August 19, 2025 Show with Jerry Duckworth on “7 Points of Calvinism”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.

It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnson.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 19th day of August 2025.

Jerry Duckworth and Christ Song Ministry

And just when we Calvinists thought that Arminians hated us enough with five points of Calvinism, we have a guest who is adding two more points to even further annoy them. I know that that's not really his goal.

We have today Jerry Duckworth going to talk about his book, The Seven Points of Calvinism. And Jerry is an author and prison minister with Christ Song Ministry. And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Jerry Duckworth.

Yes, sir. Thank you. It's an honor to be here. I've listened to your stuff quite a bit, and I'm really excited. So it's an honor. Thank you.

Well, it's an honor to have you on the program today. And one of the things that I already mentioned to you that is quite a matter of God's providence that when I booked this interview with you, I did not even know of your affiliation with Christ Song Ministry, the prison ministry founded by Bobby and Nan McGee.

And it just so happens that when I was a resident at Hebron Colony Ministries in Boone, North Carolina, due to an addiction to alcohol a number of years ago, I went to Boone, North Carolina, to sign myself into Hebron Colony, which is the oldest continually running drug addiction and recovery ministry, drug and alcohol addiction and recovery ministry in the United States.

And one of those days while there, Bobby and Nan performed for us. And I eventually, when I left that place after graduating successfully, I relaunched my radio program and had the opportunity to interview Bobby McGee on the program.

And if anybody who's listening wants to hear that interview, that past program, all you got to do is go to www .irontrapinsironradio .com and type in the search engine McGee, M-C-G-E-E, and you will see the link to listen to that recording.

Can you tell us, in your own words, something about Christ Song Ministry, where you serve as a minister, a prison minister with this organization?

Yes. So what we like to do, we've been in prisons all across the country. I mainly focus in North Carolina, where I reside. What we like to do is go in with music. And my wife, she's a really great singer and can play the guitar.

And so she'll sing and we'll have a full service for them. And I'll preach. And then I like to stay afterwards and just minister to them a little bit and get to know the guys and encourage them in the Lord.

And then provide them places where they can reach out and get materials and things like that. So that's what we do.

Amen. And do you have a website that you can announce?

I think it's just Christ Song Ministries.

Actually, I know that I looked at it earlier and it's Ministry Singular. Christ Song Ministry. I'm looking it up right now. And the website is ChristSongMinistry .org. Well, as you know, as I've informed you already before the program, we have a tradition here on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

Whenever we have a first-time guest, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony, starting with giving us a description of the religious atmosphere in which you were raised, if any, and what kind of providential circumstances our Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and eventually saved you.

So I grew up in a, I guess you would say a nominal Christian home. We was attending church quite a bit. However, we would often skip church for AAU basketball games and things like that. Despite making multiple professions of faith as a child, nothing actually took.

You know, I've said the sinner's prayer hundreds of times, went through the ABCs of salvation, was baptized multiple times, but there was no actual change that took place in my life.

You were baptized multiple times?

Oh, yes.

In one service? In one service?

Well, not in one service, but every time I made a profession, I was baptized again. I would say I at least have been baptized four times. Wow. Okay. Yeah. You know, we're in more general Baptist churches and stuff like that.

But basically, during middle school, I just kind of went my own way, same in high school, and then eventually got into drugs. Basically, I was addicted to every drug that you could imagine, along with alcohol.

I ended up joining a gang and all kinds of craziness. At one point, I was looking at five to seven years for armed robbery, but glory to God, I didn't have to do that. But I did have to do a little bit of prison time.

The last time that I was in there, I actually got into a fight with someone and was thrown into the isolation cell. While I was there, someone snuck me a book, and that book shared the gospel with me.

Basically, what opened my eyes to make me realize that I was lost was I read where the Bible says, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. Better to go to heaven with one eye than to hell with two, essentially.

I realized I had never truly approached repentance in that fashion, and God used that to open my eyes and help me realize that I was lost. At that moment, I felt as if the ground was going to open up and just swallow me, and I would plummet into the depths of hell and burn for all eternity.

But then this guard passed by who I knew was a Christian, and I just said, what must I do to be saved? He talked to me and ministered to me, and I prayed and asked the Lord to forgive me. Instantly, I felt completely different.

