Calvinism is sympathy for the devil? Wouldn’t that be exactly what the devil wants us to believe? Wouldn’t he want us to sympathize with him? Pity him? And when we don’t suspect him, the enemy will go in for the kill.

When my sister was little, we were playing at a friend’s house. The friend’s had this great big German shepherd dog chained up in the yard. Every time we walked by the dog, he would start barking like a maniac and pull on his chain like he wanted to bite us. We would go way around the dog so he couldn’t get to us. Well my sister got lulled into thinking the dog was okay. She went outside for some reason and spotted the dog not pulling on his chain and barking. So she went over to him to pet him. Bad move. Right when she went to pet him, the dog leaped up and bit her in the lip. She came into the house crying with blood pouring down her shirt. She ended up with seven stitches on her lip. Calvinism makes you think the devil isn’t so bad. It makes you think God is. Wouldn’t the enemy want you to think that way?