Calvinist Tool Box
Question: What’s inside the Calvinist toolbox?
Answer: Scripture is the biggest obstacle for a Calvinist, so Calvinists utilize certain tools in order to scale the many biblical hurdles that they face. So here I would like to document the various devices of those rascally Calvinists.
1) “Of the elect.”
Any time that a Calvinist is faced with a biblical text that broadly and indiscriminately demonstrates God’s love, a Calvinist seems to invoke the “of the elect” defense, so as to restrict, what is otherwise a clear text of Scripture. This would include such gems as “all...of the elect” and “world...of the elect,” and ironically even, the “WHOLE world...of the elect.” Nothing can stop a self-determined Calvinist!, pun intended.
2) “It’s a mystery.”
Hey, when a Calvinist is caught in Double-Talk, and is shown to be violating basic logic, nothing works better than the “it’s a mystery” defense. How does God determine whatsoever comes to pass, and how does that not also include sin, such as making God into the author of sin?, well it’s a mystery. How is it that God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass, but did not also decree the Fall of man, such as John Calvin’s self-admitted “Horrible Decree,” John Calvin said it himself that he is not ashamed to admit ignorance, because of course it’s just a mystery.
3) “It’s the Means.”
Why does the Apostle Paul say that he becomes all things to all people so that some might be saved, when if they are elected to salvation, they will receive an Irresistible Grace, regardless, well “it’s just the means.” This is an effective escape-hatch for the Calvinist.
4) Rabbit Trail.
If a Calvinist is unable to resolve a clear refutation against Calvinism, a Calvinist will attempt a “rabbit trail” diversion, in which the Calvinist will bait the Arminian with an unrelated, soft-ball question, with the intent of invoking a secondary “rabbit trail” diversion, which will then lead the Arminian to a Calvinist “proof-text” that the Calvinist is better prepared to handle, and thus, the baited Arminian is effectively pulled off of their primary argument, in this clever little 2-step “rabbit trail” approach.
5) Poison the Well.
This is another favorite of the Calvinist. If they cannot refute you, they can simply compare you to the “heresy de jure” in which, if you disagree with the Calvinist, then you are...a Universalist, Pelagian, Semi-Pelagian, Romanist, Liberal, ect. (Of course, as an Arminian, I would point out that the Gnostics also denied Free Will, and affirmed Determinism, in which “Augustine” was a former Gnostic for a decade until his conversion to Catholicism, but at least there is a common bond between the two, in which both denied free will. That’s at least a fair point to make.)
6) Claim Special Knowledge.
It is a subtle putdown, that those who don’t understand Calvinism are somehow intellectually or spiritually inferior. It’s circular reasoning: “If you understood Calvinism, you would embrace Calvinism. However, since you don’t embrace Calvinism, you REALLY don’t understand it.”
7) Intimidation.
If all else fails, sometimes Calvinists will tell Arminians that they are “concerned” about them...regarding their heresy. James White told Dave Hunt that he was “concerned” about how he had stepped over into Pelagianism, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Romanism (which obviously was completely untrue). James White also mentioned that he was “concerned” about former-Calvinist, Austin Fischer, in their recent radio debate. So #7 is definitely in James White’s bag of tricks.
