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The living-dead calvinist zombies – as taught by Calvin
Calvinism has 3 groups: the living (the elect), the dead (the non-elect), and the living-dead (the living non-elect). It must be true; Calvin taught it to be so. For further information, please read on.
This post will look at Calvin’s disgusting doctrine of temporary faith, a teaching that allows some of the non-elect to be given a temporary salvation, a temporary eternal life, a temporary faith, producing a class of people we could truthfully describe as spiritual zombies, the spiritually living-dead! Those who think that Calvin is a teacher above reproach should rethink their opinion of him, admitting that in this doctrine he was so totally non-biblical that he should be rejected for all time as a Christian teacher. I guess it all depends upon whether you place Calvin’s teachings above the teachings of the Bible or not. Do you depend on the Bible to assess teachers of doctrine? Or do you expect the Bible to fit in with the doctrines of man?
Matthew 15:9 – But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
My comments have been based upon the writings of Calvin himself as found in his Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 3 Chapter 2 Section 11, in which Calvin teaches his blasphemous non-biblical doctrine of a temporary faith that he labels as “an inferior operation of the Spirit”. This is indeed blasphemy: to call anything the Holy Spirit does as “inferior”! And the committing of blasphemy is that which is done by a blasphemer, which Calvin indeed most definitely is. (And any calvinist who objects to this conclusion would do well to research my writing and determine just where I have misrepresented Calvin in any way! Or else admit the truth: that calvinism is based upon non-biblical premises.)
Calvinists are fond of teaching that the calvinist God unconditionally chose his elect for salvation before the beginning of the world. Many of them also teach, quite logically, that if God chose some for salvation, then he also chose the rest for damnation. (This is termed double predestination, something Calvin clearly taught.)
All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death. (Calvin’s Institutes Book 3 Chapter 21 Section 5)
Of course, if they say that their God did not predestinate the non-elect to hell for eternity, then they have to admit that their God is only sovereign over his elect and no-one else!
And these two classes of mankind were permanently set for all time; you belonged to either one or the other for all eternity, without any option for change.
Calvinists are also fond of teaching that man is totally unable to respond favourably to God in any way; they term this the Total inability of man (the “T” in TULIP). They quote Ephesians 2:1 (And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins;) to support their often-parroted claim that a dead person cannot respond because he is a corpse and corpses just cannot do anything at all – they are spiritually dead! Even the elect of the calvinist God cannot respond to anything spiritually until after they have been regenerated (that is, born again).
Thus calvinists teach that you are either spiritually dead or spiritually alive. The non-elect can never be regenerated, and therefore can never be spiritually alive, and the elect (the chosen ones of the calvinist God) can only be spiritually alive after they have been “quickened by the Spirit” (made alive by the Spirit) according to their interpretation of Ephesians 2:1. Therefore, for the calvinist, the spiritually dead non-elect can never be alive, can never seek after God (they quote Romans 3:11), can never be forgiven (the calvinist Jesus never died for any of the sins of the non-elect), can never go to heaven, can never respond favourably toward God at any time (according to their interpretation of Ephesians 2:1).
But, are they aware that Calvin clearly taught that there was a third class of people, spiritually speaking? A class of people whom we might term the zombie-elect, the living-dead? A class of people who showed all the symptoms of being spiritually alive: they sought after God, they desired to be holy as God is holy, they praised and worshipped God, they attended church regularly with other “elect”, considered themselves to be of the elect, and were, in fact, considered to be elect by the other elect people. In other words, they were seemingly indistinguishable from the genuine product. They looked the real deal, except, they weren’t! They were spiritual Frankensteins, dead bodies that lived, yet remained dead.
These were the ones the calvinist God made alive with a temporary faith, a temporary salvation, a temporary eternal life, yet were never chosen by God to be of His chosen elect. These were the spiritually living-dead, the zombie elect who were given life by the calvinist God without taking away their deadness. They exhibited all the qualities of life, yet could never live. Calvin called this a temporary faith, given by God through an inferior operation of the Spirit. by Christ himself a temporary faith, is ascribed to them …… But in this there is nothing to prevent an inferior operation of the Spirit from taking its course in the reprobate. (Calvin)
All quotes here are from Calvin’s Institutes Book 3, Chapter 2, Section 11.
