Calvinism is a beautiful lie
Luiz Andrada
July 8, 2021.
Updated November 4, 2023.
Note: I recommend reading the excellent text Why I disagree with all 5 points of Calvinism, authored by Pastor Dr. Curtis Hutson (1934-1995). He was a fundamentalist Baptist minister.
The essay The Bible vs. Calvinism: an Overview is the best text I have ever read against Calvinist lies. It was written by Patrick Myers, an excellent, comprehensive, complete text.
When Thomas Jefferson was 80 years old, he wrote to fellow former US President John Adams: “I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Demonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did. The being described in his 5 points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent governor of the world; but a demon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin.”
Quoted in: https://biblevscalvinism.org/
Evangelical Brazil is being invaded by a false doctrine, which presents itself as the cure for the turmoil and the spiritual damage caused by these nightclubs which are conventionally called charismatic, Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal churches, among other groups. But the false cure is really nothing more than another wound.
Both in our nation and in other countries the testimonies of churches destroyed by Calvinism are growing. Calvinist theology — synonymous with Reformed theology — is becoming a national craze, much to the dismay of many churches, denominations, and groups. When Calvinist arrogance invades a space, it does so to destroy, confuse and divide.
John Calvin (1509 – 1564) was a French theologian, one of the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation, who was particularly active in Geneva. He was a depressed man, with an extremely melancholy and introspective disposition. His soteriology (doctrine about human salvation) is known by the acronym TULIP, which means:
T - Total Depravity
U - Unconditional Election
L - Limited Atonement
I - Irresistible Grace
P - Perseverance of the Saints
In a very synthetic way, these five points mean: i) that the human being is totally corrupted, and incapable of deciding for himself the salvation that God offers in Jesus Christ; ii) that the human being can do nothing to be saved; iii) that Jesus Christ died only for the elect; iv) that no elect can resist the effective call of the Gospel; v) that once saved, the elect can never lose the grace of salvation.
There you can see an immense presumption, boasting and arrogance.
Calvinism is a lying, fatalistic and deterministic theology. Some say that this philosophy has spawned a cult-like mentality, in which its followers consider themselves the elect, and outsiders are considered theological rabble, people of inferior doctrine. His view of the sovereignty of God arouses more hatred than love for this same God, given that he would be responsible for all good and evil in the universe. There is no human freedom under the despotic authoritarianism of this Calvinist God. Generally speaking, as time passes and Calvinism intensifies its destructive action on the believer's spirituality, the only response to this God is horror, panic, and hatred. Atheism and agnosticism are also common responses after Calvinism poisoning. About this, the testimony of ex-Calvinists is abundant today on the internet: videos, books, websites, blogs, discussion forums, etc.
If the sovereignty of God does not allow for the slightest human freedom, it is easy to understand that we are all predestined by God for this or that. The world is a robot shop. Hence one of the most satanic conceptions of Calvinism: double predestination. According to Reformed soteriology, every human being is born predestined to heaven, or predestined to hell. And there is nothing that can change this condition. Those beautiful babies who are in the hospital maternity have on their foreheads the fatalistic and deterministic stamp: heaven or hell. A Baptist pastor in the USA rightly said that Calvinism is demonic, and that the "god" of Calvinists is worse than Satan. Yes, a huge crowd of Christians totally repudiates the Calvinist lie.
Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregational, and many Baptist churches are traditionally followers of John Calvin. And, as already stated, many other groups are being invaded by the Calvinist toxin.
Evangelical Brazil is a corral for North American pastors and missionaries, who arrive here and teach their lies, imposing their worldview on a horde of Brazilians incapable of thinking, criticizing, reasoning. We are a country taken over by these foreign people who are transforming this nation into a republic of stupid evangelicals.
Many Christian publishers are dedicated exclusively to promoting Calvinism on Brazilian soil. Churches promote several events with the presence of national and foreign Calvinist speakers. Calvinist celebrities, the popes of Reformed theology, are translated and sold in droves to evangelicals. There are even groups touting the works of the ancient Puritans, one of the most severe and pernicious theologies to anyone's spirituality.
Many evangelicals even openly practice idolatry, referring to these Calvinist celebrities all the time obsessively: Michael Horton, John F. MacArthur, Albert Mohler, Eugene H. Peterson, John Piper, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, etc. These and many others are the popes, cardinals, bishops, apostles of the Calvinist pantheon.
Calvinism is a merely human philosophy, cold, rational, logical, mathematical, intellectual, dead. John Calvin wrote for the dead. I knew the Calvinist atmosphere in the past, and I came out of a Presbyterian church vomiting with disgust at those arrogant, vain, snobby, cold people who didn't even greet each other in Sunday service. A disgust. I found nothing of Christian faith there.
By the way, arrogance and vainglory, hallmarks of Satan, are the hallmarks of the Calvinists too.
I ended my career in the Calvinist corral suffering from intense mental fatigue, and immense stress, because everything in Calvinism is all about reading, reading, reading, attending courses, conferences, lectures, and more new books, books, books, etc. Nothing against reading, on the contrary, I love reading practice. But reducing the Christian life to a simple rational equation is the right way to turn people away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you accept a suggestion? Do what I did several years ago: tear up and throw in the trash of all your Calvinist books. It's a liberating gesture.
