Calvinism in my witnessing group and dishonest sources
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 2:02 pm
Hello.
Its nice to see a critique of Calvinism on your website. Its becoming more and more difficult to find people who speak out against it.
I have a ministry, where we witness to the lost. I am not a Calvinist and for the last year its been bothering me how Calvinistic teachings are creeping into our group.
A friend of mine considered himself to be a "three pointer", but then a few months ago someone else spoke some Calvinistic sermons at the Southern Baptist Convention conference and the SBC blocked his sermons. My friend thought this was rather strange so he decided to investigate why...He is now no longer a Calvinist.
As a result he decided to start posting messages on facebook asking questions about God's fairness, justice, things like "Is God more Sovereighn than His nature?" These sorts of questions to intice debate.
What he has found is the Christians we speak with and witness with believe Calvinism is not an essential issue. "We all preach the same Gospel."
I have had major concerns over this for a year now and I am now convinced 5 point Calvinism is another Jesus and another Gospel. I do understand many Calvinists are not really 5 point Calvinists, or they really don't understand it.
In addition I noticed something else that disturbed me even more. I decided to look up the word "world" in the greek. So I went to blueletterbible.org and pulled up the greek for the word "world". Here is the link
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lex ... 889&t=NKJV
You will notice something strange in the different definitions...notice the last one which includes verses as examples:
"b) of believers only, John 1:29; 3:16; 3:17; 6:33; 12:47 1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Cor. 5:19"
I didn't realize John 3:16 and 17 was referring to the elect only? "Is this a Calvinist GREEK website?" I wondered.
I told my friend this and he went to Barnes and Noble, Mardel, Family Christian stores and looked at every Greek dictionary, lexicon, and concordance he could find and it wasn't there.
I emailed the website and asked them, they said this might be found in Lockmans concordance, so my friend found one and it wasn't there either. Someone else told me it might be in Thayers concordance so I found the original one online and looked there. That interpretation was not there.
Finally blueletterbible.org admitted to me that they have a certain theological perspective and that "use" of the word was added!
I was shocked and still am. They are making it look as if this is in the greek when in reality, its not.
Now go to the youtube link below...go to 4:00 minutes into it and you will notice this popular Calvinist speaker doing the same thing, claiming this is part of the greek when it is not. Either he is lying or he is ignorant. And if he is ignorant he has no business teaching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO3c6_Zjiu0
Its nice to see a critique of Calvinism on your website. Its becoming more and more difficult to find people who speak out against it.
I have a ministry, where we witness to the lost. I am not a Calvinist and for the last year its been bothering me how Calvinistic teachings are creeping into our group.
A friend of mine considered himself to be a "three pointer", but then a few months ago someone else spoke some Calvinistic sermons at the Southern Baptist Convention conference and the SBC blocked his sermons. My friend thought this was rather strange so he decided to investigate why...He is now no longer a Calvinist.
As a result he decided to start posting messages on facebook asking questions about God's fairness, justice, things like "Is God more Sovereighn than His nature?" These sorts of questions to intice debate.
What he has found is the Christians we speak with and witness with believe Calvinism is not an essential issue. "We all preach the same Gospel."
I have had major concerns over this for a year now and I am now convinced 5 point Calvinism is another Jesus and another Gospel. I do understand many Calvinists are not really 5 point Calvinists, or they really don't understand it.
In addition I noticed something else that disturbed me even more. I decided to look up the word "world" in the greek. So I went to blueletterbible.org and pulled up the greek for the word "world". Here is the link
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lex ... 889&t=NKJV
You will notice something strange in the different definitions...notice the last one which includes verses as examples:
"b) of believers only, John 1:29; 3:16; 3:17; 6:33; 12:47 1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Cor. 5:19"
I didn't realize John 3:16 and 17 was referring to the elect only? "Is this a Calvinist GREEK website?" I wondered.
I told my friend this and he went to Barnes and Noble, Mardel, Family Christian stores and looked at every Greek dictionary, lexicon, and concordance he could find and it wasn't there.
I emailed the website and asked them, they said this might be found in Lockmans concordance, so my friend found one and it wasn't there either. Someone else told me it might be in Thayers concordance so I found the original one online and looked there. That interpretation was not there.
Finally blueletterbible.org admitted to me that they have a certain theological perspective and that "use" of the word was added!
I was shocked and still am. They are making it look as if this is in the greek when in reality, its not.
Now go to the youtube link below...go to 4:00 minutes into it and you will notice this popular Calvinist speaker doing the same thing, claiming this is part of the greek when it is not. Either he is lying or he is ignorant. And if he is ignorant he has no business teaching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO3c6_Zjiu0