I am aware it seems unaccountable to some how faith is attributed to the reprobate, seeing that it is declared by Paul to be one of the fruits of election; and yet the difficulty is easily solved: for though none are enlightened into faith, and truly feel the efficacy of the Gospel, with the exception of those who are fore-ordained to salvation, yet experience shows that the reprobate are sometimes affected in a way so similar to the elect, that even in their own judgment there is no difference between them.
Calvin here states that it is difficult to understand how the lost can exhibit faith when faith is considered a fruit of only the elect. Calvin explains that only those who are elect can truly exhibit real faith, but then says that the lost sometimes are so affected that even they cannot tell the difference between their faith and the faith of the elect. So, how can you tell the difference between real faith and temporary faith? Thus, according to Calvin, even the lost can believe that they are elect!
So, the next time a calvinist tells me that corpses cannot respond because they are dead, think again, for, according to Calvin, dead corpses can respond, if the calvinist God decides to commit an inferior operation!
Hence it is not strange, that by the Apostle a taste of heavenly gifts, and by Christ himself a temporary faith, is ascribed to them. Not that they truly perceive the power of spiritual grace and the sure light of faith; but the Lord, the better to convict them, and leave them without excuse, instills into their minds such a sense of his goodness as can be felt without the Spirit of adoption.
Firstly, the lost can receive a taste of heavenly gifts, and a limited, or temporary, faith is given to them. Not only do they have a temporary faith, but it is actually given to them by Christ himself. Of course, they don’t have the power (authority) that the elect have, nor do they have the real faith (even if it seems to be the same as those who claim to have a real faith, although who knows if those too have the faith of the elect!). But why give them a temporary faith in the first place? Calvin explains that it is so God can better convict them of their crime, that they will know that they have no excuse for their sin, and that when their temporary faith is removed again, they will know then what they are missing out on for all eternity. So the calvinist God gives them as much life as possible without actually adopting them as his children. That is, the calvinist God has no desire to give these temporary faith sinners any of the inheritance he has promised to those he has actually chosen for heaven.
not that they are partakers of the same faith or regeneration with the children of God; but because, under a covering of hypocrisy, they seem to have a principle of faith in common with them.
And not only do those of temporary faith think they themselves are saved, the elect around them can also think that those of temporary faith are saved. Those of temporary faith can actually seem to have a principle of faith in common with those of the elect.
So, can any calvinist today genuinely demonstrate that he is the real deal, and not just the consequence of an inferior operation of the Spirit? How can you tell? In fact, no calvinist can ever have assurance of persevering to the end while he lives in this world. For, how can he be certain the calvinist God won’t “pull the plug” on him before he reaches the end? After all, he might be one of the temporary faith inferior operations of the calvinist Spirit!
But in this there is nothing to prevent an inferior operation of the Spirit from taking its course in the reprobate.
This is the most disgusting part of Calvin’s whole doctrine of temporary faith. He actually acknowledges that it is an inferior operation of the Spirit. That’s right, Calvin is admitting that his God does inferior things in order to carry out his will in certain people. Far from the calvinist God being more sovereign than the God of the Bible, he is actually inferior. The calvinist God carries out inferior operations; the calvinist God is therefore inferior to the God of the Bible who never does anything inferior, for the God of the Bible is the mighty Creator God, superior to all in the universe. Why would the God of the Bible have any need to convince His universe that He is Lord? But the calvinist God does have a need to convince sinners that he is God; truly the calvinist God is inferior to the God of the Bible.
And please note that Calvin never quotes even one Bible verse in this section of his Institutes in support of his bold claims here. So much for sola scriptura (the Bible alone)!! The reason is clear: the Bible teaches nothing of the sort anywhere!
For all you calvinists who love to quote Ephesians 2:1 (And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins;) to “prove” the total inability of man to respond until he is born again (quickened by the Spirit), Calvin teaches that some of those who are quickened by (an inferior operation of) the calvinist Spirit never actually leave their deadness behind. The calvinist God, by an inferior operation of the calvinist Spirit, makes them alive, yet they remain dead, such that they are alive, yet still dead in their sins. They are the living dead; they are the zombie elect!
