WHY I AM NOT A CALVINIST

It is amazing how many times in life that we cannot see the truth because we have made a prior assumption that does not allow us to see clearly. When we make an assumption without fully considering its ramifications, it will lead us where we have to defend our position, no matter how illogical. Interpretation is an inescapable concept. It is never a question of interpretation, no interpretation, but which interpretation.

The Christian Reconstruction Movement is a movement of Calvinists. They love to say that Wesleyan-Arminianism is heresy and blasphemy. It is impossible for me to read very far when they start their diatribe against Arminianism. I, for one, am in agreement with much of what the Christian Reconstruction Movement stands for. I believe wholly in God’s law as mediated through Christ, which they agree with. I accept the covenant model as a method of interpretation. I am a Postmillennialist. So I walk hand in hand with the Christian Reconstruction Movement on the majority of their positions.

They cannot accuse me of not reading their materials as I have most of their publications in my library, which I have also read. Where I cannot agree with those in the Christian Reconstruction Movement and ultimately with Calvinism is in the area of salvation. Two points of Calvinism that I wholly reject are total depravity and limited atonement. If man is totally depraved this means that he is incapable of doing any good. If man is wholly depraved, then he would murder everyone in sight, he would steal everything in sight etc.

This is not what we see in experience. While any good that man does, without being born again of the Spirit, does not merit salvation. Any good man does, apart from salvation, is works and biblical salvation is by grace and not by works. Man, even without the Spirit of God, will run into a burning house to try and save life. This is not an act of depravity. A totally depraved man would not attempt to save any life. He would be incapable of doing any good.

In the book, The Great Christian Revolution, John Lofton writes on page 314, "A believer doesn’t have faith unless God has given it to him. Faith is a gift from God, and God only (Ephesians 2:8). God releases His power according to His will. His power being released is not dependent on any human action. The clay does not determine what the potter does!" There is much that is wrong with these statements.

For one, man is made in God’s image. In that image, there is the belief in God. Faith is something therefore that we have possessed from the beginning. God put faith into our hearts which would of course have been by His grace. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in our hearts. Only the spiritual can respond to the spiritual. If God has to give us faith, then God has predetermined some to be saved and some to be lost. This means that man has no ability to choose anything. Man must wait around for God to save him. He cannot do anything to cooperate with God in salvation. According to Calvinism, man is incapable of responding to the preaching of God’s word. Then what is the use of preaching?

Here are some Scriptures that destroy the limited atonement of Calvinism. First is 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness: but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God’s will is that not one man should perish, but all should be saved. All men do not come to repentance. Why? According to Calvinism, God has to give us faith to believe. Since God wants all men to be saved, it follows that God would give to all men the faith to believe. Then why do they not come to repentance? Is it because God does not want them to be saved or is He unable to bring all men to repentance?

Man is created by God to be a limited sovereign. There are those Calvinists who speak of the sovereignty of the consumer. How can a consumer be a sovereign, but when it comes to life, man has no sovereignty? Without limited sovereignty how can man carry out the Dominion Mandate and the Great Commission? If man is not a limited sovereign, how can he demonstrate any self control or self government? Revelation 1:5 says that Christ has made us to be kings and priests. Isn’t a king a sovereign?

Calvinism leads to one inescapable concept that God has predetermined who would be saved and who would be damned. I am thankful that this is not the God whom I serve. I hate the God of Calvinism just as much as the Calvinist hates the God of Arminianism. I have come to the conclusion that there will never be an agreement between Calvinists and Wesleyan-Arminianism regarding salvation. Each will accuse the other of heresy.

Another scripture that destroys the limited atonement is Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whomsoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Following the laws of grammar, it should be obvious that God wants all men to take the water of life freely by the use of the word whosoever. To take the water of life freely i.e., without compulsion, means that we have the ability to do so. God never commands impossibilities. We have to take the water of life to have it.
God has predetermined His law. God has predetermined the provision for salvation. This provisional predetermination is revealed in Romans 5:6-8, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ dies for the ungodly (not the elect). For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet preadventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners (not the elect), Christ dies for us." These scriptures say that God has provided a lamb. The ungodly and sinners qualify for salvation, which means all men for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The limited atonement of Calvinism is a myth and unscriptural.

Will Calvinists go to heaven? They will go the same way that all Wesleyan-Arminians make it to heaven, solely by God’s grace. What is going to happen when we get to heaven with Calvinists? I do not know. I am hoping at that point that God will straighten them out. I often wonder how both Calvinists and Wesleyan-Arminians claim to have the Spirit of God and yet cannot agree on such an important area as salvation. I thought the Spirit of God brings agreement, not disagreement.

