The real truth about the Doctrines of Grace
Calvinists love to declare their beliefs as the doctrines of grace. But do you know why? You see, calvinists used to believe in the doctrine of puritanism, where if you fell off your spiritual horse and couldn’t get back on again, you were declared non-elect, not having persevered to the end. This is bad news for those calvinist pastors who desire mega-salaries from their mega-churches. It’s very bad for business to offload all those who aren’t able to persevere as good puritans. Dismissing the failures as non-elect removes money from the offering plate.
New calvinism demands evidence of God’s grace to be declared elect
Enter new calvinism, where the emphasis is no longer on being good obedient puritans, but on being restored sinners. Now it is good to fall off your spiritual horse, because if you get up and in the running again, then you are said to have been restored by God’s grace. In fact, the only way for calvinists to experience God’s grace is to sin in order to confess your sin so that you can be restored to fellowship. That is, new calvinism requires that you fall off your horse regularly so that you then have the opportunity to demonstrate God’s grace in restoring you. Hence the name: the doctrines of grace.
Therefore the calvinist is required to sin to experience God’s grace
New calvinism now encourages its elect to confess their sins regularly to one another. If you do not confess sin regularly (particularly to your friendly church biblical counsellor), then you may be harbouring sin, and therefore not the recipient of God’s grace, and thus at risk of being judged not one of the elect. Sounds a lot like the catholic confessional, doesn’t it? Then note carefully that Calvin never actually left the catholic church; he merely tried to reform it, thus the name “The Reformation”.
New calvinism grants the elect a licence to sin
New Calvinism derived from Sonship Theology which many (even calvinists) declare to be a licence to sin. For example, from Covenant Presbyterian Church: “I heard of one preacher who said that as sons, we are free to sin. …. The freeness of our Father’s grace should never be turned, even slightly, into a license to sin. ….
Sonship Theology is an attempt to elevate grace.” (7th Oct 2007)
Sonship theology teaches that there is no sin that any child of God can possibly commit that could ever prevent that elect person from entering heaven. That is, if you are one of the elect and commit a sin, then you will be the recipient of God’s grace in restoring you to fellowship. (Note that according to calvinism, God has foreordained your sin anyway!) The calvinist God will always show grace to his elect, no matter what sin they committed; to not be restored means a lack of God’s grace due to not being one of the elect. Only the elect of the calvinist God may have such a licence to sin!
A licence to sin means more money in the offering plate
So, “the doctrines of grace” can be re-worded as “a licence to sin”, as long as it translates to sufficient money in the offering plate to justify it.
Keep in mind that if the calvinist God has predestinated all mankind to either heaven or hell, then:
(a) Praying for someone to be saved is useless
Praying for anyone’s salvation cannot change where that person goes when they die. The calvinist (reformed belief) God has decided from the beginning of time where every single person will go when they die and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to change this. Any calvinist who prays for another’s salvation is literally wasting his time (or else he shouldn’t be a calvinist).
And could praying for someone’s salvation be judged by the calvinist God as a sin of rebellion against his totally sovereign will??
(b) Evangelisation and mission work are a total waste of time
Calvinists have to believe that the future eternity for everyone on the mission field has already been decided before you even decided to be a missionary or evangelist. Nothing you can do can ever alter that which has been decided from the beginning. Even trying to change the calvinist God’s decisions could be seen as rebellion against his sovereignty! Trying to evangelise someone foreordained to hell would be to oppose the calvinist God’s sovereignty!
(c) Doing good works cannot make any difference
Even doing good works is of no benefit at all to you. The calvinist God has foreordained everything you will do before you were even born, so whatever you do must be according to what the calvinist God has determined for you. Some calvinist “teachers” say that if you are not sure if you are of the elect group of God, then you should work to ensure that you are. This is a major contradiction in their doctrine which also says that you cannot change anything regarding your eternal future.
(d) It is impossible for a calvinist to know that they are saved until they die
And how can anyone actually know that they are one of the elect until the day they die? According to calvinist teachings, the only certain evidence that you are one of the elect is that you will persevere until the end. Calvin recognised this as a serious problem with his doctrine when he observed a number of the “elect” falling away before the end. He taught that if you fell away, then you were never one of the elect in the first place. But many were deemed to be of the elect before they fell away, prompting Calvin to declare his doctrine of a temporary faith which he described as an inferior operation of the Spirit. Not one calvinist is able to be certain that he or she has not been granted a temporary faith until they persevere to the end.
So, how many calvinists out there are willing to guarantee that they will make it to heaven? And will you argue this with God in the judgment if He pronounces you lost?
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