Since then, my life has been radically changed. I went to Haiti for a little bit as a missionary for about six months. I went to Fruitland Baptist Bible College, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I'm going there for my MDiv now, and now I'm a pastoral intern for Faith Presbyterian Church. My life's just 100 different, so praise God for that.

Sovereign Grace and the Road to Calvinism

Tell us about how you came to discover and embrace the doctrines of Sovereign Grace.

When I first got out of prison, I had this mindset of, I'm going to delete my Facebook, start a new one, and only add Christians. One of the individuals that I added said, hey man, are you a Calvinist?

I said, brother, I don't even know what that means. That led me to exploring it a little bit. Then I heard a sermon put out by Jesse Carr. That sermon basically walked through the golden chain of redemption and touched on Romans 9.

The next thing you know, I'm a Calvinist. Then I was listening to Paul Washer, John MacArthur, and stuff like that and realizing, man, I've never heard Bible teaching like this before. I need some more of that.

Where can I get it? Next thing you know, I'm all weird beard reformed.

You said just moments ago that you're a member of a Presbyterian congregation. Tell us about that congregation.

Faith Presbyterian Church is located in Morganton, North Carolina. Our lead pastors are Mike Thompson and Daniel Beck. Super great congregation. They have helped me and my family immensely. I have a wife and three kids, all of them in pull-ups or diapers.

Three and below. They have really helped me to maintain my sanity during this time and juggling all the other things that I'm doing as well.

This Presbyterian congregation, is it in a particular denomination, PCA or PC?

Yes, the PCA. Definitely not the PCUSA, that's for sure.

Why Jerry Duckworth Wrote The Seven Points of Calvinism

Well, we are now at the point where you have felt compelled to write a book that we are discussing today. You have written other books. First of all, tell us some of the other books that you have in print.

The first book that I ever wrote was From Darkness to Light. The intricacies of the gospel explained in a succinct manner in order to bring about the conversion of souls. Ridiculous subtitle, I know. I love the Puritans, so that was kind of a little shout out to them.

Basically, I wrote that little booklet to just share the simple gospel with people. Penal substitutionary atonement, the great exchange, why we need salvation and all that. The reason that I felt compelled to do that was because the book that was given to me, that led me to Christ, was written by Ellen White, the Seventh Adventist.

There was a lot of bad stuff in it. While God used it to cause me to be born again, I left a little confused. I wanted to write a booklet that wouldn't leave people confused. Then I wrote Whatever It Takes, a biblical approach to recovery.

It's just a little 30-day devotional that I promise, if you will do it, you will be sober. If you will do everything that it says in there. Then, because I got online and I was realizing that some of our Calvinist brothers are not accurately representing the doctrines of grace and explaining them, and neither are our opponents, I felt compelled to write the book, The Seven Points of Calvinism.

The Five Points of Calvinism, which have their origins in the Canons of Dort. A lot of people mistakenly believe that John Calvin himself wrote the Five Points of Calvinism in the acronym TULIP that we have today, that's very popular amongst the Reformed Christians.

But John Calvin did not write the Five Points of Calvinism, although he believed in all five points. They were later articulated in the 17th century at the Canons of Dort, in the Canons of Dort, I should say.

They are, for those of you who are unaware, they are in the acronym TULIP, which stands for T for total depravity, U for unconditional election, L for limited atonement, which a lot of people prefer to call definite atonement or particular redemption, I for irresistible grace, and P for perseverance and preservation of the saints.

And what is it about the traditional TULIP, Five Points of Calvinism, that you obviously agree with, but you felt, or should I say you believed, we Reformed people aren't supposed to feel, you believed were inadequate?

Well, not that I necessarily felt that they were inadequate.

Just isolated to those five points, I mean, there needed to be more clarification in your mind.

Right, right, right. Well, I am a huge fan, I guess you would say, of Dr. James White. He has helped me tremendously. And as I listened to the dividing line over the years, particularly Radio Free Geneva, which I listened to nearly every single night that I was cooking bagels at Joey's New York Bagels.

By the way, folks, just to let our listeners quickly know, Joey's New York Bagels is owned by a very dear friend of mine, Joe Scarlata, who was saved in the same church where I was saved in the 1980s.

Well, actually, let me take that back. I don't know if Joey was saved there, but he wound up becoming a member there. He may have been saved in another church before that, but it was at one time Calvary Baptist Church of Amityville, Long Island.