GIVING UP ON THE ESTABLSHED CHURCH

The modern church of today is wholly worthless. It has become what the Lord Jesus Christ said about salt losing its savor, it is good for nothing than to become something to walk on and nothing else. This accurately describes the church of our day. The church of our day is idolatrous to the core. Church services only accomplish a social function. The modern church is useless in the fight against all the wickedness of society. In fact, the modern church is wholly indictable for all that is morally wrong in our world.

The main problems with the church are its eschatology and its basis in law. The church is wholly antinomian and pious. Instead of fighting the outward giants, the church is trying to fight the giants within their hearts through a morbid introspection. Instead of persecuting the world with righteousness, they have retreated from the battlefield into endless prayer meetings asking God to deliver them while the culture around them continues to disintegrate.

The modern church has accepted the operating principles of the pagan. This is because they were taught these principles in the established church in America, the government schools. They have learned the principles of atheism and then they bring these same principles with them into the church and interpret the Bible in the same way that the atheist does i.e., there is no God who has given us His law. The modern church rejects God’s law as expressed through Christ and therefore, they reject the God of the Bible even while they carry their Bible’s to church.

There in nothing redeemable in the modern church. It must be wholly abandoned. The modern church does not abandon the government schools. In fact, they are one of the main reasons that the government schools are increasing in size. The fact that they do not understand the atheism of the government school curriculum demonstrates that they are in support of atheism rather than theism. It is time to bring sanctions against atheism by supposed Christians taking their children out of the government school system. Until they do, they are nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothing.

It is time for Christians to abandon the modern church. There needs to be an exodus. God is raising up pastors who preach and believe in God’s law as expressed through Christ. Soon it will be impossible for those who claim to be God’s people to remain in these idolatrous settings. They will be aware that the Spirit of God has written Ichabod on these congregations a long time ago. Repentance begins by abandoning these congregations. Mega churches are the worst of the worst. These dens of iniquity are all about mammon, not serving the living God.

It is time for the true people of God to awake and come out of these false churches. They are not doctrinally sound. They have no foundations. It is time to bring sanctions against the synagogues of Satan. The way that people bring sanctions is by leaving. The Spirit of God will lead His people where they need to go. The times are changing for the better. Those who are spiritually dead will remain in these dead churches. They cannot hear the voice of God.

SPIRITUAL SCHOOL OF INTERPRETATION

The key to history is to make progress. Time is linear and therefore, we should be making progress in all aspects of life. We are living in a time and age of regression. The spiritual regression is being made apparent by physical regression. Those whose heart’s guiding principle is death will automatically go backwards and become primitive. Why do people mutilate their bodies by piercing and tattoos? This is not a sign of civilization but a visible sign of reverting to a primitive lifestyle.

The reason for this reversion is obvious to those who are in the know. Most people do not understand it because they lack the interpretive key. Their method of interpretation does not differ in any way from those who have mutilated their bodies. There is a liberal idolatry and a conservative idolatry. Idolatry is the culmination of the interpretive method of the literal. The literal method of interpretation is the doltish way of taking everything at face value. It is a superficial method of interpretation. It ignores any underlying reality. It is a method that demonstrates the interpreter’s lack of understanding.

The literal method is the method used by the Pre-Millennial and antinomian. The Left Behind Series is the literal masterpiece. I made a statement that I could not write a novel. A congregant told me that I could write a novel and the name of it would be the Moving Forward Series. Unless we are progressing, by definition, we are regressing. In never dawns upon those who interpret scripture literally that their system is wholly faulty and will never come to the proper interpretation. So they come up with the same failed interpretation over and over again.

I have never been one to be lacking in confidence. Confidence is essential if one is going to start a new school of thought. All scripture is interpreted scripture. In other words, one’s understanding of scripture is determined by his method of interpretation. Interpretation has consequences. There are only two ways of interpreting scripture. One is literally and the other is the spiritual method.

The spiritual method is based upon the spiritual preceding the physical or the law of cause and effect with the addition of the law of identity. The spiritual method of interpretation is comprised of the laws of grammar and historical context. The law of identity incorporates reason and logic. The spiritual method is a trinity. It takes into account the spirit (heart), mind, and body. It is a complete method of interpretation.

The literal method is based solely upon the physical. It denies any underlying spiritual reality. Those who say they interpret scripture literally will reject God’s law as applicable to today. Romans 7:14 reads in part, "For we know that the law is spiritual..." It makes sense that they reject the law because it is spiritual. Literal interpretation is unspiritual because it rejects the source of the spiritual. Remember that God is Spirit.