Index To All Sections Part 1: An Introduction to John Calvin and his Doctrines of Grace Part 2: Introduction to the acronym T.U.L.I.P - each letter stands for one of the five fundamental tenets of Calvinism.
2A. Total Inability
2B. Unconditional Election
2C. Limited Atonement
2D. Irresistible Grace
2E. Perseverance of The Saints You Are Here  Part 3: When the Gospel Becomes a Lie
Part 4: God’s Sovereignty and Character
Part 5: Hypocrisy Unlimited
Part 6: Conclusion Part 7: The Sins of Augustine. Part 8: Calvinism in the First 1500 Years Calvinism And The Book of Romans HERE
When the Gospel Becomes a Lie
There is little question of the importance placed on preaching in the Bible. It is the essential means by which the Gospel is communicated to people who, if they are to enter God's Kingdom, must believe this message, repent (Romans 10:14) and become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. See Repentance - The Forgotten Message. Jesus Himself instructed His disciples to "go into all the world and teach the Gospel". Paul says it is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:15-16). God Loves You
A Christian who does not hold to reformed beliefs takes verses like John 3:16 literally thus can in good conscience tell a non-believer that God loves them enough to send His Son to pay the price for their sins and if they believe this, repent of their sins and obey the Father/Jesus' commands they will become part of the Father's coming kingdom. See The Message of the Bible and Salvation However, fully aware of what the future held Jesus made a sad prediction saying, "... the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 NASB)
In which case it is safe to assume that the vast majority of people that a Calvinist preaches the Gospel to are being told something that simply isn't true. The Calvinist who has no idea who the elect are cannot, with any integrity whatsoever and without crossing his fingers behind his back, tell people to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they will be saved'. ANY attempt to persuade an unbeliever to repent and come to faith in Christ conveys the impression that he can choose to do so. If, as Calvinism believes, God has limited the offer to only a select few it is absolutely inexcusable to stand before an audience of any size and preach that God will save them if they will put their trust in Christ. Hope Trumps Honesty
However, in order to obey Jesus' instructions to preach the Gospel to all the world they endeavor to get around the problem. On his page on How to Be Saved John Rothra (Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Divinity) says (All Emphasis Added) God provided the only way to be saved... The only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. The good news is that this gift is offered to whomever will accept it.... This gift is given freely out of God's love and grace... You can be forgiven and be saved if you believe in Jesus as your savior. God promises that whoever confesses and believes in Jesus will be saved... If you sincerely prayed and received Jesus into your life, God has done something wonderful for you!... God bless you as you continue to know, show, and share the gospel of Jesus! [01]
However, he flatly contradicts the "whomever" and the "whoever" above n another article saying " We can share the Gospel with everyone and pray that they accept Jesus because we know that there is a chance they just might come to believe!" (All Emphasis Added). The "might" means they just might be one of the elect. (All Emphasis Added) We can share the Gospel with everyone and pray that they accept Jesus because we know that there is a chance they just might come to believe! ... As a "five pointer," I can say with confidence that I do not know if the next person I come across is a believer or an atheist. I do not know if they are elect or reprobate. What I do know is that I must share Jesus with them and give them an opportunity to respond. [02] And (All Emphasis Added) From our perspective there is a 50/50 chance the person we encounter may be elect, but a 100% chance that without Christ they will die in their sin. There is a 100% guarantee that if nobody shares the Gospel with them, they will not be saved (Rom 10:17). [03]
When the smoke clears the fact remains that not only has he hopelessly contradicted himself but considering the majority of people are not the 'elect' the fact remains that there is much more than a 50/50 chance they are being lied to. The Calvinist can only hope that the person they are talking with is elected by God. And should the person actually repent and be baptized, they have to further hope that the person is not a false convert who will believe for a while and then fall away. The Calvinist site Gotquestions.org has a completely different take on it. They say (Note the points I have underlined). Yet another argument against limited atonement is that it is a hindrance to the preaching of the Gospel and to evangelism. Those that use this argument will say that if an evangelist cannot say "Christ died for you," then his effectiveness in presenting the Gospel will be limited. Or they will say that if only the elect will be saved, why should the Gospel be preached at all? Once again, these objections are easily dealt with.
The Gospel is to be preached to everyone, because it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe (Romans 1:16) and it is the means that God has ordained by which the elect will be saved (Romans 10:14-17). Also, the evangelist does not need to tell the unbeliever that "Christ died for your sins" specifically. All he needs to proclaim is that Christ died to pay the penalty for sin and provide a way for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God. Believe in Him and you will be saved... [04] There are a myriad of things wrong in those two paragraphs. In the first place the statement "All he needs to proclaim is that Christ died to pay the penalty for sin and provide a way for sinners to be reconciled to a holy God is immediately followed by the contradictory "believe in Him and you will be saved". In the second place, telling your audience to "believe in Him and you will be saved "does not "limit" the preacher's "effectiveness in presenting the Gospel. It is a flat out lie as far as most of the audience is concerned Thirdly, when have you ever heard any evangelist or preacher depersonalize the message to the point it conveys nothing more that a general statement that Christ died to pay the penalty for sin. On the contrary the effort is always made to convince the hearer/s that they themselves are sinners who desperately need to repent and be saved.
