If you don’t watch the whole video… at least watch the 3 minute mark through the 5 minute mark. I think you’ll enjoy.

I wanted to warn some friends today… I WANT TO SCREAM TO EVERYONE I KNOW WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Calvinism or reformed theology is growing at an alarming rate and it is an EVIL LIE. The problem is many don’t know they are lying but some have simply fallen victim to the *spiral of silence.

Because I didn’t want to offend them, I prayed asking God for wisdom about how to warn… As I was praying, God reminded me of an email I just received from someone I deeply love and am very close to. This close loved one attends a Calvinist Church, and I felt like God was telling me that I could warn anyone that I loved like that. Love covers a multitude of sin, so people that know you love them won’t get offended.

Here’s the email and my response.

Subject line: ‘Hunger Games’ posts one of the best opens in history – Los Angeles Business from bizjournals
Inside: Did you see it yet?

My response:
We got to see it yesterday at 5:15. I liked it. I fought back tears during the reaping… Katniss’ sacrifice for her sister was beautiful, makes me want to love like that.

I was just praying for you and others in situations like yours…

A couple we love, attend a church where the Pastor is introducing some doctrines of Calvinism right now… they are really upset and praying about what to do… they want to stay and fight but they don’t know if they have the courage and they aren’t sure that they have the influence to make a difference. We have other friends / families that are currently visiting Calvinist churches… I was just sitting here sick for them. My heart breaks because I can’t think of a nastier evil religion than Calvinism… I know there are other religions of hate, but this one makes God the one who hates His own creation. Calvinism teaches that God made some people for the sole purpose of hating them and placing them in eternal conscious torment – this is the opposite of the God I know. The God I know, is LOVE. Calvinist say they worship a God of love, because they believe they are in the group that God created to love and they ignore the other group. I’ve been praying for those families this morning and wondering if I should say any more to warn them… I don’t want to offend them, or share with them at the wrong time… so I decided to pray.

As I prayed, I felt like God brought you to my mind. That’s when I realized… I know you can handle it if I offend you, and you’ll still love me no matter what I say. I also know that I love you enough that I’ll be blunt and as loving as I possibly can. So I guess I’m using you, to help me be blunt and honest and at the same time loving…. our relationship makes that easy. I think that is a good thing, and a compliment to you. I love you so much, and can’t express enough what you’ve meant to my life, my relationship with Christ, and my journey as a human being.

I think I’ve warned, and I think I’ve told you before that Calvinism impacts every word a teacher / preacher says… I know you’ve not heard blatant hate speech from your pastor and maybe he doesn’t really believe like other Calvinists… I remember for years being taught that the Catholic Church was a false church and that they were all dead wrong, eternally wrong. That teaching caused me to group all Catholics in with the Orthodox Catholic Doctrine, I now know that was a mistake. I know that was a mistake, because I later discovered that some Catholics don’t actually believe the false doctrine of their Catholic Church or priest. My heart then changed toward Catholics… I still don’t totally understand why Catholics continue to call themselves Catholic, but I respect that every family has to do what God directs them personally to do. I say that, because I want to think that way with Calvinists as well. Every reformed (reformed and Calvinist are nearly synonymous) church isn’t necessarily made up of only people that believe that God made some people to love and others to hate even though that is the key component of Calvinist doctrine. On a side note, I’m not sure Calvin believed the crazy 5 points of TULIP that is now called by his name. But his doctrine did lead him toward hating people who didn’t agree with him – his directing that green wood (so Servetus would burn slower and experience more pain) be used on Michael Servetus as he was burned at the stake makes that pretty clear.

What I would be most concerned about is this… placing myself under the leadership and authority of a man who understands Calvinism and allows that doctrine to be his standard or scriptural filter. When all teaching and scripture interpretation is filtered through the 5 tenants of Calvinism… it’s like drinking from polluted water. It may quench the thirst today, but eventually it will make you sick… in this illustration Calvinistic doctrine is the water and a person doesn’t become physically ill, but sick because they are filled with hate. If you make God a hateful God, you’ve either made a God in your image, and / or you will become like the God you worship.

Here is a Calvinistic Hymn (of course most Calvinist Churches wouldn’t sing this, but this is the fruit of Reformed Theology):
We are the Lord’s elected few,
Let all the rest be damned;
There is room enough in hell for you,
We won’t have heaven crammed!**

Are you currently listening to the weekly talks from aplacetotalk? We’ve been discussing the 5 points of Calvinism over the last 5 weeks, week one was introduction (reformation history that one may be a bit boring) but weeks 2 – 5 (5 is this coming Sunday) were or are the 5 points covered.

I love you, and I didn’t really write this for you. I decided a good while back that you and I disagree about Calvinism’s danger but, I know you aren’t following any man and I know you know God Himself and you therefore don’t need my direction or input. I know you are a “partaker of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1, and I know that “the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” 1 John 2:27. I could go on and on but I won’t.

I love you. As Christ indwells me I know that I love all the others that will read these words too.

Josh

Well that was my email… and that is my BLOG WARNING!

First to my atheist friends – I mean no disrespect to you with this joke. If you know me you know that I enjoy talking to my atheist friends often times more than I do Religious people.

Now to the religious folks – If you will be offended by a single word of profanity, please stop reading now. A few days back I posted a picture on Facebook, it was a church advertising that prominently displayed the letters WTF. Someone rebuked everyone who saw the letters and thought something vulgar, but I hadn’t said anything to plant bad vulgar in anyone’s mind. I just posted the picture and said “…shouldn’t someone in a church know this was a bad idea.” The rebuke implied that a pure minded Christian wouldn’t even know that WTF stood for something vulgar. I went through all the comments wondering, what clued this person to the vulgar meaning of WTF but there was nothing there. Her implication that our heads shouldn’t have been in the gutter, caused me to wonder if there was anyway to come to this conclusion without her mind being in the same proverbial gutter.

Ok, enough talk… here’s the joke:
Little Girl On A Plane