Predestination vs Free Will in Scripture Ep.5

Is Calvinism a theological misunderstanding, or does it align with biblical teachings? Join us as we tackle the controversy surrounding John Calvin’s doctrines by dissecting the TULIP acronym—Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Some parts of Calvinism may resonate with scripture, but we argue others are in stark contrast. While exploring these complex ideas, we propose that everyone is granted grace to respond to God, challenging predestination and the notion that atonement is exclusive to the elect. Our discussion invites you to embark on a personal exploration of scripture to uncover the truth behind these theological debates.

We also confront the validity of Calvinism by highlighting the universal call to faith and the essence of God’s love as revealed through scripture. We question predetermined salvation by emphasizing the significance of human choice, referencing key biblical passages like Romans 6:23 and Ephesians 2:8-9. We assert that God’s desire is for all to be saved, and encourage you to engage with scripture to discern these teachings. Furthermore, we ponder the power of language and its alignment with Christian values, hinting at future content that could explore this topic more deeply. Stay connected with us on social media, and share your thoughts and suggestions for upcoming episodes.

Chapters

• 0:00 Calvinism
• 15:40 Validity of Calvinism in Christian Doctrine
• 27:43 Biblical Speech and Social Media

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What is up? Faith In Failures community. Welcome back to another episode. Today we're going to dive deep into Calvinism. Some of you may have not even ever heard of this term or this kind of branding over Christianity, but today we're going to dive into it. We're going to give my complete thoughts. First we're going to talk about what it is, what they believe, what they hold to, and then we're going to break down in scripture why I believe that this perspective is completely wrong, and then we're going to wrap it up. So stick around.

Speaker 1: 0:33

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Speaker 1: 1:14

So let's walk over what exactly is Calvinism? Let's look at the kind of, the setup of what they use in their theology. So it's a system of theology that originated with the teachings of the reformer John Calvin. So hence, calvinism In the 16th century. Now it's famously remembered by the acronym TULIP T-U-L-I-P. So the first, the T, is total depravity. The second is unconditional election. Number three is limited atonement. Four, irresistible grace. Five, perseverance of the saints.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Now, as we go through this, there is no doubt some of these parts of this are biblical and accurate. Parts of this are biblical and accurate, but we're going to break down a little bit of the very specific details of what they believe and why. I believe the word says different, but we're going to walk through it. So these points summarize a Calvinism perspective of salvation how we as humans come to know God and are saved from our sins. So this is what they go back to, to say this, this, this and this. This is how you're saved, this is how you remain saved, this is what happens to get you to be saved. We're going to dive into that and get real deep on that. So we're going to break them down kind of briefly but I'll give you something to chew on. Hopefully you at home and watching this, you will go search for yourself. I hope every episode makes you go search and dig for yourself. Do not take a guy on YouTube's opinion. You need to work out your own.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. Salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. So let's kind of dive into the tulip part. So, total depravity. So the definition?

Speaker 1: 3:13

Now this is the Calvinist perspective. Humans are so fallen that they are completely incapable of choosing God or doing so incapable of choosing God or doing so or doing anything good on their own. Common Calvinist claims is that because we are so depraved, if God does not choose us unconditionally, we can never come to him. Now, there's no question that humanity is sinful. We were born into sin. We have the fall of man In the very beginning, in Genesis, where God creates everything. He creates man, then he creates woman from that man, and all this is well and good. But then they end up being lured or deceived by the promise of knowing what is beyond what they know, which, if you pay attention to today's world and that's kind of what we're tempted with all the time. However, I believe Scripture shows that, although we are fallen, god grants every person enough grace to respond to him. Key word to respond. We'll look at specific verses here shortly.

Speaker 1: 4:35

So, unconditional election. Okay, so this is the tulip, this is the you. The first one was total depravity. The second unconditional election. So the definition and this is from a calvinist perspective before creation, god chose certain individuals to be saved and others to be passed over or effectively condemned without any conditions, meaning god's choice isn't based on anything we do or believe, it's purely His will. Now, the problem with this is this view implies that God does not sincerely desire everyone to be saved, only the elect. So the third, the L limited atonement. The definition sorry, it does not look like I'm, it says it's on my eye, we'll see the definition, the Calvinist perspective of limited atonement Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross was only for those whom God predestined to be saved. Now the problem with this is this teaching conflicts and contradicts with multiple scriptures that speak of Christ dying for the world, not just a certain group of people or elect. That he actually died for the world. We're going to look at scripture in just a minute, so hold on.