Certainly the first evangelists did. Were Peter, Paul and Silas Guilty of the Same Deception? Acts 2:37-38 tells us that on Pentecost when the crowd in Jerusalem heard what Peter had said they were deeply affected and asked Peter and the rest of the apostles what they should do. Peter's reply directed at every single person in the audience was ... "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38 NASB) If only the elect among them were able to repent and believe, Peter was a barefaced liar when he told them they (all of them) would receive the Holy Spirit
Acts 16:30-31 Similarly, Paul and Silas did not beat around the bush when asked by the Philippian jailer what he (the jailer) had to do to be saved. Their reply was almost identical to Peter's on the day of Pentecost (above)... "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:30-31) Unless they KNEW beyond a shadow of doubt that their listener/s were numbered among the elect how could Peter, Paul and Silas have said what they did?
Praying for the Lost
John Piper founder and teacher of desiringGod.org says this God always correlates, in his eternal decrees, the election of a person and the evangelization of that person, just like he correlates events that he has decreed and the necessary prayers for those events. Now, that correlation means that the decreed event won't happen without our decreed prayers. [05]
Does this mean that the only people God 'elects' are those whom He knows will actually hear the Gospel message? Why then did Paul pray for the lost? In the opening verse of the tenth chapter of Romans Paul said his "heart's desire" and his "prayer to God" was for the salvation of his fellow Jews (read the final verses of the preceding chapter in order to establish context). if every individual's salvation or damnation has already been pre-determined, it would be a complete waste of time to pray for the souls of the unsaved - any prayer for the unsaved, including Paul's, accomplishes nothing. In order to be consistent the Calvinist should not pray for the lost (an exercise in futility), and since he does not have any assurance that the person he is preaching the Gospel to is one of the elect, he runs the risk of being a blatant liar when he preaches the Gospel to an unsaved person And that is not all - Not only does the Calvinist pray-er or preacher not know who among those he is speaking to is one of the elect but he cannot know if he himself is saved.
How Can Any Calvinist KNOW He is Saved?
John Murray who for many years was teacher of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia says it is possible to exhibit all the outward signs of faith - but yet not be genuinely saved
The Scripture itself, therefore, leads us to the conclusion that it is possible to have a very uplifting, ennobling, reforming, and exhilarating experience of the power and truth of the gospel, to come into such close contact with the supernatural forces which are operative in God's kingdom of grace that these forces produce effects in us which to human observations are hardly distinguishable from those produces by God's regenerating and sanctifying grace and yet not be partakers of Christ and heirs of eternal life. [06]
Certainly an observer can be fooled by a person's outward signs of faith in Christ but the problem is that the person concerned can be fooled as well. If salvation is solely of God and it is entirely His decision whether or not to extend His saving grace to any individual, then no one can know with any degree of certainty that he or she is a recipient of that grace. Your "faith" may be just the result of fervor stirred by persuasive preaching or your own human reasoning. It may be a temporary phase which you will, in time, grow out of. Your "born again" experience may be the result of a mystical experience the likes of which are experienced by people of many faiths and persuasions.