And then we merged with First Baptist Church of Merrick, Long Island, and we became Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island, eventually selling our Amityville facilities and being located in Merrick.

But I have had the privilege of remaining in contact with Joe Scarlata and a couple of years ago had the privilege while at a Bible conference in North Carolina, was treated to a wonderful time of lunch and fellowship with Joe.

But anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there so people will see the added providence involved in this.

Oh, yeah, I want to throw this in, too. If you're in Hendersonville, North Carolina, you better stop by Joey's New York Bagels. Good bagels are like.

Yeah, I actually miss good bagels myself being here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. But continue. I interrupted you. I'm sorry.

No worries. So as I was cooking the bagels, I would listen to The Divided Line and Radio Free Geneva, and I would often hear Dr. White say that all of TULIP is grounded in God's sovereignty and it really should be STULIP.

As I was writing the book, I was just going to make it TULIPS with the S on the end.

That's much better sounding.

It is.

It is. But then I was like, no, because I feel like I need to start with God's sovereignty like the Bible does. It starts with with God and goes down to man. And so I started I added the S to look. And then I often heard people getting upset about the doctrine of reprobation.

And so I made that the seventh point. Now, look, I know that reprobation is technically just the flip side of election. You know, it's predation mixed with condemnation. God passes by the reprobate and he decrees to condemn them for the sin that they will commit.

But nonetheless, I felt that it ought to be an extra point because people often confuse it with equal ultimacy and believe that we think that God forces people to hell. And I wanted to clarify. No, we do hold to double predestination, but not equal ultimacy.

And so it is still our sovereignty, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints and reprobation. And then I end the book with a chapter on humble Calvinism, because if you're not humble, then you're not really a Calvinist because you may be a Calvinist intellectually, but not in your heart.

And that's an issue.

And obviously, there are definitions required here because we do have listeners on occasion that are new to the faith. We have listeners that are not at all Reformed. We have listeners that are not even Christian on occasion that listen.

I've been contacted by Muslims and Orthodox Jews on a rare occasion. But so let's go back to the automatic erroneous assumption that you were mentioning. Even though they might not use the term equal ultimacy and they might not know what that is, the way that they describe our beliefs in protest is they act as if man is morally neutral and that God either forces them to be saved and regenerate.

And so on and born again. And or he forces them to be evil. And they would not otherwise be evil if God had not intervened supernaturally and made them. So am I adequately in your understanding, giving an accurate, simple explanation of equal ultimacy?

Yeah, exactly, that that God works in the same way to save the elect as he does in the to damn the reprobate. Basically, we believe that God actively works to cause the sinner who is dead in his trespasses and sins to be born again.

And they would draw a straight line across from that and say that God works fresh unbelief into the heart of man. And I'm saying, no, he doesn't do that. He doesn't need to do that because man, man, mankind is totally depraved.

Oh, yeah. Well, that that that obviously the assumption that we believe in equal ultimacy is false. Could you speak for a minute? I'm getting a listener complaining that you're not audible and I have a feeling that the listener is wrong.

Can you. Because I can hear you loud and clear. Can you say something?

Yes. I'm hoping that my audio is well, but perhaps.

Well, now, now the listener, now the listener is saying that the problem is on her end. So this is really a lot of the hatred, a lot of the hatred of Calvinism stems from total misunderstandings of what it is, which you just mentioned one of these misunderstandings.

And the I'm sorry, I'm getting I'm constantly getting texted by somebody who is saying that you were cutting in and out. And I don't think we are. I think that the problem is still on their end. It seems that many people who are enemies of Calvinism are not reading, or at least thoroughly reading those who are historically sound Calvinists, biblically Orthodox.

Theologically reformed Christians, they are reading solely, it seems, the enemies of Calvinism who always slander and give gross. Unvalid or invalid descriptions of what we believe, and it seems that every time I've had a dispute with an anti-Calvinist.

And have been involved in debates featuring Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries defending what we believe his opponents will very often bring up charges against what we believe that reveal complete ignorance of the truths of Calvinism.

So hopefully, if anything will be accomplished by this, people will start to go to the sources. Now, obviously, we believe our teachings, our beliefs are thoroughly biblical, and that is where the origins of our views and beliefs lie.

Even in our confessions of faith, there is clear notation that the confessions are not on par with the inerrant God-breathed Word. They are merely a summary and explanation of what we believe the Bible teaches.

