as
John Calvin's Preachings About Predestination
.Contradict what the Scriptures Teach.

by Matt Moody, Ph.D.

John Calvin's interpretation of "Predestination" in the Bible, takes a sledge hammer and smashes Human Free Will to pieces:

"All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to
eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other
of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death."

"By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to happen with regard to every man."
~ John Calvin

Because John Calvin's teachings completely discard the reality of Free Will and Moral Agency for all human beings, Calvinism is very unpopular with most Christians in the United States; according to a Pew Poll only 1% of Christians in the United States believe the teachings of John Calvin, and about 3% of Christians believe Calvinism globally.

This means about 2.6 million Christians in the USA believe the teachings of John Calvin, and about 70 million Christians world-wide believe in Calvinism.

Curiously, as we research an associated but different question, and ask: What percentage of all Christians believe in predestination? The number of Christians is substantially higher: About 25% of all Christians in the world believe in some concept of predestination.

It is common to hear the implied belief in predestination, when people say, "there are no accidents" or "it was meant to be." So, of 2.5 billion Christians worldwide, 25% is 750 million Christians. The difference between the Predestinators vs. the Calvinist is this: While many Christian believe that "there are no accidents"—that the destiny of humanity is in the Hands of God—at the same time, they still believe that human beings have Free Will.

Again, predestination according to Calvinism means that God determines the actions of both the rightesous and the wicked; as oppose the truth taught in the scriptures, that each individual is free to choose to obey God, or not.

And even amid a world full of Free Choosers, God can bring to pass the marvelous events prophesied in scripture, decades and centuries before they happen. One way God does this is through sweet invitations and gentle persuasions to His faithful children. For example, before Jesus was born, an Angel of God appeared to Mary:

"And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel
was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, ... and the
virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said,
Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee:
Fear not, Mary: for thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son,
and shalt call his name Jesus.
He shall be great, and shall be called
the Son of the Highest."
(Luke 1:26-32).

God knows the hearts of the faithful, as well as the faithless; thus God can bring forth His purposes, because He knows that the faithful will obey invitations from the Holy Spirit, as well as respond obediently to Angels sent from His presence.

The assumptions of predestination according to Calvinism contradict Bible teachings. The Apostle John taught:

"And the Spirit and the bride say ...
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
(Rev. 22:17).

In the Old Testament, the term "freewill offering" is mentioned 16 times, and when we look up the original word from which "freewill" is translated, we find the Hebrew noun: Nadab, which means = voluntariness.

Hence a freewill offering, is a voluntary offering. Here are the words of God in the Old Testament, as recorded by Moses:

"And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
ye shall offer it at your own will."
(Leviticus 19:5)

Clearly, an offering cannot be voluntary or "at your own will" if it's "predestined" in the way John Calvin defines the word. Nevertheless, many event happen because God set them up to happen, at certain times. As previously mentioned, an Angel was sent from God to inform Mary that the child in her womb was "Jesus," the Son of God.

Thus, the "Predestination" of the Birth of Jesus happened as prophesied, and still, all of Humanity had Free Will to choose what they felt inclined to do—whether good or evil.

Because God the Father knows the tendencies of all His children through thousands of years of pre-mortal life, He has foreknowlege of whether we will choose Good when prompted by the Holy Spirit, or yield to the temptations of "Satan" (Rev. 12:7-9).

The Apostle John described God as "knowing all things that should come" (John 18:4); indeed Almighty God has foreknowledge of events that He personally sets-up through the invitations of His Spirit, and by visitations of Angels to His faithful children.

Predistination as spoken on in the Bible can be explained by God's foreknowledge of His children's faithful or faithless tendencies, as manifest in mortality. God's foreknowledge can be thought of according to this analogy:

If a cookie is left in a room where a child who loves cookies is playing, it is easy for even an average person to fore-know that the child will eventually ... eat the cookie! And that fore-knowledge becomes even more certain as a person gains many years of experience, observing the behavioral tendencies of a child.

Again, even though you or I may KNOW that a child will eventually eat a cookie, our foreknowlege of this, does not take away Free Will from children, to do as they please.

