It Must Be Painful to be a Calvinist

I think it's painful for calvinists to be reminded by osas arminians that God does not save that way, that is by presuming everyone is totally deprave and then their god picking some and not others without regard for their choice as though like robots. That is not love. Dave Hunt says, What Love is This? I agree, that is not love, but it is all in the head, not in the spirit, without the substitution and co-death with Christ. That's why we have to keep praying for calvinists and not tell them they were premade for perdition or that Jesus didn't die for them, but that He died for everyone, so that anyone can be saved and God wants everyone to be saved, but sadly some choose not God's way of salvation, which is why in God's infinite foreknowledge He created Hell. Realize if you just give up control of yourself for God, He will grace you with His life, but not until then. Let go of the control calvinism has on you and accept the Word of God when it says there are free-will offerings, that you can drink of the water of life freely, and whosoever believeth, which means anyone, can be saved. Praise the Lord! Amen.

Calvinism insists all men, being totally deprave by nature in their special definition of human depravity, are unable to repent and believe the gospel, yet holds us accountable for failing to do so. How can it reasonably be said that a person is unwilling to do what he is unable to do? There is no way either to prove or disprove this statement, and thus it must be wrong. Canons of Dort erroneously declares "without the regeneration...are neither able nor willing to return to God...nor dispose themselves of the reformation." That expresses human opinion-it is never stated in the Bible.

Can we say that a man is unwilling to fly like a bird? If he were able, he might very well be willing. Certainly his alleged unwillingness to fly like a bird cannot be blamed as the reason he doesn't do so! Nor can he be held accountable for failing to fly so long as flying is impossible for him. Isn't Calvinism guilty of both absurdity and inustice by declaring man to be incapable of repentance and faith, then condemning him for failing to repent and believe?

"All men everywhere" (Acts 17.30) are repeatedly called upon to repent and to believe in Christ. One would never derive from Scripture the idea that the unregenerate are unable to believe. Dave Breese, highly respected and brilliant author and expositor of Scripture, declared that it "cannot be shown that 'total depravity' is in fact scriptural truth."

A Calvinist insists that regeneration must precede faith-and thus it must precede salvation, which is by faith alone: "once he [the sinner] is born again, he can for the first time turn to Jesus...asking Jesus to save him." What a strange and unbiblical doctrine is this, that a sinner must be born again before he can believe the gospel!

Is it not through believing the gospel that we are born-again? "Being born again...And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto" (1 Pet. 1.23,25). R. C. Sproul declares, "A cardinal point of Reformed theology is the maxim, 'Regeneration precedes faith'." Nowhere in Scripture, however, is there a suggestion that man must be regenerated before he can be saved by faith in Christ.

Many verses point to the opposite of calvinism: "...to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3.15), and "ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3.26). Faith always precedes salvation/regeneration. There is not one scripture that states clearly the doctrine that regeneration comes first and then faith follows-not one.

All are commanded to repent and turn to Christ. As Paul declared on Mars' Hill in Athens, God "commandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17.30). To say that God commands men to do what they cannot do without His grace, then withholds the grace they need and punishes them eternally for failing to obey, is to make a mockery of God's Word, of His mercy and love, and is to libel His character. Not inability but unwillingness is man's problem: "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God" (Psalm 10.4). Christ rebuked the rabbis, "And ye will not come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5.40)-an unjust accusation to level at those who could not come unless God caused them to do so.

Augustine invented "the exaggerated doctrine of human depravity...". Turning depravity into inability leads to the unconditional election of those who will be saved through His irresistible grace.

Such a belief system leads to great atrocities in history and near future, because if you are the graced ones who were caused to come, does it really matter what you do, for how you came to be a chosen one, so you live out your life in that same fashion; it is no longer by choice, but by being compelled by some force outside yourself, certainly not from God. Everything then becomes fair game and considered morally or spiritually feasible.

"...by the righteousness of one [Christ] the free gift came upon all men unto justification for life" (Rom. 5.18). No one can purchase, earn, or merit salvation. It must be (and need only be) received as a free gift. What ability is required to accept a gift? Only the capacity to choose-something that daily experience proves is normal to every human being, even to the smallest child. How, then, is it possible for any sinner to lack the "ability" to be saved?