One of the reasons I've done debates, that I've hosted and orchestrated debates going back to 1996, is that people just need to hear from a thoroughly knowledgeable expert like Dr. James R. White, what we as Reformed Christians actually believe.

So I'm assuming that is the same kind of thing that you have faced over the years, when you get involved in disputes with those that hate what we believe. And it seems that there are very few people who have a neutral attitude towards this.

Either they love Calvinism, or they absolutely despise it. And those that may claim neutrality, when you start digging a little bit and push them a little bit, the claws come out. But yeah, explain your own situation in regard to polemics and dealing with people outside of the Reformed faith.

Yeah, and I agree 100%. That's one of the reasons for writing this book, is to help clarify what we believe. And I was hoping that the influence that I have, as small as it may be, in my circle here in Morganton, and on my YouTube channel, the Twitchy Theologian, though my circle may be small, I could help possibly enlighten folks as to what we actually believe.

I absolutely love debates. So if there was anyone who ever wanted to debate this particular topic, I would absolutely love it. There's a reason that I call myself Family Dollar James White. That's because, like Uncle Jimmy, as I like to call him, I enjoy debates, and I want to get better in that sphere.

So consider this a open challenge.

Between the First and Second Breaks: Monergism, Synergism, and the Nature of Salvation

Well, we are going to our first commercial break right now. And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Let's say you are a member of a church that vehemently disagrees with the positions we hold, and you don't want to identify yourself publicly at this point.

Or you're even the pastor of a church, and you disagree with the majority view in that congregation. You might even disagree with your own elders or your denomination or something. Well, we understand that reasons like that would compel you to remain anonymous.

But if you're asking a general question, please give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. Don't go away. Now we're going to hear, first of all, from the aforementioned Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries with an exciting word about an event where he is speaking right here in South Central Pennsylvania.

Don't go away. We'll be right back.

James White here of Alpha Omega Ministries announcing that this September I'm heading out to Pennsylvania to speak at two events that my longtime friend Chris Arnzen has lined up for me. On Thursday, September 18th at 11 a .m., I'm speaking to men in ministry leadership at Chris's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pre-Pastor's Luncheon at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville.

Then, on Sunday, September 21st at 1 .30 p .m., I'm speaking at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle on the theme, Can We Trust the Bible is the Authentic and Inerrant Word of God? I hope you can join Chris and me for both events.

For more details on the Pre-Pastor's Luncheon, visit ironsharpensironradio .com. That's ironsharpensironradio .com. For more details on Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, visit trbccarlisle .org.

That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, I'll see you in September in Pennsylvania for these exciting events.

Still praising God for the addition of Gold Wealth Management to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio family of advertisers. They are veteran-owned and operated and built on the values of honor, courage, commitment, and service to others.

The same values that were instilled in the owner during his eight years in the Marine Corps. Gold Wealth Management is offering free reports on current market conditions. The threat of BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Becoming digital currency and how to protect your savings and retirement accounts with real assets like physical gold and silver. There is absolutely no pressure and no obligation. Request your free reports today.

Call 623 -640 -5911. That's 623 -640 -5911. Or visit goldwealthmanagement .com slash iron. That's goldwealthmanagement .com slash iron. And tell them Chris from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio sent you. Don't wait.

Be informed. Be prepared. With Gold Wealth Management.

CEO and President of Lebanon Phil Credit Union. And we're excited to be part of the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio family. At Lebanon Phil Credit Union, we're proud to serve the community with six convenient locations across Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.

And we're growing.

We offer competitive rates on everything from loans to savings. And we're dedicated to providing top-notch member service. We pride ourselves on the credit union movement of people helping people. We are deeply involved in our community, supporting local events and organizations that help make a difference.

When you join Lebanon Phil Credit Union, you'll immediately notice the difference. Our focus on meeting your financial needs with personal care and a friendly touch. LFCU can also offer you better rates and lower fees than our competitors.

To find out more, please visit us online at lebanonfcu .org. Membership eligibility is required, federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration. Terms and conditions apply.

I'm Simon O'Mahony, pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally from Cork, Ireland, the Lord in his sovereign providence has called me to shepherd this new and growing congregation here in Cumberland County.

At TRBC, we joyfully uphold the Second London Baptist Confession. We embrace congregational church government. And we are committed to preaching the full counsel of God's word for the edification of believers, the salvation of the lost, and the glory of our triune God.