And no calvinist alive today can ever be sure he is not one of them!
So, all you belligerent and militant calvinists out there, all you who think that I am unfairly misrepresenting and maligning such a “great” teacher as Calvin, please check out what I am saying first, and be certain that you are right before you jump in with your criticisms. For, if you accuse me of misrepresenting you, but cannot define clearly and logically (and scripturally, of course – sola scriptura) how I have misrepresented you, then I have not misrepresented you at all! One word of advice: stick to sola scriptura (the Bible alone) for a change! Please!
If you wish to read further, please try the following links.
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
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Is it true that only calvinists can be saved?
Well, if you were to ask a calvinist, and he were to be completely truthful, then he would have to answer, “Yes!” Of course, most calvinists reading this would immediately get upset that I should so misrepresent their revered religion, but if they could just see why I say this, they may have to think again. I may only misrepresent if I say something that is not true. I challenge all calvinists to show clearly where I have said something that is not true of their beliefs. If they can’t, then they should just accept what I say. I get accused of misrepresenting them, yet not one has actually named what it is that I have said that misrepresents them.
It’s simple, really. Calvinists believe that you must be regenerated (born again) by God’s Spirit before you are able to do anything else spiritually. They claim that until you are regenerated (born again), you are spiritually dead and, like a dead body, you are incapable of doing anything good spiritually. Unless you are born again, you cannot effectively hear the gospel, nor have faith in or believe in Christ (based upon their interpretation of John 3:3). And even then, according to calvinists, faith is a gift of God, only given to those who have already been born again. (Of course, faith is not a gift of God but instead it is the response of man’s free will to the character of God who promises such full salvation. They misunderstand – probably deliberately – the grammar of such as Ephesians 2:8-9.)
The first stage of a calvinist’s salvation is that you must be regenerated (born again). Therefore, to a calvinist, unless you have been regenerated (born again), you are incapable of hearing the truth of the gospel and responding. Even if you did hear the gospel, you couldn’t respond because you wouldn’t have the faith to believe in it, because the calvinist God only gives the gift of faith to those whom he has already regenerated. And the calvinist God will only regenerate those whom he has chosen; you do not have a say in the matter at all. If you were not chosen for salvation by the calvinist God, then you can never be saved, ever!
That is, the calvinist God only gives the gift of faith to calvinists, those of his elect that he has chosen for salvation. If you were not chosen by the calvinist God for salvation, then because you have no free will of your own, you can never be saved, even if you wanted to be saved. You will not be regenerated and therefore you will not be given the gift of faith, and therefore can never believe and be saved!
You see, calvinists believe that faith cannot be the response of the free will of man, because (according to them) non-regenerated man has no free will to respond to anything spiritual. Unless a man be born again, he cannot have faith in the kingdom of God (according to calvinists’ interpretation of John 3:3).
Let’s say you are a non-calvinist Christian, having heard the gospel, and by your own free will accepted the gift of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. That is, you called upon the name of the Lord to be saved. God offered the free gift of salvation and you gratefully accepted by faith in God’s promises. However, if calvinists are acting faithfully according to their doctrines, then they have to declare you to be yet unsaved unless God has previously regenerated you. They have to say (as many calvinist do openly state) that if you choose to receive Jesus as your Saviour, then you are not saved and are still heading for hell. They say that you do not choose God; instead, God chooses you! If you insist that you accepted the free gift of salvation, then they have to say that unless God chose to give it to you, you haven’t received anything of the sort. And their God only chooses a small proportion of mankind to save!
If calvinists teach according to their beliefs, they have to say that, unless you are firstly regenerated (born again as a calvinist), you cannot have faith to believe, you cannot be saved, you cannot be a Christian, you cannot have eternal life, and you cannot go to heaven. Calvinist doctrine has to declare any non-calvinist Christian as lost and going to hell, because they do not declare themselves to have been regenerated by God first. Therefore, if you claim to be a non-calvinist Christian, then they are required to evangelise you in order to see if God might regenerate you as one of his elect so that you might be saved. According to the calvinist, you cannot truly be saved unless you are a regenerate calvinist believer like themselves.