While a loving and wise God does indeed strive to guide our paths through many sweet invitations and gentle persuasions, nevertheless, Almighty God does NOT determine our choices. Meaning, the directions we walk along a particular path, and the way in which we walk, are NOT preset or predestined according to God's Will alone—with no Free-Will contributions on the part of His children.

But such a preset path is precisely how John Calvin declared his doctrines of predestination. For example:

"We call predestination God's eternal decree, by
which He compacted with Himself what
He willed to become of each man."

Bible teachings contradict John Calvin's characterization of predestination. For example, consider what will eventually happen during God's final judgment; the very word "judgment" suggests an "assessment" of every person's chosen thoughts, words, and deeds—for which they must be accountable.

"A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good
things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil
things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men
shall speak, they shall give account in the day
of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt
be justified, and by thy words thou
shalt be condemned."
(Matt. 12:35-37)

The Bible teaches that you and I will "give account in the day of judgment" for "every idle word" that we speak, as well as every thought we think, and every action we do.

And this final accounting is ONLY meaningful, as you and I are free to choose our thoughts and words. But if John Calvin's beliefs were correct, then all thoughts, words, and deed are predetermined and "predestined" by the Will of Almighty God; which means, there is no practical need to "give account" in the day of judgment—because, according to John Calvin, all that is done on earth is ultimately "willed" by God.

While the Gospel Path we must follow is indeed established by God, and declared by God's Son according Divine Will, whether we walk that Path, and how we walk that path is determined by our own Free Will, via free choices made by each of God's children.

God's children have been given a Freedom to Choose the Lord's Gospel Path, and that freedom or choice is spoken of throughout the Bible:

"Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice
between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.
For I command you this day to love the LORD your God and
to keep his commands and decrees by walking in his
ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply,
and the LORD your God will bless you."
(Deut. 30:15-16 NLT).

The prophet Joshua declared his ability to choose, in this famous and familiar verse:

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve
... but as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord"
(Joshua 24:15).

Teachings of John Calvin Summarized by the Acronym: TULIP

Total Depravity

Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, every person is enslaved to sin. Mortal beings are not by nature inclined to love God, but rather to serve their own interests; by nature, humans beings reject the rule of God. Thus, all people by their own faculties are morally unable to choose to trust God for their salvation and be saved.

Unconditional Election

God has chosen those whom he will bring to Himself not based on the virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, His choice is unconditionally grounded in His mercy alone. God has chosen to extend mercy to those He has chosen, and to withhold mercy from those He has not chosen.

Limited Atonement

Only the sins of the elect were atoned for by the death of Jesus. But the atonement is not limited in its value or power; rather, the atonement is limited in the sense that it is intended for some people, the elect, and not for all people.

Irresistible Grace

The saving grace of God is applied to those whom He has determined to save, and He calls them "the elect." Therefore, God overcomes their natural resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, and brings them to a saving faith. When God purposes to save someone, that individual will be saved.

Perseverance and Preservation of the Saints

The "saints" are those whom God has predestined to salvation. Since God is sovereign and His will cannot be frustrated, those whom God has called into communion with Himself are destined to continue in faith until the end. And those who fall away either never had true faith to begin with (1 John 2:19), or if they are saved, but not presently walking in the Spirit, they will be divinely chastened (Hebrews 12:5-11) and will repent (1 John 3:6-9).

* * * * *

Quotes by John Calvin that establish TULIP versus the Scripture Rebuttal

Total Depravity

"Man's will is so utterly vitiated and corrupted in every part
as to produce nothing but evil."

"Their whole nature is, as it were, a seed-bed of sin,
and therefore cannot but be odious
and abominable to God."

"If we can no more bear fruit of ourselves
than a vine can bud when rooted up and deprived of moisture,
there is no longer any room to ask what the aptitude of our nature is for good."