Speaker 1: 6:07

So the I in TULIP irresistible grace by Calvinist perspective and definition if God has chosen to save you, his grace will ultimately overcome your resistance. So we have a problem, big problem. You can't say no to it. And what's the problem. This teaching makes human will almost irrelevant in the salvation process, suggesting we don't really get to respond freely to god. So the p of tulip is perseverance of the saint.

Speaker 1: 6:43

Now, I believe in part of this. If you persevere to the end and you remain faithful, you remain with God, you will make it to heaven. That's, to me, very biblical common sense. Their definition is those who are truly elected and saved will persevere in faith until the end, that they cannot lose their salvation. Now, this is a setup. We've talked about this before. If you can lose your salvation, it's a setup.

Speaker 1: 7:10

No, I don't think someone can come in and rob you of your salvation, but I do believe, and based on Scripture watch that other video if you haven't seen it but based on Scripture, we have choices to stay with or to walk away. Based on scripture, we have choices to stay with or to walk away. The Bible even describes in the end there will be a great outbreak of a revival type situation where people will be coming to God, coming to faith, coming to know Jesus, and then there will be a great falling away. Well, you can't fall away unless you are first next to. So that is a literal description of being able to fall away, fall out of favor with God by turning away, but they, while scripture assures us God keeps us, it also warns us repeatedly about falling away, suggesting our ongoing faith matters. So I agree partly with this, but the key part that they, the Calvinists, try to say is that there is not a choice, that once you are chosen, you are chosen and you can't stop it.

Speaker 1: 8:14

So let's look at a few key Bible verses. We have one, two, three, four, five, six. I could do a lot more. Wait, did I accidentally do hold on? Yeah, I accidentally did. So we have five. I accidentally did the last one twice on accident. So we're going to first look over in 2 Timothy, 2. I'm going to have it on your screen. So second, sorry.

Speaker 1: 8:44

1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 3 and 4. 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 3 and 4. This is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. Now, this passage directly states that God wants everyone it's right here in the text everyone to be saved and to understand the truth, to be saved and to come to know the truth. If we pair this with the doctrine of unconditional election, it appears contradictory to say God only elects a specific group of people. Why would he desire that everyone become saved, yet only choose some? So we have a conflict of nature and scripture defining God, and that is in direct conflict. God, he never changes. He always, always stays the same and the way he was is the way that he is and the way he will always be. So let's go to our next text.

Speaker 1: 10:02

In second Peter chapter, verse 3 and 9, the Lord isn't really being slow about his promises, as some people think. No, he is being patient for our sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. He doesn't want anyone to be destroyed, but everyone to repent. So again we see the inclusive language everyone. He desires everyone to come to know salvation. God's heart is for all to find repentance.

Speaker 1: 10:39

To me, this seems like a very no brainer argument against selection of God will only select a few and it takes away the free will of that. If you once said yes to God, well, now you're in and you can't resist him. Now, I'm not saying that he isn't irresistible, but if we do this, then we are nothing but meat puppets, which sounds disgusting when I say it out loud, but it's like we don't have. We don't ever have a choice and we're predestined, which means that before you were ever born. Now, god's knowledge of our choices and his implementation of his will over our choices are two separate things, which means God can know what you're going to choose.

Speaker 1: 11:28

He is God, he is sovereign. My view on this and my view on salvation does not make God less powerful or less sovereign or less all-knowing or less omniscient and omnipresent. He is all of the things that the characteristic of God. The Bible describes Him. All these things are true and they will remain true forever. But he is not going to force.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Just for a good example, in Genesis he didn't force Adam and Eve. He gave them a choice. He gave them, he presented them with options and he said here's the options Don't do this. Everything else is good, but this do not. And he said here's the options, don't do this. Everything else is good, but this do not.

Speaker 1: 12:23

And so if you are using Calvinism as a launching pad of understanding, you have confirmation bias, where you read the scripture and all look at the very basic thing of if it was already predestined, god would not have given the option to go against his word. You're telling me that Adam and Eve, both directly created, not by other humans, created from the gift of God, gives us to be able to procreate, but he, literally with his own hand and his own breath, breathed and they came to life. He took the rib from Adam and created the woman, and it was like all these things were good and God still gave them the option to opt out and to walk away from, and there was a price that they had to pay for that. They got kicked out of paradise. They couldn't come back ever, and so we have a very early on description of how God says you have a choice, but yet Calvinism, whatever John Calvin pulled out of the scripture, and I don't know what scripture she's pulling from. There's some that people pull from the once saved, always saved, theology, but it doesn't hold water when you read things about falling away, which is another video that I've already done. Please go look it up in my playlist. But anyways, this is good and pleases God. Let's see.