Some calvinists do actually tell non-calvinists that if they were truly Christians, they would know that they had been regenerated first (born again, made alive by God’s Spirit) before they understood what they had to do to be saved. And, if they do not accept calvinism as the truth, then they cannot be true Christians. Note what Al Mohler (president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and avid calvinist) says about this subject: Where else are they going to go? If you’re a theological minded, deeply convictional young evangelical, if you’re committed to the gospel and want to see the nations rejoice in the name of Christ, if you want to see gospel built and structured committed churches, your theology is just going end up basically being Reformed, basically something like this new Calvinism, or you’re going to have to invent some label for what is basically going to be the same thing, there just are not options out there, and that’s something that frustrates some people, but when I’m asked about the New Calvinism—where else are they going to go, who else is going to answer the questions, where else are they going to find the resources they going to need and where else are they going to connect.
(https://www.newcalvinist.com/albert-mohler-and-hip-hop-culture/)
Clearly to Mohler, calvinism is the only good option available out there! All we non-calvinist Christians are either truly lesser Christians or not Christians at all. According to calvinists, they (the calvinists) are the only true Christians. Others are either not (yet?) saved, or greatly deluded in their understanding of the truth! To the evangelical calvinist, the non-calvinist Christian is their mission field. If you claim to be Christian but are not calvinist, then their task is to preach the “true” gospel of calvinism to you in the hope that you might yet be truly saved. After all, one of the catch-cries of the calvinist is that “calvinism is the gospel”!
Christians see the lost world as their mission field; calvinists see non-calvinist “non-regenerate” “Christians” attending churches as their mission field! Christians go out into all the world to preach the gospel. Calvinists go into all the churches to preach their gospel! When I asked a calvinist why he bothered with the great commission of Matthew 28:19-20, he answered that he was commanded to do so, and could come up with no other logical reason other than he was commanded to do so! Christians believe the lost are to be found in the world; calvinists believe that the lost whom God has chosen for salvation will be found in the church.
Calvin taught that there was no salvation to be found outside the walls of the mother church; you couldn’t be saved unless God had firstly brought you to the church through his regeneration (Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion Bk IV, Chap I, Part 4). The first sign to a calvinist that you have been regenerated by God is that you will be drawn to the church for salvation. They teach that the non-elect are totally unable to seek after God and thus should not be found in church. (Although Calvin did teach that God could give you a lesser, non-saving temporary faith as an inferior operation of the Spirit – Institutes, Book III, Chapter 2, Part 11. No doubt Calvin was plagued by the knowledge that there were people that he called “lost” still attending church. He was forced to declare them lost, yet given a temporary faith by God to make them look and act like the elect but only for a season. Such people with a temporary faith were never of the elect and would never go to heaven. Read more here The living-dead calvinist zombies – as taught by Calvin)
Therefore, if the calvinist is put on the spot, and forced to declare what their religion actually teaches, they are forced to admit that only the regenerated calvinist may be declared saved; and all non-regenerate Christians cannot be saved until (and if) the calvinist God declares them his elect. If a Christian denies such calvinist teachings, then he must be assumed to be lost and heading for hell. Your testimony of salvation at the cross of Jesus is of no value to the calvinist who says you should have been regenerated first before you could claim Christ’s salvation. To them you are still lost until you accept the “truth” of regeneration as necessary for salvation.
It is true that calvinism teaches that only calvinists may truly be saved. They may deny this as much as they can, but they still have to admit that unless you are regenerated (born again as a calvinist), you cannot have faith to believe in Christ and therefore can never be saved. Regeneration comes before faith; so to the calvinist, without regeneration you cannot be saved, cannot be a Christian, cannot go to heaven, cannot have eternal life. As calvinist Todd Friel says, “People who ask Jesus into their hearts are not saved and they will perish on the Day of Judgment. How tragic that millions of people think they are right with God when they are not. How many people who will cry out, “Lord, Lord” on judgment day will be “Christians” who asked Jesus into their hearts?”
(Ten Reasons To Not Ask Jesus Into Your Heart, by Todd Friel)
If you wish to read further, please try the following links.
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment Comments and contact page
Comments and replies are recorded on the Comments page.