We are also devoted to living out the one another commands of scripture, loving, encouraging, and serving each other as the body of Christ. In our worship, we sing psalms and the great hymns of the faith, and we gather around the Lord's table every Sunday.

We would love for you to visit and worship with us. You can find our details at trbccarlisle .org. That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, we'll see you soon. I'm Pastor Bill Shishko of The Haven, an Orthodox Presbyterian church in Comac, Long Island.

I hold the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program hosted by my longtime friend and brother, Chris Arnzen, in the highest esteem. And I'm thrilled that you're listening today. I'm also delighted that Iron Sharpens Iron is partnering with one of my favorite resources for Reformed Christian literature for decades now.

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. Well, with the economic nightmare that we're all currently enduring, cvbbs .com, I want to enable you to build a wonderful personal library of the best literature that the Reformers, the Puritans, and the great Christian minds of today have to offer and at affordable prices.

Not only does cvbbs .com offer up to 50 off retail prices, but you'll get an added 5 off orders of $50 or more by using promo code IRON. I-R-O-N. An added 5 off all of your orders of $50 or more from Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.

That's cvbbs .com, making the joy of reading the finest in Christian literature more affordable. Oh, and make sure that you tell them you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron radio.

And don't forget, cvbbs .com is now shipping worldwide. We're now back with Jerry Duckworth, author of Seven Points of Calvinism, the Twitchy edition, which reminds me that you are also the host of a YouTube channel, the Twitchy Theologian.

Why don't you tell our listeners about that?

Yes, sir. Sure will. A buddy of mine named Nick Herring kept telling me, Jerry, you need to make a YouTube channel. And I said, no, man, I'm not one of those YouTubers. I love interacting face to face in the local church.

And he was like, no, man, just do it. Trust me, it'll be great. And so I did. And it just happened to work out. What really made me blow up was I had a discussion with Dr. Layton Flowers and attempted to correct some of his provisionist errors.

Yeah, provisionist for lack or for those of you who aren't familiar with that term, that's that's a fairly new term, isn't it? Developed by Armenians who just wanted a different way of identifying themselves.

Essentially, pretty much, it's definitely it's a form of synergism like that. Salvation is not 100 percent of the Lord, but man has to do something. You know, God does his 99 percent. Man has to do his one percent by believing in order to become elect is essentially how they would say it, that they wouldn't want to frame it that way.

And also, I thought that our listeners should know that the preface of Seven Points of Calvinism was written by Jeremiah Nortier, who we've had on this program a number of times, including twice to debate a Nazarene pastor, Jared K. Henry.

The first time he did a two day debate with Pastor Henry on the ordination of women, which Pastor Jeremiah Nortier opposes. And the second time, the second two day debate with Pastor Henry was on the theme, can Christians be totally free from known sin in this life?

Again, Pastor Jeremiah Nortier opposed that thesis and Jared K. Henry was affirming it. But that should interest a number of you who know and love the ministry of Jeremiah Nortier. And you mentioned a couple of $50 words there, synergism and monergism.

And we who are Reformed identify ourselves as monergists, and we believe that is very important. Can you break down the differences between the two and why is it important to begin with?

Certainly. And thank you for bringing up that Jeremiah Nortier, the apologetic dog, wrote the preface, because he's been like a mentor to me. And every debate that I have, I call him up and I try to spend about an hour on the phone with him, just picking his brain.

And his view and his take on things. And so I'm grateful to him. But to define synergism and monergism, essentially, monergism says that salvation is totally 100 percent of the Lord, that we don't believe to be born again, but we are born again in order to believe.

Because, see, as Calvinist Reformed folks, we believe that mankind are dead in our trespasses and sins. And I can go to a graveyard and I can say, get up and I'll give you a million dollars. And nobody's nobody's moving.

But. God, that's that's how we are. But God breathes the breath of life into us, causes us to be born again, at which point we do believe. And every aspect of salvation for regeneration to even us placing our faith in Christ, because faith is a gift to our sanctification and our glorification, all is brought about by the sovereign work of God.

Now, in contrast, synergism states that there is a. Hypothetical atonement, a potential salvation to all people, but you must of your own free will put your faith in Jesus, and when you do. Then you're safe, so it's basically the former monarchism is God does all the work.