"We shall never be clothed with the righteousness of Christ
except that we first know assuredly that we
have no righteousness of our own."
~ John Calvin

Scripture Rebuttal:

"Behold, children are an heritage from the Lord,
and the fruit of the womb is a reward."
(Psalm 127:3)

"That the tradition might be done away, which saith that little children are
unholy; for it was had among the Jews; But little children are holy,
being sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ."
(D&C 74:6-7)

"Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning;
and God having redeemed man from the fall,
men became again, in their infant state,
innocent before God."
(D&C 93:38)

Unconditional Election

"God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice,
a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation,
and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation."

"Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God,
before the foundation of the world was laid...
out of His mere grace and love,
without any foresight of faith
or good works... hath
chosen in Christ."

"Many... admit the doctrine of election, but deny that any one is reprobated...
This they do ignorantly and childishly, since there could be no
election without its opposite reprobation."

"Without reprobation,
election itself cannot stand."

"... eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Therefore,
every man being created for one or the other of these ends, we say
is predestined either to life or to death."
~ John Calvin

Scripture Rebuttal:

"If ye keep my commandments, [then] ye shall abide in my love; even
as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love."
(John 15:10)

"If a man love me, [then] he will keep my words:
and my Father will love him."
(John 14:23)

"I love them that love me; and those that
seek me ... shall find me."
(Proverbs 8:17)

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and
I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."
(John 14:21)

Limited Atonement

John Calvin often argued that while Christ's death is sufficient for all, it is intentionally efficient only for the elect, defining a "limited" or particular atonement. A clear quote, found in his commentary on John 13:18, states:

"Whence it comes about that the whole world does not belong to its Creator
except that grace rescues from God's curse and wrath and eternal death
a limited number who would otherwise perish. But the world itself
is left to its own destruction, to which it has been destined."

The doctrine of limited atonement is found in his response to Tileman Heshusius regarding the Lord's Supper:

"I should like to know how the wicked can eat the flesh
of Christ which was not crucified for them, and
how they can drink the blood which was
not shed to expiate their sins."
~ John Calvin

Scripture Rebuttal:

"God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him,
and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."
(Acts 10:34-35)

"If you keep not my commandments, [then] the love of the
Father shall not continue with you."
(D&C 95:12)

"And [the Lord] loveth those who will
have Him to be their God."
(1 Nephi 17:40)

Irresistible Grace

"This grace, therefore, which is hiddenly bestowed in human hearts by
the Divine gift, is rejected by no hard heart, because it is given
for the sake of first taking away the hardness of the heart."
~ John Calvin

Scripture Rebuttal:

"Therefore being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we
stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
(Romans 5:1-2)

Perseverance and Preservation of the Saints

"Those who do not persevere unto the end
belong not to the calling of God.”

"In the elect alone he implants the living root of faith,
so that they persevere even to the end."

"Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail,
who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks,
there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed
with fear and overcome with weariness."

"Even well-disposed persons have been subject to so many
distractions that they readily vanish or fall away
unless they are strengthened to persevere"
~ John Calvin

Scripture Rebuttal:

"For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men."
(D&C 19:16-19)

* * * * * * *

Expressing Faith in Jesus Christ IS how we "access ... grace" (Rom. 5:1-2). A truth that the Apostle Paul also preached to the Ephesians:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith"
(Eph. 2:8).

Clearly a Faith that "is dead" (James 2:17, 20, 26) cannot access saving Grace! Which is precisely why Jesus taught His followers to "shine" the Light of Truth and Glorify God by doing Good Works:

"Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
(Matt. 5:16)

Here are some of the "good works" the Savior taught His followers to do, that they might be Saved from Sin, Inherit Eternal Life, and Enter the Kingdom of Heaven:

1) "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matt. 10:22).

2) "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16).

3) "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? ... Jesus said unto him, ... come and follow me" (Matt. 19:16, 21).

4) "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).

5) "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer ... Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Matt. 25:42-46).

That's five teachings of Jesus, among others, that contradict the false interpretation that Faithful Human Acts play no role in manifesting a believer's Faith in Jesus Christ. Again, it is this very Faith by which Believers gain "access" (Rom. 5:1-2) to Saving Grace!