Speaker 1: 13:39

We're on 2 Peter 3, 9. The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone. Now why would? Why he wants everyone to repent. Why would God be patient? Because he's hoping that more will choose. His desire is for us to choose him, but he is patient, he's loving and he is good and he is just, and so his desire is for us to come to him. But not all will come and some who have come will turn away. We see the inclusive language. Everyone God's heart is for all to find repentance.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Limited atonement teaches Christ only died for a specific few, but these verses show a consistent message God desires a universal invitation for salvation. So let's be simple and let's go to one of the probably the first verses. If you're a Christian that you learned was this verse right here? Now think about how they think. Calvinists think that you can only come to Christ if you are chosen to come to Christ. Now read this, for this is how God loved the world. He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Notice it says God loved the world, not a small subset of humanity, not a select few, but he loved the world, the entire world. It then says everyone who believes in him will have eternal life Everyone. It's trying to cast the net as wide as possible, like a regular church. Saying is like let's make heaven crowded, let's get as many people, let's try to save the world.

Speaker 1: 15:40

Jesus himself gave the mandate to the disciples go into all the world, preach the good news. What would be the point of them spreading? Like, if you, if the Calvin, if you went by the Calvinist theology, what would be the point of preaching the gospel If God's already selected who's going to come and who's going to stay? There would be literally no point. The um, the uh acts two, where the Holy spirit came down. There would be no point For there needing to be power to give them authority over the demonic spirits, the oppression that was over the people, to literally be more bold, to have a leader into all truth. There would be no point if everyone who is going to come to Christ has already been selected. The rest of the book is pointless. That's just the facts. So Calvinism doesn't.

Speaker 1: 16:42

For some reason in his studies he did not see that common denominator of okay, well, if they're going to, if they're mandated to, spread the gospel, then there must be a wide net instead of a select few. It just doesn't make sense. Doesn't make sense at all. Because, uh, even jesus, when he called out his disciples we just did this in our bible study on wednesday, last wednesday that he, I will make you fishers of men, he didn't say some men, he didn't say I'm going to go point out which men, but he said I'm going to make you a fisher of men. And if you know how they fished back then, it was a wide net to catch as many as you can in one swoop. So it just seems like a no brainer. The invitation is not a restricted. The invitation is not a restricted. It's not restricted to a group, pre-selected or pre-chosen. It's an offer made to all through jesus christ, so that every person has the opportunity to accept it.

Speaker 1: 17:44

So let's go to romans um, chapter 6, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life through christ jesus, our lord. Salvation is described as a gift. A gift can be received or it can be rejected. If god's grace were truly irresistible, then it wouldn't really be a gift offered at all. It would be more like an imposed salvation for the elect. But the verse and many others portray eternal life as something lovingly given which must be freely received.

Speaker 1: 18:31

And we're going to look at our last verse. It's a little bit shorter today, but it's very intentional and direct to the point. Look over Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9. God saved you by His grace when you believed, and you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Now, while this verse emphasizes we can't earn salvation by works, it also underscores that we are saved when we believe. There is nothing in the word of God that calls out a specific people that is allowed to be saved and another people that is not. This has zero hope attached to it.

Speaker 1: 19:17

The human response in this text says when you believe, which means there is something received and chosen people choose to come to the Lord, just as they can choose and this is the issue with the whole predestined and eternal security and all that stuff is yes, when we live for Christ, we are secure in salvation, we are secure in heavenly places, but we have the option. Time and time and time again, you see examples of people who knew God but run from God, that came to God, but then they rejected God and there is consequences for rejecting God. To say that you don't have the option means you shouldn't have a consequence. If there's no choice, there should be no consequence. There can't be a consequence because you didn't choose.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Calvinism suggests that our belief is a result of God's decree and is irresistible. But scripture repeatedly calls us to choose to believe and place our faith in Christ. So now, given the scriptures we've looked at today, here are a few reasons why I believe Calvinism in its strict form is not supported by the Bible. Number one Scripture teaches, as we just read, a universal invitation over and over and, over and over. The Bible uses specific language, like all or the whole world. If atonement was truly limited, these passages could be misleading at best, and for them to say different means that they are saying scripture is wrong and that's not what it means, when it's very plainly written in the scripture. And if somebody says that what the scripture means and they try to twist it up to mean something else, I would run for them because I would almost label them a heretic.

Speaker 1: 21:29

God's will and human choice. The Bible shows that God desires everyone to repent and to be saved. That is the heart of the Father. That is why he sent his son so that everyone could have the option to repent and to be saved and to turn from their wicked ways. If he unconditionally elected only some, this would seem to conflict with his stated desire in passages like 1 Timothy 2 and 2 Peter 3. The third reason I think this is not accurate or biblical is the nature of God's love. God's love is portrayed as self-giving and available to all, for this is how God loved the world.