The latter is God does 99 percent of the work and man does 1 percent. And it's important because Scripture constantly says salvation is of the Lord. First Corinthians 126 to 31 says that, you know, left he who boasts, boasts in the Lord that he chose the weak things of this earth to basically make the wise look foolish.

And so it's important that we recognize that. And when we do, it leads to a greater gratitude, realizing that we are not worthy. The only thing we contributed to our salvation was the sin that made it necessary, Jonathan Edwards said.

And it also increases our humility, recognizing that I am not more spiritual or intelligent than the man who rejects Jesus. It's all of grace.

Yeah, the rejecter of Calvinism or Reformed theology or sovereign grace, even though they would never want to admit this necessarily, they really, if they're going to be logically consistent, they, when asked, why did you come to have faith in Jesus Christ and not your next door neighbor?

And your next door neighbor might be a very sweet, moral old lady who is very benevolent and hospitable and seems to have a tender, compassionate heart. And yet she rejects Christ. Either she just is agnostic or atheist or she might be in a false religion.

And they would have to, if they're going to be logically consistent with their own theology, they would have to think that either they were wiser than that neighbor or more religious, more theologically astute, more humble, more aware of their own sin.

I mean, you could go on and on and on with the things that would have to be present in the believer to lead them to heaven if you reject the fact that it is God who chooses and it is God who gives the gift of faith to those he chooses.

And that is, I think, a very key flaw in non-Reformed and anti-Reformed theology, is that it's very inconsistent. Like, for instance, I doubt you will have many, if any, Arminians say that they don't give 100 of the praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ for their salvation.

But if you examine what they believe, they can't, really, because there's something about them that before they were even born again, by the grace of God, summoned up a faith that pleased God, even though the Scriptures are clear that no man can please God in the flesh.

So, over and over again, the Arminian or the non-Calvinist is inconsistent, even with a term like substitutionary atonement. Today, you will frequently hear Arminians and other non-Calvinists say that Christ died as our substitute, but they can't really say it.

They can't believe that logically and consistently, because how could anybody go to hell if he was a substitute for every single human? Am I making sense?

Oh, absolutely. That reminds me of John Owen's argument that is used in my book. And, you know, they wouldn't want to say that they contribute anything to their salvation. They would say salvation is all of the Lord.

But when you press them, that's not the case. And you can often hear sermons by synergistic pastors that just make it clear. They'll say God gets a vote, the devil gets a vote, and you are the deciding vote.

And that's like, man, that's putting a lot of power in the free will of man. But we see it differently. We see it that this is no democracy. Christ is king. And as sovereign of this earth, what he says goes.

And he will save his sheep. His sheep will hear his voice, and they will follow.

And another thing that I have encountered, which I'm wondering if you have as well, at its core, the hatred of Calvinism that Arminians and non-Calvinists very often have is rooted in this idea that our God is unfair.

And they somehow believe it is more fair for God to give everybody this mandate that you must believe in Jesus Christ to be saved and inherit eternal life. And yet they believe falsely that every single person, therefore, has that equal ability and opportunity to do so.

And one thing that disproves that immediately is that for thousands of years, millions of people on this planet never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, never even heard about Jesus Christ to begin with.

And even to this day, there are un-evangelized people in different parts of the world. So that backs people into the corner and has led to things like second chances for salvation after death, post-mortem salvation opportunities and stuff.

But have you encountered that yourself, that that is really at the core of their hatred, is that their idea is that our God is unfair and then therefore unjust?

That is something that I've encountered quite a bit. I always respond, listen, you don't want fair. You don't want justice. If you get justice, we all go to hell. What you want is grace. Grace is unmerited favor.

We don't merit grace by believing the gospel. We get grace, and that is why we believe the gospel. Their argument that the Calvinistic God is unfair presupposes that we all deserve grace. But if you truly look at the way mankind is viewed in Scripture, we're viewed as totally depraved sinners, that every aspect of our being is affected by sin.

We're at enmity with God. No one seeks after God. Their tongue, their throat is open graves with the venom of asps coming from their lips. That's how mankind is seen. None of us deserve grace. And so when we get that through our head, then that objection, it dissolves like Kool-Aid in my water.

But just being a monarchist, though, does not mean that you are genuinely Christian or have a true understanding of the gospel, because full-blown universalists, they remove man's part in salvation, other than being the recipients of salvation, so far so as to believe that there will be no individual suffering in hell after death.