Calvinism and Arminianism:
Myths & Realities
One member of The Society of Evangelic Arminians: “When Calvinists justify Calvin’s personal behavior, and how easy it was for him to manipulate the killing of Christians who disagreed with his teachings, they often use the ‘everyone was doing it in those days’ argument. That is to say, in the days of the reformation, burning people to the stake was not unusual within society, so therefore you cannot judge Calvin’s participation in that behavior as un-Christ-like. One Calvinist pastor presented that argument to me in defense of Calvin’s character. And I replied: ‘What you are telling me is that the Holy Spirit was not the standard of behavior for Calvin, but instead the world was his standard of behavior. Therefore you have simply proven my point for me, in that Calvin’s behavior was un-Christ-like because he was simply follower of the behavior patterns of the world in which he lived. Based on that argument, a Christian girl today should not be judged for having an abortion, because “everyone is doing it.” Secondly, you can’t then judge Catholics for killing John Huss and thousands like him, as a heretic, because “everyone was doing it in those days.”’ I also think that Calvinists take pride in envisioning themselves as soldiers of the faith. But as they manifest this characteristic, they are manifesting a behavior pattern that is parallel to the religion of Islam. And indeed a number of believers who were born-again out of the Islamic faith have publicly stated that they observe a Jihad-like spirit operating within many militant Calvinists. If I remember correctly, Ergun Caner publicly made this observation, calling Calvinism a ‘Jihadist’ belief system, and that was one of the reasons James White went into attack mode on him. It’s very easy to justify just about any behavior, as long as you can convince yourself that God is sovereignty making you do everything you do. Killing someone you claim is a heretic is no longer a sin, but a sign of faithfulness to God. Using deception to forcibly take-over legal possession of non-Calvinist church properties is not considered unethical....it’s the advancement of the gospel.”
Question: Didn’t you say that Calvinists are worse
than Muslims?
Answer: “Yes, absolutely. For a small portion of these
people, just daring to question the Bezian movement is
heresy. They will blog and e-mail incessantly. I call it a
‘Calvinist Jihad,’ because just like Muslims, they
believe they are defending the honor of their view.
They can discuss nothing else. I have even had a few
call for my head! Dr. Falwell and I have laughed about
it, because they are so insistent, and they miss the point
completely. There are plenty of schools to which the
neo-Calvinists can go, but Liberty will be a lighthouse
for missions and evangelism to the ‘whosoever wills.’
Period. The difference is, Muslims know when to quit
– for these guys, it is the only topic about which they
can talk.” (Questions on Neo-Calvinism, Part 1)
The essence of the Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Election is (1) that God does not love your neighbor, even though He commands that you are to love your neighbor, and commands that your neighbor is to love Him in return (regardless of having [allegedly] predestined them to Hell for His glory and self-interests), and (2) elevating the importance of one life over another, insomuch that “the elect” of the Father are more valuable and more important souls than “the non-elect” of the Father. Calvinism essentially unwinds the John 3:16 message of Christianity, in that God loves the whole world (red and yellow, black and white), demonstrated through the gift of Jesus Christ, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Therefore, Calvinism is ultimately Islamic in nature, by elevating the importance of one life/soul over another.
Coptic Christian Bishop, Angaelos: “The issue is that we need to have the idea of the sanctity of every life, and if I see a life that is less valuable than mine, or has less of a right to exist, then that is a problem for the whole of humanity, and it’s a problem for the development we’ve had over millennia. We’re going back to a medieval view that we haven’t seen in centuries, and back then it would have been tragic, but now in the 21st century it is unacceptable.”
Thus Calvinism, like Radical Islam, is a throw-back ideology.
Arminian Charge: Calvinists have a Jihadist mentality regarding their devotion and proselytization of Calvinism.
Myth or Reality: There are instances where this may be true, and anyone familiar with the Calvinist debate knows exactly what is meant. A class of the younger and more aggressive Calvinists are known as “The Young, Restless and Reformed.” These are said to lack the grace, of themselves, that they espouse in their doctrines of God. Their detractors describe them as spiteful, pushy, aggressive, mean-spirited, cliquish, cultic and very sure of themselves, with confidence to the point of coming across as arrogant. Calvinists are indeed very proud of their Calvinism, but certainly not all Calvinists are this way. However, many who have left Calvinism, candidly admit that these descriptions are accurate in describing their former behavior as Calvinists. The source of the matter is that Calvinists believe that Calvinism is the Gospel behind the Gospel, and hence, as divine truth, necessary to both share, and to fight for. Making matters worse, there are many big names within historical Christianity which have strongly advocated Calvinism, and therefore, how can they be wrong? So for those seeking confirmation, counting heads will usually do it. Worse yet, since Calvinism has identified itself with the Protestant Reformation, with the moniker of “Reformed,” there is a sense of simply engaging the enemy, fighting against an insidious opposition, labeled as man-centered and liberal. At times, Calvinists are not only defending God’s sovereign honor, but also share a sense of being offended on His behalf. However, offense is the bait of Satan. It is the trick of the devil, which undergirds the rebellious “us vs. them” mentality.