Speaker 1: 22:15

John 3.16. He extends God's invitation universally, not selectively. Number four he consistently calls for repentance and for us to believe. The New Testament is full of invitations to repent, believe and receive Christ. If grace were irresistible, such appeals would be unnecessary. The calls imply a human response, and this is a genuine need and a possibility.

Speaker 1: 22:50

So I want you to think about this. Maybe you believe this way and you've never heard this argument on this side before, or maybe you have never heard of Calvinism, but you are. This is your first dive into it. What you need to do as a responsible Christian is not believe a YouTuber or a channel or a reel or a TikTok, and you need to dive in yourself and say Lord, what are you leading me to what? And not only opinions of people, but what is biblical. That should be, as a Christian, your number one thing Does it align with what the Bible says or does it contradict what the Bible says? If a belief or a theology contradicts in any way what the Bible says, run from it.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Now, that doesn't mean all denominations are perfect and this and that I get that, but all denominations and I'm a part of one, all denominations are 100% man-made. It's not biblical. Matter of fact in the Acts Church, where the Lord was doing a new thing and breaking out, it was a spirit-filled movement and I believe that's what I'm a part of right now as the Church of God from Cleveland, tennessee. But I do not look down on others for what they believe, because I understand that understanding sometimes can be limited, especially if you're taught in a way that excludes or runs from hard conversations about biblical truths, acts 2 being one of those.

Speaker 1: 24:21

So you, as a Christian, you have a responsibility to know what your church believes, what they teach, like if they exclude certain books of the Bible and don't teach out of them or ever talk about them or say that, oh, because of this little one sentence right here nullifies everything that happens after that, like, for instance, there are some that believe that the gifts of the spirit died out with the apostles, when actually there was a obvious continuation in Corinthian, the church of Corinth. That were not the disciples, they were not the apostles, they were not. They were church people, different churches that Paul was writing letters to, and these people had gifts of the spirit. They were perverting them and making them about themselves, but it was obvious that they still existed and still was around. It wasn't dying out, it was around. It wasn't dying out, it was continuing.

Speaker 1: 25:13

So, that being said, most of Calvinists that I know of believe they're cessationists. They believe that all the gifts have died down when there is no scripture to back that up. And so that's what I want you, as a believer in Christ. I want you to not take a person who sounds good, who sounds charismatic, who sounds you know they keep your attention, that you like the way they speak, you like the way they preach. You need to work out your salvation between you and God according to scripture, not denomination according to scripture, not according to what a man says, but according to the word of God. This is where you will find a good, healthy, solid place to where you can really begin to grow and you begin to flourish. That's what our whole goal should be.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Is spiritual maturity that we need to stop making it about our preference and making it more about God's presence. Is God even here? Are we gathering? Are we worshiping? Are we learning the word? Are we being able to apply the word in our lives? If not, then you're at the wrong church and don't go there because your family's been there for 50 years. Sometimes some of the hardest things you have to do is to cut off enjoyable things for the health and benefit of your spirit and your mind and your family.

Speaker 1: 26:36

So I hope today this was a little bit insightful. I hope this spurs a hunger for you to dive deep and really dissect and know what you believe, because it's important to know what you believe because if not, you'll believe anything, and I don't want that for you. I want you to be a person who who, if their church was to blow up today, everybody in it died. You could start your own church because your foundation was on Christ, the solid rock, not built on man, not built on a church, not built on an organization, not built on on a denomination, but built on Christ, the solid rock, and then you build from there, from the scriptures up. Okay, I think it's very healthy for a person who loves God to deconstruct their faith, and what I mean by deconstruct is start seeing, start asking, start looking is what I believe, what scripture says, and if it doesn't, you need to change your belief and don't keep it that way, because you enjoy your life right now and you don't want anything to mess what you got going on up, which is very, very easy to do, because we like what we like and we like to do what we like to do.

Speaker 1: 27:43

I don't want to change the way I speak, even though the Bible says that even slander is against the way we should be acting as Christians, or what comes out of my mouth Like these are biblical examples. That may be a good one is cursing wrong. That may be the good next video. Anyways, if you have an idea for a video, comment down below, below this video, and or, if you will, that'd be so awesome. If you would rate whatever platform you listen, whether it's Spotify, Apple or Android podcast. If you would rate this and share this, that would be awesome. Download it and just give a thumbs up on YouTube or subscribe to the channel, and you can also find me on Instagram my personal is Stephen Tillman but also at Faith and Failures and on Facebook. So thank y'all. I love y'all, I'm praying for you and I hope you have an amazing week.