What is the meaning of the word "Grace"?

In the New Testament, the English word "Grace" is translated from the Greek word Charis (pronounced: khar'-ece), and Charis means: Loving Kindness. And in the Old Testament, the English word "Grace" is translated from the Hebrew word Chen (pronounced khane), and Chen means: Favor.

Therefore, the English word "Grace" from its Greek and Hebrew origins means:
God's Favor and Loving Kindness.

The False Interpretation that Saving Grace means Unmerited Favor

Exactly who is most "in charge" of the words and meanings within the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Would it be the Apostle Paul? Or would be be the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ?

In His Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Christ taught that the "righteous" shall go "into eternal life." Since the Son of God said it, we should simply believe it, because Jesus is the Divine Person through which His Gospel is primarily established.

Within the context of this parable, the "righteous" are those who show charity to "the least of these" by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick or in prison—these are "good works" that glorify God and are works that manifest Faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, according to the teachings of the Apostle James.

The assumption that Saving Grace means Unmerited Favor comes from a "private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:19-21) of a Bible verse (Eph. 2:8) that does not have "two or three witnesses" (2 Cor. 13:1; Matt. 18:16) to confirm this false conclusion: Salvation by Grace through Faith is granted by Unmerited Favor.

Here are the words that imply that Grace means Unmerited Favor:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God"
(Ephesians 2:8)

Jesus clarified why His Favor and Loving Kindness (a.k.a., Grace) is a gift. The Savior said:

"I am the true vine ... Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me,
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing."
(John 15:1-5)

Thus, it is through Christ's Favor and Loving Kindness that we are fruitful, for without His generous gift of Grace, we "can do nothing."

The Gift of His Grace includes the bestowing of Faith, Salvation, Eternal Life, and Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven—all these fruitful blessings come from Abiding in the True Vine.

In Ephesians 2:8, it is unclear exactly what the Apostle is referring to as God's gift?

Is "the gift of God" of which Paul speaks: that of being "saved," or is "the gift" referring to God's "grace"? Or was the Apostle speaking of the "faith" by which we access saving grace, as "the gift of God"?

Again, every blessing tied to our eternal salvation originates from the choice to Abide in the True Vine. And as Paul taught, Faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ is our "access" (Romans 5:1-2) to God's Saving Grace—with Faith in our Savior being most foundationally manifest by the free-will decision to Abide in the True Vine.

In harmony with the teachings of Christ, the Apostle Paul endeavored to be a witness for the following truths:

By God's Favor and Loving Kindness we are saved through faith, for without
sustaining nurture of the True Vine we can do nothing of our selves,
Thus fruitfulness is given as a gift from the True Vine. And
fruitfulness unto eternal salvation is accessed
only through the free-will choice to
Abide in the True Vine.

Accessing Saving Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ

While you and I do not merit or earn the Grace of God, still, we can "access" (Rom. 5:1-2) Saving Grace only through Faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

As established by what Christ declared and by what His Apostle James taught, Faith in Jesus Christ is not passive; instead, Faith in Jesus Christ is actively manifest by Obeying Christ's Word and Faithfully Following His Example.

Jesus confirmed that Belief and Faith in Him, are inseparable from Faithfully Following Him. The Savior said:

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me,
the works that I do will he do also" (John 14:12 NKJV).

"For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light,
lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who DOES THE TRUTH [emphasis added]
comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have
been DONE IN GOD [emphasis added]" (John 3:20-21 NKJV).

On the theme of Faith and Love manifest by Human Acts, the Apostle Paul adds this witness:

"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming,
in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
And shall come forth; they that have DONE GOOD [emphasis added],
unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28-29).

What Christ calls "done good," is accomplished through obedience to Christ's new Law of Faith; obedience that is necessary to bringing forth the "good fruit ... of eternal salvation"—according to the teachings of Jesus and of His Apostle Paul:

"Though he were a Son, yet learned He obedience
by the things which He suffered; And being made perfect,
He became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey Him" (Hebrews 5:8-9).

Jesus taught:

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him"
(John 3:36).