Where Does Calvinism Go Wrong? #Theology

No one reformed would agree with you. God has not taken away our ability to choose, nor is He the author of evil. If you believe God chooses because He foreknows a decision you will make someday, you’ve taken away free will. You can only make the decision He knows you will make.

Calvinism “goes wrong” when it’s caricatured and misunderstood…like this example.

Oh good grief. You deny the sovereignty of God. Everyone please just read Ephesians 1 and every argument here is crushed. Dispensationalism is DOA.

The cross alone destroys the “if it’s predetermined it’s a sham” argument.

We know how much you love free will and think man has power to choose the God of the Bible, when the Bible clearly teaches no one seeks after God. Man is spiritually dead and must be awakened according to Eph 1. Frank you are leading people astray by giving man power over their salvation. Read more Spurgeon please, because you just don’t get it. Spurgeon: I’m a Calvinist because it’s what the Bible teaches.

Properly understood, it doesn’t. What part of “No one seeks God” is unclear?

Who are you or me or anyone to question God? “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” Romans 9:14-18 ESV

Nothing. It’s just biblical. Calvinism is just this. “At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have 👉hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and 👉no one knows the Son except the Father, and 👉no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son 👉chooses to reveal him.” Matthew 11:25-27 Paul explain that in Romans 9 “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”” Romans 9:11-20 God has to save men by granting belief. No man will come to God unless that happens.

*a non-calvinist gives opinion that Calvinism is a “contradiction”* Frank: “ Slam dunk. Case closed.”

Gerstner was typical of most modern TulipBro Calvinism. God does not give us sinful desires. By God’s providence, the fruit may have been presented to Adam, which itself was not sinful, but the sinful desire came from Adam’s will alone, which took that good object presented to him and lusted after it in a sinful way. Of course God knew this, and it’s something He decreed to permit, and to bring good from it, but the sinful desire did not come from God but from Adam alone.

These were the kind of responses that turned me into a Calvinist

If we have free will to choose God, then we would choose ourselves everytime.

Frank I really enjoy your stuff but the bible is clear “there is no one who does good not one. NO ONE seeks God.” It is only by his grace we are brought to repentance.

I love Dr Turek but my biggest problem with the argument is it starts in the judgment seat of the Creator which is never a seat you want to find yourself in.

Here!

God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures;

It’s a cult of the individual who saw salvation in legalistic terms, selected verses to fit that human narrative, and then ignored almost everything else Christ taught.

I pray that my children’s future in-laws are Calvinists too. 😁

Norman Geisler was your mentor, says alot. I see why you're either misinformed or intentionally misrepresenting "Sovereign Grace." He was an ardent Arminian. It seems that you apologetic guys need the humanistic concept of "free will," for your arguments to work. Problem is it contradicts scripture. This is why you guys never quote scripture in your refutations, only socratic methods of logic - "who gave Adam the desire to sin?" Answer this @DrFrankTurek: if our will is free? Why would Christ say that the unsaved are slaves to sin? Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Jn 8:34 ...and Paul, this? For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Rom. 8:7-8 Blessings!

Man has the free will to do as he desires, but the heart desires to do evil continually. When God gives us a new heart then we desire to please the Lord. God is not the author of evil but he allows evil things to happen - example is the book of Job.

Free will is nowhere in scripture. Man is not autonomous. Sin is not autonomous. Evil is not autonomous. The Sovereign Dominion of the LORD God Determines every single move of every single living and breathing creature in creation every millisecond.

Most Calvinists don’t make God the author of evil. Please make this distinction. God is sovereign and man has responsibility. Who lives your Christian life, you or God?

It's interesting that Dr. Turek's mentor wrote the quintessential poorly reasoned reply to Dr. Sproul's Chosen by God. Now Frank's philosophy of salvation comes into focus. It rests in man's free will and man's choice, in spite of Romans 9 (etc.) clearly teaching the opposite. Frank will tell God Almighty that His way makes "the world a sham." What arrogant pride. This is the danger of "My Free Will!" as a doctrinal imperative. Many who agree with Frank are not even born-again, because they do not accept or u derstand their own sinful depravity.

1) It confuses God’s sovereignty with determinism. 2) It redefines human will until it becomes meaningless. 3) It reads predestination apart from Christ. 4) It turns spiritual inability into absolute impossibility. 5) It reduces biblical warnings to mere formalities. 6) It resolves tensions Scripture intentionally leaves open.

It doesn’t.

This is what happens when you make Enlightenment rationalism your foundation instead of the Word of God.

Whose more free, God or man?

Dr. Turek knows that there are robust, scholarly, and non-contradictory responses to these objections, and have been for centuries. Additionally, his own perspective doesn’t solve the very objections he raised but merely kicks the can down the road. If God knew infallibly that humans *would* sin, and hence evil would be entered into creation, and He chose to create that world anyways, then He must still be liable, per Turek’s reasoning.

Limited Atonement is contrary to God's Word and my biggest problem with Calvinism. His will is that ALL be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. 1 Ti 2:4

Scripture’s audience matters and you and most others ignore it. The Bible is not a generic self-help manual for autonomous humans. It is a covenant document written to God’s people. The Bible’s “choose” language is covenantal. Scripture is written to God’s people, not to neutral sinners with autonomous free will. God gives a new heart before He commands obedience (Deut 30:6; Ezek 36:26). Choice follows nature. The Bible never tells the spiritually dead to regenerate themselves. It tells the living how to walk.

Frank is entirely wrong here. But ty what makes him wrong is that he offered no Scripture whatsoever that challenges Reformed soteriology! None. Typical Arminian... no Bible but they trust God's Word? Now you know.

Where does @DrFrankTurek go wrong? 1. Evil is a privation of good, not a substance. 2. No one besides God can create anything (as Scripture declares in John 1:3). Otherwise God would not be sovereign.

There's a reason Norman Geisler didn't want to debate James White.