John Rothra offers one way to know if someone is one of the elect (Emphasis Added) We do not know who it is God chose to save. We do not know if the person we encounter is elect or not merely by looking at them. The only time we become privy to this information is after the fact, either after they confess their faith in Christ alone, by which we know they are elect, or after they die without faith in Christ, by which we know they are not elect. [07] Not true! There have been many who have "confessed their faith" in Christ as Savior then fallen away some time later. Because Calvinists claim that a person who falls away from the faith was never really saved in the first place nobody can claim they know who the elect are based on them making a confession of faith. John Murray, does not agree that a person confessing their faith in Christ alone tells us that "they are elect". In his book - Redemption Accomplished and Applied, he says Jesus "set up a criterion by which true disciples may be distinguished" and that "criterion is continuance in Jesus' word". (All Emphasis Added). [08]
In other words, only a genuinely saved person - a "true disciple" will endure to the end. But according to the Bible this is not true. The Scriptures issue warnings against falling. What is important to note is that one has to be in the faith before one can fall from it. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12) But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, (1 Timothy 4:1 NASB)
Additionally, if people are saved because God chose them to be so from the foundation of the world why do numerous passages liberally sprinkled throughout the New Testament warn believers to be careful about not wandering from the faith and not falling from a secure position. If the Father Himself is enabling believers to persevere, what exactly is the point of not only warning them but doing so repeatedly and emphatically. Those who are genuinely saved supposedly cannot do otherwise. See The Warnings in Perseverance of The Saints Speaking about overseers in the church, Paul said he should not be "... a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:6-7 NASB)
The word 'convert' was translated form the Greek neophutos which means 'newly planted'. According to Calvinism the only way this newly planted convert could fall into condemnation or reproach would be if he wasn't a genuine convert in the first place. Yet he became an overseer in the church. (Or was it that Paul was simply advocating for maturity as the preceding five verses say?). People who have fallen away have at one time been fully persuaded that their faith was of strong - even of paramount importance in their lives. They demonstrated all the fruits of the Spirit and may even have spent much time preaching the word. But something went horribly wrong. In at least one case that I remember reading about, an immense personal tragedy caused a person to fall away from God. Unfortunately none of us can say with 100% certainty that we would not react the same way. If you are a Calvinist, all you can do is keep "working" at it and hope like the blazes that you are not wrong and you are indeed one of God's elect. If you happen to be one of the elect, then you are assured of being able to persevere to the end. Somehow that doesn't give me a very warm feeling. What does give me security is what the Word of God tells us These things have I written unto you, that ye may know (Greek eido) that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. [1 John 5:13] If you know (Greek eido) that He is righteous, you know (Greek eido) that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. (1 John 2:29 NASB) Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know (Greek eido) that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2 NASB) We know (Greek eido) that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (1 John 3:14 NASB)
Eido literally or figuratively means to see, and has been translated so in literally hundreds of New Testament verses. However, by implication eido means to know, or to be sure of as in 1 John 3:5 in which John uses eido to mean definitively 'know'
John Calvin - Hope In An Unknown
It is claimed that John Calvin's several volume long Institutes of the Christian Religion explores both "knowledge of God" and "knowledge of ourselves" with "profound theological insight". He himself claimed that Institutes was meant to "aid those who desire to be instructed in the doctrine of salvation". Yet the tragedy was that far from being able to rest on the unshakeable promises of God, his only hope was that God had indeed selected him to be saved... something even he had no way of knowing.
I confess to live and die in this faith which He has given me, inasmuch as I have no other hope or refuge than His predestination upon which my entire salvation is grounded. I embrace the grace which He has offered me in our Lord Jesus Christ and accept the merits of His suffering and dying, that through them all my sins are buried; and I humbly beg Him to wash me and cleanse me with the blood of our great Redeemer so that I, when I shall appear before His face may bear His likeness. [09] (All Emphasis Added)
One more contradiction. Calvin said his entire salvation was grounded in God's predestination however, he had no possible way of knowing whether or not he was predestined to salvation or whether he would ever appear before God other than at the judgment seat. In which case what use was it to "humbly beg" God to 'wash and cleanse him with the blood of Christ so that when appeared before Christ face he might "bear His likeness"
Continue On To Part IV - The Sovereignty and Character of God HERE
Sovereignty: Calvinists assume that God is not sovereign if a man has to ability to reject or ignore the Gospel. This is a very misguided view of what His sovereignty means. Character: Isn't a deliberate crime committed by a person plain evidence of the moral character of that individual? In fact, doesn't the Bible itself tell us that the fruit of a tree is a clear indication of how good or productive the tree is. So why is it any different with God? On what basis are we to believe that our God is a just, holy and loving God? Because He said so? Not good enough. And no, this is not blasphemy. If you think about it, the Scriptures consistently make appeal to evidence to support it's truth claims. Which means that we use evidence to judge whether something is true or not.
End Notes
[01] John L. Rothra. How to Be Saved. http://www.jrothraministries.com/how-to-be-saved/ [02] John L. Rothra. March 11, 2009. An Evangelistic Five Point Calvinist is Possible.
http://www.jrothraministries.com/2009/03/11/an-evangelistic-five-point-calvinist-is-possible/ [03] John L. Rothra. March 11, 2009. An Evangelistic Five Point Calvinist is Possible.
https://www.jrothraministries.com/2009/03/11/an-evangelistic-five-point-calvinist-is-possible/ [04] Got Questions Ministries. Limited Atonement - is it Biblical? http://www.gotquestions.org/limited-atonement.html [05] Interview with John Piper. Can an Elect Person Die Without Hearing the Gospel?
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/can-an-elect-person-die-without-hearing-the-gospel [06] John Murray. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Reprint edition (December 12, 1955 Pg. 153 [07] John L. Rothra. March 11, 2009. An Evangelistic Five Point Calvinist is Possible.
https://www.jrothraministries.com/2009/03/11/an-evangelistic-five-point-calvinist-is-possible/ [08] John Murray. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Reprint edition (December 12, 1955 Pg. 151 [09] Steven J. Lawson. The Expository Genius of John Calvin. Reformation Trust Publishing (March 1, 2007). Page 17 ]. | 
